Where'd you get all your PC knowledge?

[Sempron]

As you can see by my whopping amount of posts, I haven't been here too long. In the time that I have been here, I've seen a certain amount of people on this forum who are VERY knowledgeable about pretty much everything to do with computers. Im not going to name anyone in general because I know I'll miss somebody.

Im just curious about how/where you learned what you have. Im sure a lot of you are like me and just love the technological world. Im in the process of really getting deep into certain subjects of PCs and learning what I can. Im like a sponge right now and I'm looking up to those who are more knowledgealbe.

[Paleo Pete]

Well, I'm self taught. Lost a hard drive on an old 486, scrounged around and found a smaller one, after an hour of troubleshooting, installing windows, 2-3 hours of digging up drivers and cursing no little bit I finally crawled in bed around 3AM. Decided if I ever had to open the thing up again I wouldn't ask anybody any questions.

So I started grabbing books and digging up info on the Internet, studied three [very outdated now] A+ Certification books, built and rebuilt computers rescued from garage sales and resale shops, and of course used the PC Guide as a reference for a long time.

Then one night I went to look up something on the main PC Guide page and saw a new link to some "discussion forums"...hmmm...think I'll check that out...under 500 members and more of them asking questions than answering, so I signed on and started to help out. That was almost 5 years ago, I've learned a lot from the great folks here too...hopefully taught a few of them a bit here and there as well...

[ErnieK]

What little knowledge I have I have gained through buying duff computers and asking questions (stupid sounding ones at times) joining and visiting PC GUIDE every day, reading magazines and books, but mainly with hands on experience.

The first computer I ever bought was knackered before it was delivered. After numerous phone calls and being treated like an idiot I eventually got my money back. Over the next 4 months or so I bought another 3 computers (which were re-turned - from different companies) and these were the same. The fourth computer was the first one to work correctly. (I gave this to my sister after a couple of months and she is still using it now Pent3 slot) Two things happened that made me decide that I would build my own.
1. A (so called) service engineer's work sheet had written on the bottom "Be careful this customer likes to tinker" or words that effect) I still have his work sheet in the loft.
2. The secon thing was when the computer I had (I think it was the third) was doing things. :rolleyes: it should not have. When the engineer came along he as much as said I was talking rubbish and that it was impossible. After about 10 minutes the impossible happened again. He phoned his boss, and I heard his saying down the phone "That can't happen" the engineers reply was "I know - but it just has"

I decided then and there that I would try and build my own. I have successfully built quite afew since that time. 2 with brand new parts for myself and quite a few with a mixture of salvaged and new parts.

I started by gathering up old computers from the rubbish bins. I stripped them down and "mucked" about trying to get them to work. I started to "use" the internet. I found a good magazine (PC Answers) after a few months and which I still subscribe (and have every issue from 60 (first one I bought) onwards. (As for the free cd's the majority of these have never had their cases opened) At the beginning nothing (and still does not at-times today) made sense, but I percivered. Now a-days others come to me and ask for help. I always give it if possible.

Things needed to learn about computers?
A nice big swear box
Unbreakable glass in the windows
A cast iron keyboard and mouse
A large supply of blood pressure tablets
An abilltiy to start again after countles hours of trying to do something and then not succeeding.
Oh and good set of PC tools.

One of the things to remember is "If you don't know something SAY SO" then go and try to find an answer. If you are anything like me you will not know what you know until someone asks a question.

[DigitalJ]

My dad brought and old 386 home from work when I was 9, and I've been hooked ever since. Though I've never had any REAL knowledge about computers. I know my way around well enough, though. I worked as a tech for a few months a while back, and that taught me more than two years of schooling did. Hands on...deffinately the way to go.

Truth be told, I've learned a LOT in the last year because I've been "building a system" the whole time. I haven't purchased a single part, mind you, because I'm a poor guy and can't afford that kind of thing, but doing the research on various components to figure out which ones to put together at the right price can teach you loads.

I keep an eye on sites like Tom's Hardware Guide, and ExtremTech, and I'm a subscriber to PC World, Wired, and Maximum PC. If I don't understand something, I google it, or I ask someone in the various forums for help.

