I haven’t taken the time to update much here, but I seem to still devote most of my time to following trends in text-based software. It consumes a considerable amount of the day.

There are a few things I should mention though, even just as updates to my trials and tribulations with outdated hardware and modern software.

First, the CTX EzBook 800 I mentioned a few months ago is not much closer to a full working state, but it was never very far off. Most distros, aside from Crux, either miss a beat with the hard drive or the optical drive, or sometimes both.

An added complication is that there seems to be no response from the PCMCIA port whatsoever. Every attempt to even acknowledge a card there comes up dead, regardless of card or distro.

As a troubleshooting measure — strictly for troubleshooting, I swear — I swallowed my pride and installed Windows 98SE from a friend’s CD (try and find one of those these days 😯 ). No life, no lights, no response.

Which leads me to believe the port is damaged or dead. It’s reassuring in a way, since it means it’s not necessarily a configuration error on my part, so much as a hardware defect that may or may not be fixable.

In any case, I could conceivably use it un-networked, as some sort of offline data storage device, and transfer files on and off via USB. It’s not an appealing option, but it’s possible.

Second, in the Thinkpad realm, I’ve allowed the ’41s to move on to new owners. I enjoyed my time with them but I am overburdened with laptops these days and need to make space.

The T41 will be a low-strain home PC for a local friend, but — even better — the X41 is going to be part of a business IT department, monitoring server performance. How exciting!

The aforementioned Inspiron 4000 turned out to have far deeper problems than I suspected. A new power supply wasn’t … supplying power 🙄 for some reason, so I finally pulled the entire business apart to see what could be done.

And it appears someone else had already had that idea, and “repaired” it with cyanoacrylate. The machine must have been dropped at some point, and the cracks and seams resealed. Most of the casing was in shards by the time I could get to the motherboard, at which point I made a command decision and pronounced a time of death. Its usable parts are now awaiting transplants into other hosts. A sad ending. 😐

Next, I feel obligated to mention that I’ve run through a stream of Dell machines in the past month or so. I spent a short time with an Inspiron 5150, which was an interesting experience. On almost every front it outstripped my in-house 8200 machine, but was almost dull by comparison. That machine has moved on to a Windows fan, who wanted a native XP environment for classic 3D games of the 2002-2005 era (one of the FIFA games, I think).

I also came across two D610s, one in mediocre condition but the other in pristine shape, to include the carrying bag, CDs, cables, batteries, etc. It was a very nice gift.

D610s are strictly business though, and most of the internal hardware is unappealing — a lot of Broadcom network interfaces, which I hold in high disdain. Both are viable Linux candidates, but would probably require as much in supporting hardware (i.e., replacement MiniPCI wireless cards or PCMCIA network cards) that it might not be worth my effort to keep them.

I understand that the 3.17 kernel has better Broadcom support, so I might keep them around until that reaches the Arch core repos, and see if it’s true. I’ve been promised that before though, and in this day and age, there’s no need for me to cling to a Broadcom-based machine.

I also should mention a rather battered D810 that made its way to my doorstep. It was more a curiosity than the D610s, because the hardware seemed comparable, but the widescreen aspect threatened to bog down the desktop. Perhaps 1680×1050 is a bit big for a 32Mb ATI X300 card. …

What else … ? A couple of Thinkpad R50p‘s, which together were in such bad shape that there wasn’t enough left to make a single working computer out of them. And one had a password lock at the BIOS, and I’m not going through the trouble of reading EEPROMs just to start up a 10-year-old laptop. 😡

I also got an old Gateway 6518GZ that was DOA … an HP dv6000 with an unseated video card that probably would have needed a reflow to bring to life. … A couple of other lesser creatures. … 😐

But the real score of the month was permission to tinker with a pair — not just one, but a pair — of truly ancient Dell Latitude LM machines. I can’t keep them but I’m allowed to poke, prod and pick at them for a while, provided I return them in original condition. Here’s one in action, with its original Windows installation.

These are true 133Mhz Pentium machines with 40Mb of RAM apiece, NeoMagic video cards and 1Gb hard drives (one completely error-free, after all these years!). Otherwise standard arrangements of PCMCIA slots and sound cards which are undoubtedly ISA components. I haven’t had a challenge of this level since … oh, probably this machine.

I have to return them to their owner in a couple of weeks, but I’m enjoying the opportunity. The biggest threat at this point seems to be their complete inability to boot from CD, and neither has a working floppy drive. Luckily they were designed with the hard drive in a pull-out tray at the front of the machine, accessible with only two screws. And even better — my IDE-to-SDHC adapter works well. 😀

I’ll put up some more pictures and maybe a full post sometime in the next week or two, if I can. They have to return to their owner at the end of the month but I have free reign for a while yet. If I can make any progress, I’ll make a note of it here.

Odd, the things I think are fun. … 😕

P.S.: A very special thank-you to my online donor, who provided some of the machines mentioned above, but asked to remain anonymous. 😉