best cheap/free scores 1.1

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Got a iiyama 28” 4k monitor for £50 off a forum sale.

Had two tiny bugs behind screen about 1mm long. Managed to get one out but the other has left a corpse stain on the backlight panel.

But for £50 I’m thrilled, big upgrade to what I was using.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Free scores for last week ;

1- One TV campomatic led 24s2e . Severely burnt and missing components and circuits around the HDMI area .

2- One Toshiba Tecra A9 s9015x , with the PCI Express usual problem , meaning the Nvidia chipset says goodbye ..

3 - One Toshiba Tecra A8 , Sounds like someone caught someone , lol , and next the laptop was the victim , screen broken with what looks like screwdriver attack and so the upper cover and keyboard . Screen was replaced immediately and so the keyboard . Polishing the cover proved useful , to some degree , and it's working .

4- One DVD Player Pioneer DV120K-K . The MIP2K4 , As usual , is blown .

5 - One DVD Player Silver SV-7900A , Sounds like the CD5888 is blown .

6 - One Toshiba Satellite M305 , changing Rams and a thorough cleaning from inside proved useful this time .

7 - Campomatic MCD700 Multimedia player , done lot of cleaning , starting the lens CD , and Sonax-ing , lol , the volumes and switches made it work like charm .

8- One Digital Video Recorder Model 6704Z . and two cameras.

9- Two Western Digital HD 10EZEX 1.0tb , almost dying with lot of CRC errors .

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

9- Two Western Digital HD 10EZEX 1.0tb , almost dying with lot of CRC errors .

Sounds like shit HDD boards! (maybe bad cache on the board?)

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

One of my recycler trees dumped a really interesting one on me..... Supermicro X7QCE. I didn't even know such a thing existed.....

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Sounds like shit HDD boards! (maybe bad cache on the board?)

Yes , My first suspicion RJARRRPCGP; It's not the first time i see this case in those HD , the blue stripe ones .. If i had more time , i would open a thread about it . My first guess usually is the Cache Ram chipset going havoc .
How do i test them usually , I fill them with movies or songs , and on the next restart , checkdisk start complaining ... Things worsen more on the next restart and so on .

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Bit quite today but grabbed a few things.

Ps2 fat, stack of games like 40+ (disk only), controller, two memory cards for £2 (untested)
Ps2 fat, controllers, 10 games and a few extra bits. (Shown working) £15
Panasonic dmr-hw120 hd dual tuner pvr 500gb (no remote) tested working £2
Ps1 console only untested - £1
Jbl creature speakers untested no psu - £1
Nintendo dsi untested no charger £5

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Yes , My first suspicion RJARRRPCGP; It's not the first time i see this case in those HD , the blue stripe ones .. If i had more time , i would open a thread about it . My first guess usually is the Cache Ram chipset going havoc .
How do i test them usually , I fill them with movies or songs , and on the next restart , checkdisk start complaining ... Things worsen more on the next restart and so on .

Is there anything that looks like an SDRAM chip, like the past kind, with pins, instead of being BGA?

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Is there anything that looks like an SDRAM chip, like the past kind, with pins, instead of being BGA?

Yes , of course RJARRRPCGP; .. It's the Samsung k4t51163qj-bce7 , but no , it's a BGA if we can say so ..Usually , and with a little bit luck , i switch boards with another HDs with another types of error .

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Got another machine for free.

Question: just how good is the PSU in terms of quality? I know most FSP units were okay but I came across some units on this forum that were outright gutless. (notably the FSP250-60HEN)

Case: KME CX-3356
PSU: Fortron-Source Group FSP300-60EP(2)
ODD: Hitachi-LG GSA-H10N
MB: Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Skt939
GPU: previously a FX5200 128MB/128bit from Forsa, now a ASUS Radeon HD3450
HDD: WD800JB-00LSA0 80GB SATA
OS: formerly Windows 7 Ultimate SP1, now XP SP3
RAM: previously 1GB (2x512) - filled the other 2 empty slots as well.

