best cheap/free scores 1.1

[momaka]

Originally Posted by brethin

I managed to get a pickup truck load during our set it out for free weekend and found several nice goodies. I don't need the $ but my passion for grabbing up computer parts makes my wife go bonkers on me.

I think a lot of us here on BNC have this same "disease" .

I got something cool (IMO anyways) from eBay for not much cash. But I will wait till it arrives here before I post it.

Also just missed a Jetway 775GT1-LOGE motherboard. Starting bid was $9.99. No bids whatsoever. Literally 1 minute before end of auction I bid. Didn't expect anyone else to bid, since it was listed "for parts/repair", so I only put down $10.50. That was a stupid mistake! It got snatched for just 50 cents more than that. The worst part is that the motherboard got several bulging Chemicon KZJ caps as well as lots of Sacon / Evercon caps - so whoever got it may find that the board doesn't work and throw it away... which would be a shame because it is a really cool SLI motherboard for socket 775 capable of running anything from Pentium 4 Prescott to Core 2 Duo at maximum FSB of 1066 MHz. Moreover, it has some good overclocking abilities. IIRC, the FSB can be pushed to 1333 MHz with an overclock. So might be able to take even higher end C2D CPUs. Also, I love the color schemes of these older Jetway motherboards. Once recapped, they are absolutely solid motherboards.

[diif]

Jetway used to be purple if I remember correctly. My choice of board back in the day for cheap builds.

[pfrcom]

Originally Posted by momaka

I only put down $10.50. That was a stupid mistake! It got snatched for just 50 cents more than that.

But you'll never know the successful bidder's maximum, perhaps a ridiculous amount

[momaka]

Originally Posted by diif

Jetway used to be purple if I remember correctly. My choice of board back in the day for cheap builds.

No, that would be ECS (ECS also used brown, and later on green and blue). Jetway had only a few purple boards - mostly socket 462 and 478. Most of their boards are green and red. Their red ones are my favorite, though. Probably the brightest red I've seen on a board. Makes the traces highly visible... unlike on modern stuff, where all you get is black and brown (save for some blue from Gigabyte.)

Originally Posted by pfrcom

But you'll never know the successful bidder's maximum, perhaps a ridiculous amount

True.
But I still should have put my maximum limit for a broken board (usually $12-15 including shipping) and not be cheap. Oh well. Hope the other person knows what they are doing with it.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by momaka

I got something cool (IMO anyways) from eBay for not much cash. But I will wait till it arrives here before I post it.

As promised, here it is:


It's an AsRock AM2CPU board - basically, it allows certain ASRock socket 754 and 939 motherboards with a "Future CPU Port" to use a socket AM2 CPU with DDR2 RAM. Official page:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/upgrad...AM2CPU%20Board

I got it for $0.01... yes, just a penny!
Why?
Several years ago, I found a PC on trash day with an AsRock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard in it, and I've always been curious about the AM2CPU board since then. Never thought I'd find one easily, much less this cheap.

Gotta admit that this sure is some of the most odd-ball PC hardware I've had. I imagine some years down the road, this might even have a "collector's" value (or if not, at least a "cool" factor to it ).

Now here is the ironic part: the auction I bid on was not solely for the AM2CPU board. That is, it also included another 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard, as well as an Athlon 64 4000+ CPU (s939), 4x 1 GB "PC3200" DDR RAM modules, and 2x DDR2 RAM modules (haven't tested these yet). Quite a good deal IMO!
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1464583119
Shipping, of course, was much more than the winning price - almost $14. But that is still fine by me. Funny thing is, there was another auction just for the AM2CPU board going concurrently as the auction I won. Here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asrock-AM2CP...oAAOSwrnNXQb3r
But for whatever odd reason, people did not see the auction I bid on. So I managed to get that AM2CPU board + a motherboard + a good CPU + some RAM, all for less than $14. In contrast, the auction above just for the AM2CPU board ended for $13.50.

