Laser cutter computer

[Mark Steward]

Hi,

Anyone got a spare small-ish PC with a Windows XP licence that would do as a replacement for the laser cutter machine?  It's still unreliable (currently not passing POST), and I don't think it's worth the grief of dealing with.

The more USB ports the better.

Mark

[Billy]

There's the spare compaq box i brought in.

It's been used as a replacement for doorbot before, and it can run XP.
You might need to check how much ram it has.

It's not the fastest of machines, but it's there.

I've got an IDE/SATA hdd enclosure that can be connected via USB,
that'll be useful for rescuing the data from the Laz0rs hdd too. I'll
bring it in tomorrow.

[Sci]

I've got a small tower machine I found a couple of weeks ago. Built-in
video only (no video socket on the mainboard). No HDD. It did POST, but
I haven't run Memtest or anything on it yet.
It's an eMachines case with a 2.7Ghz CPU. 4 onboard USB sockets as well
as parallel & serial ports. 512Mb RAM I *think*. Might be 256.
There's an XP Home licence on the case.

I'll run a memtest cycle on it Sunday. Might be able to bring it in
same-day if it seems good.

Sci

[Martin Klang]

think I've got a pci 4x usb card if it's any use.

/m

[Jasper Wallace]

On Sun, 18 Sep 2011, Martin Klang wrote:

>
> think I've got a pci 4x usb card if it's any use.

We've got 2 in the space, one might be a bit dodgy, the other is in my
server atm, but can come out if the space needs it.

--
[http://pointless.net/] [0x2ECA0975]

[Sci]

Okay, it's also got two USB ports at the front. Three PCI slots.

It *seems* to be this motherboard:
http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/d845gvsr_pemy_mlp.pdf

Pure Intel, so drivers shouldn't be much trouble. IDE drives only.

Was going to leave it running Memtest overnight but either the CD drive
in it doesn't like reading burnt CDs or there's a boot device issue.
Will figure it out tomorrow.

Also, 256Mb RAM. Got two slots. Can take up to 1Gb of DDR 1/2
(533/400/333/266).

Sci

[Sci]

On 17/09/2011 23:17, Mark Steward wrote:

Okay, the eMachine is cycling through Memtest fine now I've changed the
CD drive. Won't be able to drop it until until Tuesday evening though I
think. That okay?

I'll see if I can scratch up a HDD for it in the meantime. Might only be
40Gb or such, but if it's staying single-use, shouldn't be an issue, right?

~ Sci

[Mark Steward]

Thanks.  I think we can use the existing drive - the problem with the current one is probably a power issue, but I didn't have time at 11pm last night to pull it to bits.

Mark

[Sci]

The current one is a Shuttle PC, isn't it? My mum had the PSU go on her
one. The special sizes makes them hard to replace cheaply.

Anyway, the eMachine turns out has the HDD cage missing, so I've stuffed
an adaptor in the spare CD-ROM bay.
Since it's the best way to make sure it's all good, I went ahead and
stuffed the 40Gig disk in there anyway. XP Home's installed, drivers are
up to date, and it's running the gamut of Windows Update right now.
Saves time when I get it there and also saves doing a dirty install with
the old drive.

It's heatsinks have also been well de-fluffed.

Want the .net updates, Firefox, Chrome & Foxit PDF on there too? Or
would you just like it as-is with a fully patched bare XP install?

Do we have any antivirus or firewall we're legal to use?

Sci