best cheap/free scores 1.1

[TechGeek]

slap another one in and plug it in

[kc8adu]

kenwood tl922 from a cb'er.
$50!
he thought it was blown up.
set for 220v but 110 plug on it.
bad hv caps causing low plate voltage but it works!

[kc8adu]

5 cooler master 500w psu.
free.dropped off for recycling.look like cwt.
bad caps.will recycle by recapping.

[momaka]

Yay, I got the Antec EARTHWATTS EA-500 that I missed on eBay last time. Looks like whoever bid on it last time either couldn't pay or had some other problem, because the seller re-listed that PSU a few days after that. So a few hours before the auction's end, I put a bid, and won the PSU for $3.

I guess it was meant to be mine after all.

Originally Posted by TechGeek

to him, they are

Exactly! It's all relative.

Originally Posted by stj

those are scores???

I sometimes consider older hardware even more worthwhile than some of the new garbage that comes out nowadays.

Originally Posted by Dan81

Given I paid nothing, I guess they are.

Just for fun, I might see what is wrong with the Premier. I saw the fuse was shattered to pieces,but nothing obvious on the primary side.

The half-bridge main BJTs could have gone open-circuit. Or, if there is no plastic isolating sheet, I've seen some L&C simply arc to case and shatter the fuse for no reason.

Originally Posted by kc8adu

5 cooler master 500w psu.
free.dropped off for recycling.look like cwt.
bad caps.will recycle by recapping.

Nice!

I think those are fairly decent units too. You can certainly use them in your customers' PCs and not worry. Better than an Echo Star any day, no?

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by kc8adu

5 cooler master 500w psu.
free.dropped off for recycling.look like cwt.
bad caps.will recycle by recapping.

That's the best way to recycle good PSUs (good quality, that is). I know the 600W cooler master I have recapped well (IIRC that wasn't it's issue, it instead was a cracked solder joint on the fan driver transistor).

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

The half-bridge main BJTs could have gone open-circuit. Or, if there is no plastic isolating sheet, I've seen some L&C simply arc to case and shatter the fuse for no reason.

Don't know if the main BJTs might have gone open. If those were open,I would have expected a big hole in one of them (the last dead one had a big hole carved into the standby transistor. No sparks but no power whatsoever.)
However,I might just replace them altogether with spare 13007s . Before that though,I'll do the lightbulb test. If so,I might just as well get some uber crappy Linkworld that weighs HALF than the Premier,and take the transistors from that. That,and the secondary transistors as well. (especially the 12v transistor,since Deer used the diode-on-bracket for this one.)

And as far as I saw,there wasn't any arcing on the case. And a weird thing though(but this may have to do with the date stamped on it - 2006 or so) is that the stock fan this came with (and this is no BS) is a Jamicon fan. Are those better than globe fans?

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dan81

Before that though,I'll do the lightbulb test.

That's how I'd do it too.
Much better than sticking a fuse in and powering it on again - a good way to go through a pack of fuses without getting anything done.

Originally Posted by Dan81

That,and the secondary transistors as well.

You mean rectifiers.
I have not seen to this day a Deer with transistors on the secondary for synchronous rectification. Maybe in another century, they might just get to that, seeing how they are still making PSUs with DoaBs (Diodes on a Bracket ) for the 12V rail rectifier.

Originally Posted by Dan81

the stock fan this came with (and this is no BS) is a Jamicon fan. Are those better than globe fans?

Jamicon fans are quite decent in my experience. Bestec used them a lot (and still do??) Never seen a Bestec with a failed fan. Most failed either due to caps, or in the case of the ATX-250-12E, 5VSB at 10+ Volts .

That said, I think Globe fans are okay too, provided that they are cleaned and lubricated properly. Even Rulian Science fans will last with proper cleaning and oil.

[Compgeke]

Got a PS2 SCPH-30001 with a controller, power cord and the A/V cable for free. Been wanting to get another PS2 for the last 9 years or so, finally did it.

