# What to do With an ANCIENT PC That's Dead? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292 "2004-05-27T03:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/1 "2004-05-27T03:49:17Z")
Okay, a cow-irker asked me to fix his PC for him, and in getting the thing I discovered that it was some sort of 486 PC (I think). He claimed that he was running Win95 on the thing, but when I fired it up, I found that the video card no longer worked, so I yanked the harddrive, figuring that there was the possibility that my monitor wasn’t compatible with his video card. I slapped it into my machine as a secondary drive, booted up and checked his drive to discover that there was DOS 6.0 on it and nothing else. At which point, I threw in the towel. He’s not bright enough to figure out how to uninstall Win95 and replace it with DOS (he readily admitted that he had no idea of what OS was on the thing), so it must have been running the Windows 3.11 variant which had support for CD-ROMs (the PC did have a CD-ROM drive), and the slot for the video card is nearly as long as the mobo, which, IIRC, is how long they were in the early 486 days. IAC, the thing’s dead, he doesn’t want it back, so I’m left to dispose of the corpse. Now, I’m more than happy to cannabalize the HD (it’s 400 megs, handy when you have something that’s too large to fit a floppy, but too small for a CD-R 😉 ), CD drive, the floppy drive, case, and power supply (though I’m not sure it’s worth having), but I’ve no idea what to do with the rest (the keyboard, mobo, and RAM) other than throw it out, which is a “no-no” since they contain things which aren’t good for landfills. Anybody know? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/2 "2004-05-27T04:10:30Z")
Well, this probably won’t help, but my WFWG 486 is stacked over in the corner with my TI-99/4A and my Pentium II. I was lucky enough with my timing that the 286 and the 386 were retired at times when they could still be sold. I could probably still pull the IDE drives and use them. Hmmm, I wonder how the old late '80s Logitech Scanman (lying atop the 486) would work with the current P4. I’m not sure this current machine even has an ISA slot that would take the Scanman’s adapter card. Perhaps you can automate some of your home’s function’s with it? Probably a lot of work involved in that. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/3 "2004-05-27T04:18:36Z")
Perhaps, but where the heck would I find out what kind of video card is supposed to be on the thing? It’s not an PCI or AGP slot, and I don’t recall what kind of video cards PC’s had back then (Must be getting senile. Lt., you go right ahead on quoting regulations.) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/4 "2004-05-27T04:21:39Z")
Keep it around for a few years. The value will drop initially, then rebound. Eventually it will be worth its weight in gold. Example: I sold a working IMSAI, ca. 1977 vintage, for $500 about five years ago. I’ll bet I could get twice that now. But in 1985, it was worth zero. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/5 "2004-05-27T04:26:35Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Keep it around for a few years. The value will drop initially, then rebound. Eventually it will be worth its weight in gold. > > Example: I sold a working IMSAI, ca. 1977 vintage, for $500 about five years ago. I’ll bet I could get twice that now. But in 1985, it was worth zero. Sorry, I’m a packrat and have too much crap as it is now, I _need_ to get rid of this now, or I’ll never be able to ditch it. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/6 "2004-05-27T04:29:03Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Perhaps, but where the heck would I find out what kind of video card is supposed to be on the thing? It’s not an PCI or AGP slot, and I don’t recall what kind of video cards PC’s had back then (Must be getting senile. Lt., you go right ahead on quoting regulations.) That would be an ISA slot. Any VGA or S-VGA ISA card should work. I wouldn’t bother. Despite **Musicat** ’s post, an old generic 486 is a doorstop. Toss it in the trash. There’s some lead in the solder, but nobody really cares. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/7 "2004-05-27T04:33:35Z")
Gee, and I thought I Was the only one with a 386, 486 and a P2 laying around… However, I dumpped all but one monitor. My P2 now runs Linux, is this a possiblity for a 486? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/8 "2004-05-27T04:36:17Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > …the slot for the video card is nearly as long as the mobo, which, IIRC, is how long they were in the early 486 days… That’d be a VESA local bus slot, the original flavour of local bus access. I think I might have a replacement video card for you in my closet o’ crap… :dig dig dig: :rummage rummage: Nope, what I have is an old VESA IDE controller. (Never know when it’s going to come in handy, that.) What I remember about VESA cards was the near-certainty you felt that you were going to crack your mainboard every time you tried to wedge one into it. Those bastids were _tight!_ The only thing that I would suggest is finding a free ISA video card and a network card, and turning the thing into a free firewall. [Smoothwall](http://www.smoothwall.org/) is a linux-based firewall that comes as a single distribution. A 486 with 16MB of RAM and a 200MB HD is plenty beefy enough to do the job. > [@](#): > > Perhaps, but where the heck would I find out what kind of video card is supposed to be on the thing? Jeez, sorry I’m slow. Got side tracked making sure that Smoothwall would run on that box, and there have been a lot of posts since then. Anyway… It’s a VESA card. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/9 "2004-05-27T04:39:21Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > Gee, and I thought I Was the only one with a 386, 486 and a P2 laying around… However, I dumpped all but one monitor. My P2 now runs Linux, is this a possiblity for a 486? Yeah, but what the heck would I use it for? I mean, I could do some home automation stuff with it once I replaced the monitor, but I’d have to buy a “new” video card for it, and learn command prompt Linux, and I’ve got enough trouble trying to learn the software I need for work (AutoCAD, MasterCAM, SolidWorks, etc.) that I can’t really afford to spend the time learning a version of an OS that I’ll never have a practical application for, other than turning the lights on and off in my place. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/10 "2004-05-27T04:40:25Z")
