I purchased this Evesham WinXP machine brand new in May 2002. I
was running another Evesham computer at the time, a Win98 machine
which I purchased in January 2000. I was very happy with the Win98
computer but wanted another PC to back stuff up. I had been using
a most dreadful Iomega CD writer on the Win98 machine and wanted
something a little more stable. The WinXP machine came with NERO
a very good CD writing suite and it worked like magic.
The two computers were networked together and although I had dial
-up on the Win98 machine, the XP machine to this day has never
been online. When I first had the computer I actually had to ring
Microsoft to validate the OS. In those days MS chose to set the
TCP/IP open all the time whilst not providing any security or
firewall as part of the XP OS. It was only later that they plugged
the hole.
And so the XP machine was only ever used to burn CDs and back up
the hard drive on the Win98 and Win95 machines. It kinda worked
without fault and the only item that I have replaced is the battery.
Sad then to discover that the computer suffers from the dreaded
capacitor plague that affected computers from 1999-07.
During the early 2000s poor product from Taiwan meant that a lot
of PCs were fitted with substandard capacitors that failed. These
are distinct by the green and gold colouring of the capacitor. The
type was the aluminium electrolytic capacitors manufactured between
1999 and 2007. The problem was with the electrolyte composition that
caused corrosion by gas generation. The problem was well documented
and prolific in many of the more well known brands of computers and
component cards.
You can see the distinctive brown ooze pouring out the top of the
green coloured capacitors. Such a shame really. The computer works
without fault, as she always has. I guess I could replace the things
but for now she sits as she always has as a standby machine and
generally unloved.
My original Win98 machine cost £1392 in Jan 2000 , with the Evesham
XP machine costing a lesser sum of £696 in May 2002. Half the cost.
It was about this time that I purchased also a brand new Amiga 1200
from Analogic in London which was a third of that later XP cost. The
box was the Amiga Magic Pack.
Just a final comment.. If you come across 'BIGFIX' running on any of
your computers I seriously would disable it immediately. It like
slows your machine to a stand still. The idea was that it recorded
everything you did so you could go back to an earlier date to restore.
It was used by companies that wanted to avoid site visits to fix
bugged installations.
