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Nutty Ideas in PC History

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by jim phelps

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What are your favorite nutty ideas in PC history? Here are some of my favorites:

* Changing the keyboard and mouse plugs so that they were identically shaped and sized. However, no one thought to allow either outlet to accomodate either device.

* Multiple models of IBM MicroChannel Architecture, with parts which were incompatible between the models.

* Using a CMOS battery rather than some sort of flash ROM (remember when your hard drive was toast if your battery went out and you didn't have your hard drive parameters written down?).

* Plug and Pray -- it's finally starting to work the way it was intended, but for a long time, I wanted to SCREAM!

* USB keyboard and mouse. The mouse generally works no matter which port it is plugged into. But you had better plug the keyboard back into the same USB port (it's easy to remember which port -- they all look EXACTLY ALIKE!), or else it won't work.

How about it? Anyone have any personal favorites?

29 replies

by cactus pete

I remember a few years back finding that a Dell workstation I was working on would allow the mouse and keyboard to use either port. I think it was an old 400 MHz box, but it might have been an even older 233 or so...

I was so shocked I told everyone in my department, and actually won some money off of the others thinking I was pulling their legs!

by jim phelps

I'll tell you something nuttier than identical, but non-interchangeable, PS2 ports -- Dell not building EVERY machine that way and trumpeting that fact in EVERY advertisement.

Dell also allowed mixing and matching of memory types, and you could install singles rather than pairs if you wanted to. This was around the time of the 486/66. What were they thinking, not continuing with such a great idea?

I just thought of another nutty thing. In the late 1990's, IBM came up with a Windows emulator for the AS/400. If fully implemented at a site, you could basically eliminate all of the PCs and just put an AS/400 terminal on everybody's desk.

Most major companies have AS/400s. Therefore, it would be easy to implement this. And the maintenance requirements would be much lower than with PCs.

IBM could have bypassed EVERYONE, and once again become the market leader for the corporate desktop, with such a great idea. Why didn't they?

Where did I learn about this? Buried deep within a computer magazine.

by thechas

I believe that we all have had problems at one time or another with a PC that used proprietary parts, and the manufacture has gone out of business.

So what could have been a $50 repair becomes a $500 system replacement!

Chas

by guruofdos

Compaq...

That BIOS rom which is in fact only a bootstrap routine - The 'BIOS' and machine setup being contained on a hidden sector on the hard-drive. Change the hard disk and bye bye BIOS...unless you have the correct SoftPaq number to hand for the machine and download the appropriate setup disks. Oh, and having changed the drive, the Master Restore CD no longer works!

Packard Bell and Apricot were also notorious for Master Restore CD's which failed to work if ANY hardware component was changed!

by jim phelps

Speaking of Packard Bell, I had a problem once which I don't know whether it was caused by Lantastic or by Packard Bell.

Lantastic network, Packard Bell PC. Before working on a PC, I figured I'd back up the C:\WINDOWS directory. I issued the copy command, but before the copy finished, the hard drive filled up. To my horror, I found that not only had the drive filled up, it had gone beyond filling up by overwriting some of the system and FAT data at the beginning of the drive! The customer's data was hosed, for the most part, and she had no backups. Of course I got blamed.

by tomsal

Your post brought back memories when I was in high school (I'm barely 30 yrs old) a couple buddies of mine were just getting their first computers to play a then little known game called Castle Wolfenstein (and the killer 8 bit graphics). Well they got Packard Bells.

To this day, I still hold "Packard Bell" as the biggest rip off of a computer brand in history. What piles of junk they were. I remember the exact thing you are talking about with the restore disks, what a stupid concept. I alsoremember the fact that Packard Bell was building and selling computers as "new" when in fact they consisted of some refurbished components in them.

But around this time (at least 12 years ago) people were buying up Pac Bells left and right, they were the "in brand" of PC so to speak.

As a side note, my bud (with the Pac Bell) about 4 years after he bought it -- destroyed his Pac Bell with about 4 rounds from his .357 black powder revolver. :)

by guruofdos

'MiroConnect 28' modem/soundcard combos based on the abandoned IBM M'Wave chipset! Remember that silly DOS menu with 4 options? Advanced game, basic game/14.4 modem, 28.8 modem and custom?!!!

These were current in PB's right up until 97!

