best cheap/free scores 1.1

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

This week free scores :

1 - One MSI Motherboard B150M Mortar , with CPU socket twisted pins . On the first look , it's irrepairable , on the second one , with a magnifying glass , it could be , on the third , i'm working on it and chances are 50 50 ..

2 - One AsRock Motherboard A780LM , with an AM2 CPU , nice heavy cooler AVC , and 2 Gb kingston memory . first test revealed the Ram is defected .

3 - One Intel DG31PR Motherboard , CPU core 2 2.66 GHZ with cooler , 2gb Rams VData , all TK ATWY capacitors around the Pci Express are bulged in a suspicious way , like i've never seen on this board . I doubt it was a cheap Nvidia VGA that done the damage .

4 - One Gigabyte GA-G41MT-52PT LGA775 ddr3 , CPU Intel E8400 , Core 2 , and cooler , no Rams . Tested working .

5 - One Gigabyte Nvidia GV-N630 -2GI R:1.0 . Not working .

6 - One Palit Nvidia GTX465 Dual DVI output , HDMI and DP , Nice design and working .

7 - One Dell Laptop latitude 3440 , Core 5 , LCD and hinge broken , blown speakers , minor damages to upper palm rest , DVD broken , but fully working.. This one had a twin and the customer , a very nice young girl , wanted to take one fully new one out of the two she owns . Was very nice to leave the other with insistence

8 - 7 CD jewel cases , with at least 500 original games .

Cheap scores :

1 - One HP adapter series PPP016L-E , 18.5 Volts , 6.5 A . One Dell adapter PA10 Family , 19.5 Volts , 4.62 A . 3 USB Lenovo mice , all for 5 Dollars .

[Mac29]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

This week: OK, I like how someone thinks here ....

Hop on the bike and 3 doors down guy is tossing 2 computers on the curb. Scored an old HTPC w/athlon 64, a zalman cooler, 2 gigs of crap ram and a 250 HDD w/ a busted SATA connector (superglue) and an Antec 350W PSU. Works fine. No data. But wait.

Also a full tower:
Coolermaster Haf 932 advanced (really nice), missing one wheel
Phenom II X4 965 (w/stock fan, but copper heat pipes)
Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 (top of the line back then, USB 3.0 & Crossfire), sweet
2GB Corsair DDR3 (1600)
EVGA GTX 550 ti
Antec TP3 650W
LG blueray DVD drive and a Sony DVD drive
and looks like a 10 yr old 2TB Seagate HDD with scores of applications, hundreds of music tracks and Windows 7 Home premium

Every once in a while the sky opens up and doesn't crap on me. Seemed dead so I shorted the pins. Bingo! Was going to cannibalize a switch when I discovered I could just switch the soft boot button.

So I blew out everything & paid $2 for dollop of Arctic Silver and re mounted the GPU fan. May do the same for cpu or get a cooler and OC.

Waiting for Easter sales to replace the 2TB for safety. Deciding what to do w/this.
A: sell pieces to go towards a Ryzen 5 1400 system
B. switch the cooler and finally unlock my phenom II 550 & see what's stable
C. use this to finally play around w/imaging software so I never have to rely on MS again
D. all of the above. I can't stand much longer to upgrade but I only play older games, occasionally.

My GTX 750 in this freebee would be pretty balanced, but ancient; I just put 6GB (DDR2) in my old system. Think I might mess around w/imaging, Altiris, and continue w/some Linux before I try selling bits. Definitely going to game some, install MS Server and maybe a NAS.

Decisions, decisions.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

and looks like a 10 yr old 2TB Seagate HDD with scores of applications, hundreds of music tracks and Windows 7 Home premium

so no PR0N colection then, just a load of rubbish!! too bad.
still, you have to format it to remove the risk of viri/malware anyway.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

so no PR0N colection then, just a load of rubbish!! too bad.
still, you have to format it to remove the risk of viri/malware anyway.

Just to be safe , someone should turn the "Show hidden files" in the "Folder options" in Control panel . I Had many cases like that in the past and it's better to zero it with any good software .

