best cheap/free scores 1.1

[ratdude747]

bummer... i used to have a 1200. it was traded 2 years ago...

you will be the first to know when i have it.

[dobber]

I scored 5 Gateway e2300 PC's with 17in FPD's for free from my Credit Union this week, and also got a 22in monitor for 10 dollars.

[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.

[Phaihn]

Not a Dumpster dive but a computer my roommate got for helping someone move. Hp Pavilion 522n

[ratdude747]

i thing i got one of those... it got fried as the computer in a box.

bummer...

[Phaihn]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

i thing i got one of those... it got fried as the computer in a box.

bummer...

This ones just got a few blown caps gonna replace them then see what i can sell it for.

[Phaihn]

Originally Posted by Phaihn

This ones just got a few blown caps gonna replace them then see what i can sell it for.

some shots of the board

[ratdude747]

not what i had! mine was a tualie...

[Scenic]

the usual drill.. replace all nichicon HM/HN and you should be good to go..
too bad it lacks AGP :/

[ratdude747]

hence why both of mine ( i did get a couple of these in) both went to the scrap pile. no agp+ 2 slots ddr (not 3 or 4)+ uATX= junk in my book.