What's EPSON PC-486SR?
When we say Japanese Domestic PC,NEC PC-9800 series were King of Japanese PC before emergence of MS-Windows.My PC,EPSON PC-486SR is a PC-9800 compatible machine.About 4 years ago,EPSON had stopped making PC-9800 compatible machines,So there were not so many what we called EPSON98 users.
This page is my tragedy about EPSON PC-486SR...
Specification
CPU:i486SX33MHz + i486DX4ODP100
MEMORY:4MB on board + 4MB SIMM + 16MB SIMM
HDD:SASI 200MB + SCSI 1GB
VRAM:4MB
Why I bought this PC?
I bought this PC in November 1994.Because I earned a lot of money by doing a tutor as part time job in October 1994, I decided to buy a PC.But the money I earned was not enough to buy a good PC,so I couldn't buy new one.I made up my mind to buy used one.I had many unknown specifications or functions about PC.All that I know was the name of CPU.It was very difficult for me to understand that which PC was better. I started to look for a cheap one.
Beginning of Waste of Money
In Japan,Akihabara is famous that there are a lot of electric products shop,especially PC shop.Also in Shinjuku,Some famous electric product shop are there.I often went to Akihabara and Shinjuku after I decided to buy a PC.One day, I found a small desktop type PC at Akihabara.It was not more expensive than other PCs that had the same cpu.Only the number of extend slots (NEC called it `C-BUS') was differnt.The PC I found has two extend slots but others have three or four ones.But I didn't know how important the slots were.Then I thought,"Now I buy this small NEC compatible PC,and learn how to use computer.and a few years later I'll have a lot of knowledge about computers.After that,I'm going to buy new one!".Actually,THAT WAS NOT GOOD IDEA!That was beginning of waste much money and I got poorer and poorer.I'll write details next time.
First Problem
I went back home after I bought PC.But I didn't buy a monitor!I had neither enough time to choose it nor enough money to buy it.It was a great mistake.I couldn't do anything without a monitor.So I had to go to Akihabara again,and buy a kind of "down scan converter" which is able to view the screen on TV.I don't know the correct name of the converter.In Japan,we call it "video scan converter".It was about 20,000 yen.A multiscan type monitor was about 40,000 yen then.I always choose a cheeper one,and waste my money.This was a first problem with my PC.For my TV is very very old type which was made in 1974,it doesn't have video connecters,I had to do following procedure when I want to use PC.
(1)Turn on the TV and the Video tape recorder
(2)Turn on the Video scan converter
(3)At last Turn on the PC
And to make bad things worse,TV screen was not as clear as the PC monitor.My eyesight was falling little by little.But that was just the beginning of tragedy...