Aztech combined soundcard/modems. The drivers never worked properly!

FastMedia...and the fact that if you wanted to use an external modem on the (only) COM port, or in fact ANY serial device (digital camera, laplink cable or Palm docking station for example), you had to hack at several ini files to re-enable the Com port!

That stupid IR remote for FastMedia and the mouse with the IR sensor in it!

The 900 and 9000 series Legend machines with a spare bay for an additional hard disk...and no way to physically fit 5.25 to 3.5 adaptor rails without having to drill the floor of the case!

by djent

When CMOS was first used flash RAM either did not exist, was to small or to expensive. So we had to use EPROMS that needed a PROM burner, I have one to sell if your interested.

by jim phelps

I'd have been willing to pay the few dollars of increase to the price of the PC to eliminate that serious and very real danger to my hard drive contents.

by guruofdos

we had the IBM PC XT which didn't even have CMOS memory and a real-time clock! Settings (number of drives, number of ports, mono or CGA display etc.) were made using a row of DIP switches in the case. The Amstrad PC1640 had battery backed CMOS...lift the monitor off the system case and there were 4 AA cells in an open holder! Oftentimes, these would leak and corrode the system board!

by guruofdos

Keyboard error or no keyboard installed...

Press 'F1' to continue

That one cracks me up every time!

by hal 9000

Device 6 missing when attempting to load Windows 95-98. The first time I ever saw this one I nearly went mad, after a long time in trying to find the fault I rang MS only to be told that Device 6 is the CPU.

Now what I would still like to know is"Exactly how to you get a display on a monitor telling you that there is no CPU installed?"

by admin

"There are only two industries that refer to their customers as "users"".
-Edward Tufte

How did this industry ever come up with that name, anyway?

:)

by admin

"There are only two industries that refer to their customers as "users"".
-Edward Tufte

How did this industry ever come up with that name, anyway?

:)

by mc_user

Don't forget that in the early days of the PC and the Mac the 25 PIN SCSI port was exactly the same as the 25 pin parallel printer port.

by guruofdos

This was a nutty idea...

The Commodore Amiga's had a parallel port and a serial port, both of them stahdard D25 connectors...I say 'standard'...the Amiga had a couple of 'ground pins' on the parallel port tied to 5v and 12v on the internal PSU (no resistor!) to power certain external devices like genlocks, digitisers etc. If you used a standard D25 to Centronics 36 way printer cable from an IBM compatible, 18-25 in the D type were shorted to ground causing a fusible link on the Amiga PCB to fry itself! You either had to buy an Amiga specific cable or doctor the PC version if you didn't want to solder a new link on the PCB!

They then went one better...the external floppy drive connector and the RGB video connector used D-types too...only they were 23 pin D-Types and phenomenally hard to come by as were the shells, so making custom cables was a difficult task! How many times did I have to 'doctor' a standard D25 with a pair of pliers and some epoxy resin?!! I lost count!

by jardinier

I don't know the technical names for the plugs, but the small round plugs used for the mouse and keyboard in recent years are identical to those used in early IBMs. Then there was a period when generic PCs used a large, round plug for the keyboard and a flat plug for the mouse.
On my newest computer I am using an original IBM keyboard, probably well over 10 years old, and it works more precisely than any new keyboard I have owned.

by jim phelps

I wouldn't have minded the identically shaped and sized keyboard and mouse plugs, if they simply would have been interchangeable.

Even better would have been if you could unplug and plug them in while the system was up and running, rather than having to shut it down.

by guruofdos

Since when have PS/2 connectors NOT been hot-swappable?!! On most PS/2 style rat and keyboard based computers I have used, connecting and disconnecting mice and keyboards poses NO problem at all! I know people rave on about blowing the ports or devices not working after being disconnected...but I have never encountered this in my 20 years of experience...I often hot-swap my trackball with a mouse if any of my work colleaues need me to sort a problem on their PC. I've never had to reboot yet!Secondly...the identical 6-pin miniature plugs Julian refers to are PS/2 compatible/format, but the connector itself is a 6 pin Mini-DIN. The large 5 pin (PC-AT) style connector is a standard 5 pin DIN 180 degree plug. These are commonly found on older items of audio equipment...especially those of European origin. The Flat mouse connector is a 9 pin D-Type and is itself an industry standard. The 9 pin AT serial port is a cut down version of RS232C which uses the 25 pin D connector...I rememberthe days of hunting for 25 to 9 adaptors to fit a serial mouse in a 25 D!

