What was the worst computer you ever bought and why?

[Emehr]

3 hours ago, JamesS said:

IMac G3. Picked it up for around 50 dollars back in 2008, got OS9 and OSX Tiger for it. 

---

Sorry to all the fans of these computers. I seriously wonder though if anyone uses them. Lots of videos on YouTube of people working on Macs and talking about how great they are. But honestly never see them actually use them for anything? Maybe I'm just watching the wrong videos.

I acquired a Graphite G3 past its prime as well (probably around 2012 or so). Reinstalled to factory spec, played around with it a little, and haven't done much with it since. I always had thoughts of setting up basic word processing software, some era-specific games, or tossing some games on there for the kiddos to play with. It'd make a neat little DVD player if the speakers weren't so crackly. I even had thoughts of picking up where I left off on some old programming projects. Unfortunately, I have so many other devices that can already do all of these things so there it sits. It's basically a museum piece now.

[Clint Thompson]

10 hours ago, JamesS said:

...This is definatly a style over substance computer. Every other computer I owned I could find something to do with...

That tends to be the case with a lot of older or retro machines for most people it seems (shelf trophies) but these machines were intended more for productivity that very quickly got outpaced by newer technology. There's a ton of things you can do with them but you're not really going to pleasantly use them to surf the internet anymore or anything else really. Still, a lot of games and other oddities you could use it for if your interests expand that widely given you can find the right software.

 

I'll never forget seeing a LAN setup of about 12 of them at one of the Midwest Gaming Classics back some 10 years ago having Quake (IIRC) setup to deathmatch other people to and thought that was a really cool way to put them to use!

[ColecoGamer]

Well… I really had to give this question a lot of thought, since I didn’t immediately remember owning a computer I actually hated. But then it dawned on me…

 

I was quite young at the time (4th grade, I believe?) and my father surprised me with a Coleco Adam Computer setup. I loved the computer, especially the games he bought with the machine (i.e. Donkey Kong, Dragon’s Lair, Buck Rogers). But then the dreaded tape drive issue started. It would unravel and destroy the tapes.

 

My father packaged up the Adam and exchanged it for a new one at the local Toys R US where he bought it from, along with the damaged cassettes.

 

This is why the Adam Computer (at least at the time) was my least favorite computer: upon setting it up and starting a game (fresh out of their retail wrappings), the tape drive destroyed the cassette while it booted the game. Lol Yeah, I felt defeated. My father was p*ssed. He couldn’t get a third replacement because other people in our area were exchanging their Adams for the same reason. I ended up with a Commodore 64. 

[Keatah]

I heard similar stories, and thankfully avoided them.

 

Surprisingly (or not) one of the worst systems I owned was a Pentium II/III rig I assembled in the win98 era. First was the P2-350, then an upgrade to P3-450. Both configurations ran quite hot, and the more fans I put in the louder it got. There was minimal, if any, improvement in the cooling. I swear by the Gods of Olympus the multiple fans were adding energy and air-friction to the system! There was no one sucky aspect. It was lousy all over. Even had two CD-ROMS, 3 graphics cards, 3 sound cards, 3 hard drives, and 3 pounds of stupidity, all twisted up without a good thought process behind any of it!

[jhd]

On 1/16/2022 at 2:36 AM, eightbit said:

So, after buying that CoCo 2 and a copy of "poltergeist" I went on home and hooked it up. And, it sucked. Sorry CoCo folks. I just did not like it. My friend was like "why didn't you keep the Vic?". Ugh. He was playing "piss on rats" (our name for Radar Rat Race) and I was stuck with this crappy poltergeist game.

 

Did you choose the Poltergeist game, or did the salesman push it on you? Color Cubes or Backgammon may have been less fun, but not by a significant margin. 

 

There are so very many better choices, even limiting the choice to cartridge games available at RS in 1983. 

[+x=usr(1536)]

6 hours ago, Keatah said:

Surprisingly (or not) one of the worst systems I owned was a Pentium II/III rig I assembled in the win98 era.

Ditto.  The main problem was my choice of motherboard: the EPoX KP6-BS.  This was a dual Slot 1 motherboard that I'd put a pair of P3/600s into.  The fact that it had both 'pox' and 'BS' in its name should have been a warning, but me, all in a frenzy over OMG SYMMETRIC MULTIPROCESSING, overlooked this.

 

What happened was that the board developed the same fault they all did after a couple of years: a piss-poor soldering job at the factory had more or less guaranteed that if you ran the board in a vertical orientation, certain discrete components related to power regulation specific to CPU slot #2 would come undone, slide down into other components, arc, pop at least one cap, and render that slot useless.  Fortunately, I was at home when this happened, and as that machine was generally running 24/7 I don't want to think about what could have happened if I hadn't yanked power to it pretty much instantly.

