best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Won a retro lot comprised of:

- ASUS ISA-486SV2 w/ Intel 486-DX2
- PC Chips M577 (VIA MVP3) w/ Cyrix M II
- S3 Trio 3D 2X 4MB "C368 Ver 1.0"
- miro Video 22SD-PCI / S3 Trio 64v+ 2MB
- Winfast A6200TD 128MB 128bit AGP (isn't this one of the few 6200s that can unlock into a 6600?)

All untested, so boy this is gonna be awesome retro fun for me, especially the 486 mobo.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

This week has been great for walk-ins giving things away. Yesterday was a doctor that was cleaning out his office.....

There's tons of stuff, but here's some of the picks of the litter...

2x Acer Variton L410 Ultra-smalls. Neither would POST. Research revealed a dead CMOS battery causes this.....and sure enough. Replaced the CMOS batteries in both, and bam! Away they went. Rumor has it these will run Phenom 9350E's......I'm tempted to buy one to try....with a few upgrades, these would be fabulous web browsing, emailing, facebarfing, letter typers!!



Acer i3 system, works.



MPC ClientPro 414 AIO. HDD bad, slow 2.8GHz CPU and 1gb RAM.....but I fixed that....I'll get back to that in a minute.



Some laptops & tablet, untested so far.



The usual monitors that breed at night...there was also a pile of keyboards....I tossed those in the dumpster immediately.



Now for some 'doctor stuff'...an ultrasound machine & centrifuge!! ...and a brother laser printer...and more fugging monitors...



Now back to the MPC ClientPro 414..... Thanks to Momaka and his blunder where he accidentally left this CPU in a SBC he sent me.....and I never thought I'd use this....but here we are!!! THis is an Intel 915 chipset, 800FSB only and no multicore support, atleast with this firmware.....I tried several pentium-d's & 800FSB C2D's, no joy.

I also tossed 4gb RAM in it.....3.3gb usable. The HDD was bad (seagate no less) and the CMOS battery is dead....and it seems to be a real fiasco to replace the batt (system has to be completely disassembled)...





Win7 actually runs pretty good on this!!



There was also a box full of random old software, a 65" Samsung TV with a broken screen, and some other whatnots....

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Won a retro lot comprised of:
...
All untested, so boy this is gonna be awesome retro fun for me, especially the 486 mobo.

- Winfast A6200TD 128MB 128bit AGP (isn't this one of the few 6200s that can unlock into a 6600?)

If it's 128-bit memory bus, it probably is. Check the GPU chip though - either through physical inspection or GPU-Z. If it's a NV43, it should be 4 pixel, 3 vertex pipe GPU, with 4 extra pixel pipes being unlockable in software through RivaTuner (or BIOS editing?) Whichever the case, DON'T try directly flashing a 6600 GT BIOS on there, as most 6600 GT cards come with faster RAM and therefore will likely have the incorrect frequency and timings for the RAM. A 6600 LE BIOS might work... but even many of these had the 4 pixel pipes masked/locked. Therefore, I suggest to edit the original BIOS if you do want to flash the card to be permanently unlocked.

This week has been great for walk-ins giving things away.

Gotta love it! - People coming to you to give you free stuff (well, computers)

2x Acer Variton L410 Ultra-smalls. Neither would POST. Research revealed a dead CMOS battery causes this.....and sure enough. Replaced the CMOS batteries in both, and bam! Away they went. Rumor has it these will run Phenom 9350E's......I'm tempted to buy one to try....with a few upgrades, these would be fabulous web browsing, emailing, facebarfing, letter typers!!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619147730

Those looks pretty slick, actually. Almost like a slightly thicker notebook.

If they'll run Phenom 9350E, they'll probably also run the slightly slower Phenom 9150e. Not that there'd be a point in downgrading, but the 9150e might be easier/cheaper to find. I have one running in a Gigabyte mobo. It's fine for general browsing, but performs a bit underwhelming on YT (will do 720p OK for the most part, but 1080p not so much.)