Anways, so now I have two of these 939Dual-SATA2 motherboards - which is good, because mine lost the audio some time ago and the SATA/SATA2 ports are throwing lots of errors. This new one wasn't working out of the (shipping) box either. Kind of gave me a scare that I have another dead board for the "parts" pile. But good thing I decided to check the manual (i.e. RTFM) before powering it, because some of the jumpers were set incorrectly. Also, it looks like the seller / original owner did a bit of damage to some of the jumpers for the 939/AM2 CPU jumper block. In particular, one pair of pins was not shorted as it should have been, so it was causing the motherboard to not POST. In addition, there was also a bad cap on one of the rails for Northbridge. After fixing these two items, I finally got the board to boot... and even load Windows from an old SATA HDD which I used for my original 939Dual-SATA2 build. But it still needs more testing before concluding anything.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

yes that is strange indeed. the item u bid on was 13 bucks including shipping. the am2cpu board alone was $13.50 excluding shipping. shipping for the am2cpu board alone was 8-10 bucks depending on which part of the states u are in. the shipping cost for me was US$10.26 from florida to my third party shipping company's address in oregon.

im guessing ppl went after the am2cpu board alone because it was listed as new. the item u bid on is used. guess ppl got seduced by the power of the dark side because the seller actually partly disclaimed (or attempted to lie) in his listing by saying that it "looks new". also, im guessing the ppl who bid all had wives? imagine if they bid on the other item and a "pile of junk" arrived at their doorstep (according to the opinion of the wife), the man would get an earful from his wife! also, i noticed the item u bid on has a number of ost crap caps on the mainboard and am2cpu board. i also see what could possibly be kzj or kzg caps on the mainboard too. was the item u bid on listed as "for parts or not working"? considering the board u got was apparently doa and needed some tinkering with to work, it should be.

so apparently, everyone who bid on the "new" am2cpu board alone were apparently comp newbies and needed a good working piece. they prolly wouldnt know how to rtfm to get the "bundle of junk" in the other listing to work. if it ended up with anyone else that wasnt considered a pro bcn member, i would be quite upset and afraid of the "bundle of parts" getting trashed.

so good for u and me tho. im glad to see a pile of good ol' stuff end up in a better home and saved from the landfill. u also have another board for comparison troubleshooting to fix your other failing board.

btw, do u intend to pull the cpu heatsink to reapply the thermal paste? im curious to know which cpu core type u have for that 939 4000+. if the model number on the heatspreader ends with dep5as, u got the 130nm clawhammer core. if its daa5bn, u got the 90nm san diego core. if its dka5cf, u got the 90nm toledo core which is actually a dual core with one core disabled. im hoping u got either the san diego or toledo one cuz my 4000+ sandy overclocks to 3ghz on stock vcore while if u got the toledo, u can try figuring out how to unlock it for a free dual core cpu!!!

lastly, when u received the item, did it already ship with the heatsink still attached? by right, u are supposed to ship motherboards with the heatsink dismounted because it can damage the board in shipping if u dont dismount the heatsink. in local forums here in singapore, i've read horror stories of boards being trashed in international shipping because the seller did not dismount the heatsink from the board before shipping!

[Topcat]

Yesterday's freebies were as follows from a friend of mine's junk room:

2x Westinghouse 20" L2046NV monitors
1x Westinghouse 24" L2410NM
1x Asus RoG Maximus Formula

Monitors:



The 20" monitors needed to be de-crapxon'd and a couple of inverter FET's, and away they went.



The motherboard was thought to be murdered by poor shipping by Fedex....they demolished the case, and the system wouldn't POST. I removed the board from the case and bench tested it, it seems ok. The case was tweaked badly, I'm guessing it was twisted a little too hard.

75% recovery rate....the 2x 20" monitors being driven by the RoG motherboard:


The 24" is presenting more of a challenge. Had bad caps in the inverter board...but the PSU is not functioning, as it doesn't power up at all. Its caps are ok.

Of course the dual monitor test with the 20's.... Native resolution of 1400x1050, what an oddity that was...I was expecting 1280x1024 or perhaps 1600x1200....




Unique with the 20's, as they're 4:3 aspect ratio, its quite rare to find that A/R in anything larger than a 17".

[momaka]

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

also, i noticed the item u bid on has a number of ost crap caps on the mainboard and am2cpu board. i also see what could possibly be kzj or kzg caps on the mainboard too. was the item u bid on listed as "for parts or not working"? considering the board u got was apparently doa and needed some tinkering with to work, it should be.

Nope.
It was listed as "used". Described as working when last used. And I actually do believe it.

From the looks of it, the motherboard was last used with the AM2CPU board and some AM2 CPU. Then the seller must have pulled the AM2 CPU at some point and retired the board. Either right before retiring the motherboard or selling it, he/she then moved the AM2/939 jumpers to set the board for a socket 939 CPU. But as I found out, the seller missed to reconfigure one (which is why the above scenario is a very likely possibility.)