[ratdude747]

My wife scored me a Vizio E32H-C1 32" LED smart TV out of the dumpster last night. I didn't have time to test it as it was raining a bit and I needed to get out the door... I did pull the rear cover to let things dry off over the next few days until I get back home.

The PSU caps looked OK but being elite caps, I'll be replacing them if the screen isn't busted (or any other sort of major failure).

[momaka]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

My wife scored me a Vizio E32H-C1 32" LED smart TV out of the dumpster last night.

Nice, RD! Good to hear your wife is not the "little princess" -types that typically would never do such things, let alone even think of them.

Originally Posted by ratdude747

The PSU caps looked OK but being elite caps, I'll be replacing them if the screen isn't busted (or any other sort of major failure).

In my experience, Elite caps seem to fare a little better that the other crap brands. So let's hope this is not a busted screen issue. A bad start-up cap would be nice. Or a shorted output rectifier (did I hear anyone whisper Vestel? )

[Dan81]

Scored just another PC - this one was in quite a bad shape,but I got it running:

JNC/TAC RJA-C 7650 case w/ handle roof
Premier LC-C400ATX PSU (no bulged caps???)
ASUS K8U-X w/ Sempron 2800 - had one bulged KZG - others seem in good condition,no bulge on bung or anything out of ordinary - might either recap it completely or replace it with something else.
Panasonic SR-8587-C that doesn't seem to work.

With some parts I had around,I ended up with this:

JNC/TAC RJA-C 7650 case
Premier LC-B350ATX - rebuilt - 5v - 30A, 12v - 10A* and 3.3v - 30A
1GB DDR400 RAM
ASUS K8U-X w/ Sempron 2800 (recapped)
ASUS Radeon HD3450 512MB AGP8X
Pioneer DVD-117 DVD-ROM
Samsung SP2504C 250GB SATA - for some reason it won't get detected by Windows XP's text-mode setup,but I can see it in ALi SATA BIOS.

*I had to put a 10A rectifier because: 1 - it had the Diode-on-a-Bracket treatment and 2 - I didn't have any better rectifier (nor do I have now) and to top this it's a ultrafast. I didn't notice any problems in using it on a Socket 754 system,mainly because these seem to eat less power than anything new I had (P4 and Athlon XP)

[dragos2009]

dan you can't see the hdd in windows setup because probably your windows instalation disk doesn't have the drivers included for the ali sata chipset

[stj]

test with a Linux live-disk
make sure it's one that wont require huge ram!

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by stj

test with a Linux live-disk
make sure it's one that wont require huge ram!

Well,the only live linux disc I have is Ubuntu 14.04. Is that good?

Also,I tried a modified XP disc and that one recognized the SATA drive.

[momaka]

I got another Antec Earthwatts: this time the EA-430 (430 Watt version). Got it last week, but I still haven't tested it or even cracked it open for that matter. However, a quick inspection through the grille on the back and side suggests this one has at least one bad cap as well. So it should be good after a recap. Not bad for $1 (and $8 shipping). Most brick-n-mortar stores here will charge you at least $25-40 for a PSU like that. And even in online places like NewEgg, you won't find any decent entry-level PSU for under $25 shipped.

Other than that, I am enjoying my free PS3 for the time being with the game "The Last of Us" (ended up buying the game for $13, which isn't the cheapest, but it did come in near-mint condition). As much as I dislike consoles, I think this was definitely one of my best free scores.
(Or nearly-free, if you include the cost of the game and the controllers, for which I had to go with aftermarket controllers due to outrageous prices of the Sony Six-Axis controllers.)

Originally Posted by dragos2009

dan you can't see the hdd in windows setup because probably your windows instalation disk doesn't have the drivers included for the ali sata chipset

Exactly!

When Windows XP CD boots, for example, it says in the beginning you can press F-something to install a 3rd party RAID driver. This is what you need to press and insert a diskette with the driver to load.

