best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scores today:

- Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P - works fine, came with a pretty bent Athlon X2 245
- copper 939/AM2/AM3 cooler - surprisingly silent, I remember those being actual screamers
- ASUS EN7900GTX\2PHT\512M\A - nice 7900GTX from ASUS, surprisingly clean - barely a speck of dust. Repasted with MX6, runs sweet.
- free 115x cooler that came w/ the GB board, for whatever reason

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Call me crazy, but I guess I'm into TVs now.

- Samsung UE43RU7102KXXH - bad led strip + possibly melted white diffuser sheet
- LG 42LF561V - bad LED strips + bad T-Con - ordered a T-Con, should arrive tomorrow
- LG 32LB561V - has a single LED that might have had its cap off as there's a bright LED spot about 1 cm upwards to the right of this message box

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Welp, some updates on them TVs:

-42LF561V - scrapped, it was killing T-Cons like a maniac
-32LB561V - sold to a friend as-is
-UE43RU7102KXXH - turned down the steelbeam-melter LED strips (or rather, what is left of the whole LED strip...), and found out numerous interesting and neat features the Tizen OS offers on this TV. Not gonna lie to you, as someone who loves Samsung phones (or used to... I don't particularily like the way they went with the S20 and newer series.), this thing is a complete UFO that keeps on giving.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's Score: Xiaomi AX3600 Wifi-6 (AX) router: $30. Big deal is that it's open-wrt compatible (a rarity with Wifi-6 apparently) and I just got done installing such on it. This one was hardly used (came in box, has more Mandarin than Roman characters!).

It'll likely replace my Netgear Nighthawk R7000 (which in itself was a $25 mega score many years and posts ago), but not until I get some 3D printed brackets from my father in-law to wall mount it where the existing router is (hopefully reusing the same wall anchors). In this case, it's a good fit, as I only need two LAN's and a WAN (for connections to the rack switch, MagicJack, and Fiber Gateway respectively); Unlike my setups elsewhere I don't need the router to do any USB file serving or the like.

Wrote this post (and the edits below) through it!

Funny thing is that the only other AX device I have ever had was an ITX system I built for my church... but now that I know that M2 PCIe Intel AX200 cards can be found for $15 a hit, I wonder if I can de-whitelist my Lenovo T440s and T460s... Edit- T440s is a mess (thanks to embedded COA keys, suppossedly the original UEFI firmware has no whitelist), but my T460s never had a whitelist to begin with. But, reports are that the Intel 8260 card in it is just as good (AX200 didn't receive AX level connections, AC only). The T460s is my baby and speed demon in the laptop fleet though...

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Holy mother of $(deity)....
Massive server scores today.
All systems are untested as of the time of this posting.

Dell PowerEdge 6400 - No drives/trays (yet), has 4GB of RAM, 4x Intel Pentium III Xeon CPUs (Slot II, gold heatsinks), 2 SCSI controllers, 3 power supplies.
Dell PowerEdge 2800 - No drives/trays, has 4GB of RAM, 2x Intel Xeon CPUs (unknown model, Socket 604), and a PCI-X SATA controller. Looks like it was stripped at some point in the past.
Dell Precision 220 - Has an LSI MegaRAID SCSI controller (from factory, has BBU and a ceramic, socketed Intel i960), 2x IDE ODDs, 3x Seagate Barracuda SCSI drives, model ST19171W. Also has 2x Intel Pentium III CPUs, 733MHz Coppermines. Also has 512MB of ECC IBM RDRAM and a Diamond Multimedia Viper 770 GPU.
Dell Optiplex GX100 - 384MB of RAM, Intel Celeron CPU (Unknown model), Maxtor 31024H1 10GB IDE HDD, COA'd for Windows NT 4.0.
Dell PowerEdge 6950 - 32GB of RAM, 4x Intel Xeon CPUs (Unknown models), no hard disks. Has a SAS controller, 2x Dell SAS controllers, Intel Pro/1000 dual-Ethernet NIC.
Dell PowerEdge 2650 - 2x Hitachi 73GB HDDs, 1GB of RAM, a 2-line modem, 2x Intel Xeon CPUs (Unknown model, Socket 604).
Dell PowerVault 220S - 13 drives of varying capacities. Has 2 Ultra/160 SCSI controllers and the bus selector card.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's Score: Xiaomi AX3600 Wifi-6 (AX) router: $30. Big deal is that it's open-wrt compatible (a rarity with Wifi-6 apparently) and I just got done installing such on it. This one was hardly used (came in box, has more Mandarin than Roman characters!).

It'll likely replace my Netgear Nighthawk R7000 (which in itself was a $25 mega score many years and posts ago), but not until I get some 3D printed brackets from my father in-law to wall mount it where the existing router is (hopefully reusing the same wall anchors). In this case, it's a good fit, as I only need two LAN's and a WAN (for connections to the rack switch, MagicJack, and Fiber Gateway respectively); Unlike my setups elsewhere I don't need the router to do any USB file serving or the like.

Wrote this post (and the edits below) through it!

Funny thing is that the only other AX device I have ever had was an ITX system I built for my church... but now that I know that M2 PCIe Intel AX200 cards can be found for $15 a hit, I wonder if I can de-whitelist my Lenovo T440s and T460s... Edit- T440s is a mess (thanks to embedded COA keys, suppossedly the original UEFI firmware has no whitelist), but my T460s never had a whitelist to begin with. But, reports are that the Intel 8260 card in it is just as good (AX200 didn't receive AX level connections, AC only). The T460s is my baby and speed demon in the laptop fleet though...

Finally got the settings dialed in... and it's now the main router (but not on the wall, I won't have the brackets for a couple weekends yet). Winner indeed... even if openWRT is a bit of a pain to setup at times.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Finally got the settings dialed in... and it's now the main router (but not on the wall, I won't have the brackets for a couple weekends yet). Winner indeed... even if openWRT is a bit of a pain to setup at times.

