best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored these:

Zida/Tomato LX98-AT w/ Pentium II 266MHz - $3
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 w/ dead eMMC but working LCD - $7
Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 w/ dead EMMC, working LCD - $2
2x broken Galaxy S3 - $3
Samsung R40 + HP DV5000 - $3

The Zida board works just fine, gotta install 98SE on it along with a few brackets (PS/2, USB). For the working S3 and Note 2, I'm going to order some working boards. The S3 needs a bit of more extensive work (LCD and digitizer/touch work fine, but the glass is literally pieces.) but the Note 2 should be up and running after replacing the mobo and the USB port.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Picked up a voodoo3 3500 for $25. Untested since the EVC cable was missing. Spotted a couple caps knocked off, so I'm assuming it doesn't work....but I have a working one here, so I can easily identify the missing caps and replace them...and after that, odds are it'll work.

[BigTroll]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Picked up a voodoo3 3500 for $25. Untested since the EVC cable was missing. Spotted a couple caps knocked off, so I'm assuming it doesn't work....but I have a working one here, so I can easily identify the missing caps and replace them...and after that, odds are it'll work.

damn what a good deal, they seem impossible to find for a reasonable price anymore.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

damn what a good deal, they seem impossible to find for a reasonable price anymore.

I have a soft spot for 3DFX stuff, the voodoo3 in particular...if nothing else, I like refurbishing & re-homing them. I've got a voodoo5500 here (it's nuts what some think those are worth), I still like the 3's better.

[BigTroll]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I have a soft spot for 3DFX stuff, the voodoo3 in particular...if nothing else, I like refurbishing & re-homing them. I've got a voodoo5500 here (it's nuts what some think those are worth), I still like the 3's better.

They are cool cards, I finally got one for my pentium 200 rig, A 16mb pci voodoo banshee, does GL quake very good was 43 dollars total not bad but nothing to write home about.

Recently I took a old Asus P2B out of the closet and put in a 400mhz PII and put Win95c on it, 95 was a pain to get to work I know 98 would have been easier but I wanted a fast 95 rig, Used a 32MB Geforce 2ti but I want to find a voodoo 3 for it, I think even a voodoo 3 2000 would be fine but I want AGP, we shall see.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I have a Voodoo 3 3000 rocking on that Zida board...

I might even flash a Gigabyte GA-6EA BIOS to see if I can unlock any OC options.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Not exactly cheap... but one of my latest fairly decent scores is a XFX GeForce 6800 XTreme (XT) 256 MB AGP DDR3. For those of you that know this card or XFX from that era, you know what it comes with - bad caps. In particular, XFX liked to use GSC/Evercon/Sacon back then, so the card needed a full recap without a question - and that's why I got it too. A bit pricey for $18 shipped, but not too bad for a somewhat high-end AGP card. Already recapped and running. Gonna make a thread for it one of these days. This is actually my second one... or 3rd, if you count the PCI-E version that I got and showed off here some 5 or 6 years ago. These need a heatsink/cooler mod too. The stock one keeps the cards at around 47C @ 18C room and 57C @ 28C room - that's in idle mode . With load, they easily hit 70+ degrees Centigrade, regardless of case cooling or room temperature. No bueno. I like to keep my cards under 55C even with a toasty room of ~30C (86F).

Scored these:

Zida/Tomato LX98-AT w/ Pentium II 266MHz - $3
...

Cool.
I have a Zida BXi-98 motherboard here. This used to be powering our family computer in the late 90's up until 2002 or 2003 - all with a Pentium II 400 MHz, 64 MB of RAM, and Windows 98, of course.
The following years, I relegated it as a backup PC at my uncle's house, and it worked that duty for a few more years. Finally retired it around 2006 or thereabouts. Still works, though. But it's littered with Licon caps. Thinking about rebuilding that computer again, though. The case from that was housing various other PCs I had over the years, but is now free for use again. The CRT monitor that came with that PC is also here. It died at some point, but I revived it. Needs new caps probably, because the picture starts out rather shrunk-down and eventually expands to proper size when it's fully warmed up. It's only a 17" (16" viable), but absolutely stunning colors: with a full black screen, it looks as if the CRT is off - even in a completely dark room. With full white screen, the screen is blinding bright. You simply can't get that kind of contrast from an LCD. OLED comes somewhat close, but not really.

Picked up a voodoo3 3500 for $25. Untested since the EVC cable was missing. Spotted a couple caps knocked off, so I'm assuming it doesn't work....but I have a working one here, so I can easily identify the missing caps and replace them...and after that, odds are it'll work.

Nice.

My only VooDoo card is a VooDoo 3 3000 that I found with the Gateway Select 600 not too long ago (That's the one with the busted PCI slot):
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...postcount=3644

As it turns out, that VooDoo card has a cracked RAM chip from whoever opened that PC and removed the HDD.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

As it turns out, that VooDoo card has a cracked RAM chip from whoever opened that PC and removed the HDD.

Did you fix it?

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ Not yet.

Haven't found the time to remove the chip (or rather, the good weather, as I use the kitchen stove as my bottom heater, and that tends to stink up the house with "PCB smells", so I only do my reflows on days when the windows can be opened to air the house.) And I haven't found any replacement chips yet either.

It's on my "to do" list/pile, though. Work has taken a lot of my "free" time now, but I still manage to get some stuff fixed from that list/pile... slowly.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ Not yet.

Haven't found the time to remove the chip (or rather, the good weather, as I use the kitchen stove as my bottom heater, and that tends to stink up the house with "PCB smells", so I only do my reflows on days when the windows can be opened to air the house.) And I haven't found any replacement chips yet either.

