Hi, Guys,
That's basically true, Windows 3.1 just won't run on any 80286 machine with
only 640K of system RAM.  Drop a 2MB memory expansion board in there, such
as an old Intel AboveBoard 286, or an old AST RAM-Page 286 in there, along
with a basic VGA card, a second hard drive to go with the 40MB one you
already have in there, and you can actually run Windows 3.1 in Standard mode

on it.  It will be very slow.  It will work the hard drive unmercifully, and

you won't be able to run more than one small program at a time under
Windows.  Doing this will be analogous to those teenagers and young 20's
hot-rod nuts in the late '60's who bored out the cylinder chambers and put
enlarged heads on the engines of their Volkswagen Beetles so they would run
at speeds of about 120 miles, or 200 Kilometers, per hour.

If you're into such things, you might want to check out the Survivor PC
list, where people discuss rebuilding, upgrading, and operating older,
slower PC gear. To join it, send an E-mail with a blank subject line to:

[log in to unmask]

and in the body type:

subscribe survpc firstname lastname

where firstname and lastname are your first and last name.

Of course, if it's just to type up little papers and reports and print them
out to hand in, you might actually get away with it, although they might not
be learning DOS and DOS programs on the computers at school.  It would be
better to get something that will run the actual software they are using at
school, especially if the homework involves things like formatting, and
actual learning to use the features of the systems and the software at the
school.  That brings up another consideration--what kind of homework are we
talking about?

If the kids are teenagers, and they or some of their friends are interested
in the sort of thing, you might get something and have them actually build
or upgrade, or even resurrect to running condition an older machine, and
then they can use it to write up and print out their homework assignments.
That might even put them a little ahead of the game compared to a goodly
number of their buddies, while still saving you some money at the same time.

 Of course, you can get rather nice entry-level Pentium-class machines now,
with monitor and printer for around $800 with Windows 98, and maybe a basic
program like MicroSoft's Works suite, which will be very much adequate for
any kind of homework most middle school or high school kids might likely be
required to do.  The advantage to that approach is that, it might even be
able to go on to college with them, and can be upgraded later to keep up
with any possible future needs growth they might have for the beast.

Do the old 286 for a hobby project, a learning experience, a history lesson,
a kind of neat project.  Hey, even if the kid kills the beast playing with
it, it won't be a big financial
 loss, and something might be learned in the process!
Besides that, if the case and power supply are ISA AT standard, you can put
any AT-type motherboard in the sace right up to some of the latest ones and
it's still quite a brag for a 12-year-old boy to be able to say he does his
homework on a computer that he largely built himself.

In addition to some of the other programs people have mentioned here, there
is one called the Real Deal Office suite which is basically a new, updated,
reincarnation of the old graphical GeoWorks product which will run on an old
XT, thus, will posibively fly on that 80286 machine with 640KB of RAM.
RealDeal Office has mouse and menu interface, graphical "windows", word
processing, spreadsheet, database, and communications software, and it will
fit comfortably on that 40MB hard drive, too.
Anyway, enjoy the old beast.  It might still be happily running after a lot
of the newest hot Pentium II-class machines have died and been buried!
Besides that, it's probably already long-since payed for!


Reply to: [log in to unmask]
Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA  USA

Aliens have invaded Earth! How else do you explain DOS?

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