AX210 Came in. Works great, no whitelist bullpuckey.

Getting Wifi-6 speeds one room over too!

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Dug through another box of stuff I got from that defunct shop last fall and found a Dell (delta built) DPS-1500FB-A modular PSU that actually had all of its modular cables!! These were used in some of the Aurora R series. Makes sense it was in this bunch, it's the same place I got the case for THIS BUILD that was partially stripped when I got it.... I may put this PSU back in the case it came from...maybe...but anyway....





First time I've ever seen this power connector on a PC PSU.



Time to test it...all voltages present....



Scope time!

Beautiful flatline!! Quiet outputs on all rails!



Hard to believe I've been sitting on this for over 6 months....

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's score is a donor Samsung UE43RU7105KXXH. Everything else besides the display works, so perfect for using it as donor for my RU7102, which has a cracked LGP.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

today's score is a donor samsung ue43ru7105kxxh. Everything else besides the display works, so perfect for using it as donor for my ru7102, which has a cracked lgp.

lgp?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

lgp?

LG Panel? Not sure either.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Light Guide Panel. Basically a big plexiglass sheet w/ a polarizer filter on one side, that brings the light upwards on the panel. Unlike most Samsungs and LG TVs, the NU and RU series have a bunch of small LEDs that shine vertically - not the classic horizontal strips.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Light Guide Panel. Basically a big plexiglass sheet w/ a polarizer filter on one side, that brings the light upwards on the panel. Unlike most Samsungs and LG TVs, the NU and RU series have a bunch of small LEDs that shine vertically - not the classic horizontal strips.

Thanks. I learned something new today. I haven't worked on a TV in quite a while.

[Xenon-Codex]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another NEC V422 42" monitor to be used as a TV. I think it's a quality product. Only problem is messing the picture aspect ratio, if it's on while I do a hard reset to the Vu+ Ultimo.
Also a pile of computers from the dump. One HP needed a new power adapter thingy for testing. It had a 1TB Toshiba HD, it gives End-To-End SMART error, so the disk was not reusable. The 8GB memory is Ok.

[Mr_____T]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Best Score???
'bout 6mos ago. Donations to my employer.
3 Workstations were donated (we are a refurbisher/recycler)
These units we didn't want/can't sell. (Shipping costs)
HP Z620 - Donated it back to my work to become our new Fog server running on Proxmox 7+
HP Z640 - Sitting behind me. Still can't figure out what to do with it.
Dell Precision Tower T7910 - became my new proxmox server. - Retired my Jet engine.. I mean Dell T710 to a closet. needs a new home.
All in running condition with 32GB of ram
We get Donations like this some times and I get my pick of the litter.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Newest scores so far:

- Samsung UE32J5200AW - cracked panel, might kewp it and find a replacement HD-Ready panel since it seems to be similar to the chinese (TP.SIS) TVs, with its HV320 panel.
- Xbox 360 phat w/ Xenon mainboard - hasn't RROD'd yet, surprisingly. Came w/ HD AV cable.
- ASRock P4Dual-915GL + P4 HT 3GHz Prescott + ASUS HSF - works although my UE43RU7102K isn't able to display 720x576
- HP G62-b85SS - pretty nasty case. Athlon II P340, HD 5470, no HDD, RAM, battery or charger.

[speter]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Imac 21.5 2015, 8G 1tb 4 core 2.8ghz free, it was wiped clean when I received it, installed OS, updated to current, using it now, my Alienware Aurora is getting flakey as far as the MB goes, likely bad caps or bad solder joints on processor or io chip, works fine after a few lockups starting up from cold.

[Xenon-Codex]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Slightly damaged Onkyo TX-904, and a dead Fujitsu Amilo A7620. Fujitsu came to life after clock battery disconnect for a while.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Lotsa scores. I'll list the prices in RON since it's easier for me to list the prices.

-PS2 slim,SCPH-75004, 2x Xbox 360 Phat, Elite type - one is a MS serviced Falcon unit, the other is a Jasper - 60 RON, got two games - Rayman Origins for the 360, Singstar Suomi Rock for the PS2

-Gigabyte 8I845PE-RZ, ASUS ENGTS250 (9800 on steroids? I see a G92 chip ), Gigabyte GV-N98TSL-1GI, 500GB WD Blue, Sparkle FX5200 128MB, Toshiba MK2018GAP HDD and random Pioneer PCB - 30 RON

- Dell Latitude C610 w/ charger - 50 RON

- Samsung HD753LJ (750GB, 32MB cache, 7200RPM) - spins up perfectly, needs a new connector for the SATA part - I have a scrap HD082GJ to fix this one - 30 RON.

- Samsung UE32J5200AW - 700RON - only had bad LED strips. Has Smart features (though the FW is pretty lackluster compared to the UE43RU7102K I have), also FHD panel.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Lot of free scores , including 3 TVs and 3 washing machines which I should get them , but lack of time .. I put what I can ..


Free score :
it's a Hyundai set , model HYN327785 ; previous owner said it cost him much in many consecutive repairs , so finally decided to drop it and gave it to me for free . He said he was only starting with hot air flow before dying .

My first step in repairing TVs is always ask the concerned person what were the symptoms and previous repairs , them my second step is to play the doctor role , examining and scanning every inch in the device . Why ? , As usual , I found not less than9 components that need instant replacement . Some are attached pictures . What's frustrating is that lot of repairers never care to replace them , mostly for easy future repairs , unfortunately .

Next step , after replacing the suspected components , is to search for cold solder points and too much stressed zones . Factually , I don't do any tests before all those 3 steps ..
Will keep updating when l can .