And wow, just dead CMOS batteries bringing them down? That's crazy. Who though of that terrible design. Also, if the machines were actually connected to the grid / AC, then those CMOS batteries shouldn't be dying really, as they should only be used when power is not available to keep CMOS and realtime clock. Perhaps they are placed in a bad spot where they are getting overheated and die? Or just crappy batteries, maybe?

Either way, these machines aren't old enough to have chewed through their CMOS batteries. On a related note, the CMOS/RTC battery in my Canon PowerShot A20 P&S camera finally gave out the ghosts last month - that's almost 20 years of life. My sis got this camera back in 2001 or 2002... and used it until about 2004/5. So until then, most of the time the camera did have batteries in it and the CMOS battery wasn't used. But after that, I started using it, and only with batteries occasionally. Since at least around 2010 or a little after, I've been using it only with an AC adapter, and only when taking pictures, meaning the little CMOS battery in it has kept RTC/CMOS settings for at least 10 years.

MPC ClientPro 414 AIO. HDD bad, slow 2.8GHz CPU and 1gb RAM.....but I fixed that....I'll get back to that in a minute.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619147730

Now back to the MPC ClientPro 414..... Thanks to Momaka and his blunder where he accidentally left this CPU in a SBC he sent me.....and I never thought I'd use this....but here we are!!! THis is an Intel 915 chipset, 800FSB only and no multicore support, atleast with this firmware.....I tried several pentium-d's & 800FSB C2D's, no joy.

See?! I told you you'd find use for it way before I do, and I was right.
It was just meant to be.

I also tossed 4gb RAM in it.....3.3gb usable. The HDD was bad (seagate no less) and the CMOS battery is dead....and it seems to be a real fiasco to replace the batt (system has to be completely disassembled)...

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619147730

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619147730

Win7 actually runs pretty good on this!!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619147730

Yup, those 65 nm Cedar Mill P4's aren't all that bad.
It won't run great on YT, but can still be used for light browsing / searching online (eBaying, Wikipedia, BCN and etc.) along with typewriter duty. So it's not a completely useless machine.

Some laptops & tablet, untested so far.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619147730

LOL. That HP on top looks THICC. Let's hope it's not one of those with a desktop P4 chip. I have a VAIO like that here, and it's a miracle the whole thing can work without overheating. Its "power brick" really is a brick.

The usual monitors that breed at night...there was also a pile of keyboards....I tossed those in the dumpster immediately.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619147730

LCD monitors are like plastic bags. Back in the day when they were new, everyone was so amazed by them. And now, it's hard to give them away for free.

As for the keyboards... I'm guessing most of those were USB/corded/non-beige? That said, do keep an eye on what you get. Some of the early 2000's HP/Compaq keyboards in black/gray style (doesn't matter if USB or PS/2) were pretty nice. I have one like that here (later model USB) and really like that it feels like a click beige KB in terms of key travel and feel, yet is very quiet. Best of all, it has proper n-key roll-over. A lot of cheaper keyboards don't and will usually stop responding with more than 2 simultaneously pressed keys (save for Ctrl-Alt-Del or some other special keys) - makes them terrible for any kind of gaming.

Now for some 'doctor stuff'...an ultrasound machine & centrifuge!!
...

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619147730

That's pretty cool.
Don't tell me you will re-purpose/incorporate those too into the [former] Dolby build... or should we call it, Pat.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

If they'll run Phenom 9350E, they'll probably also run the slightly slower Phenom 9150e. Not that there'd be a point in downgrading, but the 9150e might be easier/cheaper to find. I have one running in a Gigabyte mobo. It's fine for general browsing, but performs a bit underwhelming on YT (will do 720p OK for the most part, but 1080p not so much.)

I noticed that the 9350E's aren't the easiest to find...the 9150E's are, and cheap. FWIW, I had a 5600+ laying around and tried it, no problem. That got it to 2.9GHz. As a matter of fact, this post is from it.