 

Oddly enough, I seemed to be in the minority for whom the CPU in that slot actually survived the ordeal.  Kinda pointless that it did, though, as I had no other Slot 1 machines to use it in, and CPUs were moving back to BGA packaging.

[+GoldLeader]

17 hours ago, ColecoGamer said:

Well… I really had to give this question a lot of thought, since I didn’t immediately remember owning a computer I actually hated. But then it dawned on me…

 

I was quite young at the time (4th grade, I believe?) and my father surprised me with a Coleco Adam Computer setup. I loved the computer, especially the games he bought with the machine (i.e. Donkey Kong, Dragon’s Lair, Buck Rogers). But then the dreaded tape drive issue started. It would unravel and destroy the tapes.

 

My father packaged up the Adam and exchanged it for a new one at the local Toys R US where he bought it from, along with the damaged cassettes.

 

This is why the Adam Computer (at least at the time) was my least favorite computer: upon setting it up and starting a game (fresh out of their retail wrappings), the tape drive destroyed the cassette while it booted the game. Lol Yeah, I felt defeated. My father was p*ssed. He couldn’t get a third replacement because other people in our area were exchanging their Adams for the same reason. I ended up with a Commodore 64. 

 

 

And you call yourself ColecoGamer!  Haha!

 

I had, wait I mean Still Have a Coleco ADAM,  and nostalgia and good times means that I love it!   At the time I wished it had a BASIC that was completely Apple compatible.   Anyway, you are correct the tape drive was a mistake.  My Zaxxon tape got "overspun" and just snapped about 12 or 14 years ago,   allowing me to play One Last Game ...I felt like I was in an M. Night movie.  Thank God for the Phoenix and I can now play (Super Game Pack) Zaxxon again,  but that is another story hehe...  Oh and don't forget the ADAM printer!  It started out as the coolest printer out there.  Letter quality like a sharp ol' typewriter,  but when I changed the ribbon out,  the new ribbon would spin really fast like a digital data pack outa control and then come unraveled causing a mess and not finishing the job...Yet the ADAM was not even close to being my worst computer!

 

The worst computer, for me, (as in that I've seen and used) would be a 4 way tie between:   Some black and gray PC Crapfest my friend sold me and it died,   My former roommate's Who remembers the Brand, They All Look Alike Anyway beige box POS, My ex GFs Compaq Presario "Won't do Anything right" Model, and My Acer Netbook Can't Do Shit,  Ultra Slow Motion Special Edition AssFest model.*

 

 

 

*I'm not really a computer guy so names and models may be approximate.

 

 

 

 

[ColecoGamer]

3 minutes ago, GoldLeader said:

 

 

And you call yourself ColecoGamer!  Haha!

 

I had, wait I mean Still Have a Coleco ADAM,  and nostalgia and good times means that I love it!   At the time I wished it had a BASIC that was completely Apple compatible.   Anyway, you are correct the tape drive was a mistake.  My Zaxxon tape got "overspun" and just snapped about 12 or 14 years ago,   allowing me to play One Last Game ...I felt like I was in an M. Night movie.  Thank God for the Phoenix and I can now play (Super Game Pack) Zaxxon again,  but that is another story hehe...  Oh and don't forget the ADAM printer!  It started out as the coolest printer out there.  Letter quality like a sharp ol' typewriter,  but when I changed the ribbon out,  the new ribbon would spin really fast like a digital data pack outa control and then come unraveled causing a mess and not finishing the job...Yet the ADAM was not even close to being my worst computer!

 

The worst computer, for me, (as in that I've seen and used) would be a 4 way tie between:   Some black PC Crapfest my friend sold me and it died,   My former roommate's Who remembers the Brand, They All Look Alike Anyway beige box POS, My ex GFs Compaq Presario "Won't do Anything right" Model, and My Acer Netbook Can't Do Shit,  Special Edition AssFest model.*

 

 

 

*I'm not really a computer guy so names and models may be approximate.

 

 

 

 

My love for Coleco comes from the console and not the Adam computer. ? I was hesitant to tell the story when I remembered it due to my username being ColecoGamer.  But yeah… the Adam Computer’s printer was a nightmare. The ribbon would explode and spool out everywhere. Lol Coleco’s R&D failed miserably on the Adam. ? 

[+GoldLeader]

1 minute ago, ColecoGamer said:

My love for Coleco comes from the console and not the Adam computer. ? I was hesitant to tell the story when I remembered it due to my username being ColecoGamer.  But yeah… the Adam Computer’s printer was a nightmare. The ribbon would explode and spool out everywhere. Lol Coleco’s R&D failed miserably on the Adam. ? 

 

Oh it definitely had its problems,  but real headaches don't come until PCs IMO...haha...

[Keatah]

I'm so much smarter for having worked through those PC problems of the 90's (and later). Especially the problematic Microsoft ones.