I've still got a long way to go, but I'm please with the knowledge I've picked up so far.

[pop pop]

1) 25 years working in electronics for the USAF and a very large corporation.

2) Formal education--somewhere around 118 semester hours of college credits in electronics and computer science

3) 20 years of buying, breaking, fixing, and building computers

4) Insatiable curiousity about how things work and how to make them work better

5) I've always been a geek and into all things geek. And I'm damned proud of it.

[taz480]

Just like most, trial and error at home as a hobby. Up until six years ago I had NEVER had a computer. The closest thing was an atari 2600 my sister and I had as kids. My father in law brought over an old IBM PS/1 with Winsdows3.1. I've been a sponge since! Since then I've owned 3 others for personal use and several others for ripping apart and rebuilding. I've been doing that for about 4 1/2 years now. I have experience with all versions of Windows from 3.1 to XP Pro. I am now trying to start a home computer business on ebay. I have two ready to sell now. With the money I'm going to buy 3 or 4 more and keep going. In the mean time, I try to spend at least a couple hours a week on here scanning the new posts. I'm no computer whiz, but whenever I see something I know about I jump in to see if I can help. I've helped quite a few people now and gotten a lot help back, too. This is a great place to come for help, information and comradery. Enjoy!! :)

[Budfred]

I took Fortran in college in the early 70s, typing commands on IBM cards and taking them to the computer center to feed into the mainframe (if it wasn't down)... If I was lucky, I got a few minutes on the teletype machines that connected directly to the mainframe, but the advanced computer students mostly monopolized them... I kept an eye on computers over the years and when I started back to school in '87 I decided I needed a PC... I bought a PCjr and took it back promptly... I bought a Tandy and was angry that it didn't have volume control, so I took it back (I didn't believe that no computers had volume control back then)... I bought a local companies version of a PC with two 5.25" floppy drives, DOS and no hard drive... 12Mhz CPU if I remember correctly... That got me through a couple of years and I got online shortly after I got it... It was only BBS in those days (pre-Internet), but you could still learn things about computers on some of the bulletin boards... I went on to another computer from the same company which had a 40Meg hard drive and I was sure I would never fill that up... By the time I went on to my next computer, I had added about 200Meg more in card based drives...

I went through a few more computers and the onset of the Internet... I learned early on that technical assistance was generally not very good, so I tried to solve most problems myself... One of the last times I used tech support for a problem included the instruction to reformat and reinstall to deal with a simple problem that it did not fix... That was when I got more serious about finding my own answers... I learned by reading and by trial/error... I got some reputation as someone who knows about computers and was trying to fix one for a friend... I had read something about PCGuide in PCWorld magazine (I think) and went looking for it because I was stuck... I quickly found help here and started asking more questions and answering a few... My understanding of how computers work and my confidence in being able to fix them increased dramatically and I decided to try building a computer or 3... At this point I have built 3 and the 3rd one is the one I use at home...

I was interested in problems with malware from early one and had used virus scanners almost from the beginning... Some people at TomCoyote decided to open a school to teach people how to deal with malware and I was asked to join... I did some training there and then TC was shut down by a DDoS attack... Another school (called Boot Camp) was opened at SpyWareInfo by some of the same people... I was asked to join that one also and did so when it became obvious that TC would be down for a long time... I was eventually asked to be the Moderator of that school and was the only one in that position until a few months ago...

Essentially, I am an amateur all the way... hence my title here... :D

[deddard]

Self taught on a lot of things.
I started using computers back in 82 (Toshiba T200) but didn't understand much more than the very basics.
I'd missed a couple of years of school due to hospitalization and other health issues, so I wasn't particularly confident - I didn't get the encouragement from anywhere else, so I dropped computers for a while.
Picked them up again in 93 using DOS & Windoze 3.1 - having to add your own cards and configure the DMA, IRQ etc was an eye opener, and I had to get deeper in just to keep it working!
Studied electronic servicing for 3 years (computer & control systems) which helped a lot, and continued building and upgrading my pcs.
Started to look at them as a career a few years back, took A+, Net+, Security+, C&G, CCNA and Microsoft Academies, and threw in tons of home study.
And I'm only just getting going :eek:

[123456]

Mostly self-taught. Many things learned here. And the rest was miscellaneous/New York TImes CIrcuits/PC mags/dad taguht/help files.