[lti]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

And wow, just dead CMOS batteries bringing them down? That's crazy. Who though of that terrible design. Also, if the machines were actually connected to the grid / AC, then those CMOS batteries shouldn't be dying really, as they should only be used when power is not available to keep CMOS and realtime clock. Perhaps they are placed in a bad spot where they are getting overheated and die? Or just crappy batteries, maybe?

Either way, these machines aren't old enough to have chewed through their CMOS batteries. On a related note, the CMOS/RTC battery in my Canon PowerShot A20 P&S camera finally gave out the ghosts last month - that's almost 20 years of life. My sis got this camera back in 2001 or 2002... and used it until about 2004/5. So until then, most of the time the camera did have batteries in it and the CMOS battery wasn't used. But after that, I started using it, and only with batteries occasionally. Since at least around 2010 or a little after, I've been using it only with an AC adapter, and only when taking pictures, meaning the little CMOS battery in it has kept RTC/CMOS settings for at least 10 years.

I found some AMD boards with the same ATI chipset that wouldn't POST. I didn't get far enough into troubleshooting them, but I wonder if the dead CMOS battery preventing it from booting (and fast battery drain) is something that happens with that chipset. It's a shame because those were development boards that probably got scrapped.

I had to change the battery in my old Compaq last year, and it looked like the original battery from 1999 (the same brand they came from the factory with, at least).

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another walk-in drop off.

Ricoh Color laser printer, doubt it works.

Toshiba C2D laptop; untested as of yet

Sony Vaio laptop; i5 w/8gb RAM with charger. Batt is even good!



Had a BIOS password...easy to crack though.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

If it's 128-bit memory bus, it probably is. Check the GPU chip though - either through physical inspection or GPU-Z. If it's a NV43, it should be 4 pixel, 3 vertex pipe GPU, with 4 extra pixel pipes being unlockable in software through RivaTuner (or BIOS editing?) Whichever the case, DON'T try directly flashing a 6600 GT BIOS on there, as most 6600 GT cards come with faster RAM and therefore will likely have the incorrect frequency and timings for the RAM. A 6600 LE BIOS might work... but even many of these had the 4 pixel pipes masked/locked. Therefore, I suggest to edit the original BIOS if you do want to flash the card to be permanently unlocked.

Welp, quite a disappointing result:

-6200 is not recognized by any board
-PCChips M577 is unfortunately dead as a doornail, as well as its Cyrix MII - I have literally tried anything I could think of, that would bring it to life, to no avail. (recapping, cleaning with 99% IPA, using all CPU and GPU combinations I could think of (even as far as using an ISA ATI VGA Charger, dang it!) as well as trying about any stick of RAM that was 128MB max and PC100 (and some early 133 sticks)

- same goes for the ASUS ISA-486SV2, although I have no idea about the CPU. There was a cracked 74F245 near the cache chips, which when I desoldered, came off with half of the soldering pads as well. Might try and solder a replacement 74F245 out of some dead Chicony board (also VLB) but I'm not expecting big results considering what damage is in there.

-both S3s fortunately work - the 3D/2x had two slightly bent pins which caused it to show the DOS underscore all over the screen, easily fixed, and the Miro 22SD was literally plug and play.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another walk-in drop off.

Ricoh Color laser printer, doubt it works.

Toshiba C2D laptop; untested as of yet

Sony Vaio laptop; i5 w/8gb RAM with charger. Batt is even good!



Had a BIOS password...easy to crack though.

Vaio's are nice... but drivers can be a real PITA.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Vaio's are nice... but drivers can be a real PITA.

It really wasn't too bad. I installed 10 Pro on it, it had the drivers for everything except the IME and the card reader....and I use the OEM's for those....screw dealing with Sony! It desperately needs a SSD though.... Win10 on spinners in laptops are miserable!

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

It really wasn't too bad. I installed 10 Pro on it, it had the drivers for everything except the IME and the card reader....and I use the OEM's for those....screw dealing with Sony! It desperately needs a SSD though.... Win10 on spinners in laptops are miserable!

