One from the 'believe it or not' file...

On Sun, 16 Nov 1997, James Willing wrote: [Brand new 3B1] I'd have been a little more careful here. I'd have opened up the CPU box, disconnected the PSU, and tested in on a dummy load. It only takes 1 dry joint to wipe out all the chips in the unit. I know what _I'd_ do. I'd power it up (after checking the PSU, etc), install the software, and enjoy it. You see, I collect computers because I enjoy using them, hacking them, figuring out how they work, programming them, interfacing them, etc. A computer which doesn't work (or which for whatever reason is never given the chance to work) is of no interest to me. Of course repairing computers is a major interest of mine, so non-working machines don't stay that way. I'd probably also unpack the disks (although as others have said, getting a copy from a friend with the same machine is also an option), read the manuals, etc I remember that at the HP calculator conference 5 years ago I bought an HP71 service manual. Now, this manual is not common, and it came in the original shrink-wrap. Having got it, I ripped off said shrink-wrap, opened the manual, and started reading. You see, I didn't buy the manual as an example of HP shrink-wrap. I bought it to learn about the HP71. And that's something you can only do when you've opened the manual. Well, it's your machine, so you have to decide what to do in the end... -tony