Do you have any old tech gathering dust at home?

SVHS isn’t bad, but normal VHS only has 200-odd lines of resolution, so it can be tiresome creating a copy for a 55″ screen.

Sit in the next room and you won’t know the difference. 🙂

I had a couple of reels of old cine film ‘digitised’ by an old chap who projected them onto a screen and pointed a decent video camera at them. He did suggest a telecine conversion, where each frame is separately digitised. It would be nice but simply having the old film in a usable form is what matters to me.

The popularity of mp3 players at a time when CDs offered better quality demonstrates that many put convenience above quality. At least we have the choice.

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I would like to say a very well done to all of you who appreciate that old tec can still sound good and old tec isn’t bad tec.
A big thank you to Duncan Lucas, your not a voice in the wilderness, keep on plugging away and one day people will like you and I come to realise what good sound relay is.
Not bluetooth or the compressed music of ipods and the like.
( must go to more concerts )

Not all ‘old tech’ was reliable and what we tend to focus on is the products that were reliable and have survived. The older products could at least be repaired, often cost effectively.

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That’s rotten, Alfa. I hope the carpet will clean.

Not really wavechange. I have managed to spread it around by trying to clean if off. The carpet was to be replaced this year so I am not too upset about it.

The only time I had a leakage was when I had obviously overfilled the cartridge for an Apple Stylewriter printer that came ‘free’ with my first Mac, back in 1992. It used a Canon engine and cartridges that cost a fortune but I found bottles of ink on sale in Montreal. Previously I had only used dot matrix and daisy wheel printers and to have something that produced a range of fonts and sizes was amazing.

I wish that all ink cartridges were transparent so that you can see what’s left.

I’ve still got continuous paper for a daisy-wheel printer – the junk we keep !!!

The continuous (listing) paper was mainly used for dot-matrix printers whereas daisy-wheel printers produced high quality output on A4 or other sizes of plain paper. I recently binned a daily-wheel for a Brother HR15.

Hmmm, now I’m not sure what it was. What I do remember was when the ink ran out I replaced it with a 12-16″ ribbon on some sort of cartridge and got ink all over my fingers. The paper was A4ish (slightly wider?) and the perforated sides were removed before sending letters.

Dot matrix printers used long cartridges with a continuous fabric strip impregnated with ink – like an old typewriter ribbon – a bit messy. Daisywheel printers could use a dry carbon film ribbon in a cassette with two reels, much like a cassette tape. The output was much superior but the cassette had to be replaced when the feed reel was emptied. I believe that it was possible to put a cassette with a continuous fabric ribbon in daisywheel printers for draft printing, but dot matrix printers were much faster.

How I miss Maplin – so handy for these situations. We needed a longer printer connector cable and it didn’t occur to me that there would be differences so I didn’t have the original one with me. They sorted me out in no time.

That trade has all gone on-line now but it’s not easy making sure you get the correct part, and if you get the wrong one you then have the hassle of returning it and getting the right one.

Hi Em, You have just prompted me to look at the different types of USB cables.

The Dell looks like a USB 2.0 Type B Jack. The HP printer uses a USB 3.0 Type B plug. We had a good look at old cables and couldn’t find one that fitted.

At 15 years old, no cable, expensive ink, drivers unknown, not the best reputation, it really is not worth spending time or money on it.

I’ve been using wireless printing for many years, which is very convenient for laptop users. My desktop machine, which is never moved around, is connected via a cable. Using wireless printing might be an easy and tidier solution for John.

I have a couple of boxes of computer leads. I think I have now disposed of most of the SCSI, Centronics and ADB leads.

One of my fitted wardrobe doors started to come off its runners due to a broken plastic part – a fault waiting to happen because of a poor choice. of plastic. It was easy to find spares for what seemed to be an obsolete part thanks to eBay. Although I would not buy electrical goods from eBay it’s a brilliant source of new old stock items sold by British marketplace traders.

Thanks, Wavechange. All our printing is done wirelessly now after our old printers were replaced about two years ago. A new desktop PC had to be connected to the router by cable which came as a surprise as that wasn’t mentioned in the product spec when I bought it. It happens to be convenient to make a hard-wired connection but it shows how careful you have to be when choosing products.

