This computer was FREE in 1999 | eMachines eTower 533id

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  • Опубліковано 2 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 218

  • @jimbozitron
    @jimbozitron Рік тому +193

    i love how astolfo just follows you in every video

    • @spookynutsack
      @spookynutsack Рік тому +60

      arch linux user

    • @_lun4r_
      @_lun4r_ Рік тому +29

      @@spookynutsackfr he has an arch system in the background

    • @iplyrunescape305
      @iplyrunescape305 Рік тому +7

      Me with Mordred kicking his ass:

    • @yueni_bizzare_simp
      @yueni_bizzare_simp 9 місяців тому +6

      A natural way of every software engineer. Some might not realize that even being software developers, but this is how it is.
      No matter what you do. Since you stepped to this field you will never go back.

    • @spookynutsack
      @spookynutsack 9 місяців тому +2

      @@yueni_bizzare_simp trans, in 20s

  • @xaenon9849
    @xaenon9849 Рік тому +10

    I worked on legions of eMachines; the most common complaint was the power supplies would die. In the original generation of eMachines,the PSU was actually a little too lightweight. After about a year to a year and a half, they began installing slightly better PSUs and it seemed to fix the problem. I bought the upgraded PSUs as a retrofit to the earlier machines.
    My boss at work had his PSU go out, and he brought me the machine to fix. I ended up installing a standard ATX, and had to carve up the back of the case to get it to fit. It's not everyday a techie uses a dremel to fix a computer....lol

  • @dusterpl6093
    @dusterpl6093 Рік тому +99

    "this computer is NEVER OBSOLETE" - i'm not so sure about that...
    also the fact that it still has all the stickers intact after so many years is simply incredible

    • @Paradigmfusion
      @Paradigmfusion Рік тому

      They called it never obselete because they had a trade in program that you could send your computer at the end of your compuserve contract and they send you a new one if you renewed said contract. Now Compuserve was $24.95 a month for unlimited 56k dialup. factor that in over 2 years and you paid for that system and them some.

    • @rustylasagna
      @rustylasagna Рік тому +3

      The stickers are also not torn or obscured in any way, which is pretty great.

    • @BilisNegra
      @BilisNegra Рік тому +6

      The never obsolete thingy had to do with signing into a scheme to change your machine every couple of years for a new one.

    • @ShawnColeman01
      @ShawnColeman01 10 місяців тому +2

      My vape is faster than that computer

    • @9852323
      @9852323 10 місяців тому

      Owoo

  • @donixion4368
    @donixion4368 Рік тому +47

    The only problem I have with the hard drive "mounting" on the floor of the case is that it's metal to metal. Those drives produce some vibration and they have a small chance of getting damaged this way. Get yourself some 3M double-sided foam mounting stickies and put some down between the case and the drive.

    • @garyr7027
      @garyr7027 Рік тому +11

      Or toss a mouse pad in there... be better than nothing anyways.

    • @christopher9727
      @christopher9727 Рік тому

      Don't follow the worldly trends follow Jesus Christ today
      There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
      Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
      Come to Jesus Christ today
      Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
      Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
      Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
      Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
      John 3:16-21
      16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
      Mark 1.15
      15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
      2 Peter 3:9
      The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
      Hebrews 11:6
      6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
      Jesus

    • @RodknockRhett
      @RodknockRhett 11 місяців тому +1

      I fried a hard drive's controller board this way. Shorted something out on the board and that was it. The drive never powered back up.

  • @TheExtra40414
    @TheExtra40414 Рік тому +3

    This brings back memories. My first pc in high school was a eMachines.. I ran that sucker to the ground. I wish I had kept the case to run my home server from.

  • @9852323
    @9852323 Рік тому +10

    Computers now are seemingly never obsolete lol. I use my core 2 duo from 2007 with windows 11 and it’s runs it fine without slowdowns or problems of any kind.