It's on my "to do" list/pile, though. Work has taken a lot of my "free" time now, but I still manage to get some stuff fixed from that list/pile... slowly.

Ok, good...not fixing that is blasphemous!

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Absolutely!

If I can't fix it, I will make sure it finds its way to someone that can.

Hopefully it's just the RAM chip and not ripped pads under the BGA chip. Given the PCB flex it received, that's still not out of the picture, unfortunately.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Cool.
I have a Zida BXi-98 motherboard here. This used to be powering our family computer in the late 90's up until 2002 or 2003 - all with a Pentium II 400 MHz, 64 MB of RAM, and Windows 98, of course.
The following years, I relegated it as a backup PC at my uncle's house, and it worked that duty for a few more years. Finally retired it around 2006 or thereabouts. Still works, though. But it's littered with Licon caps.

Yeah, mine has those dreaded Licon craps too. A recap may be in order just today, assuming I can harvest Rubies and Panasonic caps from whatever dead stuff I have. Figured I should recap it after it was locking up just a bit after entering into Windows 2000. More specifically, in about ~5-10 seconds after it entered Windows.

Mine rocks a Pentium II 266MHz, 128MB SDRAM, a Voodoo3 3000 16MB AGP videocard and Win2k Pro. I also have another Slot 1 rig in the works, which involves a Soyo SY-6BA+IV board I have, as well as a MSI Geforce 2 Pro

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's freebies include:

1) Linksys/Cisco WRT120N wifi router
2) Netgear WNR2000 v3 wifi router
3) Some old Centurylink DSL router
4) Some offbrand 24v PoE injector

[retiredcaps]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

1) Linksys/Cisco WRT120N wifi router

only 2MB DRAM - won't be able to run openwrt or dd-wrt

2) Netgear WNR2000 v3 wifi router

It can run openwrt 19.07.1 according to

https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wnr2000

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

2) Netgear WNR2000 v3 wifi router


It can run openwrt 19.07.1 according to

https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wnr2000

I tried several methods, it never would take.

[retiredcaps]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I tried several methods, it never would take.

Maybe try dd-wrt first and then flash openwrt over dd-wrt?

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.p...gear_WNR2000V3

https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv...ear-wnr2000v3/

https://dev.archive.openwrt.org/ticket/18959

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a free lappy, along with charger.

It's an Aspire 5920G. Looks nice, and the specs aren't that bad either:

CPU: Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz/4M/800FSB
GPU: had a dead GF8600M GT 512MB, replaced with a Radeon HD4650 1GB
RAM: 2x2GB DDR2-800 SODIMM (Kingston + Qimonda)
HDD: Hitachi 250GB SATA2
Misc: Intel WiFi link 4965AGN (I'll have to manually add the gray middle antennae using an adhesive one from a dead Toshiba) + AVerMedia A310-B DVB-T tuner
OS: originally had Windows Vista Home Premium x86, wiped down and installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

JVC XL-F258 5-disc CD changer, $10 at Goodwill. Good working condition.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Hmmm... this one is from a few weeks back, but I completely forgot about it: NZXT 210 computer case, NIB but opened. It's a $35-ish case (IIRC). Got it for $10. Kind of a cheapo case (in terms of metal thickness), but it has decent options and NO USB 3.0/3.1 headers - only USB 2.0. You might think how is that a good thing, but it is actually exactly what I wanted, as I got it mainly to build/test older motherboards with USB 2.0 only.

And more recently, I got an Asus Radeon HD4870 video card for under $7 shipped. Old card and quite outdated these days, but still kinda awesome for older games. The heatsink looked extremely small for the card (almost as if someone had replaced it), but it actually works fine and cools the card about as good (if not better) than the stock OEM coolers from ATI (and much more quiet too.)

Scored a free lappy, along with charger.

It's an Aspire 5920G.
...

Nice laptop. Still plenty for browsing and doing work. Even could do some older games with that HD4650 quite well, provided the cooling is good.

JVC XL-F258 5-disc CD changer, $10 at Goodwill. Good working condition.

Not bad.

I saw a DVD recorder last time I was at a GoodWill close to my workplace (had some time after lunch and it was a quiet nice day, so why not. ) I think that was the only decent item there for a decent price ($10 or $15 - they don't seem to care much about DVD and VHS players.) But just about everything else was overpriced.

I asked them one time if they have any computer parts or computers, but they said they send those straight to the recyclers because they contain "personal data". So wipe the disk, dammit! Or just pull the HDD, and sell the rest of the system/parts! I guess that requires someone competent to do that... or perhaps the store manager doesn't want to deal with that. I know there are several online GoodWill eBay stores from other states that sell/part computers and computer parts all the time. And for decent prices too. Too bad none are near me, otherwise they'd have a regular customer.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice laptop. Still plenty for browsing and doing work. Even could do some older games with that HD4650 quite well, provided the cooling is good.

I guess it's good, temps idle somewhere between 40 and 60*C.

Tried reflowing that 8600M GT 512MB btw, didn't help. It was really dead, and I couldn't be bothered to keep it knowing I had this 4650 1GB on hand.

Replaced the long since dead AS07B42 battery it had with a AS07B41 from an 7520G. I now have 2 hours of battery Also added the 3rd antennae for the Intel 4965AGN WiFi card it came with, just to max out my speeds.

Will also replace the T7500 with a T9300 once I can track down one. A step up from the old Merom core to the new Penryn. 800FSB tho, since the PM965 chipset doesn't support 1066FSBs, or else I'd have dropped a T9400 already