🚀 go-pugleaf

Phred <ppnerkDELETETHIS@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:bja6qo$gf6kn$3@ID-151056.news.uni-berlin.de...
> Steve <p@q.inv> wrote:

>> I've heard that the life cycle of a home PC is about 4-5 years,
>> after which you can expect problems.  Any truth to this?

Its mindlessly superficial. Plenty of systems dont give any
problems, they get replaced because they wont do what
you want to do, most obviously with kids' games machines
etc and just because you cant install XP on a 486 etc.

Or just because you need a new printer/scanner etc
and the only thing that makes any sense price wise
is USB etc and the dinosaur cant do that easily.

> Others have mentioned the problem of compatibility with new gear,
> but if you're just talking about the "machinery" you can probably get
> a bit more than that out of them (at least if used in good conditions).

A hell of a lot more, actually.

> I've recently dismantled a couple of dead Osborne 486s dating
> from around 1991-93 IIRC.  They were still working at the end
> of 2000, but were dead by the end of 2002 if not before.  (One
> seemed to boot, but wouldn't drive a VDU; the other at least let
> you see that you had a problem with the HDD system. :)

> In both cases, it seemed the Varta Nicads on the motherboard
> had spilt their guts and corroded tracks on the board (plenty
> of pretty corrosion compounds around anyway).

And that doesnt happen with most 486s.

> Now I don't really know whether the
> battery acid had caused the problems,

Very likely. It doesnt take much to corrode the fine tracks.

> or whether it just looked bad.  Whatever...  These two
> PCs were perfectly reliable for around 7 to 9 years at
> least, and maybe they only died in the end through disuse.

Most likely they died because the NiCads died. They're easy enough
to replace if you catch them before the fuck up the motherboard.

> As a corollary -- Does anyone know if that "verdigris"
> can be cleaned up somehow without causing additional
> damage to tracks such as those on motherboards?

Normally not, the tracks are likely already fucked.

You can replace them with soldered on insulated
wire tho if not too many are affected.

> I presume there is a point where it *looks* bad, but
> hasn't yet actually eaten right through something.

It probably has, but its easy enough to test that with a multimeter.

Complete waste of time tho, even fully working 486s are
a complete pain in the arse due to their other limitations.

I dont even like socket 7 pentiums anymore, much too fussy about ram
and while you can still buy the simms they like, they arent that cheap.

But then I've just replaced the motherboard in the kitchen
PC with a decent modern socket 370 motherboard, just
so I can have instant on from the sleep state |-)

Cost peanuts, well worth it.