best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Woah, WTF?

Yes, I was pretty confused by that. The whole PCB (and even casing) had a datecode of late 2005, but the caps inside had 2002 datecodes.

I didn't save the PCB though. I took the transformers since they were of real sizes (real 16,19 and ERL-35 transformer) and the rest of the PCB went into the trash.

The parts ended up in another Deer of the same configuration (I should mention the "B" variants of Deers have proprietary transformer orientations, so a normal ERL-35 transformer out of anything else than a Deer will NOT work.) that I am currently in the process of rebuilding into a decent ATX power supply.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^
They just used old stock............happens all the time.

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A Goldstar (LG Precision) OS-9020A 20Mhz Analogue Oscilloscope for $29:










I suppose given how cheap used analogue oscilloscopes are these days (even the Tektronix scopes can regularly be found for <$150) it isn't an "amazing" deal, but still not bad when you consider what these cost new 20 years ago and the crappy 200Khz max diy handheld "scopes" you can find new in the same price range.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Free scores for last week :

1 - One LG Flatron . without its Data cable . Why all people are always ready to give away an LCD but not its cable ? , maybe you'll find 100 used Hard disks and similar LCDs in my shop but not one single data cable .

2 - One HP NX8220 . At first test , the charger makes a high spark upon inserting . the giver tried to replace the inlet with another incompatible one , damaging lot of things around . A new one was reinserted and the circuitry were fixed .

3 - Two HGST hard disks 750 GB , with clicks and clanks . They were 90% repaired by spinrite and resized with free Easus Partition . Sounds good for storing datas .

4 - Two Acetek 550 watts power supplies , minor damages .

5 - One Satellite MX40 With hinges broken and no hard disk , the old ide type . I wonder if it is worthy anymore .

6 - Hp dv5 with the usual nvidia trouble . Mostly it will be for parts . I had enough with the married couple hp-nvidia , lol .

7 - One lenovo tablet with the usual inlet supply broken .

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

In December I got a "nice" PC case (at least according to the seller) stuffed with various PSUs, optical drives, and floppy drives, all for $10 (was actually $1, but I didn't have any $1 or $5 bills, so I was like, F-it and gave him $10). I figured it was a decent score until I asked the seller if there were any bugs in it (bedbugs, roaches, etc.) He said, no, but that the case was left in his garage for a long time and they did have mice there. So needless to say, when I opened the case, I saw quite a bit of mouse droppings in it, along with possibly mice piss (maybe the case got wet at some point and that dissolved the mice piss??). Anyways, a "best/free cheap score" this was NOT, particularly the case (which I thought I could use for a test build right away).

However, there was one item in there that might have made this a worthy purchase: a 5.25" TEAC floppy drive. I've been looking for one of these for ages - not so much of a need, but more for curiosity's sake. I don't have any 5.25" floppies here, but I think I might have a few at my uncle's/grandmother's house. If memory serves me right, those should have some old DOS games on them. Curious to see if they still work after 20+ years in storage (that is, if I find them).

The other somewhat worthy items out of that package above were:
* A HEC Orion "585W" PSU (same as the old ThermalTake TR2-430W, but without any input filtering - which I do have on hand).

* IDE DVD-RW drive and a beige CD-RW drive.

As for the case.... I'm waiting until we get some warm weather so I can get the garden hose out and blast the case with some water and soap. Then will likely sand down the parts affected by the mice droppings (as there appears to be quite a bit of rust in that area - particularly the bottom of the case) and paint over with latex paint. And of course, that's only if the case doesn't seem to badly rusted (I still haven't inspected it fully, as it's outside under a tarp.) Reason I would like to try latex paint instead of spray paint is because I've never had good results with spray paint sticking in the past, especially over problematic areas that had rusted. I guess this is going to be another project, headed for the ghetto mod thread.

A Goldstar (LG Precision) OS-9020A 20Mhz Analogue Oscilloscope for $29:

Nice!
I'll take an analog scope like that for $30 any day.

1 - One LG Flatron . without its Data cable . Why all people are always ready to give away an LCD but not its cable ? , maybe you'll find 100 used Hard disks and similar LCDs in my shop but not one single data cable .

Lol, sounds like my stash: quite a few LCD monitors, but not enough DVI or VGA cables to hook them all up.

