1 Aug
2015
1 Aug
'15
4:05 p.m.
Hi,
I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl
Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive
of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating
noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is
wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself:
http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison).
After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm
and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the
drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the
time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in
by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles
sewn together by hand it seem.
What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers?
Vlad.
1 Aug
1 Aug
4:27 p.m.
On Sat, Aug 01, 2015, Vlad Stamate wrote:
Hi,
I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl
Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive
of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating
noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is
wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself:
http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison).
After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm
and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the
drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the
time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in
by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles
sewn together by hand it seem.
What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers?
While an Intel Mac laptop doesn't really qualify, I found an uneven
piece of hard plastic, about 2mm x 1.5mm, inside one of its RAM slots
when I went to upgrade it. How it got there I've never been able to
understand -- it was already populated with a DIMM that was working
correctly, and I think maybe I had actually put that DIMM there in the
first place, and never seen the odd chunk before.
It was a royal pain to remove, too -- I ended up using an X-Acto knife
to cut away part of the edge connected so I could remove it with a
tweezer. Boy was I shocked to realize that the actual metal pins that
the RAM module connected to were embedded in the piece of plastic edge
connector I cut away; somehow I managed to remove the plastic without
breaking any of them. Upon bending them slightly so they looked
straight, I put the RAM in, and everything was fine then.
--
Eric Christopherson
5:46 p.m.
On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 5:37 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
Someone was using it wrong. No seeds or stems!
What other
strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic
computers?
A TRS80 model 1 where some keys had stopped working due to an accumulation
of marijuana seeds 
5:58 p.m.
>> What other strange pieces did you find when
you opened up classic
>> computers?
> A TRS80 model 1 where some keys had stopped working due to an accumulation
> of marijuana seeds
On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, Eric Smith wrote:
Someone was using it wrong. No seeds or stems!
After I fixed it, they did offer me a tip
5:22 p.m.
On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, Vlad Stamate wrote:
Hi,
I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl
Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of
the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise.
After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is wrong with
it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself:
http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison).
After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm and
I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the drive
head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the time. I
am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in by
mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles sewn
together by hand it seem.
What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic
computers?
I once removed several ~1/2" diameter magnets from inside the 3.5" floppy
drive of a tower-style IBM PS/2. They had apparently placed there by a
disgruntled employee before he quick-formatted the hard drive.
Fortunately, the magnets didn't seem to harm the boot disk I attempted to
insert, but just jammed the drive.
5:29 p.m.
On Saturday (08/01/2015 at 07:05PM -0400), Vlad Stamate wrote:
I was pleasantly impressed that the
drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the
time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in
by mistake?
Peter!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfEnwQsgH4I
--
Chris Elmquist
5:33 p.m.
What is that item?
Looks like a piece of laced (p)leather-craft from a children's summer camp
project..
On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 6:05 PM, Vlad Stamate <vlad.stamate at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl
Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive
of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating
noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is
wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself:
http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison).
After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm
and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the
drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the
time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in
by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles
sewn together by hand it seem.
What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic
computers?
Vlad.
6:35 p.m.
On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, drlegendre . wrote:
On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 6:05 PM, Vlad Stamate
<vlad.stamate at gmail.com> wrote:
Maybe it's a money clip?
I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121
drive unit from Earl
Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of
the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise.
After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is wrong with
it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself:
http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison).
What is that item?
Looks like a piece of laced (p)leather-craft from a children's summer
camp project.. 
9:07 p.m.
I found a dollar bill inside an Apple Monitor II. It appeared to have been folded into
quarters and then pushed through one of the cooling slots on top of the monitor. The
monitor and matching IIe computer look like they came from a school based on the property
numbers engraved onto them. I've made up all sorts of theories about how some kid lost
his or her dollar bill in that monitor!
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
9:22 p.m.
That's an old joke. Some (newb) asks "How do you switch it on, i want to
play Spacewar (or whatever)", cagey user says "You put a dollar in one of
these slots"... ;-)
I guarantee it.
On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 11:07 PM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
I found a dollar bill inside an Apple Monitor II. It
appeared to have been
folded into quarters and then pushed through one of the cooling slots on
top of the monitor. The monitor and matching IIe computer look like they
came from a school based on the property numbers engraved onto them. I've
made up all sorts of theories about how some kid lost his or her dollar
bill in that monitor!
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
9:53 p.m.
On Aug 1, 2015, at 21:22 , drlegendre . <drlegendre
at gmail.com> wrote:
That's an old joke. Some (newb) asks "How do you switch it on, i want to
play Spacewar (or whatever)", cagey user says "You put a dollar in one of
these slots"... ;-)
I guarantee it.
That's my number one theory, followed by some kid just absentmindedly poking the
dollar bill in the hole, then losing his grip.
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
9:53 p.m.
By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case it's a critical
component, you know. :)
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
2 Aug
2 Aug
4:49 a.m.
I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive.
What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted.
On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer.
Just in case it's a
critical component, you know. :)
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
5:04 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tom Moss
Sent: 02 August 2015 12:49
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive.
What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted.
One of my friends complained their apple printer was making funny noises, I turned it
upside down and shook it. Out fell half a dozen "lego" bricks..
(I assume you have lego in the USA)
On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at
nf6x.net> wrote:
> By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case
> it's a critical component, you know. :)
>
>
> --
> Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
> http://www.nf6x.net/
>
>
Dave
G4UGM
5:08 a.m.
I'm British :)
On 2 August 2015 at 13:04, Dave G4UGM <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tom
Moss
Sent: 02 August 2015 12:49
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive.