[saphalline]

A lot of my hardware knowledge is self-taught - from all types of resources like magazines, online articles & guides, and some books. I've also taken some schooling in Computer Science subjects like programming, picked up some HTML on the side, learning networking right now, and of course lots & lots of math and science. I'm a firm believer in the idea that knowing one thing very well means learning many things at least at a basic level. I understand a lot about computers (and other subjects) because I've taken Physics, Calculus, Chemistry, Statistics, Discrete Mathematics (involving entry-level number theory and circuit design among other things), and basic Geology all as formal educational topics in a classroom environment. I also like to dabble a bit more into number theory (Goldbach's Conjecture, set theory, and the cyclic patterns of moduli on prime-number bases are some of my favorite topics), space-related topics (like the nature of the universe, wormholes, stuff like that), and of course quantum physics/mechanics (I have many of Feynman's famous lectures from the early '50s in MP3 format, and of course Bill Joy's famous Wired 2000 article titled Why the Future Doesn't Need Us).

IMHO, there's way too much out there to try and learn! I'm always doing my best, but time is always scarce. Even as I get deeper into one subject, I lose time to spend on another. I am by no means an expert on any of these subjects, but like I said, to know even the basics of some of these seemingly complex subjects allows you a new perspective and understanding of what you do want to learn more about. And of course a lot of why most of us here are self-taught is because they just don't make classes for some of this stuff. ;)

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Where'd you get all your PC knowledge?
You referring to my thimblefull? In a word, 'here'. :p

Actually I didn't get on the pc bandwagon until '99 or so with Windows 95 and 256 megabyte harddrives and 33 or 66 mhz processors, give or take. They were bought for us, 'built by someone else computers'. I was already handy with a soldering iron/gun from 2yrs of electronics in High School ('71-'73) and electro-mechanical OJT jobs over the years, so a hands on, and hardware learning curve, I am more a hardware type with softwares second.

I'm v-e-r-y impressed with a few posts above here and will be forever humbled in their presence... Looks like you's guys has been at it, just a w-e-e bit longer... ;)

After I was given a pc, and the inevitable trouble will soon ensue,,,, I went to someone else and got another. This was much faster, but more importantly, hand-built. Shortly after that I bought 2 more pc's worth of components, (cases, psu's, cpu's, etc) at once from him, for me to build for my son and I. AAMOF, I still use my first build as my main internet pc as we speak. I've gone through different monitors but the tower is essentially the same.

That's when I became a Dumpster Diver... :rolleyes:

This is not to say that I don't have, have had, or have serviced, any propietary HP's, Gateway's, Dell's, Compaq's etc. Not showing any preferences here, I have 1 Dell, 1 HP and one Tushiba (Laptop :p G-o-d, I love that smilie) in my home tonite. The rest (4) are from the Ground-Up? :eek:

[Jiggy]

I got my pc knowledge from IKEA four years ago and im still assembling it on the floor, the bed and work tops, im a hands on lad, i do read about things i like or just wounder about like networking and Linux wich still baffles me but its great when you get one thing to work on it.

I like to troubleshoot pc`s from barebones to a fix or bad part.

I like coming on here very night and reading and answering in my way what posts i can or just saying to myself i never knew that.

I like trying to get my head round saphs posts/answers about pipelines and how this and that works.

I like to read at a slow pace the guides on this site or the ones running along side it (A+ OS, TCP/IP).

[pop pop]

Originally posted by Saphalline:
space-related topics (like the nature of the universe, wormholes, stuff like that), and of course quantum physics/mechanics

Another picture of Saph has popped up on the net. Live long and perspire, Saph. :p

[classicsoftware]

Self Taught

My first PC was a Franklin. The one that was such a good copy of the Apple II that when Apple sues them, they actually won. :eek: Three floppies no hard drive. Wordstar was the Word processor......