 

As far as ADAM goes, I never got into it. By the time it was out I was already past knee-deep in too many other platforms. Thankfully the industry was beginning to digest itself down into fewer and fewer of them.

[Keatah]

5 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

The fact that it had both 'pox' and 'BS' in its name should have been a warning, but me, all in a frenzy over OMG SYMMETRIC MULTIPROCESSING, overlooked this.

"Pox" & "BS", that's great! Love it! But, yes, I had a lame habit of picking up some esoteric non-mainstream feature and believing it was the end-all be-all. It just needs some development. Some support.

 

Same applied to any'ol arbitrary add-in. And even building techniques like spray painting everything back to compete with imaginary m0dderZ BoiZe. I swear rags like MaximumPC, and sites like [H]ard OCP and Tom's Hardware made it seem like custom rigs where anywhere and everywhere. In reality I didn't know anyone inside 50-miles that rolled with non-standard exotic hardware. WTF was I thinking?

[ColecoGamer]

14 minutes ago, Keatah said:

I'm so much smarter for having worked through those PC problems of the 90's (and later). Especially the problematic Microsoft ones.

 

As far as ADAM goes, I never got into it. By the time it was out I was already past knee-deep in too many other platforms. Thankfully the industry was beginning to digest itself down into fewer and fewer of them.

Based on my personal experience, you were smart to avoid the Adam. My father loved the ColecoVision (as did I) by the end before the ‘crash’, which I believe was his reasoning for buying me the computer. 

Edited January 17, 2022 by ColecoGamer

[Keatah]

ColecoVision was one of the most anticipated systems of the time (for me). The Intellivision and 2600 just kinda-sorta showed up. They appeared on the store shelf and we took them home. Little or no prior reading or discussion. Got the 2600 first, on release day. And same for Inty.

 

But with CV there was plenty of advance notice, rumors put in our head by the magazines. Mockups of the white injection-molded plastics, with controllers that had the roller knob. Maybe some TV ads. But clearly lots talk in printed publications. Announcements of advanced cartridges with 16K and 24K and 32K of ROM. Fresh new catalog. All centered around Arcade-like graphics. And it didn't disappoint. These were heady times - bringing the arcades home was within my grasp!

 

And we all appreciated that it worked right out of the box. Playing Donkey Kong within a matter of minutes. No computery stuff to learn.

[eightbit]

8 hours ago, jhd said:

 

Did you choose the Poltergeist game, or did the salesman push it on you? Color Cubes or Backgammon may have been less fun, but not by a significant margin. 

 

There are so very many better choices, even limiting the choice to cartridge games available at RS in 1983. 

He sold me on it

[+GoldLeader]

6 hours ago, ColecoGamer said:

Based on my personal experience, you were smart to avoid the Adam. My father loved the ColecoVision (as did I) by the end before the ‘crash’, which I believe was his reasoning for buying me the computer. 

 

At the time,  I could see being soured on the ADAM...But where are all those old crappy broken PCs now?  Can barely use'em for Target Practice...and don't want'em to end up in landfills, even have to be careful about your info being on there somewhere.  In short you can't do Anything with them.  OTOH, the ADAM?  I can still use it play Coleco and Atari Games!  SO it's STILL useful and fun.   ADAM FTW!

[zzip]

On 1/16/2022 at 5:15 AM, JamesS said:

Sorry to all the fans of these computers. I seriously wonder though if anyone uses them. Lots of videos on YouTube of people working on Macs and talking about how great they are. But honestly never see them actually use them for anything? Maybe I'm just watching the wrong videos.

Macs have crept into the business world in a much bigger way in the past 10 years or so.  At my current job, seems like nearly all developers use them and many others have them as their primary computer.    I have Mac laptop but it's a secondary system for me, as I need it to do iOS related stuff sometimes.

[Tuxon86]

15 minutes ago, zzip said:

Macs have crept into the business world in a much bigger way in the past 10 years or so.  At my current job, seems like nearly all developers use them and many others have them as their primary computer.    I have Mac laptop but it's a secondary system for me, as I need it to do iOS related stuff sometimes.

Yep!

 

Macs are used in media creation, my company has its own video recording studio and they use Macs with FCP and Logic. They're also used in web design since they also run the Adobe suite. And being Unix based (BSD) they're also great dev platform as you said, especially with the use of Homebrew .

 

I've one of the last Intel based iMac 27" at home. I use it with FL Studio.

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, zzip said:

Macs have crept into the business world in a much bigger way in the past 10 years or so.  At my current job, seems like nearly all developers use them and many others have them as their primary computer. 

As relates to enterprise adoption of Macs: until about 2014, they were a real PITA to integrate with Active Directory.  They'd do it, but not what you might call well by any stretch of the imagination, and running Open Directory to make up for it sucked.  Things are better now in that regard, to be sure, but still not 100%.  Buy-in costs are still much higher than their Dell / HP / other equivalents, and there's a retraining equation to consider for a) end users and b) support staff.  These are two main reasons why you don't tend to see them on too many corporate desks.

