Dos_Box

Ta, I could try that. I had already fixed the screen on this once before with no issues, but is worth a punt. Bloody Apple!

I'm currently sat with a friend's son's iPhone 11 that I have recently replaced the screen on (again). It seems to have a problem when restoring the iOS image via iTunes. It goes through the whole process but then throws up the 'unknown thing has happened, error 9' message and won't complete. I've scoured the web and it seems that there are a viariety of 'fixes', all of which I've tried (even dug out a genuine Apple cable to use) but with no joy. One fox that I haven't tried is to allow iTues through the Windows firewall, but only because it refuses to be listed in there. Not sure if his son has tried to jailbreak the phone, but he had dropped it (hense the new screen) which may have damaged somethign internally, but it is all very frustrating. Anyone have any helpful ideas?

No, it was way before 4k. Back when HTPC's were becoming a thing you really did have to spend a small fortune to make one that would do everything you needed it to. Graphics cards, sound cards, tuners, Blu Ray drives etc. Not a cheap way of doing things compared to a seperate PVR and player. Was good fun to meddle with though...constantly.

I also picked up a 21" Silicon Graphics CRT monitor for pennies off eBay about 2005. It was quite epic (VGA only), but weighed a ton. Sold it when I got my first flatscreen display. Wish I hadn't now as they now go for a fortune!

It was Arcsoft Total Media Theater. IIRC, it was one of the only (or the last supported) that could playback HDDVD, and as that format had just lost the war against Blu Ray you could get the films silly cheap (all since eBay'd).

Yeah, I had some paid for HDDVD\Blu Ray software which constantly had to update itself to keep up with encoding, sadly I can't remember the name of it now, but may be archived on my HP Microserver. That reminds me, not all cards with HDMI had HDCP built in and had to have a little sticker\branding on them to let you know they could decrypt HD content.

I went all out on mine. I had the Blackgold DVB tuner card - https://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/tv-tuner-cards/black-gold-bgt3620-943596/review And an Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3 Slim HD audio card. I still have both in the attic. I stopped using my HTPC once I got my first DVR via Virgin and blu-ray player. They just worked!

I had some made up for our office staff at a place I worked. They loved them. I think we had Athlons in them. Sadly it was back when you had to upgrade 'puters every 24 months to stay current. I think we goot three years out of them before moving over to SFF Dells with shiny new Core 2's in them.

And that brings us neatly onto HTPC's! I was well into them back in the day, but they never quite delivered IMO. Windows 7 Home Premium came with Windows Media Center and was very good. I did dabble with XBMC too, but found all of them quite clunky and getting tv listings to download and apply correctly was a PITA. I still have this case upstairs with a LG dual blu-ray\HDDVD drive (no internals) fitted and really must get it on eBay at some point. A Zalman HD160XT. It weighs a ton!

In 2003 I was issued with one of these beauties... A Palm Tungsten T, a vertiable Rolls Royce of a PDA. When it would sync properly that is. I do recall at the time trying to take meeting notes on it and then not being able to do anything with them unless I was back in the office and could sync it via the cradle. No WiFi on them back then either! It did make a very satisfying 'schclick' noise when you extended it though.

A favorite of local PC shop beige box builds, the 5.25" bay speaker system! All the sound quality of a 1960's transistor radio earpiece.

Keyboards with lots of buttons and wheels to launch apps and adjust 'things' that you will never, ever, use.

'Right angles' are another two! ETA: And 'where are the plasters?' any time you attempted to work inside of one.

I does beg the question, did anyone use them for anything other than ethernet or wifi? Or, heaven forbid, a dial up modem?

Ah yes, pointless front panel break out boxes, everything from audio and temp monitors to fan controls (I have a fan controller in the attic somewhere). None of which added much unless by way of distraction. I kinda like todays trend for minamalist cases.

Following on from @jthompson post here, I feel it would be an excellent idea to take a trip down Folly Lane and talk about all of the terrible, terrible PC\laptop fashions that has gone on since the late 90's. I'll start with the enormous tower PC with 6 drive bays with removable IDE caddies containing 10-20GB hard drives and required some kind of MHE to move from room to room. Floors may also have neeed some reinforcing too. These would also be kitted out with a Zip drive and two optical drives. The inside looked like an explosion in a tagliatelli factory and you had a PCI IDE card added to handle the extra drives. The streetlights outside may also have dimmed when you switched it on. So, over to you, did you get suckered into any PC\laptop fashion fads, just becuase it looked cool...for 6 months?

@jthompson I can feel a 'PC hardware fads and fashion' thread coming on. I can start with those stupidly tall tower cases (with 'golf ball' power button) loaded up with many 20GB hard drives in removable IDE caddies as you can fit in. I can feel my back complaining already! OK, no thread diversion here, I'll go off and get it started.

Will do, TBH, the pressure washer would be the most useful out of them all!

It's almost upon us! Whilst I do like a good bargain, I have a buget this year (£130) for either: Amazon Echo Studio Decent noise cancelling over-ear headphones A pressure washer So, if you see any really good bargains or offers then please pst them up (with links) in this thread. And don't forget to use CamelCamelCamel to make sure it really is a deal!

I miss mine too (not least because of the current used prices!). It did what it said on the tin and did it well. Great build quality too. To my great shame I don't know what happened to it, but really do wish I'd kept hold of it. I probaby just binned it when a shinier new mouse came along. C'mon Micrsoft, do a re-release (at a sensible price) as your current mouse lineup is very uninspiring.

Back in our early days I always remember members being very happy whenever a vendor or rep would throw in a slack handful of Intellimice to sweeten a deal

I was looking for something else mouse related and came across this, a refurbed Microsoft Intellimouse. Saying that, it seems that if you have any old Intellimice knocking around it may be time to get them on eBay, they do fetch a decent amount for a 20+ year old consumable. Must be all the people out there making their dream gaming rigs from 'back in the day' from now cheap used parts.

No criticising the wage please. It's in the rules! If the wage is too low then they will simply not get any applicants and have to either up it or watch stuff break

If you didn't know, the latest movie themed Lego set is based on Jaws! Epic trailer ETA: Link to the set - https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/jaws-21350?consent-modal=show&age-gate=grown_up

Amazon Prime day is coming up in 10 days, so may be worth us all posting up any decent TV's we see in here then. They usually clear house for the new stock on these, so there 'should' be some nice devices on offer.