best cheap/free scores 1.1

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Sometimes craigslist really comes thru for me, I just got a Megatouch Maxx countertop
video arcade game from a guy who was moving. It's heavy (about 95 lbs.) and it was DOA,
but I replaced all the caps on the MB (it's a Unicorn!) and it now lives again...yay!

what software version is that?
i specialise in those.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Haven't gotten anything recently, but I modded those wireless headphones I mentioned in my last post - I put wires on them so they are no longer wireless ... and now they sound great through my headphone amp. Crisp highs and much deeper lows compared to my MDR-023's. However, their drivers are only rated for 30 mW, so they can't handle too much power before starting to distort. But that is okay, since I don't need to turn my volume up that much anymore to get good, loud bass

PixelView FX5200 128MB - bulged Evercons but OSCON near DVI port OK.

You gonna fix it? I know it's a worthless card in terms of performance. But now I try to fix mostly older hardware, as that stuff is just loyal and will keep working forever.
BTW, the Gigabyte mobo is nice.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

BTW, the Gigabyte mobo is nice.

Thanks. That mobo came from a friend that had 3 PCs. I traded him my old A7N8X-E Deluxe w/ Athlon XP 1900+ (I have my K7N2 and 2500+) for that mobo and same goes for the case. The case isn't as bad as I would expect (other than the inability to remove the right panel as it's used for mounting the mobo) and it looks quite nice on the front. I also installed 2 floppy drives

You gonna fix it? I know it's a worthless card in terms of performance. But now I try to fix mostly older hardware, as that stuff is just loyal and will keep working forever.

Why not? It's not that bad. Also,I need it for another system.
(K8V-X SE,768MB RAM,Sempron 3000+,FX5200 128MB,40GB HDD and 20GB HDD (both Maxtors), ANS LC-B350ATX (rebuilt) )

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Fixed the FX5200 and crossflashed it to FX5500.

I also changed the video mode of the VGA BIOS (color 640x480) and the OEM sign-on message (it has a small piece of text followed by "Geforce FX 5500)

FYI,I've replaced all the 1500uf 6.3v Evercons with 1000uf 6.3v Rubycon YXGs from a dead FX5200. At least the working card has a active cooler.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Why not? It's not that bad. Also,I need it for another system.

Yes, so we are on the same page. Good that you fixed it.
I didn't know that it can be soft-modded to a FX 5500, though. That's really cool . Just like some of the GeForce 6200 cards can be soft-modded into 6600.
Funny thing is, the Radeon 9500 Pro/9700 still beats my modded 6600 (6200) in some games - particularly when there is heavy use of shaders.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Just got some moar stuffs:

Premier LC-C400ATX - replaces my B400ATX because of a dud 80GB SATA (it shorted out of the blue,wires on LC-B400ATX were fine). It has complete input filtering from factory and quality wise its good enough to power a 2.8GHz Northwood Pentium 4,3 DVD-ROMs,2 Floppy drives,a 80GB SATA HDD and a Radeon HD3450 512MB.

HIS Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB DDR - got this one along with the mentioned PSU,but sadly the screen's garbled. Uses Nichicon HC (anybody heard about those series?) caps and polymers. It has a aftermarket Titan cooler with a 3pin fan plug. Anybody know why the screen's garbled?

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

HIS Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB DDR - got this one along with the mentioned PSU,but sadly the screen's garbled. Uses Nichicon HC (anybody heard about those series?) caps and polymers. It has a aftermarket Titan cooler with a 3pin fan plug. Anybody know why the screen's garbled?

Garbled screen = likely BGA issue with the GPU or RAM (if I am not mistaken, this card has RAM chips that are BGA).

Just reflow it and it should be good as new. Use a heat gun or something similar. Do NOT bake in the oven - this will kill the caps for sure.

Speaking of caps, those Nichicon HC caps are quite reliable. IIRC, they are a grade better than Nichicon HD, which is equivalent to Chemicon KZE. So perhaps Panasonic FR/FM? (I going all off top of my head here, as I am too lazy to check). And the polymer caps on those cards are usually Chemicon PSA or Nichicon NA(?) - so again, good stuff.

[Wester547]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nichicon HC is a direct cross to Rubycon ZA, also found often on those cards. Just for the sake of it, I attached the HC and HD datasheet here (the datasheets for the laminated case versions) as well as the Nichicon NA polymer datasheets (the three versions I could scrounge from the net at large). Nichicon NA is a direct cross to the first version of Fujitsu RE. I also attached the datasheet for a lesser known series known as Nichicon NX (SMD), which should be a direct cross to NCC PXA (the series interchangeably used with Nichicon NA on those cards).

And yes, HC and ZA are lower grade than HW and HV, though not quite as low ESR as MBZ or HM, but HC and ZA are in larger case sizes than even HD.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Refreshing this thread:

Just got some more free stuff:

Biostar P4M900-M7 SE w/Pentium E2160
Delux ATX-450W P4 (green label) -Sun Pro built,AT-2005B. Has 24 pin cable
Gainward GT440 1GB DDR3 128B

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

nice nvidia card.
wish i could get one for free - all i get is g-force4's

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

nice nvidia card.
wish i could get one for free - all i get is g-force4's

Thanks. What's weird with it is that it goes haywire (blank screens) on the Biostar mobo but works fine on my MSI K9N SLi.

