PC RECLAMATION

Scannerman · Mar 4, 2024

Some do and some don't. I do it as a labour of love. Even during these modern times not everyone can afford a new desktop or PC. Youngsters need them for school and there are others who are still computer illiterate and need to have a PC to learn on. There are veterans, elderly, financially disadvantaged people who are faced with the choice of buying a PC or buying their next weekly supply of groceries.

I'm retired but I'm also a father of five. I have a little time. I restore old PCs and I give them away. I give them to people in need. This helps the economy in unforeseeable ways and helps to reduce e-waste. Now I know that I am not the only one who does this so I invite others to post their pictures of PCs that they have opted to donate to others rather than toss them into dumpsters or unload them at recycling stations. Feel free to share what you did to bring the old girl back to life and get it back in an operable condition so that someone else could use it and learn.

Scannerman · Mar 4, 2024

This Acer PC was rescued from the recycling station. It had a large dent in the top of the case which pushed the bezel out from the bottom.
Some of the plastic tabs that held the bezel in place were broken so I had to hot glue that back. The original system board was shot but I had a replacement board. The PSU checked out fine. Not sure what happened to it.

This week: The PC is ten years old and specs for it can be found here > Acer Desktop Computer Aspire TC ATC-220-EW61 A8-Series APU A8-7600 (3.10 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 1 TB HDD Windows 10 Home 64-Bit - Newegg.com. The processor can be overclocked, but not on an ACER system board. The APU can easily clock to 3.8 GHz and it's an AMD quad core. I gave it replacement drives, one for backup and one for the original Windows that came with it. I also gave it some Patriot gaming RAM. It's very clean inside and it runs very snappy. This one went to my daughter's school mate after I received a written permission from his mom to give him a PC. He didn't even have a lap top. Now he's set to go for school projects, emails, and moderate online gaming.

Rollback_Jockey · Mar 4, 2024

If i was to post pictures of every computer system i've passed on i'd get blocked for spamming.

Berton · Mar 4, 2024

I take possession of old computers when broken and use parts to fix others, have given some away and year ago sent 4 Notebooks with a missionary to a Honduras church school, fully up to date with Win10. I like repurposing as much as possible, not just throw away until literally no longer usable.

TM21 · Mar 4, 2024

It's been several years now, since I've been able to pass on a PC that I had Refurbished. At the time, it was my Oldest case, with a bunch of new internals.
Last I knew, that PC was still in Service.

It basically had "Everything" on the front panel. Five USB ports, a Floppy Disk drive, a multi-card reader and a DVD drive. And something that is hard to find today....a Reset Button. The case had been cleaned and re-painted and fitted with Felt Anti-skid pads. I gave that PC to an old gentleman who's old Compaq PC had just given up the ghost.

Flashorn · Mar 4, 2024

Scannerman said:
I'm retired but I'm also a father of five.

You are a Good man @Scannerman

Scannerman · Mar 4, 2024

Berton said:
I take possession of old computers when broken and use parts to fix others, have given some away and year ago sent 4 Notebooks with a missionary to a Honduras church school, fully up to date with Win10. I like repurposing as much as possible, not just throw away until literally no longer usable.

Now that's exactly what I'm talking about!

Flashorn said:
You are a Good man @Scannerman

Thanks, Flash. TBH I'm just trying to be a better man. I'm a long ways from good but I keep shooting for better.

Rollback_Jockey said:
If i was to post pictures of every computer system i've passed on i'd get blocked for spamming.

If you have 'em please post 'em. I love seeing all the PCs that escaped the e-waste monster.

TechnoMage2021 said:
It's been several years now, since I've been able to pass on a PC that I had Refurbished. At the time, it was my Oldest case, with a bunch of new internals.
Last I knew, that PC was still in Service.

It basically had "Everything" on the front panel. Five USB ports, a Floppy Disk drive, a multi-card reader and a DVD drive. And something that is hard to find today....a Reset Button. The case had been cleaned and re-painted and fitted with Felt Anti-skid pads. I gave that PC to an old gentleman who's old Compaq PC had just given up the ghost.

