These are kind of my least favorite scope of all time - they're on the verge of being "modern", but running win95 really hinders them. They have USB ports, but you can't use USB sitcks because windows 95 doesn't work with USB sticks well. It has network, but it's hard to connect to modern filesystem shares, because win95 is so old. When I had to use one of these, the only way I found to get screenshots off it reliably was to use a USB to CF adapter with a CF card in it. It would be interesting to try to get the scope application running in windows 7, and upgrade the motherboard to something more modern. Sometimes you can do that pretty easily, and sometimes it just won't work
I kinda of hated these HP scopes as unfortunately uses one for years and yes everything you stated is completely true unfortunately, plus very limited memory. Now good thing about them is they have a build calibrator instead of having to rely on an expensive Fluke automatic external calibrator like the Tektronix oscilloscope from this era. Plus pretty easy to get parts for as way to many still around so can find hybrids and etc pretty easily. Of course I just bought the whole scope for spare parts as much cheaper then buying parts off crazy eBay sellers that ask ridiculous prices that no one really pays and stay listed for years hoping they will find a sucker. Yes as much hate I have for this series of DPO oscilloscope I bought a couple 1.5 GHz 4 channels version of it. One being low hours in mint condition and other for spares. It going to replace my 1 GHz 784C I loved but retiring as want only one DPO on the bench not two as have limited bench space and reason using only the 350 MHz only currently. Yes could buy a new Rigol or Siglent DSO and call it a day and would be cheaper as can get a decent MSO version for cheaper around 1k but do like one with at least 1 GHz bandwidth and those cost 10k plus for a decent one like the Rigol MSO8000 and the logic analyzers in those cheaper 350 MHz MSO’s like the HP MSOX3000 series that I had but ASIC failed repaired it then a year later FPGA failed and sold it for parts as paid 1.5k last time for a broken spare board to take BGA ASIC off of to repair it as can’t buy separate parts for it and when it was working found it to be way to limited and I work on older stuff with CPU’s had external buses like arcade board and ETC and one piece of gear that HP made that I absolutely love is hp logic analyzer 1670 series one thing HP did manage to get right, I wish they made their oscilloscopes that good. So being had bad luck with HP oscilloscopes in general you can understand why I don’t really care for them. I usually only like Lecroy or Tektronix oscilloscopes. For everyone one else working on FPGA’s and arduino and etc a newer MSO like the Rigol MSO5000 Series will be better in measurement and deep memory then these older DPO’s back in the day. Me I just prefer the older equipment as work on vintage arcade boards and RF and analog electronics.
@@thetechgenie7374 I used one of the 1.5Ghz 4ch one of these in grad school. They're also super big and heavy too! My personal scope was a 54645D, basically a MSO before they called them MSOs, and now in the last few years, I've acquired a couple MSOX2000 series - a 2ch and a 4ch. Both have been 'upgraded' to the max capabilities of the hardware. That sucks that you had a 3000 series blow an asic AND a FPGA - sounds like a voltage rail was out of spec and running too high. Generally the 2000 and 3000 series seem to be pretty bulletproof, with the exception of the nvram corruption firmware bug (which is good, because that's how you can get them cheap). I'd like to track down a 4 ch 3000 series. I have a 16900 series logic analyzer (the bigger and one generation newer cousin of the 1670) - they kindof screwed the pooch on that one too - the logic analyzer cards have these plastic runners on the back of the board that the glue goes corrosive over time, and eats traces and vias off the boards. They're a real b17ch to fix, but worth it in the end. 100% of the cards, both the 16700 series and 16900 series cards are failing at this point in time because the traces on the boards are damaged. There's only 3 states the cards can be in - failed, on the verge of failing, or someone has spent hours under a microscope fixing them. The 16900 mainframe can be upgraded with a modern motherboard and run windows7 though, making the logic analyzer software much faster, and providing usb2, gig ethernet, and modern monitor support. If that same upgrade could be done to these older series infinium scopes, they'd be a lot more desirable.