The people stuck using ancient Windows computers

[oldbrownhat]

BBC article here.
Some comments re using "ancient" Win7 on LVSteve's post about looking for a small, cheap computer made me think this might be interesting. We're surrounded by some seriously legacy software in all sorts of places.

Here's a look inside the strange, stubborn world of obsolete Windows machines.

Earlier this year I was on my way to a checkup at a doctor's office in New York City. As I rode up to the 14th floor, my eyes were drawn to a screen built into the side of the lift. Staring back was a glimpse into the history of computing. There, in a gleaming hospital full of state-of-the-art machines, was an error message from an operating system released almost a quarter of a century ago. The elevator was running Windows XP...

..."Many ATMs still operate on legacy Windows systems, including Windows XP and even Windows NT...

...For four years, psychiatrist Eric Zabriskie would show up to his job at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and start the day waiting for a computer to boot up. "I had to get to the clinic early because sometimes it would take 15 minutes just to log into the computer," Zabriskie says. "Once you're in you try to never log out. I'd hold on for dear life. It was excruciatingly slow."

If anyone has an old PC that reads 5 1/2" disks, Dene Grigar, director of the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University, Vancouver, would like to hear from you!

 

[Tom S.]

Many - many years ago, I was involved in a program resulting from negotiations between the UAW and GM. Each GM plant has at least one benefits rep. The rep's job is to handle problems that arise with the various benefits, such as healthcare, sick leave pay, and others. In order to do this, the rep would often have to call or walk over to personnel to get information. In negotiations, GM agreed to provide computers to the reps with access to the GM system. The computers were Window based Zenith (like to TVs at the time) IBM compatible with hard drives. Shortly after the computers started being distributed to the reps, a problem was discovered. The operator would turn on the machine and nothing would happen. We found a machine suffering from this condition and started working on it. In short, when the computer was shut down, the hard drive "parked" the reading head, but when the machine was powered back up, sometimes the head wouldn't "unpark". Replacing all the drives would have been a pita, especially since each had to programmed and the reps weren't qualified to perform the replacement. Then someone (probably out of frustration) discovered if you tapped the drive, it sprung to life! In extensive testing we found that if a user simply raised the front of the computer up about an 1/8 of an inch and let it drop back down, the drive would spin up. Knowing the parties, I would NOT be surprised to find them still using the same computers - and this was back in the mid 90's.

 

[oldbrownhat]

... Shortly after the computers started being distributed to the reps, a problem was discovered. The operator would turn on the machine and nothing would happen...

I was expecting something like "...The operator would turn on the machine and they'd get reruns of I Love Lucy"

 

[.38SuperMan]

Unfortunately my windows XP machine finally died. I had it custom built and used it for photo editing initially and later as a print server. I ran a printing software that’s was unique to my business and unfortunately the new versions are completely different and not usable for my work. I’m still looking for something I can use on my older Mac machine.

Older Mac brings up another problem. Although retired I still operate a small business related to photography and use a film scanner. Super high end scanners are no longer made so the only solution is an older machine which runs on older software. My Imacon / Hasselblad scanner will only run on the software written by that company, no 3rd party apps. To complicate things Hasselblad discontinued their scanners and no updated software has been written and will not be written. These are $20,000 scanners and in addition they no longer service them or provide any support. This is the case for all but one scanner manufacturer that provides support but no new machines and these machines are $75,000. So I’m stuck running a 2009 MacPro tower with an old OS. Mac has designed new OS but they won’t run on my machine and my other apps won’t run on the newer OS. My only choice is to do my best to keep this old machine running and keep a spare computer that’s compatible and preserve copies of the software.

 

[sjmjax]

I’m part of the stubborn crowd of refuseniks that resist updating.

To me , this constant requirement to obsolete otherwise perfectly serviceable devices is much like requiring me to buy a new car every time they repave the road or add a exit to the interstate.