Anyways,think the Sun Pro is worth modding? Got some parts laying around.

What's weird with it though,is that the main transformer (EI-33,at least they don't lie ) doesn't have that grounding wire common for all PSUs.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

you mean the thick wire that arches out of the top of the windings?

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

you mean the thick wire that arches out of the top of the windings?

Yes,that's the one.

Also there's no spot on the board for it.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

What's weird with it though,is that the main transformer (EI-33,at least they don't lie ) doesn't have that grounding wire common for all PSUs.

Hehe.
That grounding wire (called center tap) is actually not that common. Only half-bridge topology PSUs have it. However, I suspect you see it a lot since you do tend to use Deer and other cheap PSU brands quite a bit .

As for my cheap/free scores: I stopped buying broken stuff from eBay and elsewhere - at least for now. I just moved back at home from college and my room is filled to the brim now. So I need to stop and maybe donate/recycle some of the stuff I have. Just way too much at the moment: 7 CRT monitors (3 waiting in the garage once I free more room in my closet), 10 ATX/mATX PC cases (2 waiting for more free room), 1 small CRT TV, 3 bookshelf -type speakers (4 large floor speakers waiting in garage as well), 2 large stereo/SRS amps, 3 Xbox 360 plastic cases/shells, 3 Xbox 360 metal cases with motherboards, 1 PS3 case with stuff inside, and boxes upon boxes of PC and electronics junk .

[goodpsusearch]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I feel you momaka. I have so many things to repair/test and so little time and space!

[SteveNielsen]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Same here. I save up too much junk thinking I'll get parts from them. Sometimes I do but mostly they just take up space and collect dust.

[rhomanski]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

just moved back at home from college and my room is filled to the brim now. So I need to stop and maybe donate/recycle some of the stuff I have. Just way too much at the moment: 7 CRT monitors (3 waiting in the garage once I free more room in my closet), 10 ATX/mATX PC cases (2 waiting for more free room), 1 small CRT TV, 3 bookshelf -type speakers (4 large floor speakers waiting in garage as well), 2 large stereo/SRS amps, 3 Xbox 360 plastic cases/shells, 3 Xbox 360 metal cases with motherboards, 1 PS3 case with stuff inside, and boxes upon boxes of PC and electronics junk .

That's how hoarders get started. Soon they have just a path to their bed. Then they're sleeping on the couch. Although with most it truly is garbage they save.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Hehe.
That grounding wire (called center tap) is actually not that common. Only half-bridge topology PSUs have it. However, I suspect you see it a lot

I've been seeing that center tap wire quite a lot but this Sun Pro was the first PSU I've seen not having one. What are the chances of replacing the transfomer with one from a Delta?

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

That's how hoarders get started. Soon they have just a path to their bed. Then they're sleeping on the couch. Although with most it truly is garbage they save.

Indeed, and that's what I want to avoid.

I do vacuum my room bi-weekly (and sometimes more often if I make a mess cutting something). And no trash or food inside either. But yeah, now that I moved back, I am definitely overwhelmed with all of the stuff I have collected. I think I definitely need to get rid of some things.

For one, I do have a non-working HP A7217A (Sony GDM-FW900) 24" CRT monitor in the room. I'm thinking of making a how-to dismantling video and then getting rid of it (sans the boards maybe, since they are hard to find now and I have another of these monitors that works). That should free quite a bit of space in the room. Also, the bookshelf speakers I am using right now will likely go to donations. But I don't want to give them out the way they are in their current condition since the tweeter on the left speaker is blown. I want to either replace it or fix it before donating. After all, I don't want to donate junk.

I've been seeing that center tap wire quite a lot but this Sun Pro was the first PSU I've seen not having one. What are the chances of replacing the transfomer with one from a Delta?

If the PSUs use the same topology and the pins for GND, 5V, and 12V rail match, then it might work.

But I'd say you are better off trying to fix the Delta PSU, even if it rated for 100W. It would still perform better than a "500W" over-rated Sun Pro/Deer/L&C, and all the other low-end junk.

[synaesthesia]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Loving some of these stories!
Used to work for a recycling company and the things some people threw out was hilarious. Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duos... in 2007. When these companies refresh, so often they just hurl out the "old" in such a way with a dodgy reason like "being more cost effective".

On which note, Dell are hilarious. We used to get palletloads of gear from Dell to recycle.
70/30 brand new gear/faulty gear.
If an engineer goes on site to fix a laptop for instance, they'll take a mainboard just in case. If it's not needed, it'll be sent for recycling. Brand new, in it's box, seals unbroken.
It's more cost effective.

I built a Core 2 Duo Dell Latitude D830 with 1920x1200 screen, and as it was all "scrap" I was allowed to keep it. All parts were brand new; only bits I had to add myself were memory for obvious reasons, and storage. They retailed at the time for £1400.
I had a C2 Quad Q6600 from there along with several 400GB hard drives and a Geforce 8800GT - that was faulty but a spell in the oven soon fixed that!

Needless to say, that's clean dumpster diving but still counts!