You know it, Mage Meister. They don't make 'em like they used to!

And on that note I'm off to see the Doc. Have a great day everyone!

Flashorn · Mar 4, 2024

Scannerman said:
Thanks, Flash. TBH I'm just trying to be a better man. I'm a long ways from good but I keep shooting for better.

Don't sell yourself short man. Any man that can raise 5 children and still take the time to
help others, is a Very good man.

Bree · Mar 4, 2024

Not for passing on, it's purely for my own use. But here's my least appropriate machine running 23H2.

glasskuter · Mar 4, 2024

Good for you @Scannerman. I have found great satisfaction in doing the same thing with all the old systems people give me. I've given older systems to shut-ins with no internet who use them to occupy their time with a bunch of simple games I accumulated over the years. Others have gone to nursing homes and the senior center, Better ones to the school system and the public library. There are many folks who appreciate the donation and who don't care if it's not the latest and greatest.

Scannerman · Mar 4, 2024

Flashorn said:
Don't sell yourself short man. Any man that can raise 5 children and still take the time to
help others, is a Very good man.

Thanks, Flash. Two of those "children" are adults already and the third is 16. She's gunning for computer sciences and wants to be a software engineer. A little known fact among the mainstream, but this was originally a female dominated field back when coders were known as "computers". No wonder I can't get my brain around Python!

Bree said:
Not for passing on, it's purely for my own use. But here's my least appropriate machine running 23H2.

Oh, my! Ha ha ha. That's crazy. Any chance that's the very first Acer Aspire model of laptop ever released? Wow. Nice one.

glasskuter said:
Good for you @Scannerman. I have found great satisfaction in doing the same thing with all the old systems people give me. I've given older systems to shut-ins with no internet who use them to occupy their time with a bunch of simple games I accumulated over the years. Others have gone to nursing homes and the senior center, Better ones to the school system and the public library. There are many folks who appreciate the donation and who don't care if it's not the latest and greatest.

I have an aunt well into her 80's living out on an acreage in no man's land who loves her vintage HP PC. She plays simple games on it and checks her emails. I think it must be among the first of the line to come out with SATA but she's happy with it. Every now and then I service it and clean out the pet hair for her. I've upgraded that old thing a few times now but she won't let me replace it for her because it gives her everything she wants.

Berton · Mar 4, 2024

How far back? The Retired Admiral Grace Hopper in the '40s.

Bree · Mar 4, 2024

Scannerman said:
Oh, my! Ha ha ha. That's crazy. Any chance that's the very first Acer Aspire model of laptop ever released? Wow. Nice one.

Yeah, I like to push the limits of what an 'unsupported device' actually means.

No, there were older Acer Aspire One models than this AOD270. The earlier ones came with XP, this one had Windows 7 Starter originally. It can't run 24H2 because its Atom N2600 doesn't have the PopCnt instruction

Flashorn · Mar 4, 2024

Scannerman said:
A little known fact among the mainstream, but this was originally a female dominated field back when coders were known as "computers".

If you haven't seen it, you should take the time with your Daughter.

Hidden Figures (2016) ⭐ 7.8 | Biography, Drama, History

2h 7m | PG

www.imdb.com

Scannerman · Mar 5, 2024

Bree said:
Yeah, I like to push the limits of what an 'unsupported device' actually means.

No, there were older Acer Aspire One models than this AOD270. The earlier ones came with XP, this one had Windows 7 Starter originally. It can't run 24H2 because its Atom N2600 doesn't have the PopCnt instruction

I'm seriously impressed. Just goes to show what the Atom CPU is capable of. My very first lap top was an Acer Aspire. (I've always been a desk top sort of guy.) It was savagely frankensteined by yours truly from 4 different lap tops, two donated and two out of the recycling bin. I had to order a keyboard for it from China via Ebuy. That old laptop has gone down the chain of command now to my second youngest. It still works and she won't let me exchange it. The youngest has a nice, leather bound ASUS that works wonderfully. So I think the old Acer Aspire has finally found its final owner.

