Control.com - Nerds in Control

Currently I'm searching for a valid vendor to get parts for our legacy PC systems. There are a number of our customers that are not willing to update from Windows 3.1 and I'm trying to find a company that will support the hardware they have on their systems. I would like any suggestions on any companies that support older industrial PCs.

Try: http://www.smartsys.bg

Maybe your problem could be solved through PC virtualisation on new machine?

Hello,

I have an old system (purchased from another company) dual booting OS/2 and DOS that controls a laser system that we bought. We have successfully installed Industrial PCMIG Pentium class machines without touching the software. I am not suggesting using industrial class computers, its just what we used to fit the chassis we had on that machine (Passive backplane ISA bus). I don't know at what point Intel and AMD will stop supporting older processor modes. (I think Win31 is 16 bit?)

The other issue might be your graphics cards. If you can use VGA 16 color in Win31 I think every graphic chipset supports that VGA mode, so you can set up your clients systems to handle this it might be a smooth transition.

I think it's really going to boil down to what you need for other peripherals (if any).

I'd definitely do some experiments before jumping into this, but maybe its worthwhile.

~KEJR

I can't belive a company is still using Windows 3.1. That just Blows Me Away: dear god at least go to Windows 98se, "update people".

There are vast amounts of hardware from that era around, but very few people are willing to try to make a living selling it. For the vast majority of computer users, it has zero value or worse, is hazardous waste. The PC business, even in "industrial" PCs is built on razor thin margins and survival is often dependent on selling stuff new enough to command a small premium over commodity pricing. This is a headache for automation, where system life cycles are far longer than PC hardware life cycles. You have mentioned the villain driving this, hardware is obsoleted almost exclusively by it's ability to run the latest Windows drek rather than by reliability or any inability to do what it has always done. My first PC is still perfectly functional and works as well as it did when I opened the box. I suggest that _you_ support your customers. Buy all the old equipment you can and tear it down for spares. This should be cheap enough if it can be found and can even be profitable if you can charge what it costs to do it. Or try your local equivalent of Computer Renaissance and let them know the type of stuff you need. They know where to find the old machines and they understand the business of keeping the old stuff running. I keep certain critical, hard to find bits and pieces for those customers I know who run old hardware. I have a few old disk drives, interface cards and video cards and floppy cards. Now is the time to collect ISA cards since Wintel decreed them out of fashion. They cost little or nothing so it's just a matter of not throwing them away. Automation people should be particularly aware of the problem since they are often the ones looking for odd bits of obsolete hardware. Perhaps we should start an exchange where people can post what they have before they pay to dispose of it. I wish I'd grabbed a few more arcnet cards when they were throwaways after MS killed Netware.

Regards

cww

Which are faulty parts of Legacy PC you are looking for?

Regards,

Jari
iconcnl@vsnl.net

You haven't given us much information about what the problem is. What is it that is the problem? I've had lots of experience supporting old MS-DOS programs (let alone Windows 3.1). It's hard to answer your questions without any information on what the problem (if any) actually is though.

A) Is there a reason why you have to source old parts instead of replacing the whole PC? If you are looking for obsolete parts, what parts are they?

B) Does the software run on a new PC? If not, is the problem the application? The drivers? Does MS-DOS boot?

C) What is the application software? What does it do?

D) Does the application need multiple monitor support (i.e. does it need to display on multiple monitors simultaneously)?

E) Does the application need any special boards? Any special ports (e.g. multiple serial ports)?

F) If there are any special boards, what sort of slot do they need? ISA, VEISA, Micro-channel, PCI?

G) What sort of PC hardware is it? Cheap office desktop? Embedded panel mount PC? Rack mount?

H) What sort of motherboard is it? Conventional? Passive backplane? How many slots do you need?

I) Are the keyboard and mouse (if any) standard, or is there something special about them?

J) Are there any other special features?

If you are just looking for the name of a company that sells "industrial PCs", then Advantech is probably the biggest. I've bought their stuff before and had no problems. I can't make a recommendation though without knowing more about what the problem is.

If you are looking for things like old style power supplies, XT keyboards, ST-506 hard drives, etc., then you are probably out of luck. You are then left with looking for new PCs that will run the old software.

I have recently come into quite a bit of inventory of old legacy systems, parts, software, desktop and server OS's with licenses... I have all of the important big stuff inventoried and would love to take an offer on the whole lot if interested.