Lucky... my two 2006 vintage ones were a nightmare. Especially the one with primitive hybrid graphics. Even the ricoh webcam was a no-go.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Win10 on spinners in laptops are miserable!

QFT, it's like Windows 95 on a 386 SX 16 Mhz with 4 MB of RAM, IIRC.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Welp, quite a disappointing result:

-6200 is not recognized by any board

Are all the voltages (GPU V_core, RAM V_dd, and GPU V_tt) all present as they should be? 5V going to the RAMDACs? If yes, check board for any chipped SMDs that might be related to detection of the card. If not, perhaps the GPU went bad? Kind of surprising, though, as these usually develop artifacts rather than completely go out. If everything checks out in terms of voltages and components, perhaps give it a reflow. Keep in mind that the caps could be bad too. IIRC, Leadtek often used cheap brands or UCC KZG. No telling of their condition at this age just by visual inspection.
...
OK I did a bit of research online / memory refreshing, and apparently only the NV43 A2 core can unlock. NV43 A4 core may not unlock. And NV44, which is what appears to be on your card (still could be a 128-bit bus GPU), there are no unlockable pipes, because the GPU doesn't actually have them.

-PCChips M577 is unfortunately dead as a doornail
....
as well as trying about any stick of RAM that was 128MB max and PC100 (and some early 133 sticks)

How about without RAM? Does it beep? Got a POST card to check if it's going through POST codes? (That is, with and without RAM.)

And also, this is one of those instances where it's always handy to have lower capacity modules like 64 MB and 32 MB. After all, it could be that the board just doesn't support 128 MB sticks.

I noticed that the 9350E's aren't the easiest to find...the 9150E's are, and cheap. FWIW, I had a 5600+ laying around and tried it, no problem. That got it to 2.9GHz. As a matter of fact, this post is from it.

5600+ is pretty decent too - almost the same as a 6000+ minus 100 MHz, and the X2 6000+ is said to perform somewhat on part with a C2D E6600/6700.

They undervolt pretty well too. I run my X2 6000+ (90 nm / Windsor 95W TDP) @ 2.4 GHz and 1.2V, IIRC (or thereabouts.) The 9150e is great for multitasking and overall better online (at least with Quantum FF engine.) But in single or dual-threaded applications, that X2 5600+ will whoop its butt pretty badly.

I had to change the battery in my old Compaq last year, and it looked like the original battery from 1999 (the same brand they came from the factory with, at least).

That's pretty good life!
Unfortunately my Dell Latitude C600 and all of my old CPi-X series came with rechargeable 7.2V Ni-MH battery packs comprised of several small coin cells (don't remember the rating, but I think somewhere around 50-100 mAH?) ** EDIT ** These are VARTA 40 mAH 7.2V 6-cell packs. Pretty much all of them are dead at this point and wont take a charge... though some still do if trickle-charged long enough. The one in my C600 holds settings for about 2-3 hours max now if I unplug the laptop from the wall. A few years ago, it would still hold for about a day. These are such a PITA to replace, though. I really wish Dell went with regular lithium coin cells like everyone else. Makes me wonder what kind of RTC circuit they are running to need that much power and if I can just bodge it with a few caps (or super caps?)

Another walk-in drop off.

Ricoh Color laser printer, doubt it works.

Toshiba C2D laptop; untested as of yet

Sony Vaio laptop; i5 w/8gb RAM with charger. Batt is even good!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1619204673

Nice!

I like the full keyboard too (on the Vaio.)

The Toshiba C2D also sounds interesting, though. A family friend of ours gave me their old one a few years back (17" screen with nice speakers and full keyboard too.) Just needed a new HDD as the Toshiba HDD in there had a ton of bad blocks - several GB clusters worth of them. . I refurbed the laptop with a new HDD and then gave to my sister / her husband to use. This was like 5 or 6 years ago. And they still use it and think it's a great laptop... and frankly, I also think it's nice. Has never given them any problems (aside from some software decluttering given by me once in a while, of course. )

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

How about without RAM? Does it beep? Got a POST card to check if it's going through POST codes? (That is, with and without RAM.)