Also, anything I can grease a semi-seized GPU fan with?The FX5200 has a failing fan (it makes airplane whirring sounds) and the only thing I have around is sunflower oil.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

sunflower oil.

And it's not even "sunflower season", LOL

Our sunflowers don't start blooming until at least later-July. Usually August.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Question: just how good is the PSU in terms of quality? I know most FSP units were okay but I came across some units on this forum that were outright gutless. (notably the FSP250-60HEN)

IMO if an FSP say's 250 - it's good for 250.

Also, anything I can grease a semi-seized GPU fan with?The FX5200 has a failing fan (it makes airplane whirring sounds) and the only thing I have around is sunflower oil.

lap the heatsink and you wont need grease.
it's a lot of work though!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

lap the heatsink and you wont need grease.
it's a lot of work though!

It's attached with screws in the center of the heatsink tho.

I did replace the heatsink for the time being with one from a Palit GF4 MX440 AGP8x.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

IMO if an FSP say's 250 - it's good for 250.

qft

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

what does 'qft' mean?

[goontron]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ How young are you?
QFT = Quoted for Truth. An acronym from the BBS days and probably before.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

One of my decent scores lately... basically, I got a lot of scrap CPUs on eBay for $12 shipped to my door. Most were some crappy Intel BGA chipsets brute-force removed from the board, along with several s478 Pentium 4 CPUs. But among them was a gem: an AMD A8-6600K. No idea if it works yet, as it had a ton of bent pins. But the seller I got it from also had scrap RAM for cheap ($1 per GB for DDR/DDR2 sticks, including the shipping) that I bought before, and it all worked. So I believe that A8 CPU probably works too. Unfortunately, I don't have any FM2 motherboards to test it with, and the local MicroCenter sold out the last one just under my nose.

The other CPUs were nothing to write home about: a s1366 Intel Xeon E5520, an Athlon 64 X2 5200+, Core 2 Duo T8100, and three Pentium 4 CPUs (2x 3.2 GHz Prescott HT, 1x 2.8 GHz Northwood HT). Oh and a brute-force removed G92-280-b1 GPU chip .

The X2 5200+ ended up working just fine after spending about 30 minutes unbending its pins. I also might use the P4 2.8 GHz Northwood HT in a Dell GX-270 motherboard. As for weather or not I should upgrade my current OptiPlex 170L with the 3.2 GHz Prescott HT (has a 2.8 GHz Prescott HT right now), I'm still debating. Not sure if the extra 400 MHz will improve anything that much, give that it's a P4.

And the T8100 might be a possible upgrade for the C2D in my sister's laptop down the road... maybe.

the insulation will be cheaper than the electric bill.

Oh absolutely f***ing YES!!!

I lived in a 1-story home with no insulation and windows AC units before and... it was a pointless fight in the summer trying to cool that thing. The neighbor in the duplex unit next to me kept his on 24/7 and the AC unit pretty much ran 24/7 other than stopping for some short 10 minute breaks maybe 4-5 times in the hours between 5 and 7 in the morning. What he accomplished: inside temperature of around 78-82F. In my apt., without any AC at all, the temps varied between 85-94F. While that's very hot, at least I could sleep in peace with the ceiling fan on. No way I could do that with my window AC unit - the thing was louder than a mower.

...
absolutely free. I know it's food, not computers or electronics, but it was free, and it doesn't have to be computers/electronics to be here. I can list free food.

Free food is always a nice score in my book.

One of the local grocery stores here regularly has sales & deals on their snacks and chips, depending on the week or what they have more to sell / get rid of. Thus, rather than buying snacks at full prices in other stores, I often go to this store when I need me some junk food. It's very close by too, so I'm not wasting a ton of gas driving 200 miles just to save a buck or two.

2- One Toshiba Tecra A9 s9015x , with the PCI Express usual problem , meaning the Nvidia chipset says goodbye ..

