Subject: Used Computers Get a New Lease on Life 
Date: Published: 7/21/92 (102 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Health -- Information Age:
    Used Computers Get a New Lease on Life
    ----
    By William Bulkeley

    With new name-brand computers selling for less than $1,000, used
 computers aren't worth a lot these days.
    But they can be priceless in the right hands.  "There's an
 infinity of demand" for old computers if they don't cost anything,
 says Alexander Randall, president of the Boston Computer Exchange, a
 used computer dealer.  Mr. Randall runs a nonprofit group called the
 East West Education Development Foundation that donates old
 computers to organizations in the former Soviet Union and Eastern
 Europe.  "These computers are too smart to scrap," he says.
    A number of nonprofit groups and foundations are almost
 salivating at the prospect of companies giving away old
 IBM-compatibles and Macintoshes by the thousands as they upgrade to
 new-generation computers that can run Microsoft Corp. 's Windows
 software and state-of-the art programs from other makers.
    "If you give a decent machine, it's guaranteed it can be used
 somewhere," says Diana Detwiler, executive director of Computers for
 Schools, a La Jolla, Calif., group that coordinates the donation of
 used computers to the San Diego-area schools.  "Your old computer has
 the power to give new life," says Yvette Marrin, president of the
 National Cristina Foundation, Pelham Manor, N. Y., which gives used
 computers to disabled people.
    Of course, most charities want Apple Computer Inc. Macintoshes or
 machines based on Intel Corp. 's 386 chip machines, just like the
 rest of us.  But in the beggars-can't-be-choosers tradition, many say
 they can use less.  The Boston Computer Society lists a request for
 an International Business Machines Corp. PC for the Malawi Council
 for the Handicapped in Africa, as well as requests for old machines
 from such groups as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, for fund-raising
 efforts; an AIDS support group, for member tracking; and a clinic
 for homeless people that wants to disseminate nutritional
 information for use in homeless shelters.
    Until recently, few used computers found their way to charities.
 When high-powered users bought more powerful computers, their
 machines were passed to co-workers.  Older PCs were often sold to
 employees for use at home.  Almost any used PCs could be sold for
 cash to used computer dealers.
    But about 11 months ago, the original IBM PC with floppy disk
 drives fell under $400 on the Boston Computer Exchange, making it
 too cheap to handle, Mr. Randall says.  Last winter, the first
 hard-drive machines fell below that mark, and now some AT-class PCs
 with the more powerful 286 chip have fallen below $400, making them
 prime candidates for donation.
    Still, such donations don't always meet the real needs of
 charities, experts say.  Susan Corrigan, president of Gifts in Kind
 America, a Virginia group that brokers donations of new equipment,
 says, "Anything four- to five-years-old is really on the edge of
 usefulness."  Nevertheless, she's investigating the donation to
 public schools of 700 used computers from a North Carolina company
 upgrading its PCs.
    In some cases, companies have had a hard time unloading used
 machines.  When Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was replacing some
 old Wang Laboratories Inc. minicomputer equipment, it took middleman
 Non-Profit Computing Inc. several months to find a home in a New
 York housing agency, according to John L. German, the group's
 director.
    Used PCs can pose other problems for donors, too.  Lotus
 Development Corp., the Cambridge, Mass., software firm, worried
 about giving away used computers with missing or broken parts,
 because it feared it would be obligated to fix them later.  After Mr. 
 Randall convinced Lotus that East West would make sure they worked,
 Lotus cleaned out 12 pallets of old machines from storerooms.  In
 East West's South Boston warehouse, expatriate Russians cannibalize
 broken donations to assemble them into working machines.
    Another issue is technical expertise.  The Boston Computer
 Society, among other computer groups, has organized volunteers to
 provide technical help to nonprofit groups installing computers and
 software.  Mr. Randall visits groups in the former Eastern Bloc to
 make sure they know how to use the equipment -- and need it in the
 first place.  In Kiev in May, he met with the Ukrainian Center for
 Independent Political Research, a group that publishes union
 newsletters with three computers donated by the AFL-CIO.  Luba Shara,
 a researcher for the group now studying Ukrainian history at Harvard
 University, says that one computer caught fire because it was being
 used around the clock, and that all the letters wore off the
 keyboard of another, leading Mr. Randall to ship five more computers
 to the group.
    Even the former Eastern Bloc can't take everything, though.
 Minicomputers and mainframes are hard to place because they require
 trained technicians and carry steep annual maintenance bills, but
 their gold-plated circuit boards make them attractive to recyclers.
 PCs too old or decrepit for use may get thrown into the trash just
 like broken televisions.  Otto Shlesinger, a Brooklyn, N. Y., computer
 scrap broker says PC clones only contain about $10 worth of scrap.
 Digital Equipment Corp. boasts that it recycles old terminal
 housings into plastic roof shingles.
    Even if they work, off-brand PCs are generally worthless.  At one
 time, Bulgaria emphasized computers that used the ancient CPM
 operating system.  But today, "even the Bulgarians won't take
 Osbornes and Kaypros," laments Mr. Randall.

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