 

By no means am I suggesting that Macs can't work in enterprise environments: they can, but unless there's a specific need for them, 99% of cases are generally better off with a Windows machine.  Having run IT environments in the entertainment industry, they've carved out a really solid niche for themselves.  Ditto education, which Apple's been in for four decades at this point; IT and development also have some inroads.  But for the accounting department?  Nope, even though Excel on the Mac and Windows are functionally-equivalent and 100% compatible.  Same goes for HR, other administrative groups, and sales.  Marketing may be an exception, but generally only if they're doing their graphic design in-house.

 

Anyway, @zzip, that reply wasn't specifically directed at you - it's my generic get-it-off-my-chest Macs In Enterprise rant.

[ColecoGamer]

18 hours ago, eightbit said:

He sold me on it

I had to look on Youtube for the Poltergeist game. I had no idea it was based on the horror movie of the same name. I can see why you disliked it so much, though. There seems to be only three screens, and the game itself looks rather boring. Running from house to house finding items; climbing a haunted staircase; and then shooting the faces of Poltergeist. Yeah, it’s nothing like the movie. 
 

Whoever talked you into buying that game back then should have been ashamed of themselves. Lol

[ColecoGamer]

3 hours ago, zzip said:

Macs have crept into the business world in a much bigger way in the past 10 years or so.  At my current job, seems like nearly all developers use them and many others have them as their primary computer.    I have Mac laptop but it's a secondary system for me, as I need it to do iOS related stuff sometimes.

They most certainly have! I have a 27” Intel i7 iMac and a new M1 MacBook Pro. I love my Apple computers. Mac OS reminds me of a modern day version of Amiga OS - user-friendly; quick and easy to use; and very customizable. It’s a great alternative to Windoze. 

[+OLD CS1]

15 minutes ago, ColecoGamer said:

Mac OS reminds me of a modern day version of Amiga OS

Your post made me a heretic.

[Serguei2]

Micor with Win 98 installed.

 

 

It's a pentium celeron computer.

 

All computers I own, Micor is the only one who crashes/freezes almost everyday.

[H454]

The worst I ever bought- well If you include "built" - than 4 or 5 computers from the mid 90's to the 2000's.

 

Does anybody remember COMPUTER SHOWS!?! AT YOUR LOCAL FAIRGROUNDS! FRIDAY TROUGH SUNDAY ONLY!

Crappy clone motherboards with no cache.

CYRIX 586

Crappy video cards

All bought from a guy with a thick eastern-bloc accent.

Finally stopped going to those and started buying my parts from a local shop in town.

Last show I went to, I told my friend I didn't like buying the crap hardware that had shitty xerox manuals and where a PITA to get working.

He said he "liked the challenge".

I said I will pay the extra $20/30 dollars to have cpu/MB combo that works and isn't slower than molasses.

 

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

8 hours ago, H454 said:

CYRIX 586

Be glad it wasn't a Cyrix MediaGX.  With one exception, every friggin' low-end device I had to test during the OMG INTERNET APPLIANCES ARE COMING era had one of those in it, and every single one made me want to strangle the person who settled on it for that particular design.

 

Note that I'm not saying the Cyrix 586 was in any way what you might call 'good' or even 'adequate': if anything, it proved that Cyrix could offer a comprehensive range of crap CPUs.  It's more that the MediaGX was in a league of its own when it came to suck.

[MrMaddog]

8 hours ago, H454 said:

The worst I ever bought- well If you include "built" - than 4 or 5 computers from the mid 90's to the 2000's.

 

Does anybody remember COMPUTER SHOWS!?! AT YOUR LOCAL FAIRGROUNDS! FRIDAY TROUGH SUNDAY ONLY!

Crappy clone motherboards with no cache.

CYRIX 586

Crappy video cards

All bought from a guy with a thick eastern-bloc accent.

Finally stopped going to those and started buying my parts from a local shop in town.

Last show I went to, I told my friend I didn't like buying the crap hardware that had shitty xerox manuals and where a PITA to get working.

He said he "liked the challenge".

I said I will pay the extra $20/30 dollars to have cpu/MB combo that works and isn't slower than molasses.

 

 

Yeah, that's exactly how I got my worse PC build because I didn't know any better.  After my friend showed me how to build a decent PC, I've been buying upgrade parts and even bare bone kits from online dealers like TigerDirect & NewEgg.

 

The best purchase I had from those shows was a VGA KB/M switch box to use for my PC & Dreamcast after seeing a whole wall of monitors run Sonic Adventure 2 in glorious 60 FPS...

 

(Still had to buy a VGA Adapter from EBGames.)