    • @SockyNoob
      @SockyNoob Рік тому +3

      I use my 6 core Xeon HP Z400 from 2011 with no issues on Windows 10 LTSC.

    • @9852323
      @9852323 Рік тому +2

      @@SockyNoob yeah my other computer is an i7 2600 from 2011. I don’t get why people buy new computers unless they do something intense..even then.. my 2600 can handle all the games I want to play.

    • @morgantrias3103
      @morgantrias3103 2 місяці тому

      My big gaming laptop (gaming laptop itself an insane phrase to me when I was a kid) is nearly 10 years old but every time I look into replacing it an equivilent (not better) machine on the core specs (screen size, hdd and ssd, cpu speed, ram and like, having a graphics card at all) would be more than I paid for it. I got a pretty good deal but it just shows, hardware improvement has plateaued, and what crypto has done to the market.

  • @evolutionsfake
    @evolutionsfake Рік тому +2

    Can we appreciate how well the person who owned this took care of it? Stickers are superb!

  • @mrmerlin6287
    @mrmerlin6287 Рік тому +24

    I grew up with a PC really similar to this. I've installed a flash card in it using one of those IDE adapters. Much more responsive than those death Maxtor drives of the 90s.

    • @LatitudeSky
      @LatitudeSky Рік тому +3

      Still have a Maxtor 5.7GB drive from that era. Looks identical to the one in this video. Got it as a CompUSA doorbuster deal in 1999. It ran without fault for 12 years before being retired. And it actually still works. Just loud and slow. And hot.

    • @mrmerlin6287
      @mrmerlin6287 Рік тому +1

      @@LatitudeSky that smell of hot dust came right back to me as I read your comment.

    • @bobsonmkd
      @bobsonmkd Рік тому +2

      I felt like Maxtor was worst HDD you could ever had in your PC, i never had one but i had friends with 40gb maxtor HDD's and all of them failed, funny part is that before they fail they will start corrupting files and then you would have to reinstall windows just so it can corrupt another file few days later lol.

    • @mrmerlin6287
      @mrmerlin6287 Рік тому +1

      @@bobsonmkd I had a Maxtor 40GB drive around the time San Andreas released on the PC and it was one of the last games I installed before it died. It made the game behave really strangely.

  • @Seacat17
    @Seacat17 Рік тому +4

    Seeing Arch neofetch on the background is heartwarming.

  • @rustylasagna
    @rustylasagna Рік тому +2

    Thank you for the super chill video. I always love seeing these old machines get put back to good use.

  • @brendonelton
    @brendonelton Рік тому +2

    After a thunderstorm here in the UK, these machines would come in for repair in droves if they were connected to power without a surge protector, almost certainly PSU & mainboard would need replacing.

  • @infinity2z3r07
    @infinity2z3r07 Рік тому +7

    you'd probably wait a LONG time to find the correct caddy, but there are 5.25 bay to 3.5 hdd adapters that work pretty well

  • @RallyElite
    @RallyElite Рік тому +6

    very good and informative video, thank you! been following for a while and know you will blow up big time

  • @sandmanxo
    @sandmanxo 10 місяців тому +1

    At my old job we had 1 of these that we got for free from a software vendor. It was in a kitxhen so it got extremely gross with all the oil and dust in the air, just like the rest of the machines in the kitchen area(designed to feed 3000ish people in a couple of hours.) After retiring from the kitchen I thoughly cleaned it and maxxed out the ram and I upgraded the cpu as much as I could, probably a 100mhz fsb Pentium 3 and a bigger heatsink. I finished it off by flipping the emachines logo upside down and called it the fallen emachine.

  • @DarKnightKilla13
    @DarKnightKilla13 Рік тому +15

    Always happy to see a fellow LGR fan!... wellp, that PC has some potential which is surprising considering it's running a Celeron, but I bet with 128 MB RAM and a somewhat decent PCI card (I actually think I have an FX5200 or 5500 around here somewhere) it could legitimately be a great old-school backup gaming PC.

