best cheap/free scores 1.1

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

i always used ipa even in the days of vcr pinchrollers - never once had an issue with it.

[Compgeke]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Stopped by a dump today that does metal scrapping looking for a parts lawn mower since they occasionally have them.

Ended up leaving with a Thermaltake Tai Chi case complete with all the mounts, bay covers, etc. Paid a whopping $4.

Edit: Also fits the large server boards without running into the drive mounting on the other side. Confirmed by lining up a Tyan S2726 and it fits fine.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Stopped by a dump today that does metal scrapping looking for a parts lawn mower since they occasionally have them.

Ended up leaving with a Thermaltake Tai Chi case complete with all the mounts, bay covers, etc. Paid a whopping $4.

Edit: Also fits the large server boards without running into the drive mounting on the other side. Confirmed by lining up a Tyan S2726 and it fits fine.

Now that's a SCORE. Damn.

[Compgeke]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Was offered an "old" computer today - HP Z200.

Seems to have a 2.53 GHz Xeon X3440, 8 GB DDR3, 500 GB HDD, Quadro FX580. It's the mid tower rather than SFF.

I'm always amazed at what people consider old.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ lol, me too.
I mean, don't you know that as the computer ages, the CPU becomes slower?

...it's a 360-E (manf date: 2013-11-14) with one axial, multi-conductor power jack and no obvious markings on the MB indicating voltages except GND (which is all over the place ). I can't decide which forum here to post in about this odd-ball.

Let me know when you post it. My experience with the newer 360's (i.e. the 360-E) is a little more limited, but from what I remember, they weren't much more different from the old 360's, other than the unified CPU/GPU and the way the case was opened.
---------------
And now for a little update...

All that I've gotten recently is:
- nVidia GeForce 7800 GT - working, $8 with S&H from eBay
- Diamond Radeon HD3870 512 MB - supposedly working (hasn't arrived yet) for $14 with S&H.

The GeForce 7800 GT is working great. Just had to clean the fan and wash the heatsink as it seems that video card belonged to a smoker - lots of brown dust smoke clogged in the heatsink, and the video card did stink a bit... but not too terribly.

As for the HD3870 - I was nearly heartbroken when I opened the box. Before even trying it out, I checked all of the components on the card to see if anything is missing... and indeed there was . A small 14-pin TSSOP IC was broken off, along with a tiny "sand grain" resistor. I looked in the box for the missing parts, hoping I could find them and solder them back on, but no luck there.
After a long bit of Googling, I found a picture clear enough to show the marks on the broken IC. It was U1250, supposedly marked VHC74. Google results for that suggested 74VHC74 (i.e. Dual D-Type Flip-Flop with Preset and Clear). With that in mind, I started rummaging through my junk parts and boards. Eventually found a "v74" chip of the same size and package on a half-crushed Dell GX240 motherboard. Online search suggested this IC is the same.

So I thought, whatever, let's try it and see what happens... worst case I return the video card (which is probably what I should have done... but I like challenges like this sometimes ).
I didn't have my hot air, so I used two irons to heat the IC from both sides. Pulled it out very easily. Then came the hard part - soldering it to the video card. Since the GX240 motherboard had a few more similar ICs like that, I practiced first on the GX240 motherboard. Eventually found a technique that worked, so I repeated it and was able to hand-solder that little thing with my 35W Radio Shack iron - now that was a brain surgery!

Great! Now all that was left to do is that tiny small resistor. I couldn't find any information on what resistance it was supposed to have, though. Short of finding a schematic of the video card, I couldn't do anything else other than "wing it" and just solder a random resistor in there. Since I was running impatient, I went with the latter. First, I measured a few nearby resistors that also connected to the same IC, and they were all 1 KOhm. Decided 1 KOhm is what it is going to be then. I pulled a junk Xbox 360 board I had and quickly found a 1 KOhm resistor. Took it off and put it on the HD3870 video card.

Finally, I put the HD3870 video card in one of my test PCs, crossed my fingers (er... ready to cut the power to the PSU in case something smoked), and hit the power button. All fans spun and immediately the motherboard BIOS screen came on - whew!

Needless to say, the HD3870 appears to work fine now. Best cheap/free score - I don't know about that. But it was fun. For $14 total, I thought myself a lesson how to solder small TSSOP chips (never did that before, only MSOP8) and got a decent working video card.

