The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group The Junk Computer John Mackesy

0ne of the sad realities of the consumer electronics age is the rapidity with which your "investment" becomes just another component of the garbage stream. The process is helped along by the hype-driven accelerated obsolescence of computer equipment — today's silver and black box with its 3.8 gigahertz processor, 200 gigabyte hard disk drive and absurdly named video card replaces yesterday's beige box, only in its turn to become landfill.

Then again, in response to growing environmental pressure, you may decide to "recycle" your one-time pride and joy. There are a couple of options here — you can take the equipment to one of the recycling depots set up for this purpose, or you might return it to the original manufacturer, who has been dragooned into ensuring the product is disposed of responsibly. Then again, you just might leave it on the nature strip...

Like the mythical "most of us", my computing needs are modest — primarily basic secretarial tasks, minor graphics and dial-up Internet. None of this requires blazing speed or bulk storage; I don't play complex games nor do I watch videos. In short, I don't need bleeding edge technology, nor
am I prepared to lash out bulk dollars on something I don't really need. What I do need in a computer is a large clear picture and quiet and dependable operation.

While the modern, even the not-so-modern computer is a generally reliable device (and no matter what goes wrong, I can fix it) a spare computer can be a handy thing. In my case, this is a 1999-vintage Compaq Presario 2297 desktop computer, something that recently followed me home. I have to admit my first impulse was to drop it straight into the bin (it would fit!), but in accordance with my community responsibility and my technofreak's curiosity, I thought I'd see if it worked.

Plugged it in, hooked up a monitor and keyboard, signs of life but no picture. I vaguely recalled that some Compaq computers were non-standard in the video department — could that be the problem? A bit of probing revealed the 64 MB(!) memory module to be at fault; a couple of 64 MB DIMMs were retrieved from the junk box, plugged in and away she went, the orange COMPAQ logo proudly blazoned across the screen.

Well, it worked — but was it worth keeping? A modicum of research revealed that the Compaq Presario 2297 was powered by a 400 MHz AMD K6 processor, could accommodate up to 256 MB of memory and had a 6 GB hard disk. It also had two PCI slots harbouring modem and network card and that's all, for everything else (sound, video) is integrated into the sort-of-ATX-style motherboard.

This is a device of humble specification and a far cry from the "workhorse PC" of the estimable Charles' vision. It was, however, perfectly adequate for the corporate secretarial environment at the dawn of the 21st Century "...e-mail, Web browsing and a bit of word processing." Well, a lot of word processing would be closer to the truth. In fact, the whole gamut of Microsoft Office applications of the day seemed to run well on these machines, as well as a variety of desktop publishing, graphics and drafting programs.

Although it's not particularly obvious, the Compaq 2297 has some nice features that make it well suited to the office environment. It's small (38 cm L x 36 cm W x 10 cm H) and its low height means a monitor can be placed on top, conserving desk space. Less obviously, low power consumption, and therefore low heat rejection is an important design feature. The last becomes a significant factor when calculating air conditioning loads; one computer typically produces as much heat as four people. Reduced heat rejection means a low-speed quiet fan in the power supply and a bit of cunning design means that same fan also cools the CPU. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? — a compact, lightweight and quiet computer with minimal impact on its environment.

A quick fossick through the 6 GB Seagate HDD (2.6 GB used) revealed Win98, MS Works, a collection of Compaq utilities, some stunningly boring porno videos and a selection of equally boring and pedestrian homebrewed techno music. I inserted my Win98 boot disk, rebooted, then invoked that time-honoured command FORMAT C: /S/U.

Later, Win2000 loaded satisfactorily via the Sony 48X CD-ROM drive, but the hard disk made noises more like a chaff cutter than an example of late- 20th Century precision engineering. A 5 GB Quantum disk from the junk collection solved that one. There were some hassles with the Diamond Media internal modem card, but a modicum of research turned up a generic "Conexant" driver that worked nicely.

Currently, the Compaq 2297 is loaded with Win2000, OpenOffice, Windows Media Player, Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, IrfanView and a few graphics and utility programs. In conjunction with an HP UltraVGA 1280 17 inch monitor (refugee from the scrap heap), a cute little Canon BJC-265SP printer and a discarded DEC keyboard, this results in a very usable, dependable and (best of all) zero-cost system — in fact, I wrote, printed and submitted this article with it.

Reprinted from the October 2005 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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