    • @christopher9727
      @christopher9727 Рік тому

      Don't follow the worldly trends follow Jesus Christ today
      There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
      Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
      Come to Jesus Christ today
      Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
      Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
      Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
      Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
      John 3:16-21
      16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
      Mark 1.15
      15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
      2 Peter 3:9
      The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
      Hebrews 11:6
      6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
      Jesus

  • @Phostings1
    @Phostings1 Рік тому +2

    Emachines PCs was the first real upgrade I got from the really old custom build computers with no labels. Unfortunatly, my system had the Windows ME which crashed very randomly at times. Even when I was young I knew it wasn't the hardware because word got around that Windows ME was rushed to meet the Y2K craze. The system worked fine after I upgraded to XP and it lasted for a long time. It was truly the Dell quality back in the 90s

  • @Girz0r
    @Girz0r Рік тому +2

    I had this same system when it came out except my GPU was an ATi 4MB Card. I eventually upgraded to a sound blaster in the pci slot. Played HL1, TFC (online), Quake III arena, Mechwarrior 3, Red Alert through dial-up... Calling my friend's houses to setup connection!

  • @doubleatheman
    @doubleatheman Рік тому +1

    Hard drive screws in flat to the front of the case. I had a emachines 400i as a kid, parents got it free as well by signing up for compuserve.

  • @J_Erik
    @J_Erik Рік тому +35

    Astolfo is such a good co-host.

  • @WillWatchAnything
    @WillWatchAnything Рік тому +2

    One of my first computers was an emachine I bought back in ‘99 with a 300 AMD processor. Over its life I ended up replacing the 56K modem, the HD, the power supply, and upgraded the RAM. For what’s its worth these weren’t really that bad of computers but they were built cheaply as expected with the lower price tag.

  • @ensibreza4954
    @ensibreza4954 Рік тому +1

    that is an impresive old tech you got there

  • @KW973
    @KW973 Рік тому

    I almost bought one of these in 1999-2000 but kept an old beater HP for a while longer with a child on the way. I guess I am fascinated by this as a 50 year old guy because I had no idea young guys today would have interest in technology that old. Those nights sitting around an old pentium on AOL chatting really brings back memories.

  • @ZblockWoW
    @ZblockWoW Рік тому +1

    My uncle had that exact model. I played crappy games and surfed the web on dial-up every time I went over there. 🤣

  • @administrator4728
    @administrator4728 Рік тому +4

    I would have installed Windows 11 to test the "Never obsolete" claims.

    • @EastAngliaUK
      @EastAngliaUK Рік тому

      wonder if any mboard would fit in there

  • @jasonwoodruff5186
    @jasonwoodruff5186 Рік тому +1

    no dude! We love you! good video. I'm pretty confident that there was no cpu fan on that cpu from factory.

  • @a1337cat
    @a1337cat 9 місяців тому

    OMFG!!! THATS THE GAME I WAS TRYING TO FIND WHEN I WAS A KID!! 4:50 nostalgia!!!!

  • @markh995
    @markh995 Рік тому +1

    Literally owned this PC.

  • @fjb1854
    @fjb1854 Рік тому

    I owned an eMachine and it was so weird I had to take it back. Not surprised they gave them away.

  • @BabyBugBug
    @BabyBugBug Рік тому +3

    I remember this when it was new!

  • @LTC_Tiger
    @LTC_Tiger Рік тому

    People love to knock on eMachines, but my laptop all through college was an eMachines M6811. It worked wonderfully -- and even still boots to this day.

  • @mOddEdLiKeHeLL
    @mOddEdLiKeHeLL Рік тому +1

    Your content is so nostalgic! Keep making more plz!

  • @Cedric_Harris
    @Cedric_Harris 11 місяців тому

    Man, between 1999 and probably 2010 my family had two different eMachines, and they were pretty bad ass for the price. Fortunately, I had no issues with sound on Duke3D.