[Compgeke]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I actually fixed this a few weeks ago but I now have a Dell U3011 30" 2560x1600 LCD, TOTL at the time. I seriously feel it's just a tad too big but for the time being it's nice. I'd love to find a 24" of the same resolution.

I'd gotten one quite a while ago with bad electronics, never did bother diagnosing as the panel is pretty badly scratched in 2 spots but kept it as a panel spare.

I recently picked up a 2nd U3011 with a shattered panel that actually lit up. Ended up combining the good panel into the one with shattered panel and ended up with a really nice (albeit scratched) monitor.

[jseger]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a Samsung LNT5271F from someone on freecycle who said the picture was "hash". Brought it home, pulled the back and reseated the LVDS cables. It now turns on and when warm, comes right on, but when cold, the first time it just "glows black", second or third time, and maybe the 4th it's scrambled or "hash" like he said, but the 4th or 5th try, it comes on good, and will stay on with a nice clear picture for hours. My suspicion is a cold solder crack on the FRC or TCON board, but until I figure that out, I have an acceptably working 52" HDTV for exactly $0.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Just pulled a Sony STR-D611 Reciever A/V controller with a busted power button out of the trash. Don't know if it works yet, gotta let it dry out first. I could use it just for a stereo amp.

[Compgeke]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

On a good note that looks new enough to be halfway decent for stereo. From my experience the newer Sony AVRs are utter crap for 2-channel music, especially my STR-DA5300ES which is surprising since it's the '07 TOTL one but whatever.

[Agent24]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I like my STR-DE545. But then I'm not exactly an audiophool...

Still a huge upgrade from my cheap TDA2822 based computer speakers. The 'cabinets' (ehrm, plastic cases) would ... resonate at certain frequencies!

[xeroguitar2003]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

I get quite a bit of stuff from a scrapper friend, we usually work out trades and stuff in exchange for my repairs. Recently he found a couple lcd tv's one (a 26" Vizio lcd) had a single failed capacitor in the power supply, no bad diodes so that was an easy fix. The other was a 32" Emerson with a totally failed power section, 6 bad diodes, 2 bad transistors and a blown fuse....That one is in my sons room now.

[xeroguitar2003]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Oh yeah and also received a Samsung 24" LED monitor....

I habitually pick up dead PS3's and Xbox 360's, most 360's need reballed and often the PS3's have bad lasers....(some get reballed too) I dont consider the reballs to be incredible finds as they are time consuming, the bad lasers though....I really like.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

My son found one of those old giant rear projection TV's in the alley. One or more of the colored bulbs were bad. He had some bulbs from another one that he found. It works now but to my eyes it not so great. If the sun shines on it you can't see the picture. Maybe it has some sort of back lighting that also isn't working. Free is a good price but I'd still catch a sale and buy a real flat screen TV.

[ben7]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

My son found one of those old giant rear projection TV's in the alley. One or more of the colored bulbs were bad. He had some bulbs from another one that he found. It works now but to my eyes it not so great. If the sun shines on it you can't see the picture. Maybe it has some sort of back lighting that also isn't working. Free is a good price but I'd still catch a sale and buy a real flat screen TV.

Yeah from my experience, they aren't good in sunny or well lit areas.

[Compgeke]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

From my experience they're not good in most areas.

I've never cared for rear projection, too bulky, too easy to get out of adjustment, seem to fail more than a CRT or LCD or Plasma (other than caps on the later two) and the picture isn't that great unless it's perfectly adjusted - which they never are.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

I'm pretty happy with the old Toshiba projection TV I salvaged from the trash and repaired about a year ago (with fantastic help from Badcaps forums). It's really no more difficult to adjust than a regular CRT TV is. There is no back lights though JP, all the illumination is from the CRTs. It might need the mirror and lenses cleaned of dust to brighten up the picture.

[Vivi]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

you could probably find my computer in the dumpster, dell inspirion 531 64 bit 4 gb. Because its slow and I don't know why.

[Behemot]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Slow and bloated HDD?

[stj]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

try a linux live-disk in it to see if it's the hardware or not.

[Compgeke]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Picked up a Wii for $5 thinking "Whoa cool a complete Wii with games and contollers and manuals for $5!"

Turns out it's a Japanese model Wii, RVL-001(JPN). Not entirely sure what the point in importing one is when it's region locked and all the games are games you could get in the US, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus and Sonic and Mario go to the Olympics.