[TT-S]

My first PC was assembled by a local dealer back in 1998.

It then had:
Pentium 200MHz MMX CPU
cheap VIA VPX motherboard
32MB SDRAM
4GB 5.25" Hard disk, 3.5 Floppy drive, CDROM drive
SiS 1 MB VGA card in a PCI slot + SVGA 14" color monitor.
16 bit ISA slot based sound card
It ran windows 95 initially (I still remember that it was installed using several floppy disks instead of a CDROM)

6 months later, added a vsnl dial-up internet connection using an external 33.6kbps modem.

Although this was my first PC, my first experience with a PC was back in my school days during 1989/90 - at my mother's office. I would go there after school, find an unused PC, log onto the MSDOS interface and type some commands to launch arcade style games

Those were the days of monochrome monitors, large 5.25" floppy disks, dot matrix printers. The PCs had the turbo button to boost the game speeds if I wanted to 'boost' the difficulty level immediately.

[td2cga]

Originally Posted by mayankk

That's you?
I vaguely remember using this with vsnl dial ups, way way back!!
Vaguely only because it's so long ago. But use it I did.

Yes, but I am mostly a lurker here due to my admittedly very limited knowledge of automobiles.

To provide some background, we wrote it since we did not have the required 15,000 rs to spare to access the net back in 1997. ShellSock was not my first attempt, I initially rewrote the com port driver to get I-COMM browser to work. Called it X-Wrap. While that was successful, I realised that a winsock re-write would make it more general purpose and would enable it to work across existing Internet software. So, in a nutshell, ShellSock was a winsock emulator, a VT100 terminal, a scripting language and an auto dialer all rolled into one.

We knew that it was just a matter of time before it was blocked, so we supported three different methods of working with over 70 different configuration settings, some of which could be encrypted to slow down people figuring out how it worked.

Ultimately it played a pivotal role in coercing VSNL into providing affordable Internet access in India. That coming right from the horses mouth - "We also got rid of the shell account, because people were able to crack it and convert a ₹5,000 subscription into a ₹15,000 one." - The Telecom Man, page 104, memoirs of B.K. Syngal, former CMD of VSNL

I guess, we were just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time with the right skillset.

[TurboKat]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

December 1999: A Compaq Presario desktop. I don't remember much about it since it came home when I was barely 7 years old.

We have the same PC. It used to belong to my mom and everything is working properly till now (except the JBL Speakers). In 2009, some parts were upgraded. After that, I played GTA Sanandreas, Vice City, Road Rash, NFS Underground, Porsche unleashed. Configurations after 2009 upgrade:
1. Asus P5QPLAM motherboard
2. 2x2GB DDR2 RAM
3. 500 GB HDD
4. Windows 7 ultimate
5. Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 processor

[Samfromindia]

From the archives of 2004 -2005

Cookie-cutter budget gaming rig for hostel life:

AMD 64 3000+ Processor
MSI K8M Motherboard
512mb DDR 400mhz Hynix RAM
80 GB 7200 rpm SATA Seagate HDD
GeForce 5200fx AGP GPU 128 MB DDR 333mhz ram
Sony Combo Drive
FDD
Internal Modem
i Cabinet
i Key Keyboard
i ball Optical Mouse
17'flat Samsung Magicbright CRT Moniter
15 in one USB Card Reader
Altec Lansing Hedphone cum Mic
E-Life Speakers
APC UPS

[TurboKat]

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

APC UPS

I guess APC UPS were common back in the 2000s. We had one, my friend's folks had their PC connected to one too.

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by TurboKat

I guess APC UPS were common back in the 2000s. We had one, my friend's folks had their PC connected to one too.

Yes, APC was by far the most popular and premium UPS brand. All models except the basic one used to come with a PC connector which displayed battery charge & health status on PC, similar to ones we have on laptop back in the days.

[TurboKat]

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

Yes, APC was by far the most popular and premium UPS brand. All models except the basic one used to come with a PC connector which displayed battery charge & health status on PC, similar to ones we have on laptop back in the days.

Does the PC connector look similar to a VGA port? Our UPS has a port which looks like a VGA port. Only battery needs to be replaced to get it to working condition.

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by TurboKat

Does the PC connector look similar to a VGA port? Our UPS has a port which looks like a VGA port. Only battery needs to be replaced to get it to working condition.

Yes its called serial port

https://youtu.be/kvNm7nmEUFo

[bhairavp]

1995. 486 DX2/66, 8MB RAM, 100MB HDD. Windows 3.11.
Upgraded with a 56K ISA modem in 1997, set up a Hotmail account, which I still use!

[ar@v1nd]

Thanks for bumping up this thread. Hadn't seen this before.

The first PC I used was an IBM Compatible 8088 (8 MHz speed I think) with 640K RAM and 2x360KB floppy drives.

We had 2 such PCs in our computer lab at school. The main attraction was that the lab was air conditioned to keep these expensive high end machines in good humor. I was in the 7th class at that time. I remember having 2 floppy disks with me. The 360KB ones (which were really floppy, not the 1.2MB ones with a more rigid case). First floppy was the "boot disk" to load the OS (MS-DOS) and the 2nd one had our games and other goodies. I remember the grinding sound while the PC was booting from the boot disk and we used to keep our fingers crossed hoping it would boot up to show the A prompt ( A>) - no hard disks at that time. Then a PROMPT $p$g to change it to A:\>.

Cleaning the floppy disk surface with cotton wool dipped in some solution (was it aftershave ?) through the small cut-out on the disk surface when the PC wouldn't boot and praying for it to boot again. It was a big deal if your floppy disk had bad sectors while your friend's disk didnt. Good old days.

Writing BASIC programs with BASICA & GWBASIC - with line numbers 10, 20, 30 Anyone remember these?
Along with games like PACMAN, PRINCE, PARATROOPER and some old shooting games (I cant remember the names).
These were well before the days of Roadrash and NFS2.

[PatienceWins]

OT: what do you do with the old desktop PC when you upgrade?

I have the old desktop PC lying for a long time (disposed the monitor. I am thinking about an upgrade now and the hassle of storing/ disposing the current one is keeping me off.

[ar@v1nd]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

OT: what do you do with the old desktop PC when you upgrade?

I have the old desktop PC lying for a long time (disposed the monitor. I am thinking about an upgrade now and the hassle of storing/ disposing the current one is keeping me off.

Best option in my opinion it to wipe the data and sell it off on OLX for the best price you get. Even if it's a very old machine, as long as it works, there would be somebody who can put it to use. No point keeping an old machine lying around taking space and collecting dust.

[arnieshwartz]

I believe it was 1999 when we purchased this Datamini PC manufactured by a Singapore based company called GES International.

The PC was priced at ₹50k something, had a Pentium III processor running at 500MHz, 64MB RAM, 4GB HDD and shipped with Windows 98 Second Edition. Optical drive (CD ROM) and floppy disk drive were standard. It came with a multimedia keyboard, stereo speakers and a 14 inch CRT monitor.