Besides ISA and EISA (not likely), there was a ISA-expanded slot called “local bus” used often for video boards at one time. This is two inline slots with quite a bit of space between them. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/11 "2004-05-27T04:43:59Z")
Your city/county/state waste management department very likely already has a home hazardous waste program. Find out who administrates waste disposal in your area and give 'em a call. FWIW, in my area computer monitors are classified as hazardous waste but you can toss out mobos as long as you remove the CMOS battery. All batteries of any type are hazardous waste. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/12 "2004-05-27T04:47:16Z")
> [@daffyduck](#): > > All batteries of any type are hazardous waste. No, only rechargeable formulations. Alkalines and other non-rechargeable batteries are disposable in the normal fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/13 "2004-05-27T04:48:25Z")
Damn it! I just thought of a use for the stupid thing! The Bridgeport CNC at work has a similar mobo (I’ll have to pry the thing apart tomorrow to make sure, but I know that it’s running Win 3.11), and since the repair guys charge $900/hr to come look at the things, I’ll need to wrap it up securely and store it someplace (if they fire the one machinist, I’ll be able to store it at work). Crap, trash day’s tomorrow, and it would have been so nice to chuck the thing out in the garbage. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/14 "2004-05-27T04:59:38Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Yeah, but what the heck would I use it for? I mean, I could do some home automation stuff with it once I replaced the monitor, but I’d have to buy a “new” video card for it, and learn command prompt Linux… This is why I think the firewall (even if it is linux-based) is the logical use for it. You don’t need to learn CLI linux – the docs will give you a step-by-step on getting the thing running. You don’t need _another_ VESA video card – you can throw the old one out and drop an ISA video card in there. It’s often easy to find a “free” old ISA video card sitting around. What do people do with 'em when they replace them with better cards? Stick ‘em in the closet o’ crap, of course! You don’t even need a monitor for it, after it’s configured --just telnet in to do any admin on the firewall. Even if you have a router with some security already, you probably know _someone_ who has their cable/dsl modem plugged straight into their computer. This “someone” can be schnookered into carting off your white elephant, and you get to play the hero. Everybody wins! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/15 "2004-05-27T06:10:48Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > No, only rechargeable formulations. Alkalines and other non-rechargeable batteries are disposable in the normal fashion. They don’t make any such distinction at [the site](http://www.oc.ca.gov/iwmd/acceptable_waste.asp) for my local Waste Management Department. What types of waste are NOT accepted at landfills? • Asbestos, batteries, brake linings • Chemicals, fuel tanks, mufflers, paints • Poisons, hazardous waste, animal parts • Body parts, medical wastes, radioactive material • Auto body shredder wastes, fuels, heavy metals • Explosives, pesticides, contaminated soil • Liquid waste (moisture content 50% or greater) • Nuisance dust • Cathode Ray Tubes (computer monitors & television sets) I once took a case of dead D-cells to the local landfill, along with a truck full of other waste, and since I was worried about it, I asked the guy at the gate if it was OK to dump them and that is when I was told that all batteries were considered hazardous waste. Granted this guy most likely didn’t have a degree in Waste Management (and neither do I), but I assumed he knew the rules for my local landfill and I accepted his statement at face value. ---
**Author:** ![Lixitxachitl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lixitxachitl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lixitxachitl)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/16 "2004-05-27T06:24:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Body parts, medical wastes, radioactive material This one scares me a bit…the fact that they list it means that someone has tried to dispose of the above at some time. Can you imagine a worker there coming across someone’s severed finger, or ( **gulp** ) worse? Or worrying about getting radiation poisoning while on the job? -Lixi ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/17 "2004-05-27T06:31:09Z")
As the hazardous waste monitor for my section at my old unit, I can back up what **daffyduck** said: all batteries were considered hazardous waste and had to be disposed of seperately, including regular alkaline batteries. I’m not quite sure what they actually did with them though, all I had to do was make sure they went to the proper collection points. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/18 "2004-05-27T06:59:20Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > …so it must have been running the Windows 3.11 variant which had support for CD-ROMs (the PC did have a CD-ROM drive)… You didn’t need Windows for CD-ROM support. My old 386 (about 10 years ago) had a single-speed CD-ROM and was running DOS 6.2 or something. You needed DOS version 5 or newer though. You had to run MSCDEX.EXE (or put it in autoexec.bat) and maybe some .SYS file (in the config.sys) And don’t throw the computer away. If you can put it in outer space it will run really fast! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/19 "2004-05-27T07:02:21Z")
> [@Thaumaturge](#): > > I can back up what **daffyduck** said: all batteries were considered hazardous waste and had to be disposed of seperately, including regular alkaline batteries. I’m not quite sure what they actually did with them though, all I had to do was make sure they went to the proper collection points. Around here, pretty much all Walgreens stores accept “household” quantities of batteries - ie: a dozen or so - don’t show up with a box of them and expect them to be happily accepted. Some local hardware stores also take used batteries with the same quantity restrictions. ---
**Author:** ![Starguard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Starguard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starguard)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-ancient-pc-thats-dead/247292/20 "2004-05-27T11:53:51Z")
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