by jardinier

a plug that enables all the computer's external components to be plugged in at a single operation, then that person would run a high risk of becoming very wealthy -- that is unless, of course, all the external component manufacturers got together and offered him a sum impossible to refuse, or, more likely, quietly arranged for his "mysterious disappearance."

by jardinier

The worst idea ever was soldering rechargeable Lithium batteries to the motherboard so that, when the battery died and leaked, it took the motherboard out with it.
But then this could have been deliberately planned obsolescence.

by jim phelps

I guess you could have said "Worst idea ever FOR THE CONSUMER". I think it was a great idea for the motherboard manufacturers, unless you consider the anger it generated in consumers.

The thing is, these parts are made in who knows which country. There is absolutely no way to complain to the manufacturer. Even if you knew who it was, you would have no recourse.

by jim phelps

Remember when Borland, the KING of compilers, bought Ashton-Tate (dBase 4 was FULL of bugs), so that they could acquire their large customer base? They nearly lost their shirt on that one. And in the process, they lost their place as the king of compilers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft purchased Foxbase, cleaned it up and polished it a little, and released it as FoxPro. FoxPro immediately unseated dBase as the dominant database program, and Borland wasted their money and their position FOR NOTHING.

Remember when Novell purchased WordPerfect Corp for 850 MILLION dollars, then sold it all (except Groupwise) a few years later to Corel for 50 MILLION dollars? They lost 800 MILLION dollars, and their dominance in networking to Microsoft.

Remember when Netscape president said, "Microsoft will NEVER beat us!"? (Who was that you said, Netscape? I've never heard of them...)

Remember when IBM OWNED the desktop, and then tried to force Microchannel on everybody? And why did they ever get rid of their REAL keyboard and adopt a "toys-r-us" keyboard like everyone else?

by hal 9000

Do you remember the time when all mice had the 25 pin D plugs on them?

They where around back in the days when we didn't need mice. The new modem at the time was something like a 600 KBS and that was considered fast.

Then there where to old acoustic modems with the foam that always rotted around the handsets of the phones.

And they where susposed to be "The Good Old Days" I just wonder how many of us would like to go back to them.

Sure everything was new and perhaps a lot of us wern't so jaded then as now but I honestly like my multi processor computers and the really nice graphics cards with 128 Meg of fast RAM. I can remember when we only had 1 MEG of RAM on the M'Board and a few hundred K of video memory if even that.

I once bought 8 X 16 MEG RAM CHIPS the old 32 pin ones that allowed me to have all of 128 MEG of RAM on board for a 486 SX and that only cost me a little in excess of $1,300.00 AU back then I think it was about $100.00 a MEG now it's under 50 cents a MEG.

by jim phelps

I like all of the new technology, too. The thing which gripes me is that they have done so many stupid things over the years. If they would have done a few things different, like different sized or shaped keyboard and mouse plugs, and non-volatile(non-battery dependent) CMOS information, we could have a really great situation.

If Microsoft would quit changing so many things with each new version of Outlook or Word...

If Borland wouldn't have bought Ashton-Tate...

If IBM still sold their "real" keyboard...

If Dell still distributed the "real" IBM keyboard...

If Microsoft would have bought DesqView and incorporated the technology into Windows...

etc etc etc...

by jardinier

Thanks for defining the various plugs for me. I am quite familiar with the 5 pin DIN plugs from my audio days, but it never occurred to me that the computer keyboards were using the same plug.

Incidentally at a garage sale I picked up for $80 thehi-fi enthusiast's wildest fantasy. Philips TA12000 2 X 60 watt system. Frequency response, 20 - 20K Hz, harmonic distortion at 50 watts -- 0.06% and the speakers have the most level response I have encountered. Unfortunately as I live in a block ofhome units and respect other peoples' (and my own) preference for quietness, I will never know what it can really sound like.

While on the audio theme, the church I used to attend had one of the best organs in Sydney. Now to sit at the console of a mega powerful full throated pipe organ: well that is an experience
that I thought was reserved for those privileged to get the nod from St Peter at the Pearly Gates.

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