Those were the days,, NOT....

[Sempron]

Absolutely AMAZING!!!!!!

I had a feeling some 'veterans' would have quite the history but I never realized how in-depth it was, especially you Budfred. Its amazing how one topic leads to another and to another and so on. I didnt think there was that much time to learn all of the topics you described Saph so a big thumbs up and my hat is surely off to you. All of these stories truly inspire me and make me want to learn as much as I can.

Im really enjoying all of these. Please keep 'em coming :)

:D ROFLMAO - pop pop!!! He's gunna get you back!

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Live long andperspire???

Did Spock (Leonard Nemoy) do that because it was a physical defect, or did he actually think it was 'talent'? 'Willy Schraptner' was never mentioned too often in the Acadamy Awards either... but that doesn't make me any less of a Trekkie.. ;)

[pop pop]

Yes, I said perspire.

The fingers form a "V", as in Vulcan. If there's anything else behind it, I'm sure a native like Saph could enlighten us :D

BTW--I actually met him once...Nimoy, not Saph :p It was at the LAX airport in 1975.

[PrntRhd]

I got into computers later than many. I got my first PC ( a Gateway PIII/Win98) and had to learn how to format and reinstall it as they messed up the partition on the HDD and duplicated the error on the replacement HDD they sent, and I learned I did not need to load all their "programs". Learned how to format from my 15 year old (at the time) son.
At work I began to service and install devices on networks, started with simple Windows NT4.0 application servers for printing, which later evolved into TCP/IP printing, scanning, faxing, copying, and now file forwarding.
Got my Network+ certification at age 52.
I learn a lot every day here on the discussion forums.
:D

I also have a BA in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. I keep up with the physical sciences, favorite subject is Neutrinos (Energy waves from pulsars that can pass in the spaces between atoms and pass right through the earth).

[deddard]

Wordstar was the Word processor......

Those were the days,, NOT....

WordStar - they WERE the days :D - endless comma deliminated lists (sometimes 3000 long) dot commands. 3 floppies -luxury :D we had a measly 2.
When WordStar was relaunched in the mid 90's I gave it another go, but sadly it was a bit of a pig.

[joea64]

Mostly self-taught over the past 11 years, as a combination of hardware tinkering and obsessive reading of PC hardware books. I believe the first time I ever tried installing hardware myself was with a 2400-baud modem on my first PC, a Tandy 386SX33 with Win 3.1. I ended up taking it in to the shop at first because I didn't know about COM conflicts at the time and thought there was something wrong with the hardware, but then I looked it up in some books, got my box back and set up the modem correctly. I installed my first hard drive a year when I added a secondary HD to the 486DX2/66 that had become my main system by then; it took me two days to get the system working right because of some setting in Win 3.1 that I don't remember now, but the next year I installed a larger HD without any trouble. Swapped out my first motherboard in 1997 when I upgraded to a 486DX4/120; I had to get a guru I knew to help me with the job. By '01, though, I was well-enough versed in hardware that I was able to install motherboards myself, and over the next few years developed my knowledge until I was able to do literally everything in building my latest system except put the CPU on the mainboard (which was done for me for free by the people at the shop when I bought the CPU/mainboard combo). I think the books that have been the most help to me over the years have been the Mueller and Minasi books.

[classicsoftware]

The best Feature about Wordstar was you would type and when you went to save, you were told , not nough disk space...... Erase some, save it and then type it again....

[Rick]

Or just print it without saving.
Then
Control K Q

[taz480]

Main system as of 4/16/05: AMD Sempron 2800+ CPU, 1 GB Super Talent PC3200 DDR DRAM, MSI K8T NeoFSR with VIA K8T800 chipset, ATI Radeon 9550 256MB 8x AGP, 2x Western Digital 160GB WD1600BB (2MB cache), LiteOn 16x DVD-ROM/48X CD-ROM, LiteOn 16x DVD-/+ R/RW, Hauppage WinTV Go PCI video capture, Linksys USB/Ethernet external cable modem, SMC 4-port router, onboard Gigabit LAN, WinXP Pro/Mandrake Linux 10.1 dual boot