I’m not sure why a recent computer should need connected to a router but it it’s convenient it’s a good way of making sure that interference does not reduce the connection speed.

Compatibility is another issue when updating equipment. My older wireless printer stopped working when I was provided with a new router when FTTP broadband arrived. I was able to get it back online with an old Apple Airport that had not been used for years.

I agree, Wavechange. It was matter of luck that it was convenient to hard wire the PC to the router – if the computer had been in any other room it would have been impossible. I did not unpack and install the new machine for a few months after delivery [I was waiting for the old one to collapse which it duly did] so it might have been difficult to exercise any consumer rights.

My laptop conked out yesterday. For months it had been showing a ‘weak battery’ warning which said the battery should be replaced. I bought a new battery immediately the warnings appeared but had not installed it, allowing the original one to expire gracefully. Between shutting down yesterday morning and restarting later it obviously passed away and would not switch on or light up any indicators, so it was completely dead. Having the replacement battery to hand I switched them over and full functionality was immediately restored. What surprised me, though, was that the laptop had not continued running on the mains power intake; presumably the power input runs through the battery unit and when that fails it will not function at all. Is that a design flaw in my particular model [a Lenovo] or a general problem? If it is normal then I would recommend heavy laptop users to get a new battery as soon as the ‘weak battery’ warning appears.

For both of these circumstances I was unusually well-prepared but in both cases my ignorance was a factor.

That was lucky John, I hope the new battery was a reasonable price.

I can’t remember exactly how long now, but the battery of the Dell laptop that was purchased in 2005 died far too quickly and wouldn’t work on mains alone. The replacement from Dell was about £130 with very bad reviews and never did get replaced although the laptop is still around.

I reckon it is not a design flaw, but deliberately designed to make you purchase another cr@p battery as other laptops have worked without batteries. Not sure about Lenovo, but Dell products didn’t use to accept non-Dell parts and replacements too well.

John – I’ve heard of dead batteries preventing a laptop from being powered-up and the solution is to remove or disconnect the battery, allowing it to run from the mains. I don’t think you can blame yourself because old batteries don’t usually prevent laptops working, as far as I know.

I have a laptop that warns me to replace the battery soon but since it still operates for more than an hour and the nearest Apple Store is more than 50 miles away. I had planned to meet up with a friend while my battery was being swapped but thanks to Covid-19 it did not happen and I’ve bought another laptop. The durability of Apple batteries is very good in my experience, lasting considerably longer than the claims, but swapping them involves dismantling the computer, and the biggest problem is that you cannot buy genuine spares. I replaced the battery in my iPhone and it worked perfectly to start with and then over a week quickly declined to a state in which it would not take a charge. I’m not prepared to do a lot of work and find I have fitted a dubious battery. At least the laptop still runs fine on the mains.

Maybe one day there will be a requirement that all batteries are swappable by the user.

Thanks, Alfa and Wavechange, for your comments.

I bought the replacement battery [not an OEM from Lenovo] in July 2019. The price was £34.95. The laptop dates from 2013. I feel I have had good use out of the original battery. I very rarely run the machine on the battery alone so I occasionally get an ‘overcharged’ warning.

The actual swap-out of the old for the new battery was extremely easy and took less than a minute. Nothing to undo, just release a captive spring clip, slide out the old and slide in the new. There has been no degradation in the performance of the laptop over the years. Everything I do on the laptop is synchronised with content on my desktop PC so in the event of the failure of either I have access to all my material, and if I go away for a few days and take the laptop everything is available regardless of which computer it was created on.

It didn’t occur to me to remove the old battery and see if the laptop would run on the mains power only – I must have thought “these things are designed to run on a battery when there is no mains power, not run on the mains when there is no battery”. I should have factored in Chinese intelligence.

I also have a new unused laptop waiting for the old one to pass away but with a new battery in it that could be a long wait.

We use our computers in a very different way, John. Unless I want to use a laptop while it’s being charged I use mine on battery power. I’m making an exception for the one with the failing battery to preserve its remaining capacity. I would love to have batteries that could easily be swapped.

I extend the synchronisation to my phone. It’s not the best device for viewing a spreadsheet or other document but it can be invaluable when out and about.

My desktop machine is too old to be secure on the internet but that’s where I keep financial records.

