Ben's Computers - Our Team

I have been using computers since college. Back then in the IBM punch card era, your program was contained on a stack of cards, one instruction per card. You submitted the job and with any luck you might get some useful output! Turnaround time varied from 15 minutes to overnight.

My first personal computer was an Apple II with a CPU running at 1.203 MHz, with 48 KB of RAM and twin 5 ½ “disk drives. Each disk held 140 KB, whereas a basic Apple watch holds about 1000 times more data.

Next came an Apple //e even more improvements. After that, I purchased an IBM compatible with lots of bells and whistles.

My iPhone has more computing capability and data storage than the IBM 360 and 370 mainframes of yesteryear!

I am comfortable with some of the idiosyncrasies of older computers because I know that:

1. You can’t boot from a USB drive; it must be a CD or a floppy disk.
2. The hard drive or solid-state drive must be formatted, or it will not be detected by the BIOS.
3. Current versions of Windows operating systems are larger than 4.6 GB, so they do not fit on a normal DVD.
4. You need proprietary drivers for the different types of hardware on your computer – the video card, the CD player, the network card etc. These drivers were unique to the brand of computer and to the hardware. A driver for a Dell video card would not work on an HP computer and video card.

In addition to keeping your old system running, I can setup a network for your home or office, build or maintain your server, setup a maintenance program for your computers and printers, or build a computer system for your specific needs.