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Found this beautiful beast at Goodwill for $2.99
What a deal! These were hard to find in Black, and it's in really good shape. I brought it into work to show off and use as my main work keyboard since our Dell docking stations have PS/2. The <30 year old crowd had no reaction, and the >30 year olds thought it was super awesome.

The sound of the keys is unique and the feedback on it is great. The spacing of the keys is perfect for my hands. Will own until I'm dead. Long live PS/2! I am okay with USB mice, but I haven't liked any USB keyboard as much as my PS/2 keyboards.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1520628998
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1520628998

Awesome!

Old clicky keyboards always deserve to be saved from the dump. I'm glad you did that with this one. Looks like a dependable workhorse. I can't stand typing on a modern flat, shallow-stroke keyboard - my typing rate goes to absolute shit.

Also, the layout on the keyboard shown above is really the only layout I consider to be good. I hate it when they make a small "basterdized" Backspace key or hide the backslash in a hole somewhere... or keyboards with the 3 extra Power/Standby/Sleep buttons above the "Insert", "Home" and "Pg Up" keys row. I use the Home and End keys quite frequently when typing, so I can't stand it when they are shifted a row down due to those 3 extra keys.

Anyways, looks like that keyboard is made by Chicony, judging by the UL number (E164844). The model number also suggests that, as it starts with a KB prefix. On that note, I'm not sure if Logitech had Chicony as an OEM or what exactly, but I think I recall seeing some Logitech keyboards with a KB in their model name. And from personal experiences, I've never seen a bad Logitech keyboard - not the old ones, anyways.

That said, I bought a keyboard too last week from a local thrift store - but in my case, it was USB, as I only have one (1) USB keyboard, and I need more of them now, as I have accumulated a few newer Dell and HP PCs without PS/2 ports. Nevertheless, it's an older keyboard - an HP black/gray one from the Pentium 4 era / mid 2000's. Haven't tested it yet, but it should be okay, as it was new-old stock (NOS). That thrift store had 4 more of these, all still wrapped in their original plastic bags. I was tempted do buy another one, but they were asking $5 or more for them (it's a shittily-managed thrift store, and depending on which volunteer staff works there that day, the price can vary substantially - I've seen them ask for $1 for a pair of RCA audio cables, and also $10 for the same pair, lol)

4 - One Pentium 4 case , it will go for scrap . Goodnight XP..

Can't fit a more modern PC in there?
I find that most oldschool cases tend to be built a lot better than new crap nowadays. Though, I suppose that also depends a lot on the case brand too - after all, there were plenty of cheapo nasty cases in the P4 era as well. But if it's a decent heavy beige case: give it to me any day!!!!!!

Got a Enermax EG365P-VE 350W for cheap.

Seized Globe Fans (I thought Enermax wouldn't go that low, guess I was wrong then ) and Hitachi primaries with pretty new PCE-TUR caps on the secondary.

Already gutting it. I don't have any use for it considering I have a Seasonic SS-351HT that is better.

Lol, I don't get your strategy. You rebuild shitty Deer and Sun Pro PSUs but gut Deltas and Enermax???

Kenwood KR-A5040 Stereo Receiver (80W per channel) for $1, a little banged up (some scratches/nicks on the front panel and a few dings on the top of the case) but fully working.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1521149343
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1521149343

Banged up? Looks pretty decent to me.
And for $1... are you kidding me?!!
What I like about it even more is that this is a simple Stereo amp - none of that complex newer multi-channel "surround" sound crap with harsh input frequency filters and useless DSPs. And it looks like the Kenwood amp above can also go down to 4 Ohms speaker impedance - a really nice feature if you want to drive 8-Ohm speakers on both channel A and B simultaneously.

so no PR0N colection then, just a load of rubbish!! too bad.

Life has taught me to never look at other peoples' porn collection.
Case in point: I found some dude's computer and decided to look for music. Then I found a few video files with short numbered names, like "1.avi", "2.wmv" and etc. Clicked the first one and the video immediately jumped in on "the action" of one male doing another male.
(And sorry, I don't mean to offend any gay/bisexual readers on here with the above "barf" smiley, but gay porn just simply isn't my thing.)

