Your Best Dumpster Finds

[etnietering]

A couple years ago I found a fully working Pioneer SX-950, that had had the plug cut off. So I bought a 2 dollar plug and attached it and it worked just fine. Also at the same place was a fully working (including the plug) Sansui QS-500. Within a week or two I had found 2 sets of speakers, and so for the price of a plug and some cables I had a huge working sound system.

[sLowEnd]

i found an Edifier subwoofer a few weeks ago

[ratdude747]

my grandpa once found a lazy-boy by the curb. nice walnut base. some wood screws later and it was good as new

[Marshillboy]

This past weekend my friend gave me his family's "old" Dell Inspiron 530S, because it was sketchily working. I suspect it was merely a bad SATA HDD, and now I have a great media center PC running hulu to my projector. It has 1GB DDR2 ram, a 1.8ghz pentium dual core processor, integrated Intel GMA 3100 (I'm considering upgrading to a dedicated video card), and it's running linux off a USB drive until I can find a cheap SATA HDD replacement.

Earlier this week, my school happened to be throwing out two cosmetically immaculate dell LCD monitors (15" each). While one of them had a cracked lcd panel (I'm keeping it for parts), I've figured out that the other merely has a blown fuse in the inverter board.

In order to test the fuses, however, to be sure I needed a multimeter. It also turns out that my school was throwing out this old multimeter (that works great) from the 80s because it "didn't work". Upon opening it up, an ancient battery had popped and leaked/corroded one battery terminal. Using some sandpaper and white vinegar, I attempted to rescue the solder connection, but it was too far gone. Then, I just clipped/stripped and re-soldered the connection, and now I have a multimeter that works great (and looks like it's never been used).

[Junk Parts]

I just got a 42 inch cut Lawn Tractor for my yard for nothing. It was used two seasons then parked in the barn because the owner died. It has sat for five years. The carb on the 14.5 hp briggs & Stratton I/C OHV motor was all gummed up. Its clean as new now. Changed out the oil, and did a complete grease job. Got one new tire, and a battery today. I'll be using it to cut my grass tomorrow. I have about $50.00 tied up in it and its sweet!
"Green Acres is the place to be. Farm living is the life for me..."

[Wizard]

Just today, was at value village and snagged 3 smart battery nicd/nimh chargers for 3 bucks. That's excellent deal.

Usually you get 4 batteries along with batteries for about 50-80 retail. I do not buy dumb or timer-based chargers.

Cheers, Wizard

[kc8adu]

got a craftsman 14.4v drill free from a neighbor who found it while cleaning out a house.i have another that takes the same packs so i not only have another battery i have a spare drill.last week he gave me a nice petzl headlamp.just needed a battery leak cleaned up.
nobody around here tosses stuff like this.they save it for me.or bring it for repair.so lets say the dumpster comes to me and i dont have to dive!
garage sales are common here and i find lots of nice stuff.one sale last week was loaded with electronics.
the guy told me to load a box and he would make me a deal i couldnt pass up.i did.
a big box of stuff for $20.
2 of the items were a myhd atsc tuner/capture card and a panasonic rf-2200.
a dual core toshiba laptop with a busted screen too.

[geep6]

i found a dell optiplex gx620 with dual 3.0ghz possessor with 512 ram it has a few problems the hard drive was dead it was apparently in a flood do you think the caps need replacing does not boot all the time battery was also damaged leaked acid replaced the battery and the battery holder and cleaned up the acid it had a layer of dried dirt all in in cleaned it all up with a tooth brush and a air compressor i am using it too post on this forum i also found a 42 inch sharp aquos plasma or lcd not sure which it is The screen is damaged but it does come on any one know were i can get a replacement screen for it that would make a nice pc monitor i also found several xbox 360s with red ring of death i returned them to Microsoft for the warranty repair i found two nights ago a dell optiplex gx280 with a dead power supply it has a 40 gig sata hard 256 ram and a dvd rom drive i found this afternoon a Compaq pressario computer complete with key board and mouse haven't messed with it yet i know its a slow pc probably a 700mhz job i dive on a regular basis about every two nights and usually i hit about 30 or so dumpsters a night on the average i have a two door caviler crammed with stuff and then i have a nice big yard sell about two to three times a year i usually make $300 to $400 at each sell and its kinda fun cause you never know what you will find

[DixiePenguin]

Latest computer scores from dumpsters and such:

1 - Tower with P4 2.4, 80gb hdd, 512mb ram, XP pro with COA, 52X CDRW. Marked as DEAD. Problem? Loose ribbon cable.

1 - eMachines eOne 433, needed cleaning, nothing else. Cleaned and did fresh Win98 install. Now delighting a 4 year old young lady with her own pc.

1 - Gateway Pro "alien type" pc, 1.8 P4, dirty with a few scratches, running XP with COA, now waiting for motherboard transplant.

