On Sat, 10 Oct 2015 20:16:18 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

wrote in message
On Fri, 9 Oct 2015 21:41:01 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:
wrote in message

stuff snipped
It was interesting to watch the industry mature.
Eventually the holes in cases
actually lined up with the holes in the motherboards.
Actually, to LEGALLY sell the case, the case had to be FCC approved.
So did the power supply, and the motherboard, and the hard drive
controller, and the video card, etc.

I never saw FCC certifications on anything but parts that were clearly used
for RF transmission or attachment to the POTS lines.


Used to be FCC or DOC on all computer compnents. I've got CD drives
with FCC certs on them
I haven't built a clone in almost 10 years, and it.s been 26 years
since I was in the computer "manufacturing" business.
And even a system assembled from ALL fcc certified parts could not
LEGALLY be sold, because the whole system needed to be approved. EVERY
combination a company wanted to sell nneeded to be tested and
approved.
I know, because the company I was part of for 5 years spent 10s of
thousands of dollars getting the systems we built approved - and then
on top of that we spent another hundred grand or more getting ISO9000
certification so we could sell to government agencies.

So in your case, it's the buyers that really ran the show and who probably
wouldn't have bought your machines without certification. Lots of customers
weren't so picky.

For me the simple equation was that selling clones them made it a business
but assembling them for personal use made me a hobbyist.

Besides, in those days of people using illegal amplifiers on their CB
radios, it was clear the FCC didn't (and probably still doesn't) have the
resources to investigate, fine and confiscate the illegally boosted CB
radios. So they weren't going after clone builders like me and IIRC, they
didn't go after ANY clone makers that I ever heard of.

The same clone builders around the DC area advertised for years and years
and only one, the guy I got my parts from, didn't sell assembled machines
for the reasons you mentioned. But he did always have a line on the latest
and greatest video card.

I find it amusing how much progress was made in the PC world because of
gamers and overclockers. I knew gamers that got the new, latest and
greatest video cards every few months and even brand new PC's when the new
video cards required a new type of slot their machines lacked.

The idiot MBA who "took over" the company started substituting parts
on builds to "save money" - rendering the DOC (canadian) and CSA
certifications void -------.

That's called "leadership" and your MBA was leading your company to the
promised land of Bankruptcy just east of the River Jordan. (-"