Then a few years later, I was repairing a PC for a roommate's friend and doing also an OS cleanup. Found a lot of junk "free" virus and registry cleaner softwares in My Documents, so I started selecting them to delete them. After doing that, I found a few other odd applications to delete. But I accidentally double-clicked on a video file (bad left button on my test mouse) in the same folder, and a video popped up. Like the first instance above, the video immediatelly jumped "in action". In this case, it wasn't so bad... or at least it wasn't gay porn. Rather, let's just say my roommate's friend was into some really very big women. And did I forgot to say I really mean BIG!

Anyways... from that point forward, I;m always extra careful to avoid opening any unknown videos of any kind, especially very small ones (less than 100-200 MB) with ambiguous names. I also usually turn on thumbnail icon previews now when browsing through folders with pictures and/or videos. This allows me to see a small (blurry) icon "preview" of what might be in the file, so I can definitely try to avoid it if it looks supsicious.

still, you have to format it to remove the risk of viri/malware anyway.

Nah. If you're careful, the risk is almost non-existent.
Like I said, I usually do look for music when I get an HDD from a discarded computer. I've found some very interesting music this way - some of it in languages I have never heard before. Also, if I keep the HDD, I also like to keep an image or two (if there are any) of the owner of the computer. That kind of helps me remember where the HDD and/or computer came from and what it had in terms of hardware. In other words, it sort of gives it a "personality".
Any sensitive personal data, though - that I always wipe with a zero-fill program.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Life has taught me to never look at other peoples' porn collection.

I don't look at ANYTHING on a PC (or disk) that I don't own. Foreign disks get wiped, immediately. This ensures I never see their contents and also gives me a first-pass check as to the drive's functionality.

With hundreds of "foreign" disks/PC's coming through every week, it's too easy to stumble on all sorts of material that can be tempting, disgusting or even leave you legally/morally on the hook (what would you have done if the video had been of a guy committing an illegal act? kiddie porn? murder? etc.)

Now, imagine it's a computer belonging to a friend/colleague/relative that you are "fixing"...

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Banged up? Looks pretty decent to me.
And for $1... are you kidding me?!!
What I like about it even more is that this is a simple Stereo amp - none of that complex newer multi-channel "surround" sound crap with harsh input frequency filters and useless DSPs. And it looks like the Kenwood amp above can also go down to 4 Ohms speaker impedance - a really nice feature if you want to drive 8-Ohm speakers on both channel A and B simultaneously.

Oh I'm definitely not complaining especially for the price (the seller thought it was "broken", but apparently they didn't realize that you needed to push in one of the speaker buttons to get sound ), was just noting that it wasn't cosmetically "perfect" with some nicks/scratches on the (aluminum) face plate (the gouges on the bottom corner of the faceplate look like it was dragged across concrete or something) and a couple small dents on the top of the housing. It is going in my workshop so the cosmetics don't really matter as long as it works (which it does).

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Lol, I don't get your strategy. You rebuild shitty Deer and Sun Pro PSUs but gut Deltas and Enermax???

The Enermax had conductive glue and I don't have anything to scrape it off with, not to mention it does some scary high pitched squeal I never heard on any other PSUs.

As for Deltas I didn't get any of them lately, and the only one I've ever owned was a 110W unit I destroyed out of stupidity back in 2013 or so.


And for the record, the PSU I used parts from the Enermax to fix wasn't a Deer or a Sun Pro either.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I don't look at ANYTHING on a PC (or disk) that I don't own. Foreign disks get wiped, immediately.

Well, I have a really bad music addiction,so it's hard to resist not peeking at what's in the "Music" folder of the user(s) folders. Other than that, I don't look at anything else anymore either. I used to... way back when I first started collecting dumped computers. But the two examples above quickly showed me why I shouldn't. And indeed, quite a few many times back then, I've stumbled onto HDDs with people's very sensitive data (certificates and or taxes with names, SSNs, and whatnot). Information like that in the wrong hands could definitely do a lot of damage to those individuals, so I made sure to wipe those HDDs.