1 - Dell Inspiron 1000, 2ghs celeron, 60 bg hdd, 512mb ram. "Doesn't work, turns on and shuts down, don't know what's wrong, you can have it". My son had it up and running in car by the time we got home. Combination of bad ac adapter and low battery.

3 - lcd monitors, 2 with bad caps, and one with plug short. Waiting for repairs

Best non-computer find? One antique oil company service station sign. Sold for $1500 to petroliana collector.

[kiddznet]

Each year here the Council do a pre-cyclone pick up of items that may be a hazard during a big blow. This year I beat the truck and got 5 PC cases some working with 478 Intel inside, and a really neat jet black as new AOpen AX34 ProII thats working well.

[rollme]

Went to a local Verizon Wireless store where they have an eWaste disposal site to drop off some old CRTs when I spot a HDD sitting on top of an mini tower case. So I snagged me a working 160GB PATA.

[Shodan486]

Long time ago I found a AT box with a Am5x86 compliant mobo in it with IDE controller integrated and PCI slots also, pretty decent mobo, still using it for my high-end 486 config.

My grandma once reported to me 2 left AT boxes in our trash kiosk (sort of), figured out that it was PChips mobo with VGA and sound integrated Socket7 PC100 - very usable in 2004 for certain applications. CPU was cyrix 233 and a 8GB HDD plus a 52x CD-ROM. PSU also.

[kiddznet]

Sad to say folks will trash perfectly good kit here because of so called "tech" dudes with attitude, charging ruinous prices to even look at something
The reason I got interested in this hobby was being laughed at and told there was no way to repair or replace an "Old" P4 478 mobo.

[Ami Sapphire]

Originally Posted by kiddznet

Sad to say folks will trash perfectly good kit here because of so called "tech" dudes with attitude, charging ruinous prices to even look at something
The reason I got interested in this hobby was being laughed at and told there was no way to repair or replace an "Old" P4 478 mobo.

Wow. Seriously? I was never told this, but wow. [I only got into repairing computers because I saw the inside of in in 1999.] I usually decide it doesn't work and/or is trash, and put it in my spare parts pile. Years later, it most likely still works and/or has a use. I contemplated not to use my Dell Dimension 8200 (Intel i850 chipset) anymore because it was too slow. I just upgraded hardware in it instead. Blazing fast for a P4 478 now. Formerly my Mom's "office" computer, now my backup use desktop computer.

I run a web server with my old eMachines T1360 desktop, mainly because the onboard video is too weak for my use. It lags slowly for WinXP, even with the max RAM (512MB). It behaves even better with Win2K SP4. The hardware is that old.


Back on topic:

In my high school, back in 2005 or 2006, there were very old computer parts, computer cases, and a bunch of floppy disks in the back of the room of the school counselor's office. Was told not to touch them, so I didn't. Oh, well.

I have a PCChips M571 Socket 7 motherboard (found that out very recently) that still works... which I thought was dead for seven years. I actually tossed this one in the trash. Rescued it later after a random thought. Was part of my first computer from January 1999. Now a small project for running DOS and old Windows games on it, which at this time of posting is unfinished. Main reason why I kept old computer parts for years. [Dad found this computer in a local computer shop in 1999.]

I also have an old A-trend ATC-6240M R03 motherboard which suffered badcaps (Choyo!). A partial recap fixed the issue. Was originally part of my younger sister's computer, now it's a multiboot system of Win98, Win98SE, WinME (lol), and Win2K SP4... with one too many parts for it. Interestingly, if left on the Windows 2000 partition, Mom sometimes starts playing Freecell on it. [Dad was given this one, possibly from a friend, in 2005.]

And an old Dell Optiplex GX1 minitower desktop. Has booting issues on rare occasions (possible bad riser card), but still surprisingly runs. Originally had WinNT4 on it. Had a few OS experiments over the years. Now has WinXP SP3 on it. [Dad took this one from one of his former workplaces in 2005.]

Man, Dad found some interestingly dated stuff. I only found old video cards and sound cards. They were:

• Two S3 Trio PCI video cards, a 64V+ and a 64V2
• an ATI Rage 2C 8MB AGP video card
• a Sound Blaster Vibra 16X CT4170 ISA sound card
• a Compaq Premier Sound ES1869 ISA sound card

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Ami Sapphire

Man, Dad found some interestingly dated stuff. I only found old video cards and sound cards. They were:

• Two S3 Trio PCI video cards, a 64V+ and a 64V2
• an ATI Rage 2C 8MB AGP video card
• a Sound Blaster Vibra 16X CT4170 ISA sound card
• a Compaq Premier Sound ES1869 ISA sound card

I also have a 2MB S3 Trio PCI as well. It came from a dumpster computer. Normally, I use it as a test card. Seems to handle the task well.
Those ISA sound cards are cool, though - and very rare these days. Probably have decent sound, too - of course, if you can find the right drivers for them.