During the evacuation from forest fires last May we all (minus sleepy head) brought our lap tops with us. Mother's locked up from a failed update and refused to be repaired until we got back home, 16 year old lost her charger in three days time, the youngest grabbed the wrong charger, but Blondie made sure she had what she needed. That old Acer turned out to be the only functional laptop we had access to. You can well imagine how sought after that lap top became. I eventually had to bribe Blondie with a brand new tablet to get her to agree to share her laptop. I also had to buy the 16 year old an identical tablet to discourage her from hogging her sisters laptop so mother could use it. lol

*Peace in the family*

TM21 · Mar 5, 2024

In this age of AI and high technology, it's sometimes nice to have something OLD to just fuss around with. Like a trip down memory lane.

Right now, this is the oldest PC that I still own. It will support floppy drives and IDE hard drives, and lets me play around with XP on an old IDE hard drive. That's really a Walk on the Wild Side.
I still have my customized Commodore 64 and several C-1541 disk drives, and three monitors, but I think I've lost the cables to the monitors, so I don't even plug it in any more. If I ever did, it would probably Arc, Spark, and smoke. Right now, it's safe, just sitting on the shelf. Some things are better, when just left alone.

It was the C-64 computer that thrust me into the Computer business, way back in the late 1970's. The parts I still have, I just can't bring myself to throw away.

john1955 · Mar 5, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
It's been several years now, since I've been able to pass on a PC that I had Refurbished. At the time, it was my Oldest case, with a bunch of new internals.
Last I knew, that PC was still in Service.
View attachment 89132
It basically had "Everything" on the front panel. Five USB ports, a Floppy Disk drive, a multi-card reader and a DVD drive. And something that is hard to find today....a Reset Button. The case had been cleaned and re-painted and fitted with Felt Anti-skid pads. I gave that PC to an old gentleman who's old Compaq PC had just given up the ghost.

I'm STILL using a box like this. It's a GIGABYTE. I cant even remember when I bought it but I think it was in the last century. It's had the floppy removed and some vacuum filter fabric installed in the hole and two DVD drives installed. It's on it's 3rd motherboard and third power supply and it has a US Robotics 56K Fax Modem. I wish they still made boxes with this layout without glass and disco lights LOL
My new computer with Win-11 is still only occasionally used but it will be my main computer some day.

Scannerman · Mar 5, 2024

john1955 said:
I'm STILL using a box like this. It's a GIGABYTE. I cant even remember when I bought it but I think it was in the last century. It's had the floppy removed and some vacuum filter fabric installed in the hole and two DVD drives installed. It's on it's 3rd motherboard and third power supply and it has a US Robotics 56K Fax Modem. I wish they still made boxes with this layout without glass and disco lights LOL
My new computer with Win-11 is still only occasionally used but it will be my main computer some day.

I've personally never understood the disco thing. I don't spend a whole lot of time gazing at my PC when I'm using it and for me it's practicality over aesthetics. That said it is nice to have a neatly put together build, well cable managed and organized. What somewhat saddens me is the idea that just closing off the front of a case to make it look purdee is a great use of space. It isn't. There is the airflow argument in the way of fans, I suppose, but even then many of these newer cases offer little in the way of adequate airflow from the front. The only thing brilliant about them is the glaring lights that can be a bit much at times. But again, user preference. I just fail to see the practicality in it.

I love my options. A good card reader, one or two ROM drives, perhaps some front loading bays, plenty of USB ports at the front, etc. make sense to me. Perhaps I'm just old fashioned but I'm not about to apologize for it. Thank you for sharing, John.

Berton · Mar 6, 2024

Scannerman said:
one or two ROM drives,

Haven't seen those in awhile, they're all CD/DVD+/- R/RW with some capable of using the DL/Dual Layer disc which is required for Win10/Win11 .iso burning of the bootable discs. I have a drive marked M-Disc, need to remember to look for some discs to try it.

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