Coming back to the past hooking up old windows XP

Atari The Jedi

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So I've been doing a lot in the hobby but, I recently picked up an old EMP 30 burner. Really wanted to play with it. Over the past 10 or 12 years I've been picking upTowers randomly. Today I knew I needed to go back to at least Windows XP in order to test this puppy out anyways after spending most of the day, the very last computer I tried (Compaq D510). I found it in a closed bank's parking lot about 3 years ago. It just happens to have Windows XP pro. took me a little bit but I got it up and running and connected to the internet at least. I'm pretty sure I have to go into Dos to run the burner, but at least the software is loaded on the computer. On a separate note since I've ordered so many capacitors from APAR I now have a small boatload so I plan on recapping this computer since about 60% of the caps look like they're about to go. Computer was made in 2002 so it's right during the capacitor crisis.
Anyways it's just been a great day for memories. I've always said that XP was my favorite OS, followed by 95, 3.1 98, and so on down the line. I've decided I'll keep this in the garage and have it hooked up, so I can surf the web and read and burn chips. Now I got to remember how to use DOS Again. Every few years I teach myself and then I forget 😜
 

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I have an EMP-10 still running in a Windows 98 eMachines... at some point I did a clean install of the OS and now just use it for ROM stuff. Amazed every time it boots up and works...
 
If you connected it to the Internet, especially without modern and currently supported anti-virus/anti-malware software, then that computer is most likely already infected with malware, viruses, etc. I recall seeing an article last year where it only took about 5-10 minutes for an unprotected XP machine to be compromised (multiple times), without surfing to any websites or doing anything other than being connected.

Scott C.
 
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If you ever once connected it to the 'net, then disconnect it and reinstall it.
Don't even bother with anything else...REINSTALL THE OS.
And never connect it to the internet again.

5-10 minutes is a long time for infection. And 10 minutes is right around the LONGEST it can remain uncompromised. There are viruses that ping every ten minutes looking for open local machines. I'm sure there are others that are even more agressive.

It can happen in as little as 15 seconds. (That's rare I guess, but possible. I've seen it.)

If you need to download somthing to the machine only use sneaker net. (You carry a floppy/USB drive across the room using your sneakers for transport.)
And always thoroughly scan the portable media on the networked machine before tranferring it to the XP machine.
 
Be careful. I'm not aware of any anti-virus support for XP anymore.

I keep mine air-gapped to use a pilot logkeeping program. And mine starts up every time.
 
All of my back-end computers run either Win7 or Linux, both of which still have support by some anti-virus/anti-malware vendors. Further, all are air-gapped and I use sneaker-net for file transfers after they have been scanned. Works great for my purposes. As for XP, you're likely right @ArcadeTechGW. That's not something I have looked into for a number of years, especially since moving a lot of my systems to Linux.

The moral of this whole conversation: Don't ever, ever, ever put a WinXP computer on the Internet, even for 15 seconds! ;(
However, WinXP is still a good OS for using EPROM related software. However, even some of that software is moving away from WinXP support.

Scott C.
 
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Yeah I went on there just for course a few minutes to kind of test it out. Hooked it right into my little home server. My plan is to take my other computer and download Norton again and get what I need to update it with any patches They don't support any more antivirus stuff but I'll get the latest that I can for it. And then it will stay offline with maybe just trivial exception and absolutely needed. Because I know things are different now
 
Local cop who had gotten into the printing business approached me some months back asking me about windows XP. Someone in the printing industry gave him a large format printer but the drivers were only XP compatible. Looked through some of my old towers i keep around and sure enough, i found a dell which actually had a windows Vista sticker and alongside it had a XP serial apparently used under the downgrade rights.

One less cool printer in the landfill. these old computers still have their uses.
 
When I want to burn an EPROM using my EMP-10, I get out my old Dell laptop. It runs Windows XP, has a parallel port and USB ports. However, I've never gotten the DOS based Needhams software to work right under Win XP.
My process became: use USB flash drive to bring the needed file(s) over to the laptop, copy them to a 3.5 inch DOS boot floppy disk that has the software on it, exit Win XP, boot from the floppy, run the software from the floppy and burn the EPROM.

Although now I have a USB GQ-4X4 ...
 
You need the special parallel port driver from Needhams to use the DOS software under Windows.
I think XP was the one where that change occurred.
 
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