best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice day for the retro fleet! Had a nice dropoff of some 90's era stuff......and what made all this extra nice is that it was all stored in a closet of a clean house. Everything was in fabulous condition and working; to include ~30yr old HDD's!

Here we go!! The pile!





First up to be tested was the unbranded ATX case. It's a soyo board (caps not vented, but definitely questionable) - mendocino celeron 500 - 256mb RAM - 20gb HDD running Win2k.





Next up is this Dell Optiplex GX1. It's a Pentium2 @ 350/100 - 128mb RAM and an 8.4gb HDD, again running win2k.









Last PC is the Packard Bell 'Pack-Mate' 7130 running a pentium classic @ 120MHz - 16mb RAM - 1.2gb HDD..... It was darn near complete....the KB, Mouse, and speakers were present but the original monitor was not....probably went bad....but the guy kept the side-mounted speakers....





Win95....





It has one of those imfamous Modem & Audio combo cards in it.....I remember these back in the day, they were usually a real delight to get working correctly..... No idea if the modem works, but the audio actually did!!





This was the only KB I actually kept....I already have a large collection of good beige keyboards....but I kept this one because it's a clicker.



Now we'll get Momaka all excited.....the Viewsonic E70 17" monitor in 1280x960 @ 75Hz!!



I did not test the smaller 14". It was made in 1991....probably max @ 800x600 and miserable to look at.....it'll probably find its way to the scrapper. The Viewsonic I'll either pair with one of my retro rigs (I tend to run beige flats on them for obvious convenience) or try and rehome it....

The Toshiba laptop was a 300CDS, I have a few of these already.... It's a Tillamook Pentium Classic @ 266MHz. I have not tested it. It probably works but like the rest, the 1.6GB IDE HDD will be trash....but overall, a good day!!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Was it from 2004 or 2005? Those seem more likely to go bad! Especially KZGs from those years.

Fairly sure the original build dated to around the 2003-2005 timeframe. Apart from the PSU which was a fake-PFC'd Spire OEM unit from around 2012, and an Sony DVDRW drive that had a 2007 or so datecode, the rest of the unit looked pretty much as it was built back in the day.

KZGs were about one or two bulged, while the Taicons were ALL bulged. Even in non-critical spaces like near the LAN port.

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Last PC is the Packard Bell 'Pack-Mate' 7130 running a pentium classic @ 120MHz - 16mb RAM - 1.2gb HDD..... It was darn near complete....the KB, Mouse, and speakers were present but the original monitor was not....probably went bad....but the guy kept the side-mounted speakers....

If it ever came with a monitor to begin with. Packard Bell included those side-mount speakers with their systems in the mid 90s regardless of whether or not it was sold with a monitor. My family had a Packard Bell from that era (a Platinum Supreme 166 MMX tower) which came with those speakers even though it wasn't purchased with a monitor (since we already had a working one from the PC it replaced).

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice day for the retro fleet! Had a nice dropoff of some 90's era stuff......and what made all this extra nice is that it was all stored in a closet of a clean house. Everything was in fabulous condition and working; to include ~30yr old HDD's!

Here we go!! The pile!

Would you want anything for the 14" monitor?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Would you want anything for the 14" monitor?

All yours if you want to cover the shipping.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

All yours if you want to cover the shipping.

PM sent.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

PM sent.

I did check it....it works. 1024x768 @ 60hz displayed, but painful & garbled. 800x600 @ 75hz was the prettiest I could make it look. It'll need some fine tuning.....focus could use a tweaking and the geometry pots on the front could use a little deoxit.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another set of free scores from last month :

1) - An Asus eex mini laptop , not working at all , I'm now working on the board level , and the first measurements almost indicate that the CPU is out of order , probably needs a reflow .. till now .

2) - A Car Halogen inverter . Lot of blue glue and not functioning .. till now .

3) - A bunch of Bluetooth headphones , some working , some not , and some partially working .

4) - From a dear friend , A bunch of like 600 DVDs , movies , games , drivers , applications , all original . His wife gave him only one choice , either him out or the DVDs , lol ...

5) - An update on the LG27 .. I cleaned the mess , but , unfortunately , lot of damaged circuitry , so I'm gonna try fix'em using intensive flux ..

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Definitely archive all of the optical media for sure.

[Xenon-Codex]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I saved these from the dump. Akai needed a new tray belt, and the anasonic video had one bad cap (Elna) which prevented it from start at all. The random tape I used had very interesting content, The News from 8.9.1989: Ukraine wanted independency, as well as Poland. Norwegian plane had crashed a couple of hours earlier.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Definitely archive all of the optical media for sure.

Frankly TechGeek , I have like ten of thousands already and maybe I'll need another life time to archive all ...

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scores today:

- AOpen Z500-12AE3 PSU - rebadged FSP, no idea which platform but I highly suspect it's a GLN like the Bluestorm II I have, though the APFC cap is lower on this unit (270uF instead of 390uF like on the Bluestorm). Likely unused as there is NO traces of dust whatsoever - neat! Also interesting is that it has a Efficiency sticker, which reads: "Eff >= 80% @ 230VAC", which I can only understand as efficiency being 80 PLUS if used on a 230VAC environment only.

- Vision Touch VTTV AND32 - 32inch china TV (the TPS mainboard kind), bad screen and dead LEDs. Might go the trouble to find a good LCD and LEDs for it and keep it, just because it has Android.

-LG 32LH500D - same issue as the Vision, dead LEDs, and some dumb ass idiot thought it was a good idea to drop a chinese LCD (the HV320 model gave it away) without noticing it doesn't even fit there. Not sure if I'll fix it.