  • @tinwas_taken
    @tinwas_taken Рік тому

    that bios layout from 1999 is IDENTICAL to my 2019 laptop bios💀💀😭

  • @-r-495
    @-r-495 10 місяців тому

    interesting marketing, the late 90s and early 2000s were a wild time.
    Personally I‘ve given up on hard drives for flash with adapter.

  • @lanceleone2704
    @lanceleone2704 10 місяців тому

    I kinda wanna find one of these, take out the internals for preservation, then build a modern sleeper in one and tell people "Yeah, never obsolete!" XD

  • @BeautifulMadeline
    @BeautifulMadeline Рік тому +1

    I am pretty sure this was the box I had for my PC when I assembled it from stuff I scavenged from various bins lol

  • @KomradeMikhail
    @KomradeMikhail Рік тому +3

    It will always be crippled by the fact that the "AGP Graphics" are integrated from the intel Southbridge chip, and there is no actual AGP expansion slot.
    But I would still throw like $40 at it...
    IDE-CF adapter rather than spinning rust.
    A simple Celeron to Pentium swap.
    More RAM.
    A PCI bus GPU.
    Soundblaster.
    Ethernet.
    Check the PSU for Capacitor Plague?

  • @BeastBishop
    @BeastBishop Рік тому

    Oh the memories, I had the 500 edition. I bought it for $600 and the discounts were not available in my area. I remember I needed to use a custom configuration on my emachine to get sound to work properly in windows. I added a TV tuner card and a network card and both conflicted with the modem.

  • @sburns015
    @sburns015 Рік тому

    I had the same pc in highschool except with a 566mhz celeron, 32mb ram and a 7.5gb hdd loaded with Windows Me

  • @a.c.4054
    @a.c.4054 Рік тому

    I remember seeing lots of those in the garbage piles on the streets in NJ around 2003/2004

  • @HappyThePirate
    @HappyThePirate Рік тому +1

    My mom did the mail in rebates for this

  • @virgilwalker683
    @virgilwalker683 Рік тому

    the eMachine were always my favorite PC, even still today when it comes down to retro gaming. Windows 95 & Windows 98SE with DOS.

    • @KrooTon
      @KrooTon Рік тому

      Wow I’m so sorry you had such a horrible experience growing up 😂
      J/k, but there were so many better options! The only benefit was that this got computers into the hands of folks who may not have bought one otherwise.

    • @virgilwalker683
      @virgilwalker683 Рік тому

      I lived in poverty for many years. us living in poverty didn't have money for better options. the eMachines were perfect for people living in poverty or didn't have the money to buy better PC's back then.
      @@KrooTon

    • @virgilwalker683
      @virgilwalker683 Рік тому

      I have the eMachine imac clone still today from 1999 running Windows 98SE. Worth some money. Even though I had some good offer's I still won't sell it. I play all my DOS and windows 98 games on that machine. @@KrooTon

    • @virgilwalker683
      @virgilwalker683 Рік тому +1

      Emachine Eone 433@@KrooTon

    • @KrooTon
      @KrooTon Рік тому

      @@virgilwalker683 very cool. I mean, yuck, but also anything that you can use to learn or play on is better than not at all! My pre-MMX pentium 166MHz lived to 1998 and was my fav until the Dual P3 1Ghz SMP setup I built in college. So, legit no judgement! Anyone willing to mess with 9x machines gets props in my book. It was a finicky time to compute or game😆

  • @ChungusKhann
    @ChungusKhann 11 місяців тому +1

    The sound issue with Duke Nukem 3D is primarily due to a poor emulation of Legacy DOS Sound Blaster under Windows by the built-in sound chip on this computer. This machine probably has a cheap ESS Solo sound chip that was notorious for its subpar Sound Blaster emulation in DOS back in the day.
    A sound card like the Yamaha YMF 744 may be able to fix this problem at least when running the game in DOS mode although you may have to disable the USB controller in the BIOS to free up IRQ 5 or 7 for it to work properly.

