Talk techie to me… ~Poison, 1986
This is a running general topic on the hardware that keeps our businesses booming.
PUBLIC TOPIC 
Any logged-in SellersAskSellers user can reply.
2 Likes
@Pepper_Thine_Angus I was doing some much-needed cleaning recently and found this empty box that needed recycling. 
.
9 Likes
AL Speakers were the best back in the day. And way ahead of their time. Always alerted you of an incoming cell phone call before your cell phone rang!
5 Likes
Win7 - like any OS - is perfectly-serviceable up to the point it is no longer supported by µSoft, but beyond that point it requires skills which most all layfolk are not typically inclined to pursue.
The “Planned Obsolescence” paradigm has long been a warmly-cherished concept of many a corporate conglomerate…and they know that such an embrace of an otherwise-unsustainable course is propped-up mightily by the societal embrace of the “Keeping Up With The Joneses” construct.
I’d say that there’s been no commercial enterprise better at leveraging that human vulnerability than the Fashion Industry itself, but I do think that Big Tech rose on the same goring spear…
6 Likes
I drag my feet on upgrades (with reason) – my upgrade was from Windows 95 to 7
7 Likes
still have a pair of these connected to a laptop in one office area.
Working perfectly.
5 Likes
OMG you youngness here, we have machines from three decades ago still running equipment in our studio office.
If you have a robotic cutter that only is supported by a windows operating system from 20 years ago you have to keep it running to make money!
We have cameras that run only with DOS. And what about all the data we have on tape, or more recently (25 years old) bernoulli drives or magneto optical drives or whatever disk is in the “junk drawer” that we may run into.
I should have mentioned the cameras shoot to E6 film, but that is another story.
Now I would say, if you are going to use these old machines, they should not be hooked up to your network, to the internet. You are just asking for trouble. (1)
Reminds me of when we sent a disk to “Kodak” it went to a small shop in the midwest. I think it was about 1979. We were shipping it to Kodak in Rochester.
The midwest store called and said they did not order it, and wanted to send it back. It was a 5.25 inches, we had just upgraded from the “old” 8 inch disks. They sent back the disk, they folded it in half so it would fit in the envelope.
(1) I used to hire two young students from the local high school. The only job they had was to scan the 3.5 inch floppies that were sent to us everyday. To be sure that they had no viruses on them. Then we put them in the machine and made slides from them.
7 Likes
This thread reminds me of the movie “Hot Tub Time Machine” not too be confused with a spoof on ph
3 Likes
I apologize for that serious DER moment - I went from Windows 98 to Windows 7
Not quite the leap I stated.
9 Likes
I want to know what you do to keep your computers going? I guess oil changes every 3000 miles…?
I go through laptops every couple years. Anything new won’t run 7, or anything close to it.
4 Likes
We had 3 Windows 7 units that we had migrated to Windows 10. When Windows 11 came out, it could not be loaded on these computers and Windows 11 was not compatible with our engraving machines. We turned off the Windows Update feature on one of the Windows 10 unit after an update rendered our engravers silent for 6 days (until we figured out the issue and reloaded Windows 10 up to that fatal update). The other two units were loaded with Chrome Flex and remain in operation. Actually gave those units to a couple of grandkids who use them for school work (especially when it is remote learning day). Chrome Flex made those 15 year old Dell computers function like new … really impressed with that swap in OS system.
5 Likes
It’s not the size of your browser its how you use it.
6 Likes
Thanks for mentioning ChromeFlex. I’d never heard of it. It could be useful in bringing some older computers back into use and keeping them from landfills.
6 Likes
Today, people do not get this concept. I have repaired at least half a dozen dryers that only had a bad belt. The belt cost $6 online.
Everyone takes their computers, washing machines, and dryers to the dump.
Just today we were talking about earth day in the office. We had a regional newspaper do a story on us (our company) since our waste stream ratio to our shipments was so good. As in we had less than a 55 Gallon drum for waste every two weeks and shipped 5K pounds of goods. But back to Earth Day since I put the newspaper in the recycle bin, they did not publish online at the time.
I did the first Earth Day when I was in the Scouting Program. It was a long time ago, (how long ago) (admit it you wanted to ask that) the work was on the Erie Canal pulling out tires and other plastic items to recycle them. And no we did not see any mules pulling barges on the Erie Canal while we were working.
It did bring a love of commerce and the environment to my life.
5 Likes
We were really impressed with how easy it was to install Chrome Flex and how it brought back to life computers we didn’t know what we were going to do with them.
Bought a Maytag washer and dryer back in 1995. Still have both 30 years later. The dryer has had a new belt and one pulley wheel. Washer hasn’t had anything but we believe it will need a pulley soon also as it is picking up a squeal during the rinse cycle.
4 Likes
I still use them currently. (I should clean them, oops)
5 Likes
So that belt is under the wash tank not as easy as a dryer. Even so, a spray is available that you may be able to use on this belt. It may not last long, however, not mch expense, and you do not have to swap out the belt.
My assumption on the age is this is a top load washer.
3 Likes
Correct
3 Likes
Our dryer broke last year and my wife wanted to buy a new one. Did some googling / YouTubing and found some tips.
Bought a $10 continuity tester which told me a resistor was bad. Got a 2-pack from Amazon for $6 and fixed it 12 hours later (when the part arrived), and now I have spare…
Repair took maybe 10 mins, start to finish.
Similar story with my furnace a few weeks ago. $220 blower motor, and a $10 run capacitor and 2 hours later - fixed… Saved 800 bucks and learned something new.
It’s so quiet now, you never even know when it’s on… 
8 Likes