Desktop PCs do not normally come with a WiFi card, hence the need for Ethernet. It’s probably faster anyway

I wondered if that might be the case, David. I can see that it makes sense for office machines but I’m surprised WiFi is not a standard feature on home machines these days.

When I had a PC built to my requirements 4 years ago I checked the spec before ordering and was surprised to find it was not WiFi enabled. I had a card included. The PC is located about as far from the router as it could be due to the house layout. A weak signal was resolved with a Tenda booster.

I’ve always used Windows OS and hadn’t had any experience of Apple products. However my old laptop now only works off the mains and I recently acquired an iPad. I must admit I find it generally easy to use although, as with my PC, I don’t always find software, apps, installation and use intuitive; but then I’m a bear of little brain. It’s big advantage is its portability. Initially I chose to use it for FaceTime at the beginning of lockdown to keep face to face contact with the family; I had a nice hour’s chat with a sister in Florida yesterday.

As David says, adding wifi to a desktop PC usually involves the need for an additional component, such as a dedicated wifi card or a USB dongle.

I don’t supose that wifi signals will readily penetrate the metal cases of ordinary desktop PC’s, so at the very least some form of external antenna will be needed.

In contrast, devices that have plastic cases, including laptops, SMART TV’s and so on can readily have internal wifi antennae / antennas.

Most of the oldish laptops that I’ve been inside have a separate wifi card that slots into the motherboard and connects to a pair of antenna wires, those then run up into the folding screen. I assume this helps to keep the delicate business of wifi reception away from the bulk of the electrickery on and around the motherboard.

Much of the design and build of newer consumer laptops seem to be convergent with phones and tablets. Over time, fewer discrete components are being used and much more is being integrated onto motherboards. Those boards are also shrinking in size, which leaves more room for internal batteries.

I have used WiFi on aluminium cased iMacs and MacBook Pro laptops without any problem. When I bought my first aluminium MBP I assumed that WiFi would not work as well as on plastic cased MacBooks but found no problem, presumably because the signals pass through the screen. I’m sure I’ve set up WiFi on desktop PCs but maybe they did not have all-metal cases.

I had an HP printer that used the same cartridges (45 and 78) and only replaced it because I wanted a wireless multifunction printer. One of the reasons I like HP printers is that cartridges remain available for so long. It’s still possible to get cartridges for the ancient HP500 printer.

You are lucky to have a duplex printer still working after so many years, Vynor.

I expect we could shut down manufacturing worldwide for ten years if everyone liberated their lofts and garages of useable equipment.

We could stock a whole kitchen, right down to the sugar tongs and tea strainers with the stuff in the garage. I was going to arrange for a charity to collect it all but then isolation intervened.

I’m sure you are right, John. It’s amazing what finds its way to recycling sites and is scrapped.

A few months ago I found a home for a Hitachi micro-HiFi that fitted nicely in a kitchen cupboard in my previous home. A friend now uses it to play audio book and other CDs. It took months to give that away. I have fond memories of a discussion with a cashier in Comet who tried three times to sell me an extended warranty. I addressed the queue behind and said that according to Which?, extended warranties were very poor value for money.

I regret having disposed of two vacuum cleaners belonging to my parents – one given away and the other taken by a charity shop. Having another vacuum cleaner would have been useful when I moved from a bungalow to a house.

I confess to rarely buying something new unless it is necessary. However, some items – domestic appliances for example – do fail. I’d like to see a much more extensive network of repair shops to help us keep our possession in functional order. I’d also like to see far more of us given the confidence, knowledge and the tools to repair things for ourselves. I’d love to see the return of night schools at sensible cost where I learned smallholding, bricklaying, welding and some other useful skills.

I do think extended warranties, used wisely, are a way of protecting against the possible high cost of failure. I’d like Which? to reinvestigate them and look at multiple product policies as well as single ones. But we do need reliable products in the first place with declared nominal lives and reasonable initial guarantees; those products will not be in the bargain basement If we buy cheap stuff we must accept the consequences.

For many products the killer blow is the labour charge. My eldest son spent an hour repairing an obsolete cabinet door self-closing hinge; it now works but you could tally the labour cost at £30 + vat. Cheaper to have bought a new set if you were not so capable.