Joea64,
Just a note. I just wanted to compliment you on your hardware fashion sense, particularly your optical drives. I have same DVD-ROM and the 12x version of the same DVD burner. Both have black bezel, of course, to match my Pavilion. One day I hope I can gather enough money to build my own high end super machine like you guys. For now though, I have to settle for redoing older $20 Ebay computers. When I do retire this one and finally get to build my own, my LiteOns are coming with me. They are awesome drives and I'm going to spin 'em until they're dead. I think I may even be a little suprised how long that takes. I especially love the fact that I can burn CD-Rs at 48x, a speed that my stock CD-ROM would only read at. Music discs in 3 minutes.
Also, just like Fruss Tray Ted, I too have only been playing with these for a few years and just like him I am honered to share all this knowledge with and around people who obviously have more than I ever will. I hope I get to be just as good. My salute to all of you!
I feel like a drop of water next to the sea just wanting to be part of the wave.

[saphalline]

All of these stories truly inspire me and make me want to learn as much as I can.Hey, that's all I do, too. I said I'm no expert in any of those other fields - I just know the basics. Take Goldbach's Conjecture, for instance. Do you actually think I could make any progress on it!? :eek: Yeah right!! I know about it, I've seen some descriptions and basic concepts of its implications and... that's it! My lack of skill and knowledge in all those subjects doesn't keep me from being interested in them, however. I like to learn all I can, but you're right - there isn't enough time to learn them all! Don't forget the fact that I'm also younger than most of these other veterans of the forums. Experience counts for a lot, too, and I've a lot of catching up to do! People always think I'm smarter than I am, and most people don't think they're nearly as smart as they are...

Hey, pop pop, what was Nimoy like?...

[Sempron]

I think the thing that 'gets' me most about learning about Technology is that its always changing. New things always happening which keeps me interested at all times.

Its hard to keep interested in rack and pinion steering or the migration of the western Kathmandu Elk

[pop pop]

Saph

A couple of things struck me about Nimoy. One was his height...much taller than I thought, something like 6'2". He looked more like a business man than an actor-- he was traveling and was dressed in a suit and tie carrying a brief case. He was approachable. Many "stars" are not.

Just by circumstance, I've met a number of famous people--President Ronald Reagan (West Berlin, GE 1983 before he went to the Wall), Mohammed Ali (early 70s in his dressing room--huge dude!), Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull--70s band lead singer after a concert), all of the 70s band called Uriah Heap (met them in a bar), and I went to high school with Curtis Strange who went on to win two US opens, 17 championships, and was the first one million dollar winner on the PGA Tour...chump change by todays standards.

One thing about Nimoy was really odd. I guess he was so type-cast in my mind that it kind of wierded me out when he smiled--Spock would never smile. :p

[Sempron]

WOW! pop pop. That is really cool!!! All of them.

[Orion]

When I was 4, my dad brought home two computers-an outdated-before-it-was-marketed Commodore 16, and a top-of-the-line Zenith 8088. when I was sick, he would hook up the Commodore 16 to the TV, and program in a simple BASIC language addition quizzer. the problem was, Commodore 16 didnt' have any long term memory, and I would shut it off when I went out of the room. Eventually, he taught me how to enter it in. I was curious, took apart the program, figured out how it worked (by asking him lots of questions) and started programming. I discovered the wonder of having a floppy drive to save your programs to on the 8088, and I've been programming, gaming (anybody else remember questron or stryker?), and tinkering ever since. My strengths are more in software than hardware...or at least were.

I got into hardware about 6 or 7 years ago, when I started hanging around Saph in high school-I'd teach him software end of things, he'd teach me hardware. we mutually discovered St. Scott's book (Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 15th edition) and we both read it. literally. cover to cover. not to say we retained it all in active RAM, so to speak, but it's good enough to start a foundation for learning other stuff, and certainly enough to keep up with current technology trends. from there, reading tech reviews, looking at specs and whitepapers, and whenever we find a term we dont' recognize looking up what it means and how it works (that's the tough part-it's all well and good to know that 24 pipelines in a vid card makes it powerful, but knowing why allows you to figure out on your own how much more powerful a 30 pipeline card would be.) usually suffices to keep both of us on our toes.