 

[Rudi]

I have heard that US ATC computers are of this vintage. Sure have been a lot of foul ups at out airports lately.

 

[AJ]

I like the older Windows programs. I tend to use them until they quit running. However, I have Grandchildern and a Wife. Every time one of them does something on one of my computers they tell my Wife that Grampa needs a new computer. So now I am learning to use a new HP laptop with Windows 11 on it.

 

[Imissedagain]

I keep an old Sony Vaio, running Millennium, as it has useful music programs.
Have another ASUS, first running XP then 7. Still in use, and the contents are saved, on a SanDisk drive.
Run Win 11 on the MainFrame.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...My Imacon / Hasselblad scanner will only run on the software written by that company, no 3rd party apps. To complicate things Hasselblad discontinued their scanners and no updated software has been written and will not be written. These are $20,000 scanners and in addition they no longer service them or provide any support. This is the case for all but one scanner manufacturer that provides support but no new machines and these machines are $75,000.....

GACK! That's really unacceptable from a company like Hasselblad My gf, who teaches genetica & molecular biology at university, has had similar problems with software for specialized equipment like scanners and cameras, some of which only runs on older Win versions or has unique programs exclusive to them. So she has old computers - which are kept strictly offline - and copies of the software to keep them running.

Your 2009 Mac is probably running OS 10.5.-something. (El Capitan (?) I still have a functional 2009 iMac which I mostly use for streaming internet radio to my stereo. I replaced the original 320g HD with a 500g SSD about five years ago. I also have a HD with an older (pre-Intel) OS on it I can boot into if I wanted to run Aldus Freehand 2000... if I could rremember how to do anything with it.

 

[LVSteve]

I’m part of the stubborn crowd of refuseniks that resist updating.

To me , this constant requirement to obsolete otherwise perfectly serviceable devices is much like requiring me to buy a new car every time they repave the road or add a exit to the interstate.

This X1000. I updated this machine to 8 GB of 800 MHz RAM and fitted a 512 GB SSD. Compared to its previous state, it howls along. While doing this one, I revived a Toshiba laptop taking it to 16 GB of 1066 MHz RAM with a 1 TB hard drive. The RAM speed increase on the Toshiba is noticeable, and it means that 2013 box runs Win 10 just fine. I should treat that machine to a 1TB SSD some day.

I am sure that those software companies that still support Win7 (Firefox, AVAST, and other AV concerns) and older hardware cause much grinding of teeth at Microsoft, Intel, and AMD. Long may it continue.

 

[LVSteve]

GACK! That's really unacceptable from a company like Hasselblad My gf, who teaches genetica & molecular biology at university, has had similar problems with software for specialized equipment like scanners and cameras, some of which only runs on older Win versions or has unique programs exclusive to them. So she has old computers - which are kept strictly offline - and copies of the software to keep them running.

When I did some .mil contracting, the machines we used were on a network that did not touch the Web. Our updates were done by the IT guys using CDs that had been seriously scrutinized by their security tools. Apparently, Microsoft had fought a long, rearguard action to try and get .mil to connect their machines to the Web every so often to receive updates. On being told that this didn't meet local security requirements, the Microsoft folks bristled and said, "But our systems and software are secure!" Hilarity from the .mil security and IT folks followed.

 

[AJ]

When I did some .mil contracting, the machines we used were on a network that did not touch the Web. Our updates were done by the IT guys using CDs that had been seriously scrutinized by their security tools. Apparently, Microsoft had fought a long, rearguard action to try and get .mil to connect their machines to the Web every so often to receive updates. On being told that this didn't meet local security requirements, the Microsoft folks bristled and said, "But our systems and software are secure!" Hilarity from the .mil security and IT folks followed.

Back in the late 1980's someone decided that we should keep all our maintenance records on a computer system. We have 17 work centers tied to one main brain. Slow is not the word!! It would take about 45 minutes to do the computer sign off for the repair. I could do the paper work with a MAF (Maintenance Action Form) and a pen in 5 minutes or less. Eventually they decided not to use that system.

