Are these really worth keeping?

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_odin.phy.bris.ac.uk>
Date: Wed Sep 24 04:24:31 1997

On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, John Ruschmeyer wrote:

> Maybe, but I'm finding it easier lately to get mono VGAs and 256K VGA cards
> than to find Herc clones and mono monitors. I recently found a lovely

Absolutely. So keep the rarer Hercules cards :-).

It's easier to find a 486 PC-clone than a PERQ (at least over here, alas).
That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep the PERQ, does it?

There are a number of PC adapters that are almost impossible to obtain
now. Even things like the original XT serial card (which will work in slot
8 of an XT where nothing else will, and which will drive a current loop
device) are not that common. Nor are TTL-based parallel cards (which can
be hacked to be bidirectional). I have plenty of both of those, but intend
to hang on to them

> Probably so... I'm rethinking the idea in favor of keeping them and just
> dumping any cards which I *know* don't work.

NO!. A lot of these cards (certainly the genuine IBM ones) can be
repaired. I don't know where the myth springs from that they can't but
it's just that - a myth.

What I would do is dump/strip the impossible to repair ones (one big FQFP
chip with no standard equivalnet), and keep _all_ IBM (working or not),
_all_ repairable clones (TTL+standard ICs), and all working ones.

> <<<John>>>

-tony
Received on Wed Sep 24 1997 - 04:24:31 BST