  • @kevinf689
    @kevinf689 Рік тому +2

    Those actually utilized that externally mounted PSU fan as a CPU fan as well, so I am guessing there was never a CPU fan on the heatsink.

  • @zik316
    @zik316 Рік тому

    That case would make a great sleeper pc.

  • @adventureoflinkmk2
    @adventureoflinkmk2 Рік тому +3

    One things for sure, the case itself isn't obsolete 😂
    Just swap out the board with a modern micro ATX or mini ITX board and you can rock modern hardware 😎

  • @jimbox114
    @jimbox114 Рік тому +1

    There used to be alot of stuff you could get free after rebates back then. Diskettes, cd-r discs, etc. The problem was you had to keep on those rebates. They were always trying to get out of paying them. I remember fighting with Iomega over a $50 rebate when I bought a zipdrive from them. Was a 3 month process and several phone calls, letters to get them to pay.

  • @goclunker
    @goclunker Рік тому

    On the bottom of the case is good. It allows the drive to use the case as a heatsink.

  • @manolo5205
    @manolo5205 Рік тому +5

    The never obsolete case would be crazy for a sleeper set up

  • @souta95
    @souta95 Рік тому

    I had an eMachines 633ids at one point which was essentially this exact computer but with a 633MHz Celeron and Windows ME. Same case, same motherboard, 15GB hard drive, and DVD drive. I got my system as a hand me down from a friend a bit over 15 years ago when his family upgraded to a Windows XP machine.
    The latest video driver from Intel actually gives you 32MB of video memory. It's an Intel 810 chipset which was based on the older 4MB 740 standalone card. Couple that driver with a RAM upgrade to 128MB (or 192, or 256) and you can probably get Quake 3 running halfway decent. With no upgrade you're essentially getting 32MB for your video and 32MB for your system... Which is probably causing access to the swap file and causing the stuttering.

  • @mccalejk2
    @mccalejk2 Рік тому

    0:39 Those dial up contracts were 3 years, not 1.

  • @livefreeprintguns
    @livefreeprintguns Рік тому +2

    Those Crystal audio chipsets are ROUGH, lack of sound/janky-ass sound doesn't surprise me.

  • @eonreeves4324
    @eonreeves4324 Рік тому +1

    I got one of these, it failed a few months later but was under warranty. Best buy didn't have the exact same one so they gave me a system with a 750mhz duron 😆 I mean that was a big upgrade from the 533mhz celery 😅

  • @Tsaukpaetra
    @Tsaukpaetra Рік тому +1

    5:20 stuttering at that level is often causes by the dynamic loader bringing up game assets from the drive, which can be slow?

  • @zacmitchell_1984
    @zacmitchell_1984 Рік тому

    I think I have this one! All the stickers still intact too!

  • @leylandlynxvlog
    @leylandlynxvlog 10 місяців тому

    Hard drive on the floor of the computer gang where you at? I used to do this, have 3 ssds loose my gaming PC and possibly may do this in future. So i can't roast you for it

  • @eastfrisian_88
    @eastfrisian_88 Рік тому

    In 2015, my parents' elderly neighbor still had an old Pentium PC with something around 400 Mhz processing power and there was a sticker on it saying "20 years of use guaranteed!" (from a German dealer). The older gentleman didn't understand why he could hardly access the internet with Windows 98SE and 128mb RAM because "I was told it would last for 20 years!" 😶🤣 I also had a slightly larger CPU fan on my old AMD K-6 PC 24 years ago and glued it to the cooling frame with hot glue because that's how I read it. 😂

  • @guymerritt4860
    @guymerritt4860 Рік тому

    Wow - hard to believe you found that on the side of the road....in that condition. I had that identical computer, by the way.