 

[Breakaway500]

I've had this Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop for 23 years.The sticker says Windows Vista but I ordered it with XP Pro installed. The last 15 years it has NOT been hooked up to the internet and has never had a problem since being taken off line. I run my shop software on it and a few keys are a bit fussy and worn but otherwise it soldiers on.

 

[olfart]

View attachment 758773I've had this Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop for 23 years.The sticker says Windows Vista but I ordered it with XP Pro installed. The last 15 years it has NOT been hooked up to the internet and has never had a problem since being taken off line. I run my shop software on it and a few keys are a bit fussy and worn but otherwise it soldiers on.

Replacing a keyboard is not too difficult. I did it on my old Toshiba not long ago, and now it's like new again. Just dig around online and find a replacement keyboard, then look for a YT video on how to do it.

 

[.38SuperMan]

GACK! That's really unacceptable from a company like Hasselblad My gf, who teaches genetica & molecular biology at university, has had similar problems with software for specialized equipment like scanners and cameras, some of which only runs on older Win versions or has unique programs exclusive to them. So she has old computers - which are kept strictly offline - and copies of the software to keep them running.

Your 2009 Mac is probably running OS 10.5.-something. (El Capitan (?) I still have a functional 2009 iMac which I mostly use for streaming internet radio to my stereo. I replaced the original 320g HD with a 500g SSD about five years ago. I also have a HD with an older (pre-Intel) OS on it I can boot into if I wanted to run Aldus Freehand 2000... if I could rremember how to do anything with it.

Hasselblad isn’t the only company. My previous scanner was a Fuji Lanovia Quattro that was $50,000. I used it for several years and Fuji decided to get out of scanners. They fired the two tech that knew and serviced the machines and chucked all the parts inventory in the dumpster. No more service so I found a buyer in Australia who wanted it. I actually had a second one I bought for parts so he at least had a chance to keep it going a while. Understand these are not like your $60 HP desk scanner. These are huge machines and super complex.

This is when I bought the Hasselblad scanner thinking they would keep making, updating and servicing these machines for years but I was wrong.

So I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hope it keeps running.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

many Boeing 747s, particularly the 747-400, still use 3.5-inch floppy disks for critical software updates. This seemingly outdated method is used for updating navigation databases, which include information about airports, flight paths, and runways. These updates are typically performed every 28 days by engineers manually loading floppy disks into a cockpit drive.

This might be why Quatar wants to give Trump a 747.

 

[DWalt]

I feel ancient. Windows hadn’t yet been invented when I started. If you needed to do anything you programmed it using MS-DOS and BASIC. I don’t remember exactly when, but I remember long lines of people waiting at computer stores to buy copies of Windows when it first came out. I actually started programming back in the 1960s in a language called SCATRAN. It was an acronym for something but I don’t remember what. I still have somewhere an external floppy drive that works with both 3.5” and 5.25” floppies. I still remember Radio Shack and CompUSA.

 

[45Smashemflat]

TRS 80, TI 99/4A, Commodore 64….. Punchcards and cassette tapes. Yeah, I was impressed with 8” Floppies. I’m old.

 

[oldbrownhat]

I feel ancient. Windows hadn’t yet been invented when I started. If you needed to do anything you programmed it using DOS and BASIC. I don’t remember exactly when, but I remember long lines of people waiting at computer stores to buy copies of Windows when it first came out. I actually started programming back in the 1960s in a language called SCATRAN. It was an acronym for something but I don’t remember what. I still have somewhere an external floppy drive that works with both 3.5” and 5.25” floppies. I still remember Radio Shack and CompUSA.

You ARE indeed ancient (But you're not alone.)
You'll probably remember the acronym, GIGO: "Garbage In, Garbage Out"

 

[olfart]

I still have my VIC20 with tape drive in the top of a closet. Yeah, I'm old too.