It would be interesting to know how many people regularly use electrical goods that are over say 20 years old, whether or not they have repaired them. Discussions about old products usually ignored whether they are regularly used or sit unused most of the time.

My bread machine is not far off 20 years old and still going strong. Earlier this year I got replacement pan and paddles sent from Japan.

I presume this was because the non-stick coating was worn, which is exacerbated by adding seeds. I’m not expecting mine to last long. I have been told that the same pan and paddle can fit a range of models, which makes a lot of sense.

The drive belt can fail with extended use but they should be easy to replace. There are toothed and flat belts and they are not interchangable.

The non-stick was coming off the paddles and pan was starting to look a bit old on the joints although the non-stick coating is still quite good and will be kept just in case it is needed.

When the baking cycle is complete, the bottom of the loaf is slightly hard. If I leave the loaf in the machine for 30 minutes, the crust softens and the paddles come out easily instead of getting damaged. I bought 3 sets of paddles that will hopefully see the machine out as the manufacturer won’t let me have any more parts.

I keep old parts too. 🙂 I used to buy several sets of oven door springs for a Belling cooker, which I kept going for 34 years.

If I turn out the pan as soon as a loaf is ready, the paddle normally stays in the pan but if not I extricate it using a pair of Spencer Wells forceps, inserted in the middle and opened to grasp it without damaging the non-stick coating. I had not realised that the crust will soften with standing.

My breadmaker came with a second paddle for rye bread but that has yet to be tested.

It turns my stomach a bit, and my imagination runs riot, when I hear of people having to get the surgical instruments out during their home baking exercises. At least it’s only the paddle that requires a forceps delivery. Hopefully the loaf turned out beautifully – but did it look like its father?

I usually put olive oil in the mix, so it’s an extra virgin birth – no parents involved.

Spencer Wells forceps are now readily available as tools for the DIY enthusiast, though my first pair came from a former medical student and lives in a toolkit rather than the kitchen. If I try Alfa’s suggestion I might not need to perform operations on wholemeal loaves again.

Liquids go into my machine first so I pour olive oil over the paddles as lubrication that might also help elongate their life. I only need to give the pan a shake and the loaf comes out leaving the paddles behind.

I also don’t add seeds or anything else that might be scratchy.

100% wholemeal recipes also want vital wheat gluten that I can get from Holland & Barrett. They started off really well then the last few loaves sunk at one end and I feared the machine has a problem. Going back to part wholemeal and part white flour the loaves are near perfect again so a sigh of relief.

One of the books that was a formative part of my childhood was my mother’s Baillière’s Medical Dictionary. It was packed with fascinating diagrams of apparatus for carrying out all manner of surgical procedures. I was suspicious of doctors for ever after and my heart rate shot up as soon as they opened their bag. Great to know these things have excellent alternative uses.

Medical items have all sorts of uses in DIY, John. I have a box full of disposable syringes and needles that were past their expiry date when I acquired them. I recently used a 1 ml syringe and needle to inject adhesive into a loose joint of a chair that had belonged to my grandparents. That did the job and I will do the same with a small table.

Time is the great enemy if repairs are carried out commercially – the hourly rate (+vat) to provide a living income and overheads. So economically it can be worthwhile for more expensive items, or those with emotional connections; for more run of the mill products it may not make monetary sense. Some idea of what is involved can be seen on Salvage hunters – the restorers, The repair shop, Wheeler dealers….. Be nice to establish a network of amateur enthusiast repairers and restorers who are prepared to help people in their locality for modest reward.

I have watched some of the Repair Shop episodes and found them very interesting, but many tricks of the trades are not revealed nor details of the financial arrangements. I have found from personal experience that any specialist repair job by an expert costs a lot of money. I have had paintings restored, frames repaired and regilded, clocks and watches repaired, and furniture re-upholstered. The closest I have got to doing the work myself was restoring and French-polishing a side table which was inspired by the furniture restoration series.

Some years ago there was an informative series on re-upholstery and furniture restoration which actually helped amateurs gain the required skills and described the tools and materials required for each project. There was a well-illustrated companion book that gave further information and sources. There are too many rubbish and repeat channels nowadays so there is no room for programmes like this.