UNDER CONSTRUCTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Here is one computer from my childhood that I experienced since grade school, the IBM PC 5150. Back then, the school I went to in Connecticut had this computer and we would take turns playing games on it. The most cherished memory was that I constantly played the DOS version of Wheel of Fortune on it. In the end, the school ended up giving it to me. But because I was a spoiled little brat that wanted something more substantial, I ended up giving it away to a friend of mine at a babysitter's. To this day, I keep kicking myself for doing that.
Fast forward years later, when I found an IBM PC at a garage sale when I was working at BOCES as an IT intern. I could not believe my eyes when I saw it. So naturally, I immediately carried it to my Jeep, along with a biege Gateway tower, rushed back home, and checked it out. It started up and I was happy enough to see it working and played around with it for a bit.
Unfortunately, as time went on, the poor thing suffered memory issues, possibly due to the age of the power supply. At one point, the CGA graphics card even died on me. So in the end, I gave up and put that poor PC on the side.
Just then, my aunt came over with a bunch of old computer stuff that her husband wanted to offload to me. One of those happened to be a fully decked IBM PC, albeit just the system unit, though I still had the monitor on hand. So, it wasn't a huge loss.
When I first turned it on, I could hear what was a loud pop. Just for a second, I though that the computer was dead, but it kept going as per usual. I later found out it was one of those dread tandulum capacitors, which were known to do that inevitably at their end cycle. So, it kept purring until recently when I started having issues with it. I almost ended up with a dead IBM PC when I thought the video stopped working. But, I switched it to another slot and everything was fine.
At that point, I was concerned about the state of the computer, especially knowing about the aging power supply. So, I left it alone assuring not to turn it on again until I can find a solution. But I can assure you that it did work the last time it powered on.
Aside from that though, when it works, it was a sight to behold. That alone was worth opening that time capsule from when I was in grade school playing on that computer. It's a shame that I don't have that exact computer from grade school anymore, but this example from my aunt is good enough for me. And I hope to make some significant improvements to it in the future, so that I can be able to use it again without worry.