-Medion PC w/ Pentium 4 HT - it's a Northwood 2.8 HT, mobo is a custom MSI board (which thankfully runs Award BIOS), GPU is a FX5600 XT, two Pioneer DVD drives (one burner, one standard), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 (I think - it's one of those way older and reliable units, before they bought the other companies like Samsung and Maxtor)

- Intel Desktop Board D102GGC2 - ATI Xpress 200 chipset, OEM'd by ASUS (the reversed silkscreen is their dead giveaway). Has a lone bulging KZG, surprisingly near one of the USB headers, of all things.

- Compaq Armada M700 - nice ole P3 machine. 700MHz Coppermine inside.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

New score, a mighty Genius SW-HF5.1 6000 home theater set.

I pity the neighbours who had to endure this thing's absolutely monster bass level.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Frees scores from last two weeks :

1) - Intimax driller with 2 batteries Lithium-ion pack , one showing 0 volts and done , and the other turn the drill for 10 seconds ... Expected .

2) - Hub router/repeater TX/10/100 , unused before and in a great condition . the former owner went wireless it seems .

3) - Belkin Multimedia Keybord , wireless , without its base . That's tough , lol ..

4) - Another pack of 400 CDs and DVDs programs , from another friend , and in a solid excellent case .

Next will follow in some minutes ..

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Free scores from last two weeks :

An Intel desktop , GEV Motherboard , with Nvidia GFX6600 , 1 GB rams , XP system and a 3 GHZ Dual-core CPU . 80 GB Hard drive sata .
The former owner said it doesn't boot anymore and with lot of problems before . I checked it with my dear tiger (picture attached) , a good repairer , as he quickly noticed the unusual heat from the Nvidia VGA .
First checks made me remove the 3v battery , and it is 0 volts of course , replaced by a new one , Next , I removed the VGA fan and applied a new paste . Still no ignition .. So , as usual , I left it running for some hours , then repeated another try .. Still nothing . Removed the rams , and the mobo beeps normally .
Returned the rams to the next channel , and voila , it's XP and some cute games .. Yupii !!

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A cheap score I found that the seller had it mis-labeled as another oddity that I keep an eye peeled for.....and when I saw it I knew that's not what it was....but priced a little strong with no 'best offer', I just watched. A few days ago it popped up 50% off....ok, now we're talking....and here we are!

Goofy board is a Supermicro P6DLH with 9 PCI slots and a dedicated Intel i960 embedded processor; I'm guessing for IO control for all these slots....not real sure and the manual didn't really say much about it either.....

Another AT / Full At....





A pair of P2 333's that I have had laying around forever..... Good home for them. This board does support the Deschutes, but being a LX chipset, nothing above 66FSB (stable atleast). Might try some Mendocino celeron experiments with it; which could potentially get it up to 533MHz.





No case or build in mind for this....just another weird one I'll hang onto for later....I'll eventually find the right case for it.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored another LG LED TV - a 32LB5610. Remote looks like it went through the 3rd world war - was advertised as backlight not working, though it worked on me first try.

Ah well, if it fails (though it shouldn't - not after I lowered the backlight settings considerably - I've learnt this trick from an old chap I spend time with fixing TVs and such, and he told me to do this on all inputs available, set the backlight as lower as visually possible) I know what I have to do.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Update on the 32LB5610 - it indeed killed the last remamants of life from the LED strips.

I managed to dismantle it this morning, and by god, whoever serviced it before me did a hackjob that would make most of you barf.

Thankfully, I bought some replacement (unfortunately not original, but from what they were looking, they were high quality Alien branded clones - those usually last longer than even original LG strips!) strips for it.

It goes without saying that my ass was literally clapping from fear of not breaking the LCD glass panel. Thankfully, it went just fine, and I'm writing this post from it. Colors are mighty gorgeous (Samsung be jelly of how good this looks) and the speakers are absolutely fantastic for their 20W worth!

Will post up some pics from during the repair process as I took some, they should be up by tonight.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A cheap score I found that the seller had it mis-labeled as another oddity that I keep an eye peeled for.....and when I saw it I knew that's not what it was....but priced a little strong with no 'best offer', I just watched. A few days ago it popped up 50% off....ok, now we're talking....and here we are!

Goofy board is a Supermicro P6DLH with 9 PCI slots and a dedicated Intel i960 embedded processor; I'm guessing for IO control for all these slots....not real sure and the manual didn't really say much about it either.....

Another AT / Full At....





A pair of P2 333's that I have had laying around forever..... Good home for them. This board does support the Deschutes, but being a LX chipset, nothing above 66FSB (stable atleast). Might try some Mendocino celeron experiments with it; which could potentially get it up to 533MHz.





No case or build in mind for this....just another weird one I'll hang onto for later....I'll eventually find the right case for it.

1995 for BIOS year=Pentium IIs didn't even exist in 1995 and it was when Pentium 100s were the buzz, LOL.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Last PC is the Packard Bell 'Pack-Mate' 7130 running a pentium classic @ 120MHz - 16mb RAM - 1.2gb HDD..... It was darn near complete....the KB, Mouse, and speakers were present but the original monitor was not....probably went bad....but the guy kept the side-mounted speakers....

Question: Did the Pentiums still had the "FDIV" bug? I thought that I got words that 120s and higher were OK, but don't know now. Looks like one that possibly squeaked by the "FDIV" bug. I know that 1996 and later chips are supposed to be fixed already.

Looks like the 1994 Pentiums definitely have the "FDIV" bug and not sure about the 1995 Pentiums. Looks like there were bad (with "FDIV" bug) Pentiums in 1995 and possibly fixed ones in 1995.
I bet there were both bad and good Pentium 100s. Even then, I don't know.

The Pentium 75s, most likely, were all recalled.

OTOH, IIRC, all the Pentium 133s are safe, according to Intel.