[aclug-L] Dell 486s

[Jeff <schaller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Whoever it was that said, "Don't plan on upgrading those Dells without a
sledgehammer" wasn't kidding!  If I find who designed these cases, I'll
... well, I dunno what I'd do to them.  Here's the story:

We have our intrepid Jeff, wanting to install linux on these wonderful
machines.  All the machine has for peripherals is a (wiped) HD and a 3.5" 
floppy. Ok, I have a CD-Rom I can use.  Open the case (3 easy thumb screws
on the back).  Cool, there's a spare power supply cable for the CDROM, ok,
just need to plug it into the IDE chain.  Look around.  OK, there's the HD
back there ... hey, where's that IDE cable go?  It tucks right underneath
the drive, down to the motherboard. The drive itself is mounted on a metal
stand.  Alright, we need to pull the stand off.  Oops, can't get to it,
pull out the power supply.  Oops, power supply feeds the motherboard with
a 2" piece of cable. Alright, move the power supply enough to unscrew the
HD stand. Disconnect the IDE cable & power to HD, pull the stand out. 
What ho!  Not only is there ONE IDE channel (and one for the floppy), but
the cable connecting it to the HD is a simple single-ended cable, maybe 5
inches long.  OKAY, I can use the IDE cable from the other machine; it has
3 connectors (1 on each end, 1 in middle), so I plug that in, put the HD &
CDROM on.  Boot up, no errors, yay.  Try to install.  Can't find the
CDROM.  Doesn't even detect.

Time to yank the drive into a different computer ;)

To be continued...

-jeff "maybe a network install would be easier..."

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