Places to procure 3000s, post-Katrina
September 29, 2005
Out on the 3000-L mailing list and newsgroup, a customer has reported that Hurricane Katrina had taken down his company's HP 3000 for good, dumping five feet of water into an office whose roof was ripped off by the storm. The customer wanted to know where he might start looking for a replacement Seris 918LX, one of the most common HP 3000s in the installed base.
The 3000 community is full of resources for such hardware. The Web is a great help.
Pivital Solutions provides used HP 3000s — and it was one of the last authorized new HP 3000 resellers before HP de-commissioned the whole new 3000 sales business nearly two years ago:
For many years, Genisys has also supported our newsletter by advertising its used HP 3000 systems:
Resource 3000’s consortium for homesteaders also includes a hardware sales and support operation, courtesy of R3K partner Ideal Computer Services:
www.icsgroup.com/sales/sales.html
Update, Sept. 30
HP's Bill Cadier of the MPE/iX Lab located a Web page with contacts that will assist HP customers post-disaster:
I just read your most recent blog on places to procure 3000's post-Katrina, and I wanted to let you know that HP also has a Web site where hurricane victims can find assistance recovering their systems: http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/
cache/262807-0-0-225-121.html (Opens in a new page)
There are other resources for hardware sales, including a healthy list of brokers and resellers at the only user advocacy group operating for HP 3000 customers — OpenMPE.
OpenMPE, the group serving 3000 sites exclusively now that Interex has gone broke, has a good page of used 3000 equipment brokers:
918 systems do come up on eBay from time to time. There’s an 918RX, not an LX, being offered this week on eBay by Cypress Technology for $5,000, including a COBOL compiler and lots of other software licenses.
HP 3000s which don't survive disasters like Katrina — and many have survived such severe storms — still have their software intact, so long as the backups are stored safely. The customer on the 3000-L list had safe backups, so whenever this 3000 shop gets its replacement machine, it will need to have the software licenses transferred. HP does this service for the MPE/iX software and subsystems, but the vendor now charges a $400 fee for such transfers.
The transfers are necessary because HP says a 3000’s software licenses are tied to the hardware, like "license plates are tied to specific vehicles." The point surfaced while HP was suing hardware brokers for violations of HP's licensing. HP tried to sue its insurance company in 2004 for unpaid claims on the 3000 hardware which HP claimed was sold illegally. HP's claim was reduced by two-thirds in a settlement.