Also, there was one bulged OST RLS 6.3V 1000 uF cap on the motherboard. It was for the Northbridge secondary power rail. That cap didn't have any other caps with it in parallel, so it is quite possible to prevent the board from working. Hence even more evidence that the board was likely working until the last moment before being retired. That bad cap read something like 300 uF and 8 Ohms ESR, if I remember correctly - probably enough to keep the board running if it is hot, but bad enough to prevent it from booting cold.

Oh, and regarding the Chemicon caps you see - those are all KZE: 4x 1200 uF for the CPU high side, and one 1500 uF filtering either 3.3V or 5V rail, IIRC. The rest us OST RLS (save for one or two 16V RLG series). TBH, I don't mind ORT RLS - they seem to do okay on linear power rails (in my experience), and that's what this board has mostly. They do fail quite often on buck-type rails, though (like the ECS MCP61xx motherboards as one example).

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

so apparently, everyone who bid on the "new" am2cpu board alone were apparently comp newbies and needed a good working piece. they prolly wouldnt know how to rtfm to get the "bundle of junk" in the other listing to work. if it ended up with anyone else that wasnt considered a pro bcn member, i would be quite upset and afraid of the "bundle of parts" getting trashed.

so good for u and me tho. im glad to see a pile of good ol' stuff end up in a better home and saved from the landfill.

Yes, indeed.
Glad I got it. A little bit of love and care is all that board needed to get it going again. As I said, some years down the road I think this could surely make it as a collector's item, considering how odd this motherboard is.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

u also have another board for comparison troubleshooting to fix your other failing board.

Well, I'm not sure which one I'll be using to troubleshoot the other. Both seem to be marginally stable as it is. I have yet to wash and recap this "new" 939Dual-SATA2.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

btw, do u intend to pull the cpu heatsink to reapply the thermal paste?

Most def. CPU seems to be stuck on 49C, both under load and idle and the system is very very unresponsive. Almost feels like the CPU is throttling or something.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

if its dka5cf, u got the 90nm toledo core which is actually a dual core with one core disabled.

ADA4000DKA5CF... so Toledo core.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

while if u got the toledo, u can try figuring out how to unlock it for a free dual core cpu!!!

Ha! You got me quite excited for a second there. Had to go dig deeper regarding that. But, unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that said how to unlock the core. One post I saw mentioned that the second core is laser-cut permanently, so no way to enable it.

Such a shame! I always wanted to try a dual-core 939 CPU. Granted I do have a X2 6000+ CPU in a AM2 socket... but it doesn't feel the same. I really have a soft spot for socket 939 stuff.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

lastly, when u received the item, did it already ship with the heatsink still attached?

Yes, heatsink was attached. But I don't think that was too much of an issue, because the heatsink that came with this motherboard wasn't really that big or heavy. In fact, it looks like a socket AM2 heatsink for the lower-tier (lower power) AM2 CPUs.

Originally Posted by Topcat

The 24" is presenting more of a challenge. Had bad caps in the inverter board...but the PSU is not functioning, as it doesn't power up at all. Its caps are ok.

Did you check the start-up cap? Primary fuse and series NTC thermistor okay? Vcc for the PWM controller coming up and within operating range?

Originally Posted by Topcat

Of course the dual monitor test with the 20's.... Native resolution of 1400x1050, what an oddity that was...I was expecting 1280x1024 or perhaps 1600x1200....

That is a nearly perfect resolution for that size - not too small and not too large. Awesome monitors, IMO! (Imagine me saying that for an LCD. )

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by momaka

Did you check the start-up cap? Primary fuse and series NTC thermistor okay? Vcc for the PWM controller coming up and within operating range?

I finally sat down and troubleshot the PSU. It was a 22uF 50v UCC KME cap in the PSU primary. visibly was fine. Read 0.00056uF on the trusty LC102. Replaced it and all the other UCC caps in the secondary (just to be on the safe side), and its now working.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Originally Posted by momaka

Ha! You got me quite excited for a second there. Had to go dig deeper regarding that. But, unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that said how to unlock the core. One post I saw mentioned that the second core is laser-cut permanently, so no way to enable it.

uoops i apologise for the troll post... thought amd always liked putting hidden goodies in their cpus...

Originally Posted by momaka

Such a shame! I always wanted to try a dual-core 939 CPU. Granted I do have a X2 6000+ CPU in a AM2 socket... but it doesn't feel the same. I really have a soft spot for socket 939 stuff.

i recommend going for the opteron 180 if your board bios has support for it. the athlon 64 x2 4600+ and 4800+ for s939 cost an arm and a leg, so the equivalent opterons are cheaper. u can blame the "flippers" for that...