That said, I've had people bring me computers and ask for my help to look through their files and find whatever it is that they couldn't. I even had to do it on a few occasions at my job last spring, as per customers' requests. In those cases, you have to remain professional, no matter what kind of files you stumble onto and regardless if you know those people or not.

As for seeing something illegal... I have zero tolerance for anyone who's involved with murder, cruel animal torture, and child pornography and/or pedophiles. Everything else, I hardly give a shit about.

the seller thought it was "broken", but apparently they didn't realize that you needed to push in one of the speaker buttons to get sound

LOL, I almost did that once too - thought my amp was broken and started swapping inputs and speaker wires.... then that facepalm moment occurred to me

The Enermax had conductive glue and I don't have anything to scrape it off with, not to mention it does some scary high pitched squeal I never heard on any other PSUs.

So you don't have any screw drivers and pliers in your home at all?
That's what I use anyways.

The high pitch is very likely a result of the conductive glue, unless there are bad caps on the 5VSB circuit -OR- something wrong with the APFC section (if that PSU even has APFC). I have a 500 W Enermax that also has a terrible squeal when attempting to turn it on and no conductive glue, so I suspect APFC, as usual.

And for the record, the PSU I used parts from the Enermax to fix wasn't a Deer or a Sun Pro either.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make an offensive comment with my last post above. I just remembered from way back that you scrapped a fairly decent OEM PSU (don't remember if it was a Delta, actually, or something else) that didn't appear to have too complex of a problem... hence the above comment, which I meant more of a joke with that "why" smiley.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

let's just say my roommate's friend was into some really very big women. And did I forgot to say I really mean BIG!

i call that "Hippo Porn",
i never understand how anybody could be into that shit!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

So you don't have any screw drivers and pliers in your home at all?
That's what I use anyways.

The high pitch is very likely a result of the conductive glue, unless there are bad caps on the 5VSB circuit -OR- something wrong with the APFC section (if that PSU even has APFC). I have a 500 W Enermax that also has a terrible squeal when attempting to turn it on and no conductive glue, so I suspect APFC, as usual.

It's the APFC section very likely since the caps are in spec, and this PSU has APFC. (and a voltage switcher which I removed)

Here's an older shot of the said PSU I fixed. It now has 820uF Hitachi primaries from the Enermax and a few caps from it. It still has a few ChengX caps left because the silkscreen for the caps is D10.

I might hunt for some Rubies or Pannies for the secondary but so far I haven't noticed a problem.

This PSU initially came to me in a black nJoy casing which I gave with another board to a friend (a recapped Antec EA-380D that had a rusted casing) and had several problems which I fixed:

-blown UTC 2SC3320 switchers and dead 5vSB switcher
-blown primary FHY 1000uF caps
-blown resistor near switchers

I fixed these by first replacing the switchers with 13009s from a long since defunct Linkworld (of all places, I didn't expect to find 13009s in there), the 5vSB switcher came from a Delux PSU (unknown OEM, it wasn't a Sun Pro) and the primary caps of course came from the Enermax.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

As for seeing something illegal... I have zero tolerance for anyone who's involved with murder, cruel animal torture, and child pornography and/or pedophiles. Everything else, I hardly give a shit about.

By not looking, I don't have to worry about "following up", preserving evidence, etc. And, if it's a close friend/relative/etc., I don't have to worry about looking them in the eye at some later date and NOT thinking about what I may have seen. ("Hmmm... Cayman Islands account? I wonder if the IRS knows about that? Am I now complicit in tax evasion for not reporting it??" or "Gee, that's not your wife -- my friend -- you're seen boinking in those photos...")

I had to recover the "personal files" off a PC belonging to a close friend's recently-deceased wife. It was a very uncomfortable experience as I know she never expected anyone else to be "digging around" on her computer.

I suspect most folks don't plan their computer (or phone!) usage with an eye towards someone potentially looking through it (even "for good cause").

(Note we're not even talking about forensic analysis, here!)

[goontron]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ I to subscribe to the "hear no evil, see no evil" of days of old.

