Can you beleive it? My Vic-Comm teacher threw out 6 computers that were actually very good. They were only used for drafting, you think a 486/66 would do that like a rabbit. They even run 98 pretty good. I recued these things from the loading dock. I took the 5 17inch monitors and replaced my 14inch and 15inch monitors. i used the pcs for parts. I replaced the 50meg hdd in my 386/25 with a 1.7gb(it can only use 512mb of it though, damn barriar!). I took out the 324mb in my 4/33 and put in (2) 1 gig hard disks.I replaced the cpu also with 4/66. i added a 1.7gb to my p133 tower. finally got rid of that cga monitor and used the 14inch vga i found with the factory vga card. . i still have (2) 1.7gb on hand though. i replaced some simms in my pcs(only the4mb ones) with 8mb sims. I did that to my 4/33 also. I even removed the video card and put it in my p133 desktop and had dual monitors(i used the old 14inch as a primary). i didnt scrap them all though, i kept one. they were all deskpro xl 466. i though my deskpro 4000(the p133desktop i said) was unique, but this? the ram and cpu was on a card(not isa, eisa, but some other thing that daughterboards pug into) it had 8mb onboard as apposed the 640kb on others. no isa, just eisa, and believe it or not, pci. it had a 486dx2@66mhz, 1.7gb hdd, 40mb ram, onboard network and sound. plus a nic. it ran 98 like a jet. it even had a 2x scsi cd-rom. I may put this in my ps/2 model 57(gotta learn scsi addresses again). why let good machinery go to waste. I still have 5 deskpro 466's sitting in my baement with no ram, hard drives, and one is missing a cpu. wanna buy? fix them up, run 95 like a 71 ss on steriods!

I dont know if I would *buy* a 486, they are plentiful on the curbs and in the garbage ;). Thanks but no thanks...got alot of em as it is!
Rob

Nice catch! Sounds like they could be good for word processing, small games, spredsheets.....the list goes on.

I some times buy old local computers (286,386+486's)for next to nothing fixum up and poke around with them. There still useful, just limited.

If you have an unrecognised hard drive due to BIOS limitations use drive overlay software. I prefer the OnTrack version 9.50 download here
http://LightspeedRefPage.homestead.com/files/ontrack.zip, I have had a 486 equipped with a 20GB drive partitioned 10 x 2GB.

I would never buy anything less then a 166 MMX Pentium, go to the tip and get for nothing.

ill give you them for free.

486dx2 66mhz

8mb ram onboard-wierd, but kool!

4 simms of unknown amount(4-16mb, EDO-RAM)

i only have a 50mb hard drive, load 95a onto it, it only takes 35mb. or win3.11 and dos 6.22. that will only take 25mb!

3.25 disk drive.

800x600@16bit graphics, 1024x800@256(1mb,512kb)

onboard network, sound, scsi, ide, floppy, eisa, pci

you pay just shipping!

Or you can do what I would do fix one up and donate it plus the parts you no longer want to a kid who is interested in computers and their parents won't let them tear into the good one.

Who knows mabey one day the kid will teach you something about computers! That's a rewarding way to recycle your old pc/s.

i gotta agree with response no.2, where i'm at thrift stores are full of old pentium 133 and up for like 5 bucks each, i bought a pentium 2,400 meg/7gig/128meg for 20 bucks,set those 486's up with win95 and a bunch of games and give-em to your neighborhood kids,you'll feel good! -u.joe

Hey, listen to Chad and Uncle Joe. Fix the stuff you can't use and give em away. Bet I've recycled about 50 300Mhz machines that way.

I've just given away a 386 to a friend who could never afford one normally ( it is a very good 386 tho) and i would encourage others to do the same- not only does it stop this offensive waste problem, and slow down this obsession with newer bigger better faster, but its an enourmous help to those of us who would never have gotten into computers otherwise.
the big problem gettiong started is if one knows nothing about computers , being able to get them cheap doesnt help cuz theyd have no idea what to look for, and books really are little help.
I would not have gotten into computers myself without the generosity of an aquaintance (actually my then landlord...!)
p.s. In victoria , where i live,the thrift shops are embarrassingly overpriced- ive *never* seen even a 486 for less than 100$ - the really old (pre '90) macs go pretty cheap tho cause of all the government offices unloading anything older than 10 years and replacing it with *more old stuff* :) lots use macs...
-anyone whose ever worked in a gov office will know exactly what i mean :).....

First of all HOW MUCH DO THEY COST? E-mail me at

Army1us@aol.com

I like response #5! A good old computer is a good platform to learn on (and in). Who knows, you might help create the next Bill Gates (Oh! Perish the thought lol!) Or better yet, a rival ;)

Dear homerj :

Please keep having fun with these machines, You are doing an excellent work for the Environment. As You know, here in the USA we are going into a "PC trash crisis" since 1998, because the greed of Bill Gates creating a new Windows systems to eliminate computers off the market, to force Us to buy faster and newer computers.

Now that we have all this trash, I think to my self, Who will please invest some milions to fix these computers and ship 'em all to Africa to educate the poor over there about PC's. I know they will learn quickly enought to overcome Education and other disavantages.

Im collecting very old softwares, that only need 2M of hard drive to do a few simple task. That they do more than those useless Win applicartions that will fill your PC in no time. Im hoping to one day service other countries to help them RE-build PC's to bring them back to life and to help the USA to prevent poisonus PC's gas to mess the environment.

Let's stop been greedy and do like "homerj", having some fun or Like me helping the homeless get ahead. Thank Guys keep writing... Attn: Mike

P.S. any of you ever try a 286 PC, 1meg ram with GeoWorks? or a 386 with 16 mb, on Red hat Linux 5.2? They run great, try it. :-)

ahh the saticfaction of help others, feels good don't it! my poor old mother needs a computer and my goal is to fix one up and give it to her for christmas, as a matter of fact my first computer was an old 286 that i saved from the garbage at that time i had no clue what the difference between win 95 and win 3.1 heck at that time i didn't even know what a bois was! but that old computer taught me everthing i know about the basics the rest i've picked up along the way so yeah fixing up old computers and giving them to children is really good idea!!! it'll help teach them as well as encorage them to learn more!