What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted.
One of my friends complained their apple printer was making funny noises,
I turned it upside down and shook it. Out fell half a dozen "lego" bricks..
(I assume you have lego in the USA)
3 Aug
3 Aug
3:17 p.m.
When I was a toddler apparently I used to stuff penny's inside the floppy
drives of my dads rainbow 100 the drives survived this I slot and are still
I. Working order as far as I know since last time I saw that beast
On Sunday, August 2, 2015, Tom Moss <tomjmoss at googlemail.com> wrote:
I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a
1541 disk drive.
What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted.
On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net <javascript:;>>
wrote:
By the way: I still keep the dollar with the
computer. Just in case it's
a
critical component, you know. :)
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net <javascript:;>>
http://www.nf6x.net/
3:36 p.m.
When I was in middle school, I once saw another kid stuff a bunch of potato
chips in a Disk ][ ... does that count? LOL
Best,
Sean
On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 6:17 PM, Adrian Stoness <tdk.knight at gmail.com> wrote:
When I was a toddler apparently I used to stuff
penny's inside the floppy
drives of my dads rainbow 100 the drives survived this I slot and are still
I. Working order as far as I know since last time I saw that beast
On Sunday, August 2, 2015, Tom Moss <tomjmoss at googlemail.com> wrote:
I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons
in a 1541 disk drive.
What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted.
On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net <javascript:;>>
wrote:
> By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case
it's
a
critical component, you know. :)
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net <javascript:;>>
http://www.nf6x.net/
3:38 p.m.
This one isn't so pleasant... I worked at CompUSA fixing computers in
the 90's, and one time an employee brought in his personal machine for
repair. Fortunately I wasn't the one that opened it up, as when the
tech popped the case, cockroaches scurried everywhere! The machine was
beyond hope with the amount of "insect debris" inside.
I believe we had an exterminator out the next day!
On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 5:17 PM, Adrian Stoness <tdk.knight at gmail.com> wrote:
When I was a toddler apparently I used to stuff
penny's inside the floppy
drives of my dads rainbow 100 the drives survived this I slot and are still
I. Working order as far as I know since last time I saw that beast
On Sunday, August 2, 2015, Tom Moss <tomjmoss at googlemail.com> wrote:
> I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive.
>
> What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted.
>
> On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net
<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
>
> > By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case it's
> a
> > critical component, you know. :)
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net <javascript:;>>
> > http://www.nf6x.net/
> >
> >
>
--
Ben Sinclair
ben at bensinclair.com
3:55 p.m.
Man that is foul ... I too started in the business doing repair, at a local
shop, and we definitely saw some dirty ones, but never like that! The
grossest stuff was always out in the field particularly some of the
industrial customers.
Best,
Sean
On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 6:38 PM, Ben Sinclair <ben at bensinclair.com> wrote:
This one isn't so pleasant... I worked at CompUSA
fixing computers in
the 90's, and one time an employee brought in his personal machine for
repair. Fortunately I wasn't the one that opened it up, as when the
tech popped the case, cockroaches scurried everywhere! The machine was
beyond hope with the amount of "insect debris" inside.
I believe we had an exterminator out the next day!
On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 5:17 PM, Adrian Stoness <tdk.knight at gmail.com>
wrote:
When I was a toddler apparently I used to stuff
penny's inside the floppy
drives of my dads rainbow 100 the drives survived this I slot and are
still
I. Working order as far as I know since last time
I saw that beast
On Sunday, August 2, 2015, Tom Moss <tomjmoss at googlemail.com> wrote:
> I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive.
>
> What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted.
>
> On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net
<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
>
> > By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case
it's
> a
> > critical component, you know. :)
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net <javascript:;>>
> > http://www.nf6x.net/
> >
> >
>
--
Ben Sinclair
ben at bensinclair.com
2 Aug
2 Aug
11:09 a.m.
On Sat, Aug 01, 2015 at 07:05:35PM -0400, Vlad Stamate wrote:
What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers?
A dead rodent inside an otherwise nice looking Norsk Data ND-500
A four inch crooked nail inside a LINC-8
It is really a good idea to peak inside a computer that is new to you
before you power it up.
/P
3:42 p.m.
One of my first jobs at DEC was on terminal sales.
The LA36 printing terminal had the logic and PSU cards mounted in the
plinth.
The logic card was on the back of the pull down door and the PSU inside.
So easy to service it wasn't true. This compartment was quite roomy
and inside
fresh ones just arrived you would find all kinds of stuff:
Wrapped food of all kinds
Bibles
Copies of the Boston Globe
Cigarette packets (full and partly full)
Assorted screwdrivers
Spanners
Loose change
A note saying "meet me at the rusty scupper" (local bar)
Rod
On 02/08/2015 19:09, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
On Sat, Aug 01, 2015 at 07:05:35PM -0400, Vlad Stamate
wrote:
What other strange pieces did you find when you
opened up classic computers?
A dead rodent inside an otherwise nice looking Norsk Data ND-500
A four inch crooked nail inside a LINC-8
It is really a good idea to peak inside a computer that is new to you
before you power it up.
/P
3210
days inactive
3212
days old
22 comments
15 participants
participants (15)
-
ben＠bensinclair.com -
chrise＠pobox.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com -
drlegendre＠gmail.com -
echristopherson＠gmail.com -
nf6x＠nf6x.net -
pontus＠Update.UU.SE -
rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com -
scaron＠umich.edu -
spacewar＠gmail.com -
tdk.knight＠gmail.com -
tomjmoss＠googlemail.com -
tothwolf＠concentric.net -
vlad.stamate＠gmail.com