Taking notes helps too, as Saph goes rather fast sometimes. Since he's living with my wife and me, I get as many lectures, debates, and discussions as I want....

Orion

[audiophilexprt]

haha one of the best ways to keep up and learn new technology is to subscribe to like tigerdirect, or global magazine.. both are free publications and are basically just for selling products, but i have found them very very useful for hearing about new technologies, then doing like a google or wikipedia search to find the specifics about new technologies such as Athlon 64, PCI-e and other things related to that... and almost 95 percent of my computer knowledge came from a healthy mixture of messing with older computers and reading manuals and repair books... start with old computers and learn them backwards and fowards... feel free to ruin stuff, shock yourself, melt BIOS chips, whatever.... just do it to an old computer... its the best way to learn.. then you work your way up eventually to replacing hard drives like you do toilet paper rolls and where installing windows or linux is like brushing your teeth...

[rio_bugarin]

I get the few things I know about computer from almost everywhere but mostly by asking and explerimenting. PCGUIDE.com has been a very good place for me to learn a lot.

Since Im the only one at home who have a lot of technical knowledge with pc's, I go to the internet and surf (a lot). Books, Magazines, other people ( I mean Real People :D ). Chat rooms too...to bad our forum isn't as lively.

[halovivek]

hi friend,
Do you one thing one day i had a problem with one of my friend system. i came to here to post a problem. i was delighted. then i started to learn PC related things from here most in PCGUIDE. (thanks to Owner of this site).
I thought that I should learn ..after all i followed all the procedure they have posted for me ..
Now i can manage my PC and now here around of my friend circle i am sloving most problems..
WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY..CHOOSE YOUR TARGET..PATH WILL BE LAID BY GOD..

[MikeDell]

A little about myself. From as early as I can remember (5?) I was fascinated by the phonograph and that plastic disc going around making music. My parents were poor but managed to buy me my 1st phonograph for Xmas. Later that day I removed the C washer that held the turntable on, removed the drive belt, the speaker wires, dad walked into my room and I promptly received my 1st official ass whoopin. All my life I've had to know how things work and how can I make it better.

By the time I hit HS I built my own vibrator power supplied power amp (car) and had by far the best kick as AM radio in the county. LOL. I don't recall if my 55 Chevy had FM. I think not. It powered a 12 inch speaker connected to 3/4 plywood employing a custom made back seat. My senior year I purchased an 8 track and converted to 2 12's plus tweeter horns in my custom made back seat. It was a tossup between long tall sally or blasting Blue Rhonda LaTurk (take five album) by Dave Brubeck. Brubeck won, hence the seat was converted to accommodate. The trunk made a great speaker box.

When PC's 1st came out I learned all there was to learn and besides my reg day job I was running at night moonlighting for the state, fixing PC's, setting them up, writing batch programs in DOS etc. etc.. By the time WIN95 came out I had had enough. Total PC burnout and lost all interest of the behind the scenes operations of the PC and their capabilities that was being untapped by most end users in Corp. I use to teach to DLing from mainframes to PC and analyze data using Rbase and Lotus. This stuff came easy to me perhaps because of my background in electronics. Teaching middle age secretaries how to manipulate data in lotus was an exercise in futility.

The last PC I purchased was a DELL in 98 and recently upgraded most all components including the CPU to what the system would allow which brought me here running in to a couple problems. One thing I have learned when installing new software run a search on newly created files. You'd be surprised how many sneak in spyware crap. I did my last update last night and installed Soundblaster. Did a search and sure enough found an ***Ad.exe file. I thought I was installing driver files only.

Still love electronics and am making a Wifi Antenna receiver out of a coffee can and coax cable just to see what signals I can pickup by aiming it. I have no desire to dive head 1st back into the PC world as I once did.

This is the best site I have come across with the best educated and informed personnel contributing to it. And I thank you for taking time to share your knowledge so that we may learn.

[smith04]

Great stories guys.

