Re: 9404 on eBay

Quoting Keith Carpenter <entropypool@xxxxxxxxx>:

John McKee wrote:

I saw this 9404 on eBay. Seller says "never been used" then "works perfectly".

Is there ANY value to this thing?

Details on the configuration are sketchy, at best.

Wouldn't there be quite a few issues attempting to use this?

John McKee

LOL

Hard to tell, but my guess is it's a C, D or E series model
(C10,C20,C25,D10,D20,D25,E10,E20,E25). Many of these old systems did not
have network cards.

There's a good chance it won't IPL and even if it did, it's likely to go
into "needs a system password" mode.

Unless you are starting an AS/400 museum, this is junk. They should be
paying you to haul it away.


Keith
--

Those thoughts came to me. Sheer ago of the system components, particularly the
power supply, would make it unlikely it would work. I wasn't sure when the
system password "feature" was included in the platform. Due to the shape and
weight, probably would not be an effective boat anchor, either.

A couple of years ago, an IBM 1130 (1967 - 1972) was on eBay - Europe. It was
originally in Austria, but was purchased and delievered by ship to Anaheim,
California. I met the owner a couple of years ago. I can't >begin< to imagine
how hard it might be to get it working. The CPU is the size of an office desk. I can't recall how much he had to pay for "shipping". On his website, he showed
pictures of uncrating it. One weird picture had a lamp laying on top. No tape.
Surely had to have had something sticky holding it in place. As I recall, he
was more than a little curious as to how the crate was constructed, as some
nails appeared to have been driven from inside the crate.

He paid upwards of 7000 for it. When new, 40+ years ago, it listed for 40,000
dollars.

That 9204 has one advantage over the IBM 1130: doesn't take up as much floor
space. And, I have fond memories of the IBM 1130.

John McKee