  • @MikeyDowdell
    @MikeyDowdell Рік тому +1

    We had this when I was a kid haha😅

  • @mkrete
    @mkrete Рік тому +2

    You need to find the dos drivers for the sound chip and install that.

  • @waldfruchttee
    @waldfruchttee Рік тому +1

    you seem to be the typical arch linux user (not meant as a bad thing)
    - the "i use arch btw"
    - the weard anime figure
    - tripple monitors

    • @Ionic1k
      @Ionic1k  Рік тому

      Lol did not think about that, just wanted something cool in the background.

  • @DienerNoUta
    @DienerNoUta Рік тому

    Glad you didn't remove the stickers

  • @who432
    @who432 Рік тому

    My first PC was the 500is. Even back then this whole line was obsolete out of the box 🤣🤣

  • @nNasosssV2
    @nNasosssV2 6 місяців тому

    Astolfo and Arch Linux on the background... the perfect combo ngl

  • @RetromaniaGamers_64
    @RetromaniaGamers_64 Рік тому

    i got this pc, but had a pentium III slot 1 and voodoo 3

  • @arisusanchez
    @arisusanchez Рік тому +1

    came because of emachine stayed cause of astolfo

  • @blooder81
    @blooder81 Рік тому

    Awesome find. "Astolfo is not a trap".

  • @brianlindq
    @brianlindq Рік тому

    I remember that when I was in high school I'm not 38 years old

  • @BilisNegra
    @BilisNegra Рік тому

    Even if not really free, if this included the monitor like the model in the ad, the price was not bad for the time (computers were certainly more expensive back in the day than they are now or have been in the last decade).

  • @meccanica3754
    @meccanica3754 Рік тому

    Man, I still need to get a drive and windows 98 for my old compaq

  • @joaoc_PT
    @joaoc_PT Рік тому

    IRQ conflit maybe. Check device manager, bios settings for hw int/dma, disable unused com1-2, lpt.
    Subscribed!

  • @unimatrix82
    @unimatrix82 Рік тому +1

    I had an old Emachines from the early 2000's all i remember is it had a 2.6ghz Celeron processor. And when Doom 3 came out, it ran like a slide show. HL2 ran way better than Doom 3 did.

  • @warrenmcclure7819
    @warrenmcclure7819 Рік тому

    I have one like this with its original 10GB HDD and install on it. Might have to break it out soon

  • @Evercreeper
    @Evercreeper Рік тому

    I saw a video similar to this before... deja vu

  • @zoeyundergroundcanada
    @zoeyundergroundcanada Рік тому

    Wow I remember I had one so so so long ago

  • @Gw3nygwen
    @Gw3nygwen 7 місяців тому

    I love your videos so much!!!

  • @garyr7027
    @garyr7027 Рік тому

    The stuttering is from the drive buffering and can't fully keep up. Access times and buffer size was really crap on these old low end machines.