Also reminds me of those low-end DMS-59 video cards that are everywhere on eBay and going for very cheap: why do the sellers think these cards are worth anything without the DMS-59 cables? They are not, because you can't hook them to anything. And buying a DMS-59 cable from another seller will run you about as much (if not more) than what the video card is worth - mostly due to shipping costs. There are only a few sellers out there that have realized that and ship their DMS-59 video cards with an adapter. Everyone else is just pulling out of surplus/scrap equipment and dumping on eBay without checking what they are dumping on there.

6 - Hp dv5 with the usual nvidia trouble . Mostly it will be for parts . I had enough with the married couple hp-nvidia , lol .

Lol, I wonder if there is a repair shop in the world that has not seen one of these laptops.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Why all people are always ready to give away an LCD but not its cable ? , maybe you'll find 100 used Hard disks and similar LCDs in my shop but not one single data cable .

Ah, I have the opposite problem: having to remove (and discard) the cables that folks haven't removed from the kit! Always intricately wound around the base (even TIED to make their "falling off" less possible)

As far as "missing components", my biggest pet peeves are TV remotes, laptop power supplies and the wireless receivers for mice/keyboards (no doubt still plugged into a USB port, somewhere!)

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Lol, sounds like my stash: quite a few LCD monitors, but not enough DVI or VGA cables to hook them all up.

Also reminds me of those low-end DMS-59 video cards that are everywhere on eBay and going for very cheap: why do the sellers think these cards are worth anything without the DMS-59 cables? They are not, because you can't hook them to anything. And buying a DMS-59 cable from another seller will run you about as much (if not more) than what the video card is worth - mostly due to shipping costs. There are only a few sellers out there that have realized that and ship their DMS-59 video cards with an adapter. Everyone else is just pulling out of surplus/scrap equipment and dumping on eBay without checking what they are dumping on there.


Lol, I wonder if there is a repair shop in the world that has not seen one of these laptops.

Hi Momaka; I guess the problem started from my excessive generosity , lol .
An easy and quick remedy was applied , by connecting two compatible ends of old monitors , until some shipment arrive . It's good also that i know their formula in much difficult situations ..

Yes my friend , Those laptops really makes me sick on sight . Frankly , I'm not testing them even , anymore .. The moment it arrive , he looses memory (Rams) , his mind (Cpu ) , his arms and legs eventually , lol ...

Have a nice day my friend

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Ah, I have the opposite problem: having to remove (and discard) the cables that folks haven't removed from the kit! Always intricately wound around the base (even TIED to make their "falling off" less possible)

As far as "missing components", my biggest pet peeves are TV remotes, laptop power supplies and the wireless receivers for mice/keyboards (no doubt still plugged into a USB port, somewhere!)

Yes Curious.George; the same problems everywhere ... Remotes are the biggest problems ever , i threw many lost wireless mice ... We do live a miserable life

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Free scores for this week :

P.S: It's raining printers . lol ..

1- Two Brother HL1110 , Mono laser printers , with no cartridges of course .

2 - One Canon Isensys LBP2900 . Also Mono laser printer , but with an empty tone ..

3 - One All in one HP PSC1510 . This one as usual from its siblings , is loosing its digital mind ..

4 - A lot of 10 rechargeable Led lanterns KN-3060L with different problems , mostly batteries and the 22 Ohms resistances .

5 - Two ide Seagate Barracuda's 300 GB , seems like never used before .

6 - One ide Fujitsu 40 GB , Also never used before.. This one will surely join the museum , lol ..

7 - One Hyndai LTV HY-32CN1 With broken screen .

8 - One Dell Inspiron 5110 , totally dead . On first diagnosis , one chipset has a tiny blow , and usually , as seen many times before , it's the tps 51124 ..

[rugger]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Cheap scores last week:

1) Gigabyte GA-7VM400M with Athlon XP 2000+ and heatsink/fan included - $5 AU

2) 1 GIG DDR ram stick - $0.99 AU

The GA-7VM400M had 7 bad capacitors. Replacing those was the most expensive part of this job. 7 bad nichicon HM capacitors, 6.3V 3300uf, date code 0307. Found some replacement HM capacitors from element 14, date code 1635.

[Wester547]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ Nichicon HM went out of production years ago. I hope those aren't counterfeit.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

should have used 2000uf poly's

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ Could probably have used even 820 uF poly's. It all depends on the VRM design and running frequency. If I see inductors with less than 5 turns of wire each, I know it's a fairly high frequency and will probably take lower capacity poly's fine.

[rugger]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ Nichicon HM went out of production years ago. I hope those aren't counterfeit.