Alternatively, you can set the SATA mode in your BIOS to ACHI, so it will emulate IDE mode. But that will also limit the speed on your SATA HDD to PATA speeds. I suppose with a regular HDD, the performance drop may not be very noticeable (if at all). But with a SSD, you should definitely use full speed.

Originally Posted by Dan81

JNC/TAC RJA-C 7650 case w/ handle roof

Cool.
We should do a trade. I'll give you some better PSUs, you can give me some cases. Deal?

Originally Posted by Dan81

Panasonic SR-8587-C that doesn't seem to work.

Doesn't want to read discs or what? Sometimes, optical drives can be easy to fix. A family friend had one where the ODD was making weird noises and wouldn't read discs. Turns out, the motor+laser assembly was stuck on the rails due to not being used for a long time. A quick "physiotherapy" got it going just fine and the ODD reads discs fine now.

[stj]

Originally Posted by Dan81

Well,the only live linux disc I have is Ubuntu 14.04. Is that good?

no idea, i'm sure the ubuntu site has the minimum hardware requirement listed though.

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

Doesn't want to read discs or what? Sometimes, optical drives can be easy to fix. A family friend had one where the ODD was making weird noises and wouldn't read discs. Turns out, the motor+laser assembly was stuck on the rails due to not being used for a long time. A quick "physiotherapy" got it going just fine and the ODD reads discs fine now.

Won't read discs. CDs don't even spin,and DVDs barely even spin,if at all.

[Dan81]

Seems I can't edit my previous post...?

Anyways,I finally got a custom version of XP SP3 (LastXP v20,the CD edition) to install on the K8U-X machine.

Just finished setting everything up,and using it right now to type this. And I got to tell you,holy smokes,Youtube runs incredibily nice - and that's with Flash installed,not through HTML5 code. Guess the SP2504C was worth it

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dan81

Seems I can't edit my previous post...?

This forum only gives you one hour after you make a post to submit any changes. That way, people can't make information in old posts magically disappear.

Originally Posted by Dan81

Just finished setting everything up,and using it right now to type this. And I got to tell you,holy smokes,Youtube runs incredibily nice - and that's with Flash installed,not through HTML5 code.

Yeah, Flash works much better for older computers, especially ones that don't have a video card that supports hardware H.264 acceleration. For the past month, YouTube has been forcing the use of HTML5 as the default player, though. I used to use Opera 10/12 for watching YouTube, since it is much faster than FireFox - at least on my old Pentium 4 HT rigs that don't have hardware H.264-capable video cards. But now that YouTube forces HTML5 as the default player, I have to use an add-on in FireFox, called YouTube Flash Video Player so that I can still watch videos on my old PCs. Unfortunately, FireFox is much more resource-hungry than the old Opera 10/12 browser, so I can't watch 720p anymore. 480p is he best I can do, and that's with nearly 100% CPU load. Used to take no more than 50% for 480p with Opera.

I guess the days before I retire my old P4 hardware for online use are now numbered.

Originally Posted by Dan81

Guess the SP2504C was worth it

Is that an update? What does it do?

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

Yeah, Flash works much better for older computers, especially ones that don't have a video card that supports hardware H.264 acceleration. For the past month, YouTube has been forcing the use of HTML5 as the default player, though. I used to use Opera 10/12 for watching YouTube, since it is much faster than FireFox - at least on my old Pentium 4 HT rigs that don't have hardware H.264-capable video cards. But now that YouTube forces HTML5 as the default player, I have to use an add-on in FireFox, called YouTube Flash Video Player so that I can still watch videos on my old PCs. Unfortunately, FireFox is much more resource-hungry than the old Opera 10/12 browser, so I can't watch 720p anymore. 480p is he best I can do, and that's with nearly 100% CPU load. Used to take no more than 50% for 480p with Opera.

Well,guess my Socket 754 system seems to use Flash Player as default player. Maybe the HD3450 has H.264 acceleration?

Originally Posted by momaka

Is that an update? What does it do?

That's the hard drive.