Then again, i grew up in Denver. Not subscribing to the train of thought will gain you enemies fast.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

i call that "Hippo Porn",
i never understand how anybody could be into that shit!

What can I say? Every human being deserves some love, don't you agree?

^ I to subscribe to the "hear no evil, see no evil" of days of old.

Then again, i grew up in Denver. Not subscribing to the train of thought will gain you enemies fast.

In general, I'm the same way too. But again, it depends what kind of crime we are talking about here. I was raised to believe that as long as you have your life, your health, and your closest friends/family, you can go through anything in life and the rest doesn't really matter too much - particularly material things/objects. Thus, if I was to stumble across some questionable content on a friend's/relative's/coworker's PC that doesn't involve murder, torture, and/or child pornography, I would very likely ignore it - even if it was a scam for millions of moneys. But the last three items mentioned above, I cannot ignore - it just goes against my core values and I am very serious about those.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Can't fit a more modern PC in there?
I find that most oldschool cases tend to be built a lot better than new crap nowadays. Though, I suppose that also depends a lot on the case brand too - after all, there were plenty of cheapo nasty cases in the P4 era as well. But if it's a decent heavy beige case: give it to me any day!!!!!!

Hi Momaka; , Yep , many cases go with their floppy and cd's to the garbage . I cannot handle far than what my shop can take . I wish I'm in U.S.A. so I can
help any request from you or any friends here . It's not easy for me to hear someone asking for a CPU for example , while I have dozens of it , speaking of which , there is 4 laptop CPUs Turion sitting on my laptop keyboard , lol . No place to arrange them . Basically , DHL is the best company to deal with in Lebanon , but still , unfair prices render any cooperation useless .

I always let the shop drive the future strategy , depending on customers demands .

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

DHL is the best company to deal with in Lebanon

Which is somewhat ironic, because DHL is absolutely terrible in the US (very slow, and often more expensive than UPS/FedEx/USPS).

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ I to subscribe to the "hear no evil, see no evil" of days of old.

If I see something, I feel morally compelled to act on it. OTOH, if I don't see it, then I don't feel I have to go looking for it!

I saw a couple of guys driving away from a neighbor's house with a bunch of stuff that they had just loaded into their vehicle. Knowing that the house was unoccupied (but not "empty"), it seemed likely that they had just robbed the place.

So, I memorized the plate numbers of the vehicle and the trailer it was towing and phoned the police.

For my effort, I was "rewarded" with a couple of hours of talking with the police about what I saw, the homeowner, their neighbor, etc.

While I'd rather the neighbor NOT been burglarized, I would also have not been a witness to it (as I could have done something productive with those couple of hours).

[Police were slow to act and, as such, never caught them -- so, all my "time" yielded was another data point that they could use to justify needing more cops (at my expense as a taxpayer)]

[Sparkey55]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

If I see something, I feel morally compelled to act on it. OTOH, if I don't see it, then I don't feel I have to go looking for it!

I saw a couple of guys driving away from a neighbor's house with a bunch of stuff that they had just loaded into their vehicle. Knowing that the house was unoccupied (but not "empty"), it seemed likely that they had just robbed the place.

So, I memorized the plate numbers of the vehicle and the trailer it was towing and phoned the police.

For my effort, I was "rewarded" with a couple of hours of talking with the police about what I saw, the homeowner, their neighbor, etc.

While I'd rather the neighbor NOT been burglarized, I would also have not been a witness to it (as I could have done something productive with those couple of hours).

[Police were slow to act and, as such, never caught them -- so, all my "time" yielded was another data point that they could use to justify needing more cops (at my expense as a taxpayer)]

With a neighbor like you I would hope you moved away quickly.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

With a neighbor like you I would hope you moved away quickly.

Yes, I should, instead, have helped them load the stuff onto their vehicle, shook their hands and bid them a safe trip!

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Which is somewhat ironic, because DHL is absolutely terrible in the US (very slow, and often more expensive than UPS/FedEx/USPS).

Very expensive , that's the first problem dmill89 , but somehow more reliable than many others . Maybe cause it's a popular worldwide service . We don't have many alternatives anyway .