About two months ago I found this thing:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpos...1&postcount=19
It's a Gateway Select with a 750MHz Slot A AMD Athlon. The motherboard is done in all tantalum/multi-layer ceramic caps - built to last, basically. It also came with 128MB of SDRAM, and a 15GB HDD with Windows XP on it. I added two more sticks of 128MB SDRAM, a Radeon 7200 video card, and cleaned the HDD from the viruses it had.

Currently, I'm using it as my dedicated download computer. Does its job very well. Moreover, I was very surprised that this thing was almost able to play 720p (MKV, WMV) HD videos (almost, but not quite). 480p is no problem though. I was also able to play some older games with no problem like Need For Speed Porsche Unleashed at 1024x768. I can't believe this thing is actually faster than my HP Pavilion 8756c computer (probably because of the dedicated video card vs. the 2 MB onboard one in the Pavilion).

The Pavilion was also a dumpster find, by the way. It actually came from the same condo complex as the Gateway. I still like the Pavilion better, though, because it has a front USB port. Also, the onboard audio has a bit more ooomph to it when it comes to powering my headphones/speakers.

[Ami Sapphire]

Originally Posted by momaka

I also have a 2MB S3 Trio PCI as well. It came from a dumpster computer. Normally, I use it as a test card. Seems to handle the task well.

Yeah, I do those with the Trio cards nowadays. I actually had to use one of them to see if the M571 board was working at all, then I enabled the onboard video afterward.

Originally Posted by momaka

Those ISA sound cards are cool, though - and very rare these days. Probably have decent sound, too - of course, if you can find the right drivers for them.

The ISA cards were interesting to me. I actually had no clue what ISA was at the time when I obtained them. All I saw was that they were old. Never actually thought of getting the right drivers then, either, as long as it worked.


Afterthoughts:

At one point, I used one of the Trio video cards along with an older nVidia card to obtain dual monitor support for the Dell Dimension 8200. It kept freezing the computer, so that prompted me to replace them entirely and I bought a better graphics card for it.

The ATI card was part of the original A-trend setup, but because I didn't know better (or know anything about graphics drivers at the time), the S3 Trio 64V2 (or 64V+, can't recall) took its place. Years later, the D8200's nVidia took that card's place.

The Sound Blaster one is currently in the computer with the A-trend motherboard, as that one did not come with a sound card at all. Out of boredom, a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI sound card is installed with it. That particular sound card is a lot louder than the Santa Cruz one, and I kept forgetting that every time I played a MIDI on its highest volume (by accident!), scaring both my sis and myself.

The Compaq ES1869 sound card, on the other hand, is in the for sale pile with some other computer components. It was originally meant for the computer with the M571 board. Also put it in the Dell Optiplex GX1, but it always froze the PC.

[Rulycat]

Not a dumpster find as such, but my dad used to buy in old HP e-PC Pentium 3 things, all with broken CD drives. Then he'd stick a 1ghz CPU in, replace the CD tray and sell them for like £30-40. They cost about £10 each overall for the bits. They were all going to be dumped by the companies and such so he used to get 100s at a time.

[jakdedert]

Old thread, new member.

I could absolutely fill this entire thread with the things I've scrounged over the years. Unfortunately, I still have many of them. :-)

Still, the best one I found just sitting on the curb last summer; a 42" Dell plasma TV. I opened the door to get the mail and there it was. I hot-footed (literally, it was summer and I was barefoot)it across the street and staggered back home with it. It booted to an OSD, then died again.

There were $35 worth of bulged caps in the ps, which I replaced. I was rewarded with a stable OSD, and put it up on top of my 46" RP CRT set (another find) to burn in. It took two of us to lift it there. That thing weighs nearly 100#. I was elated.

I used it for several weeks, and then one day, it just didn't turn on. I was so disappointed I just left it there. It's gonna require two of us to turn it around again for DX and service. When I get around to it, I'll post here. I'll bet one of you guys can help....

[Noobliesque]

I find a ton of socket 478 P4 machines, usually real easy to fix.

I hang on to the ones that need something or other eventually I find another I can combine with, then its Craigslist time.

Found a Luxo Lamp Imac G4 working just needed a hard drive. I threw a hard drive in it and replaced the base fan with a blue LED fan, looked real nice, kept it for awhile and traded it for an Xbox360.

I keep toying with the Idea of putting up a listing asking for broken computers and TVs. I think I could make out pretty well.

[styxbound]

For a couple of years I was being given all the donated computer gear by a charity flea market; they'd been dumping it all, quite a bit of it. Then one day I mentioned when there was no more use for stuff I was gold scraping it and showed him the 1/4 ounce or so I'd collected. I'll make the rest of the story short: that ended my getting anything else. Dumb me.