Of course.
I'm glad nVidia no longer makes chipsets. They had nice features, but were all terrible for reliability. Only nForce 2, and possibly 3 and 4 are somewhat better. The rest probably went here by now

9- Two Western Digital HD 10EZEX 1.0tb , almost dying with lot of CRC errors .

Remove the PCB and check the contacts on the bottom. Older WDs were notorious for corroded contacts, going as far back as the early 80 GB SATA models and even some PATA models, IIRC.

Quick clean up with a good pencil eraser and then some IPA might just restore the HDD back to normal.

Alternatively, you could tin the contacts (on the PCB) with a very thin layer of solder too. I did that to a few of my WD HDDs already, just to avoid this problem.

Question: just how good is the PSU in terms of quality? I know most FSP units were okay but I came across some units on this forum that were outright gutless. (notably the FSP250-60HEN)

Open it and see.
I would guess probably okay.

Also, anything I can grease a semi-seized GPU fan with?The FX5200 has a failing fan (it makes airplane whirring sounds) and the only thing I have around is sunflower oil.

Use machine oil, engine oil, or transmission oil ONLY. Sunflower oil... or any other organic (cooking) oil, for that matter, will oxidize and become very sticky over time, rendering the fan even more stuck.

If you really have nothing, just go to your car, pull the engine oil dipstick out, and use that. Or ask a neighbor for that. Or go to a car repair shop and ask for a small jar of used oil - yes, even used engine oil is better than cooking oils.

While on the subject matter... avoid using grease.

what does 'qft' mean?

When in doubt about trivial things like that, just use a search engine rather than posting it here and waiting for a response. You'll get your answer a lot faster (and not dilute threads too).

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Four 48-port Cisco Gbe PoE switches. But, as with most Cisco PoE kit, weak power supply (they seem to target 7W PD's -- for obvious reasons! ) I'll upgrade the firmware in them, verify all ports work and trade them for something more interesting.

Yet another Z800, this week (they're a bit long in the tooth but considerably quieter than boxes with similar capabilities -- I like having 7 bays). Probably configure as another ESXi server.

Upgraded powered speakers for this machine (Logitech X-140's) -- one less silly wall wart/brick to deal with!

Two more SmartUPS 1000's for which I'll have to find NMC's before I can deploy.

Four 2000W power supplies (server pulls) -- to drive some of the larger "mechanisms" I have, here.

Razor E200 -- I'll replace the batteries and find a kid in the neighborhood.

GTX 960 and a 4870X2 (more "trading collateral")

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's haul from making my rounds @ the local shops & county clerk's office:

1) Several New in Box Adaptec SCSI RAID controllers.
2) 2x Socket-A era PC's (only one shown in the pic below)
3) 22" Dell monitor
4) The pick of the litter, a Brother HL3170CDW color laser printer, complete. Fuser is bad, but cheap to replace.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Of course.
I'm glad nVidia no longer makes chipsets. They had nice features, but were all terrible for reliability. Only nForce 2, and possibly 3 and 4 are somewhat better. The rest probably went here by now


Remove the PCB and check the contacts on the bottom. Older WDs were notorious for corroded contacts, going as far back as the early 80 GB SATA models and even some PATA models, IIRC.

Quick clean up with a good pencil eraser and then some IPA might just restore the HDD back to normal.

Alternatively, you could tin the contacts (on the PCB) with a very thin layer of solder too. I did that to a few of my WD HDDs already, just to avoid this probl

Hi Momaka; Well , I can't say I love Nvidia , I would be a big liar , lol , but I think Nvidia are like women , can't live with them , can't live without them , haha ...

Yes , I've done all the above , plus many of unique technics I won't reveal , but , it seems it's the memory cache here is the only culprit . throughout the years , I have become comfortably numb (Sorry Pink Floyd) , so i avoid BGA , reflowing , reballing , reovening and the rest of the frustration family .lol ...I just wait for similar HDs with different errors ..

Have a nice day my friend

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I've had a couple of boards with Nforce Pro chipsets... they are pretty awesome. Yeah, their consumer chipsets were a bit flakey, but at least their workstation chips kicked ass.