Honestly, I was cleaning out my mom's garage last Sunday and stumbled on my old 3310 from 2008. I plugged it in for a laugh and the battery indicator popped up after 10 minutes. I even sent a text with the old T9 predictive typing and it worked like nothing changed. Anyone else digging up old bricks that just refuse to die?
Honestly, I was torn between the two for weeks, but I grabbed a used PS2 at a garage sale for $30 and it's been a beast for playing old Gran Turismo games. The library is just so much bigger, but has anyone else had trouble with the disc laser getting finicky after a few months?
I dropped my modern phone off the couch yesterday and now the screen has a rainbow crack across half of it. My 15 year old Nokia 3310 survived being thrown down a flight of stairs in high school and still worked fine. Why can't they make phones that actually last anymore?
I was at my desk at 11pm last night trying to get my old Dell Optiplex 755 to boot up so I could copy some files off it. It kept crashing with the blue screen error every 15 minutes. I spent like 2 hours reinstalling drivers, running disk checks, the whole deal. Nothing worked. Then I remembered I had bumped the tower pretty hard when I moved it the day before. So I popped the case open and just pressed down on the RAM sticks. Click. Booted up fine and has been running smooth ever since. Has anyone else had a simple hardware fix like that after going down a software rabbit hole?
I always thought vintage laptops were too slow for recording, but I put Ubuntu Studio on a ThinkPad from 2006 and it runs Ardour with zero lag. That 2GB of RAM actually handles 8 tracks without a hiccup. Has anyone else gotten modern audio software to run on ancient hardware?
I opened it up and it still had contacts from 2002. The guy selling it said it was his ex-wife's. Has anyone else ever bought old tech and found weird stuff on it?
My dad told me in 2014 that I'd regret getting rid of my Razr for an Android. Two years later I dropped that smartphone in a puddle and it died, while his Razr still turned on after sitting in a drawer for seven years. Anyone else still keep a dumb phone around just in case your main one fails?
I was dead set against buying a retro game that was still shrink wrapped, figured anyone selling one that expensive had to be legit. Then I bought a copy of Ocarina of Time for $180 last month, opened it up, and the board inside was a repro with a cheap battery holder soldered on. The box and wrap looked perfect, but the cart had the wrong label font when I checked it against a guide. Anyone else run into this where the outer seal was the only thing that looked right?
I hooked it up to my 2010 MacBook and got maybe 80% of my library copied over before the drive seized up for good, anyone know if those replacement SSD kits actually work or are they just a scam?
I tried charging it up to see if my old Snake scores were still there and the thing booted right up like nothing happened. What’s the oldest gadget you’ve found that still just worked without any fuss?
I pulled out my OG Nokia 3310 from a drawer last week just for fun. Figured the battery would be dead after all these years but it turned on and showed 3 bars. I let it sit on standby for 2 days and the battery only dropped 10 percent. That thing has been through water drops, being tossed around, and probably 15 years of sitting idle. It outlasts my current smartphone which dies after 6 hours. Has anyone else tested how long their old phone batteries really last now?
I was at a repair shop in Detroit yesterday and they still use a Sony Trinitron from 1998 to calibrate their equipment. Ngl it bothers me when folks act like these are just for nostalgia when they're still doing real jobs. Has anyone else spotted old tech still being used professionally somewhere?
I was digging through a pile of old chargers at a thrift spot in Austin last Saturday and spotted a Palm Pilot Vx buried under some phone cases. The guy running it said he'd thrown it in for free with a cable lot, but it still turned on and had a game of Solitaire from 2004 saved on it. Anyone else still keeping one of these around for the novelty, or did I just waste my $5?
I keep seeing people call the Dell AT101W a "cheap clone" of the Model M from 1985, but that's not really fair. The AT101W has alps switches, not buckling springs, and I've used both at my desk in Austin for six months. They feel completely different to type on - the Model M is heavy and clicky while the Dell is lighter and smoother. Has anyone else noticed people mixing up switch types when they talk about these boards?
Tried to play Pokemon Crystal last night and the screen has like a weird yellow tint now. The cartridges still work but the contrast wheel is completely stuck. Honestly I learned that leaving lithium batteries in for 25 years is a bad move, leaked all over the inside. Has anyone else had luck cleaning that green goop off without ruining the board?
My uncle told me last year that old keyboards are junk and I should just get a modern wireless one for my desktop setup. I cleaned the Model M up with dish soap and a toothbrush, and now it clicks better than any new keyboard I've tried. Has anyone else had a relative give you bad advice about retro tech that you ignored?
I had this 5th gen iPod sitting dead for like 4 years because the hard drive kept clicking. I figured it was garbage but then I watched a 10 minute video about swapping the drive with a compact flash card and a little adapter. Picked up a 64GB card and a ZIF to CF adapter for about $35 total on eBay. After some careful prying with a spudger it booted right up and now I have all my old playlists back. Has anyone else tried this mod or got any tips for replacing the battery while I'm in there?
Was cleaning out the garage last Saturday and dug up my Palm Vx from 2001. It still synced with my old laptop and had notes from a college physics class. Anyone else ever boot up an old PDA and find something weird saved on it?
I was at a garage sale last weekend in my neighborhood here in Austin, and this older guy had a box of old phones for like $2 each. I picked up this beat up Nokia 3310 that still had the original battery and everything. He told me he bought it in 2002 and used it for almost 8 years before switching to a smartphone. I charged it up when I got home and it still turns on and makes calls, though the screen has a weird scratch on it. The thing is built like a brick and I kind of want to switch to it for a month as a dumb phone experiment. Has anyone else tried going back to a basic phone just for calls and texts? I'm curious if the battery life is still decent on these old bricks or if I'm going to be stuck carrying a charger everywhere.
I had to choose between carrying my dad's old Sony Walkman with a mix tape or a $30 MP3 player that held 128MB. I went with the Walkman and the tape got chewed up on the bus ride to school. Did anyone else pick the wrong one and regret it?
I dug out my 3310 last weekend to show my nephew what a real phone feels like, and we ended up snapping some pictures around the yard. The grainy 0.3 megapixel shots actually caught the mood of a rainy afternoon way better than my iPhone's polished HDR stuff. Has anyone else noticed old phone cameras have a weird charm that modern ones just can't match?
Found a listing on eBay from a seller in Ohio claiming it was a genuine 1987 IBM Model M. Got it in the mail, checked the serial number, and it was a Unicomp from 2019. Lost $150 on that mistake before I figured out how to spot the real ones by the rivets on the back plate. Anyone else get burned by fake retro gear on auction sites?
He told me to check the local recycling center's electronics pile before buying a retro monitor online... Sure enough found a Dell Trinitron for free, just needed a new VGA cable. Anyone else have luck hunting for old tech at weird places like that?
I found both at an estate sale in Portland about 6 months ago and couldn't afford both. The rotary was a Western Electric 500 from the 70s, nice and sturdy, but the candlestick was this cool brass thing from the 1920s with a separate ringer box. I went with the rotary because it actually worked without any repairs needed. Hooked it up through a converter box I got online for like 25 bucks, and now it's my main phone for when I'm working from home. The dial feels so satisfying to spin, and the bell ring is this deep mechanical sound that makes me smile every time. Has anyone else tried using an old phone as a daily driver, or do you just keep them on a shelf for display?