“Who dis gobi?”
Whoever he is, his father is also generous and gave me the shit you see below. He’s done this before, about 7 years ago, if I had to guess. The Gateway (Athlon 1.2 GHz) has replaced the peetwopee role of a P2 400 MHz machine. RIP hostname “optiplex”.
This sheet of paper was scanned with a HP ScanJet 4p, which I recently installed in the retro gaming PC. It has a SCSI interface and uses a proprietary Symbios ISA SCSI adapter. My grandpa gave me this scanner years ago when he upgraded to one with a USB interface. It works like a charm and was surprisingly easy to install in Windows 98. The glass is 17″ diagonal – 2″ less than my USB scanner, so I’ll keep this one in my room and continue to let my brother borrow my USB scanner. Thanks to HP for still offering the driver/software.
Spare AC adapters can be very handy. Ever bought something that runs on a battery, yet has an input for an AC adapter? The rule of thumb is that it’s OK if the adapter’s current output (measured in amps or milliamps) is higher than the device’s current input, because the device “will only pull as much as it needs”. Besides that, always make sure the polarity matches (center negative or center positive) – I believe that most devices are center positive. Last, of course, make sure the voltage matches. If the device requires more voltage than the adapter provides, this will strain (eventually melt?) the adapter. It may be OK if the adapter provides less voltage than the device requires – it can’t hurt to simply try it and see if the device powers on. Oh, one more important thing (lesson learned from brother): If you’re using a DC-powered device (which 99% of electronic gizmos use), make sure you’re using an adapter with DC output! Brother accidentally used an adapter with AC output, which fried the “force feedback” (?) component of a racing wheel.
1. 2 x 5-port Linksys 10/100 switches. I brought one to the office for our lab.
2. D-Link switch.
3. Antec 350W SmartPower power supply (nice!).
4. Yes, that’s a Microsoft brand NIC. And it’s a POS like brother suspected. It gave me ndis.sys BSODs in peetwopee. Some poor soul at Goodwill will likely end up with it. From what my research concluded, this NIC (chipset-related?) can act up under heavy traffic conditions, so it may work fine for a typical end-user.
5. 4 x older ADSTech USB/Firewire enclosures.
6. CD-R/RW?
7. P3 CPU (? MHz).
8. Netgear travel router w/ built-in 802.11g access point.
9. RAM – ???
10. Promise IDE controller card w/ ribbons. UDMA 33/66/100/133?
11. Case fans.