Gaby Chaudry

It all began when my typewriter and my television set got broken at the same time. Now I thought to myself: Buy a computer, so you'll kill two birds with one stone. No sooner said than done: shortly after that I found myself with a 286 PC. That was back in 1991.

So I happened to come to know the man who then became my boy-friend - he was the one to sell me the computer. To cut a long story short: He owned a HP Terminal Model 2647A, that someone had given him as a mortgage. It was totally disassembled, since another guy wanted to know what's inside of it, but never managed to put it together again in the right way. As we didn't have any manuals we had no idea how to get it working again. I have to add that this was a quite rare model, as there were produced only about 32'000 pieces ever (worldwide) up to the beginning of the 80's.

I was so much disappointed about the fact that this cool old machine didn't work that one day my boy-friend had the idea to give it to me as a gift - so now the problem was on my side...

But I had an idea: If it is so hard to get any manuals for this machine - HP didn't answer any of my requests - so what about getting another one? Of course my boy-friend called this a bold attempt (and he was right), just imagining how many of these models might be left in 1992.

Anyway, only some weeks later a had a second one! Although its condition was quite bad - it seemed to have spent years in a humid dungeon - it was complete and it came with manuals! So, after a long period, by picking up the best parts out of each, I managed to build up a working one out of two. The first time I read "Terminal ready" I was thrilled and became definitely enthusiastic.