Element14 aren't really known for selling counterfeit capacitors, like say Ebay. I also tested the ESR and capacitance of the capacitors, and they test in spec.

That said, the datecodes are suspicious because they are "reasonably" new.

Since I've already made the repair, I'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes. Should I need to fix it again, I guess I'll be forced to do a polymod.

http://au.element14.com/wurth-elektr...00uF%20ploymer

Would probably be a perfect replacement.

[Wester547]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Element14 aren't really known for selling counterfeit capacitors, like say Ebay. I also tested the ESR and capacitance of the capacitors, and they test in spec.

Even counterfeits and low quality caps can test within spec whilst new, though. Element14 still seem to have Nichicon HM in stock. Nichicon announced the discontinuation of the HM, HN, and HZ series in 2012, so I'm surprised any of those series would still be in production even as of ~2 years ago, by which point most ultra low impedance electrolytic series were discontinued (except Suncon WG). Articles like this, however slightly dated, are what make me somewhat paranoid about those “new” HM. But of course, as has been said on this forum before, non-failed caps are certainly better than failed caps.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Even counterfeits and low quality caps can test within spec whilst new, though. Element14 still seem to have Nichicon HM in stock. Nichicon announced the discontinuation of the HM, HN, and HZ series in 2012, so I'm surprised any of those series would still be in production even as of ~2 years ago, by which point most ultra low impedance electrolytic series were discontinued (except Suncon WG). Articles like this, however slightly dated, are what make me somewhat paranoid about those “new” HM. But of course, as has been said on this forum before, non-failed caps are certainly better than failed caps.

I'm probably wrong but maybe it's leftover stock from Nichicon? Who knows

[rugger]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Even counterfeits and low quality caps can test within spec whilst new, though. Element14 still seem to have Nichicon HM in stock. Nichicon announced the discontinuation of the HM, HN, and HZ series in 2012, so I'm surprised any of those series would still be in production even as of ~2 years ago, by which point most ultra low impedance electrolytic series were discontinued (except Suncon WG). Articles like this, however slightly dated, are what make me somewhat paranoid about those “new” HM. But of course, as has been said on this forum before, non-failed caps are certainly better than failed caps.

Yep, I agree, but at least the caps I put in are working to spec for now.

But I'm not horribly paranoid about it. While Element14 still have little bit of stock, it seems to be a one off as they are selling the last of the stock. Would it be possible that nichicon were simply using up the last of the ingredients over the last couple of years producing a trickle of these capacitors.

Should the new caps fail, it isn't a huge job to recap it again. A pain in the butt though, multilayer boards are much harder to deal with vs single layer boards.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Free scores for last week :

1 - A big lot of new HP laptop fusible plugs , sounds like 30 to forty ones , their fuses are maybe the valuable thing there .

2 - One laptop Toshiba Tecra A9 , without its adapter , 15v , and not working .

3 - One Compaq G62 , not working .

4 - Two Toshiba Satellite A300 , Not working also , lool , but i started checking them and things look different to what it seems .

5 - A big lot of Nvidia VGA's ( mostly 7200 and 9800 ) , not working , with some smd capacitors missing and some polymer bulging . The only one that showed a life sign makes vertical red lines on screen .

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a PC today w/ another IP35.

Will check when I get home though, I got it to power on but that's as far as I could do (other than soft-off.) with it due to missing beeper.

[rugger]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My friend got:

Intel i3-3220 CPU
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H motherboard
A total of 22gb of DDR3 ram (1x8gb stick, 3x4gb sticks, 1x2gb stick)
Nvidia gtx-750ti
DVD burner
1TB hard drive (only WD green)

For a grand total of $2 AU at the markets. He paid with 50 cent coins.

The only problem with the above hardware was some wonkyness with the motherboard. Someone had damaged one of the memory slots and it had shorted out in the past. There were also problems with the BIOS not booting and the computer going into a power cycle loop. I physically removed the memory slot plastic and cut off all the memory slot pins so they barely stuck above the board (it had 3 memory slots left, it is good enough), and re-flashed the correct latest BIOS and the damn thing works perfectly.

So yeah, he does amazing work finding deals like this.

He did find me an old Pentium 2 board with a celeron 366 on it though, epox kp6-la motherboard with sanyo capacitors, 128meg ram and cirrus logic 5465 AGP card system that he let me have, so I can't be mad at him ... just a bit in awe of his luck sometimes