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

I finally sat down and troubleshot the PSU. It was a 22uF 50v UCC KME cap in the PSU primary. visibly was fine. Read 0.00056uF on the trusty LC102. Replaced it and all the other UCC caps in the secondary (just to be on the safe side), and its now working.

Good to hear!
I'm surprised a Chemicon cap failed. I wonder if that's because KME is general purpose series?

By the way, I have the bigger brother of that monitor: the L2610NW (26"), 1920x1200 native resolution. Got it off of Craislist a while back for either $5 or $10. Was said to be not working but it works fine?

Does your L2410NW make a loud 120 Hz square-wave buzzing noise while turned ON? Mine is very loud, especially if I increase the brightness to the max. But mine could be using different guts, so who knows. I'm just curious because mine uses 6 (or 12??) CCFLs. Better not be the inverter going out, because that would be quite complicated to troubleshoot.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

uoops i apologise for the troll post... thought amd always liked putting hidden goodies in their cpus...

No problems.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

the athlon 64 x2 4600+ and 4800+ for s939 cost an arm and a leg, so the equivalent opterons are cheaper. u can blame the "flippers" for that...

Or I can just look for a X2 3800+ and overclock it. The X2 3800+ runs at 2 GHz (same as the single-core 3200+). So if I can do the same overclock as with my 3200+ (from 2 GHz to 2.5 GHz), then that X2 3800+ should be flying. Weee

[TechGeek]

DuKane Compact 3200 intercom system. 50 rooms, no tuner, got for $1. See this thread for details.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by momaka

Does your L2410NW make a loud 120 Hz square-wave buzzing noise while turned ON? Mine is very loud, especially if I increase the brightness to the max. But mine could be using different guts, so who knows. I'm just curious because mine uses 6 (or 12??) CCFLs. Better not be the inverter going out, because that would be quite complicated to troubleshoot.

No, this one doesn't....but I had a 22" Acer that used to do that, it was annoying as hell. I believe it was an inverter transformer. I sold it to a guy on an 'as-is' basis a couple years ago, hes still using it to this day....and says it still makes the noise.

[mikay786]

Grabbed a decent bargain today, acer predator pc with some parts in it. Its the blue metallic transformer style one with the flip door. Very nice case always liked them.

Got a AMD motherboard in it, a quad core phenom (not checked model but deffo a quad), all in one water cooler, a beefy looking delta psu, sound card, raid card, and a couple of dvd writers sata. Not tested yet, will get some pics up later.

Not bad for £12


Was also seriously tempted by an old school arcam / Cambridge tuner amp combo. a60 amp and matching tuner. Guy just wanted to much for them, well more than what I'm comfortable paying at a carboot. £60 for the pair, if I could test them would have been a great deal.

Not sure if I should have gone for it, regretting a little bit now.

[stj]

the most i ever gave someone at a carboot was £25.
and that was for a 100MHz triple-trace scope.

i dont like paying much at carboots because you have to assume everything is fucked until proven otherwise.

[mikay786]

Yea that's the attitude I take, assume it's not working and pay only what you comfortable with it as spares and repairs. Don't get me wrong a lot of the time the stuff works but it only takes one time to really screw you up.

Thinking now probably a good choice given the guy said he was an audiophile so probably knew the score so no bargains to be had.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by TechGeek

DuKane Compact 3200 intercom system. 50 rooms, no tuner, got for $1. See this thread for details.

Ha, pretty cool stuff!
You should wire it in your house. Could talk to your family members without ever having to see them.

I know my parents could use a system like that. They often talk (yell) at each other from different rooms.

Oh, and just those speakers are worth more than $1. Fun stuff to play with if you intend to learn electronics. Don't blow them up, though - they are oldschool high efficiency speakers.

[TechGeek]

Dude, I'm TOTALLY wiring that up!

[Dan81]

Got a 40GB CECHG04 PS3,free with AV cord and two controllers (of which one is stupidly marked as wireless,while the PCB says the exact opposite). I was actually surprised this thing didn't die (knock on wood!) because of the infamous YLOD. The HDD isn't the original one though,seems it was replaced with a 320GB WD Scorpio Blue. Anyways not the best score (seems it has 4.80 OFW,need to find out a service to downgrade to 3.55 CFW) but it still kicks ass,even with a shot BD drive.

[stj]

nice, the "G" is the last decent model.
after that they started storing much of the o.s. on the harddrive to use smaller flash chips..