It seems nobody likes the 97

[John Garza (3665)]

(05-24-2023 07:22 PM)AndiGer Wrote:  Meanwhile my collection grew to several 97s. Most of them restored to fully working card reader and printer rollers.
Maybe I should sell some :-) as I can‘t use more than one at the same time. Ok - a second one while a program is still running on the other :-D

Yep that's what started this thread.

In addition to my 'Inbox' of 5 machines queued up for work, I have 5 units I restored. So when the dust settles, do I really need 10 HP-97s? Of course not. I keep one in the lab and one in a bookcase in the study in case I need to use them. The others are stored away.

Yet I'm moved to buy them when I consider it a bargain. A 97 for $200 that is repairable in a day is a bargain to me. Card reader repair is easy, The printer is easy too, just more tedious. After you've done a couple, the next ones go much faster.

And yes most of my 'real work' is on spreadsheets these days. But I go out of my way to process some of the simpler problems and hobby related work on the old machines, just so I can use them.

And in retrospect, decades ago I would have chosen the 67 over the 97. Mainly for portability reasons. Now that's not much of an issue. Bigger desks and weaker eyes!

-J

[35/45/55/80/70/65/67/67T/97/97S/91/92/21/22/27/25C/29C/19C/10/
31E/32E/33C/34C/37E/38C/41CX/71B/28S/19BII/12C/15C/33S/35S/32SII/
48GX/50G/Prime/DM42]