I got interested in computing mainly software in college, about 3o years ago. Taking Physical chemistry, well you just had to learn to program to do thermo. I loved the logic of programming. Then a little Fortran, BMD etc when in grad school.

Then after grad school, starting working for a huge company (still do) and was given a mainframe dumb terminal. Started developing simple text based databases (no one taught you anything if your weren't an IT guy), xedit, the REXX programming. Someone saw the value in what I was doing and named me to a computer development project as a user advisor. Did that 2 years then back to business role. Then PCs came along and when my company wanted the business people to start using them (other than secretaries for word processing) they put one in a cubicle for everyone to use. No one did. My boss, knowing I was into the mainframe asked why I wasn't using the PC. I said because it was not in my office. A week later one was in my office. I soon got into databases and developed quite a few for business use. Then was asked to manage an SAP installation.

I spent most of my career in purchasing or managing parts of computer development projects, but never really as an IT professional.
As members of my extended family started getting PCs, I was always asked for help when they had problems. I learned to install cards, drives, etc and solve various software problems. I do it for fun. I finally just built my first PC from ground up. The hard part was dealing with online vendors, namely ZipZoomFly and New Egg who I find not customer service oriented or just plain stupid.

I have been reading PC Guide most days for a month now and have received great advice and learned just from reading.

In the future, I would like to take old machines, do what I can to make them usable, and donate them to students who can't afford to buy one for home use. I just did my first one, a PII for a sophmore in college who needed one just to write homework papers.

So, guys, keep posting, I will certainly be reading.

smith04

[beerbelly]

In the future, I would like to take old machines, do what I can to make them usable, and donate them to students who can't afford to buy one for home use. I just did my first one, a PII for a sophmore in college who needed one just to write homework papers. smith04

Noble effort!

Be sure and drop all the biggies such as Microsoft, AMD, Intel, HP, and yes, even Dell, a line and let them know what you're up to. You'd be surprised what a Mega-corp will do in the name of charity, especially since it's a tax write off.

[jlreich]

Wow! I forgot about this thread. I always wanted to post but never got around to it. Well now is as good as time as any I guess...

I have only been into computers for about the last 4 or 5 years. My wife had an old P2 233MHz machine with 32MB ram and win95 with her when she moved in. I didn't really even touch it. Then that machine crashed and we bought a P3 566MHz with 64MB ram and win98se. I didn't really even touch that machine until a year later.

Then I picked up a 10 pack of older games at Sam's Club (I still play some of those games BTW). It was all over at that point. I was hooked! :D

In between playing games I started looking up things on the net like security related stuff. Then I did my first upgrade, a couple sticks of ram. My my, how the upgrade bug never goes away. :p

Started playing around with just about everything on the computer. Really messed things up a few times. But learned a lot in the process.

Then low and behold, while doing a search for something or other I came across the PcGuide Forums. :eek:

After reading through posts for a couple of hours I decided I just had to register. Life has never been the same since! :cool:

In short, much of what I have learned has been right here on these forums. Or through links that the very knowledgeable members have given through the last few years that I have been around. And quite a bit of browsing on the internet looking at things I never would have imagined I would be interested in. It's amazing how much info there is out there on transistors. :p

In the last 3 years or so I have been building, fixing, upgrading, preventing/removing malware. Tending to a small office LAN of about 15 machines. The salesman at this company alone have given me more experience in removing malware than I would ever though possible. :rolleyes:

After spending hours here on the forums everyday I have recently passed the A+ tests. I am about to start studying for Net+, then Sec+, then...

I will tell you that between a few of the members around here I will soon have to pick up a new hard drive just to house my bookmarks folder. :D :p

I wish I had a better story to tell. Nothing like some of the members have posted. But I am still relatively young. I am sure ten years from now I will have more to tell. :p

I love the PcGuide forums! :D

[saphalline]

Woah! You've got a wife!? How do you find the time? :p Hehe.

Yep, the forums is a good place to learn!

[jlreich]

Woah! You've got a wife!? How do you find the time? :p Hehe.
Funny. That's what she says. But without the hehe part. :rolleyes: :p