  • @kooldudeno-lastname
    @kooldudeno-lastname Рік тому +3

    It was really cool to see you restore this pc! Very underrated channel

  • @benc6503
    @benc6503 Рік тому

    Gawd I remember eMachines were first sold, and the disappointment it caused me because of what I knew it represented. In essence, I thought it represented the eventual death of the PC repair business, a prediction that would eventually turn out correct.
    I was also a teenager at the time, and knew computer repair. I had a notion of fixing computers as a way to make money at first after high school, but I just knew this wasn't going to be possible.
    For the first time, it was possible to buy a shitbox PC for $500. Before then, the minimum entry price was at least $1,200ish, and most consumers would typically opt for something a bit better.
    Thing is, would *you* pay $200, 300 or more to fix a $500 shitbox PC?
    No, most folks are going to just buy a new one. And yes, between labor, diagnostics, and testing, something like a replacement of a $50 memory module would easily become $200, though if you needed $100 in memory modules, it would probably be $250ish or so. That assumes little to almost no parts markup, which no doubt some shops did.
    Up until that point, I was fortunate to have had access to a fairly, somewhat wide variety of computer equipment. Between that, and reading the PC Upgrade and Maintenance Guide, all 4,000+ pages of it back to back many times, I knew nearly everything there was to know about PC assembly and repair.
    Nowadays, it really is plug and play like fitting puzzle pieces together. It's so easy now, that I'd argue anyone who's somewhat handy could probably do it nowadays. There's a few possible gotchas, but they're less common than they used to be.
    I remember things like:
    1) Manual jumper configuration for IRQ settings, I/O address range selection, DMA channel, etc. You had to make sure there was NO overlap.
    2) If you plugged a serial port mouse into COM1, and your external modem to COM3, the mouse wouldn't work while you were connected to a dial-up ISP. Would you know why?
    3) Most IDE cables have one pin-hole blocked out and the male connector typically had a notch to force correct insertion. The female interface connector on the drive also had a pin missing to prevent incorrect insertion. But some IDE cables didn't have a pin blocked out. Would you know what to do?
    4) The IDE drives also had a notion of master and slave on the same IDE channel, which meant using jumpers to configure which device was which. While some IDE cables used the notion of "cable select" (master and slave is determined by which connector is used), this was rare and no one really used that.
    5) Conner hard drives, a budget brand of Seagate often used in Packard Bell computers and some others, had the interesting quirk where if installed, the second hard drive on the same channel also had to be a Conner, or else it wouldn't work.
    6) If you were lucky (and rich!) enough to use SCSI drives, you had to configure the SCSI ID numbers with jumpers too, and these numbers could go up to 15. ID 0 was reserved for the system/boot drive.
    7) If you had any external SCSI devices, and scanners were often SCSI devices back then, you had to turn them on in a specific order - highest ID/farthest from the system, then next highest ID, and so on, until you finally turn on the system. Otherwise, some SCSI devices wouldn't be detected properly and work.
    8) All floppy cables however, were "cable select." The primary/first floppy drive always had to be placed AFTER the twist in the cable. The second floppy drive had to be connected before the cable twist. Nevermind how that was often not convenient cable management. Even worse, older 5.25" floppy drives often had an older style of connector, which meant either an adapter had to be used, or to use a floppy cable with both types of connectors.
    9) Speaking of cable management... due to non-modular power supplies and ribbon cables, cable management and airflow was a nightmare.
    10) Early Plug and Play almost never worked the way it was supposed to. "Plug and Pray." It didn't actually start to get really good until probably Windows XP.
    11) Early USB was atrocious and awful, and for a time a strong argument could be made to avoid USB as much as possible. USB finally got "good" probably around '08 or so.
    12) Early 486s, and earlier CPUs, the sockets were not only perfectly square, but there was often nothing to physically prevent you from inserting it in 4 possible ways. You had to look at the socket carefully to find the marker for pin 1 on the socket, and which corner it was. And you had to make extra sure the marker on the CPU to indicate pin 1, lined up with it perfectly as well. If not, you will fry the CPU, and the motherboard, a potentially very expensive calamity. There was no safeguard against this other than basic due diligence. This isn't like AC power current where you could plug in the power plug either way and it would work.
    Sorry if I went on a bit down memory lane. Point was, in those days, it was an actual worthwhile skill folks were willing to pay for. It wasn't something anyone who's somewhat handy could likely do. Now, it is. Now it's more in the power user/enthusiast space.
    But yeah, after I saw the first eMachines for sale, nearly all the repair shops in my town closed within a few years after that.
    The eMachines brand may be gone now, but the $500 shitbox price point remained. For most folks, they'll just buy another one if anything goes wrong, and now there's more e-waste than ever. Same thing with smartphones, which often have very limited options for repair and tend to go bad every 2-3 years, possibly 4 years if you're lucky. Whereas a landline telephone, you could use the same one for decades.
    If you know how to assemble your own PC and fix problems as they occur, this can still save you money or offer you a better value. It's just not something the average person is really that willing to pay for anymore.

