Frankenputer

[hizaguchi]

Is your computer Abbie Normal? Have you replaced missing screws with super glue and attached cooling fans with duck tape? I wanna hear about it. If nothing else, just for moral support.


My laptop is a piece of crap. My dogs used a network card to break my PC card slots off of the motherboard. The power supply went out, so now the plug is spliced onto a different supply that I bought from a friend who bought it off Ebay a while back. The new wireless card is an internal one that came from the same friend's Ebay addiction but conflicts with the internal modem that I can't find to remove... so sometimes it just doesn't work. It also seems to be supported by 3 different drivers, but not completely by any of them... so different distros load different modules and they end up working to varying degrees. And finally, one of the RAM slots has gotten lose and I've been going on half my normal memory for about a year. I've been trying to find a fix for it for a long time, and right now I've got 2 layers of outdoor weather stripping sitting on top of the DIM in the bad slot to hold it down. It finally seems to be somewhat stable. Remains to be seen if that stuff is flamable. Since it's foam, I'm betting so.

Anybody else holding their computer together like Mac Guyver?

[Maggot]

Nope all is good here for my computers :)

[Engnome]

I believe that to get the best computer buy it from a small-mid size store/chain. Building on yourself is messy, hunting parts and have to be 100% what piece is not working before sending it in for repairs. On the other hand the biggest companies (aside from forcing windows on you) build slow computers. Maybe a little more stable but look at Dell, I unfortunately has had to deal with their computers and the first thing you have to do is to get rid of all the crap. The only way to do that is to reformat.

And i also believe in taking great care with your computers so i have never had to repair one, ever. Only opened cases to put in a new components.

[richbarna]

Yep, I've got five boxes in varying stages of destruction, a laptop with a melted cover and keys falling off, and an old Macintosh PowerBook 180 that has to have the battery removed 2 seconds after bootup so that it can run from the mains.

Due to the hot weather, none of my PC's have cases on them and I've got plugin fans under the desk to keep everything cool.
There are cables everywhere with little plastic name tags on them so that I know where the hell they are going to and coming from.

But it's getting better :)

[fuscia]

my desktop has the wrong size power supply in it (the right size is no longer made). i have it wedged into place with a piece of metal.

[GuitarHero]

you actually get the best computer by building it, because then you can tailor it to perfectly fit your needs.

[SkyNet2029]

How's this for moral support:

This machine is running on a $2 mobo (as-is bargain table) with
one stick of SDRam128MB that I yanked from an old xerox machine, the other stick that my little brother mailed to me just because it was lying around. My powersupply is the only new thing in it (by new I mean made prior to 1997). The tower is an old dell server, and I generally 'try' to leave the panels on...but every now and then one just kind of wiggles free. No super glue though. Yeah, it can be risky building your own machines, but overall I like to know what I have running and why. I almost forgot the best part though, my total investment in this machine is $68.00
Rock on , Dr. Frankenstein!8-)

[T313C0mun1s7]

OMG, I thought I was the only person to use the term Frankenputer. It has been a fav term of mine for the things I throw together for freinds and family out of old salvaged crap I get donated by clients. My Mother-In-Law's computer has always been a Frankenputer and had been through various stages of Abbie Normal.

Several years back I had an old Amstrad 8088 that I rigged a mouse onto via a 8 bit ISA serial card (25 Pin) and some phone wire running between the female 25 pin connector on the card and the female 9 pin connector on the mouse. This was so I could run GeoWorks Pro.

Here is a link to the ultimate Frankenputer, really bringing Abbie Normal to life:
Furbeowulf Cluster (http://www.trygve.com/furbeowulf.html)

[prizrak]

Nothing like that currently tho the hinges on my laptop are about to fall off. I did used to have a machine where the DVD drive had to be installed by using pieces of bent metal, and putty. I also had to cut holes in the case with a metal cutting tool just to be able to mount the DVD. It was also a P2 333 running Win2K and RedHat 6.2 in dual boot :)

I also had an FTP server that consisted of a 766MHz Celeron and 3 diff HDD's that were all from different era with different sizes and all hooked up in software RAID :)
You are not the only one with a ghetto PC don't worry ;)

[xtacocorex]

I've had my laptop for over 4 years now and I've kept it in decent condition. The age is showing because I have the cd drive taped (scotch) to the bottom as some of the slide rails broke. I also have a 4 port USB hub velcroed to the bottom to raise the back for more airflow. This puts the computer on a rake and to counteract, I taped two chopsticks together and then velcroed them to the bottom as well.

[hizaguchi]

<extreme excitement>Office Max... memory... 512 MB... $60... SPEED! </extreme excitement> Holy crap! I can't believe what my computer is capable of. I think I'm going to install some more apps so I can run it out of memory. There is literally not enough stuff on my computer to use up this much. :)

[Compucore]

I usually prefer making my own with the right parts that I want and go from there. I know my next one is going to similar to like a server but more taylored for me for using ubuntu on it. Or windows to which ever one I choose to install into it. Or maybe both for the fun of it. The only thing that I would be getting is a server board that is capable of dual CPU with dual cores in them. So basically making it a Quad CPU with two physical CPU's in it. And plenty of memory for it too. And at least my GEOforce FX 5200 from my old gaming machine over here.

Compucore