And also, this is one of those instances where it's always handy to have lower capacity modules like 64 MB and 32 MB. After all, it could be that the board just doesn't support 128 MB sticks.

No beeps at all. I also tried the lowest stick I have which is 16MB EDO SDRAM (since it's 168pin) and no dice. It's a VIA MVP3 and these do support 128MB sticks (I have a Lucky Tech P5MVP3 running two of them) so that isn't the issue.

It literally won't POST or beep at all. I've also set all jumpers accordingly for each CPU to no avail. CPUs warm up, but that's it.

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Carboot started up again after lockdowns!

Scored a boat load of high end PC hardware all customer returns from a guy who does recycling

RTX 2080 Aorus 8GB
RTX 2060
GTX 1080Ti
a few older cards
Asus AX1100 AX router complete boxed
Load of boxed X570 motherboard (hoping just bios issues)
CPUs, nothing special AMD A series APUs bent pins
A few power supplies
a couple of gaming laptops
8TB Ironwolf drive (warranty till 2024 so got a rma going striaghtaway )
EK distro block
Loads of AIO coolers


Guess how much?


£150 for the lot and thats just what i can remember off the top of my head.


The seller had loads, i think i got the best stuff and about 3 boxes full. Another guy got about 6 boxes, and quantity was more but a lot of his stuff was unboxed. For example he got a large box of modern looking motherboards but were all naked stacked (probably about 20-30 boards) still a bargain for what seller was charging.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Carboot started up again after lockdowns!

Scored a boat load of high end PC hardware all customer returns from a guy who does recycling

RTX 2080 Aorus 8GB
RTX 2060
GTX 1080Ti
a few older cards
Asus AX1100 AX router complete boxed
Load of boxed X570 motherboard (hoping just bios issues)
CPUs, nothing special AMD A series APUs bent pins
A few power supplies
a couple of gaming laptops
8TB Ironwolf drive (warranty till 2024 so got a rma going striaghtaway )
EK distro block
Loads of AIO coolers


Guess how much?


£150 for the lot and thats just what i can remember off the top of my head.


The seller had loads, i think i got the best stuff and about 3 boxes full. Another guy got about 6 boxes, and quantity was more but a lot of his stuff was unboxed. For example he got a large box of modern looking motherboards but were all naked stacked (probably about 20-30 boards) still a bargain for what seller was charging.

Looks like no one around here will do that! Any RTX or even a GTX I could find, except a very-long-in-the-tooth one, are being scalped!

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Looks like no one around here will do that! Any RTX or even a GTX I could find, except a very-long-in-the-tooth one, are being scalped!

These are all faulty / likely faulty as customer returns.

The things I did well with last time I got stuff off this seller were the routers as 9/10 were firmware issues.

But looking on eBay even faulty cards are doing insane money, it's beyond my repair levels so card will just be tested and sold as is.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Some more scores:

- Linkworld 3210 case
- Gigabyte 7VT600P-RZ
- LG GSA-H12N IDE DVDRW
- Samsung SH-182 DVDRW
- LG DH40N SATA DVDRW
- DFI Infinity NF4 SLI w/ Athlon 64 939
- unknown case w/ temperature sensors & Cooler Master fan

[jayjr1105]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Probably one of my better scores of all time. Customer dumped this non working Peachtree Amp. After some fiddling, it turned out to be the front headphone jack was improperly detecting headphones being plugged in cutting off the main amp board. Fresh solder on the headphone board patched that right up...

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Was actually a ROG GT-AC5300 in the box of a ROG AX11000

Still a monster of a router.

Just manually flashed latest firmware on it and all working great.

Completely maxing out my internet download speed, getting 350mb wireless on my phone off it which is incredible compared to my old router.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Where are the antennas? Either install antennas or terminators or disable the RF amplifier. Running it like that will have the RF amp running with a very high SWR, which could damage or kill the RF amp if left unterminated.