  • @LatitudeSky
    @LatitudeSky Рік тому

    Love seeing the case in the shower. People don't seem to know they CAN wash metal parts in the sink or shower. I see way too many people carefully brushing out all-metal heat sinks. Heck naw, soak that stuff in Dawn and just dry it off. The awful Duke3D sound seems like an IRQ conflict but you checked that and it did work in 98. This is where you cut losses and just get a real sound card. That early onboard stuff was janky.

  • @crapasanya
    @crapasanya Рік тому +1

    It looks like music in Duke3D is in antiphase. Try reversing the polarity of one of the channels. By the way you can try some other modes for digital sound, something like Windows Sound System worked perfectly for my Crystal Sound card.

  • @danil-old-web
    @danil-old-web Рік тому +2

    Thank you for new video, i like retro computers.

  • @carwashreviewsandmore7609
    @carwashreviewsandmore7609 Рік тому +3

    I am honestly amazed how much effort you throw into your videos with how little subscribers you have. I thoroughly enjoyed this video, don’t stop!

  • @awdrifter3394
    @awdrifter3394 Рік тому

    *Never Obsolete*

  • @MinisterRedPill
    @MinisterRedPill 10 місяців тому

    6-7 years ago i tried powering on my moms old emachine and it started smoking and shut off 😂

  • @wakcedout
    @wakcedout Рік тому

    i remeber those but never got one. always heard negativity related to them.

  • @latinosalpoder1429
    @latinosalpoder1429 Рік тому

    in 2001, My Computer Programming Teacher hated this brand. He told me it was bad. I didn't believe him. He was right. lol

  • @Goforitmanager
    @Goforitmanager Рік тому

    Free was about the right price for those things.

  • @skwealbaag8776
    @skwealbaag8776 Рік тому

    I’ve just got a 533id2 I just setup

  • @Povilaz
    @Povilaz Рік тому

    Very interesting!

  • @willthor6639
    @willthor6639 Рік тому +1

    I would turn it into a sleeper

    • @dcfuksurmom
      @dcfuksurmom Рік тому

      id install alpine linux with a custom kernel to bring it kicking and screaming into modern times

  • @ArtieOddity
    @ArtieOddity Рік тому

    I have the 566ir since it came out, could never get dos fm sound to work. I Still have the user guide , recovery disc and windows manual that it came with. I might still have the keyboard layout sheet but not the OG keyboard. For budget computers, they have strong lasting motherboards I belive from Trigem a Korean company.

  • @hvacdoc
    @hvacdoc Рік тому

    I had the packard bell version of this

  • @DesignSomething
    @DesignSomething Рік тому

    If you create a video about it in 2023 yes it is "Never Obsolete" 👍

  • @sedrosken831
    @sedrosken831 7 місяців тому

    Surprised that a little box with the last Mendocino Celeron and i810 video has, of all things, a DVD-ROM drive and a 15 gig hard drive. Figured you'd have also been working with a 32x CD-ROM and an 8.4GB drive for what this was going for even before the rebates.

  • @blackterminal
    @blackterminal Рік тому

    Would like you to try one of those pci to pci e slot adapters.

  • @mrdingus117
    @mrdingus117 10 місяців тому

    It seems like I heard something about cd drives helping with audio in some way? I may be reaching a bit though.

  • @Sjetton85
    @Sjetton85 Рік тому

    CompuServe was better than AOL. But in time I did switch to copper isp which was like 9 dollars a month

  • @dasmin1135
    @dasmin1135 Рік тому

    I think Crystall CS4280 can be configured by selecting Windows Sound System if available.

  • @TymexComputing
    @TymexComputing 10 місяців тому

    4:04 - the HDD laying on the floor will not get roasted - it would if you hot glued it to the tower floor :-D