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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: goneriah on Mon, 20 March 2017, 10:44:14

Title: IBM Model M - Second plate label?
Post by: goneriah on Mon, 20 March 2017, 10:44:14

Hey everyone. New here and hoping I'm posting this in the right spot.

Can anyone help me figure out what this second label is on the plate? It looks like it may be a quality control thing but I have no idea. Any help would be appreciated as google has lead me nowhere.

(http://i.imgur.com/NmxRgsJ.jpg)

Title: Re: IBM Model M - Second plate label?
Post by: Tactile on Mon, 20 March 2017, 11:19:58

I think it's a label from a refurb company. There were/are companies which would refurb malfunctioning IBM keyboards for companies which had a lot of them. I worked for a company which had a lot of IBM terminals - I'd guess somewhere around 150. There was a constant rotation of both M and F 122 key keyboards as they would malfunction (most common on the shop floor) and be replaced. The bad boards would go on the pile 'till it got so high, then they would all be sent out to a refurb company. We'd get them back refreshed, cleaned, shrink-wrapped, and ready to go back into service.

I think your mysterious second label is from one of those outfits.

Title: Re: IBM Model M - Second plate label?
Post by: goneriah on Mon, 20 March 2017, 11:37:57

Quote from: Tactile on Mon, 20 March 2017, 11:19:58

I think it's a label from a refurb company. There were/are companies which would refurb malfunctioning IBM keyboards for companies which had a lot of them. I worked for a company which had a lot of IBM terminals - I'd guess somewhere around 150. There was a constant rotation of both M and F 122 key keyboards as they would malfunction (most common on the shop floor) and be replaced. The bad boards would go on the pile 'till it got so high, then they would all be sent out to a refurb company. We'd get them back refreshed, cleaned, shrink-wrapped, and ready to go back into service.

I think your mysterious second label is from one of those outfits.

The only reason I'm suspicious of that is because this was an old lady's personal computer. I got the whole Model 25 system with peripherals and it was all in incredibly good condition. Maybe she got it from the company she worked for after it was used a few years. I wonder when companies decided to swap out systems back then. Regardless, I'm intrigued.

Title: Re: IBM Model M - Second plate label?
Post by: rowdy on Wed, 07 June 2017, 22:55:07

A refurb sticker sounds plausible.

Model M hails from the time when people would repair a broken keyboard instead of throwing it out and buying a new one.