Does Goodwill still have that recycling contract with DELL (for recycling computer equipment)?

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Jade Falcon wrote:

I work at goodwill, that's not how we work at all. Everything computer wise that's not new (some district don't apply) have to s […]
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TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Goodwill is really scummy about that stuff. They send all there valuable electronics/games/computers to regional centers in the big city for resale or to be auctioned off online. Goodwill shouldn't do this, there suppose to be a way for people to get things affordably.

I work at goodwill, that's not how we work at all.
Everything computer wise that's not new (some district don't apply) have to send them ether to a IT department or to recycling.
We can't sell anything that could hold personal data for liability risk. Everything ether gets used by our staf or recycled. I been useing a old netbook with 3 missing keys for the last two year when out of the office that was donated.
A few districts have setup departments for selling these kinds of things, one in oregon state sells PC and parts all the time. Other districts may brake the systems down and sell off the parts. Although sometimes stuff slips through the craks and your find a tablet or laptop for sale in store.

In most districts stores do have a percentage of donations that has to go to goodwill2go, this could be anything. But typically it's stuff that doesn't sell well in stores and does well online.

As for moving things to regional centers or inter city stores. We don't have that or do that at all. We are broken up into districts working independent of etch other. Most districts are only a few county's in size but some are large.
But like any retail company we do move inventory around of it fail to sell at one store.

So wait Goodwill employees can take the computers that are donated which they can't sell? Lol I could probably pay someone off to grab stuff for me at my local good will if that's the case.

Also, why don't they just teach one guy to pull hard drives? It's not like it's a complex or time consuming task.

Who gets the stuff depends. Part go to the IT department in my district. Phones if we can't use them are used for parts or wiped and given to battered women shelters or homeless shelters.
Tablets if they're anything good are used by admin staff.

Computers get used where needed. Some districts do pull hard drives but it not all that simple. Cases can have ruff edges and if someone gets cut that can be problematic. And some system have onboard storage. Laptops witch is the bulk of donated computes may not even had a hdd but a m2 ssd. It's a lot more then just showing someone how to pull a hdd. You really need someone that knows what they're doing. And most goodwill employees are all that computer literate to begin with. We have a lot of employees that never used a smartphone and a handful that don't even own a computer in my district.

As for paying off someone to get a donated computer, good luck. If other districts are like ours they keep a close eye on this stuff. We had a store manager that just about lost his job because they wanted to sell a refurbished laptop. Also anything used by are staff is logged, inventoryed and tagged. So after an employee get it, it's theft if it's sold.

Unknown_K wrote:

Does Goodwill still have that recycling contract with DELL (for recycling computer equipment)?

The one I work at does.

Anyone know if this is a nice system to get? Cleaning and upgrading it could be a nice project, it's an AT board with PS/2 connectors.. Can get it for cheap, but the case needs a lot of cleaning.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Well the seller couldn't find my Radeon 32M so I got a refund but the eBay gods have shined upon me: […]
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Well the seller couldn't find my Radeon 32M so I got a refund but the eBay gods have shined upon me:

<snip>

No clue what the NVIDIA card is. Probably a 2MX of some sort. The left card however I believe is a 3DFX Voodoo3 3000.

The things that get listed as Rage XL PCI cards never cease to amaze me.

$15 shipped.

Mislabeling is how I got my geforce 2 ultra back in 2013, If I remember right it was just listed as "Asus video card.", scored it for $2.55 minimum bid and no one else bid on it, had it all these years.

kithylin wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Well the seller couldn't find my Radeon 32M so I got a refund but the eBay gods have shined upon me: […]
Show full quote

Well the seller couldn't find my Radeon 32M so I got a refund but the eBay gods have shined upon me:

<snip>

No clue what the NVIDIA card is. Probably a 2MX of some sort. The left card however I believe is a 3DFX Voodoo3 3000.

The things that get listed as Rage XL PCI cards never cease to amaze me.

$15 shipped.

Mislabeling is how I got my geforce 2 ultra back in 2013, If I remember right it was just listed as "Asus video card.", scored it for $2.55 minimum bid and no one else bid on it, had it all these years.

Its how i got my ELSA Erazor X as well.

If it's really cheap I try to buy all AT systems I find. The cases are getting rare these days, also I'm always curious about the config (but it always turns out to be a crappy VX-based board with a Pentium 133 haha. This one has an ALi chipset though. Any idea on the specifications?

Also, I kind of like cleaning old systems. It calms my mind 😀

appiah4 wrote:

Anyone know if this is a nice system to get? Cleaning and upgrading it could be a nice project, it's an AT board with PS/2 connectors.. Can get it for cheap, but the case needs a lot of cleaning.

<snip>

Cyrix200+ wrote:

If itś really cheap I try to buy all AT systems I find. The cases are getting rare these days, also I'm always curious anout the config (but it always turns out to be a crappy VX-based board with a Pentium 133 haha. This one has an ALi chipset though. Any idea on the specifications?

Also, I kind of like cleaning old systems. It calms my mind 😀

appiah4 wrote:

Anyone know if this is a nice system to get? Cleaning and upgrading it could be a nice project, it's an AT board with PS/2 connectors.. Can get it for cheap, but the case needs a lot of cleaning.

<snip>

It's really hard to find exact specs on the thing but I think I will give it a go and get it. If nothing else I can clean it, upgrade it and maybe sell it. If it ends up turning out to be something like an early Pentium I can even keep it..

Got the system for $12 plus shipping, I think it's a steal considering what I got:

A fairly interesting AT caseand PSU
Working ALi Socket 7 Mainboard
Unknown Socket 7 CPU (fingers crossed for a K6 but likely an MMX)
4x8MB EDO72 SIMMs
2MB S3 PCI (Likely a Trio64V+)
Unknown PCI NIC (Likely Realtek)
Unknown ISA sound card (Likely ESS)
32x CD-ROM
Floppy

Cleaning it will be a fun weekend project.

Just received ASUS P5A-B with K6-2 450 CPU... It's revision 1.04 so K6 with plus should also work on it!

very nice, didn't know that this board had an optional onboard audio

I started collecting different video cards for testing purposes.

256 Mb Gigabyte 6800GS PCI-E for $8.

512 Mb Leadtek Geforce GTS 250 for $13:

I have Voodoocards for trade, but apparently it is hard to get a swap deal outside amibay.
I need ISA/WT MIDI stuff 😁

@topic
I finally got an LS-120 drive
Hopefully it it is from 1997! 😎

Arctic wrote:

I have Voodoocards for trade, but apparently it is hard to get a swap deal outside amibay. I need ISA/WT MIDI stuff :D […]
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I have Voodoocards for trade, but apparently it is hard to get a swap deal outside amibay.
I need ISA/WT MIDI stuff 😁

@topic
I finally got an LS-120 drive
Hopefully it it is from 1997! 😎

I have ISA sound cards if any might interest you and need a Voodoo 1.. No WT/MIDI specific stuff though 🙁

Congrats! An internal model? Why 1997?

Arctic wrote:

@topic
I finally got an LS-120 drive
Hopefully it it is from 1997! 😎

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Congrats! An internal model? Why 1997?

Arctic wrote:

@topic
I finally got an LS-120 drive
Hopefully it it is from 1997! 😎

Thank you 😀 I am still working on my 1997 "ultra" build (The 1998 DVD drive will make room for a caddy CD-R drive (1997, Sony)
My plan was to replace the floppy drive with the LS-120 drive.
My Socket 7 "1997" Project

edit: just received the drive
made by Matsushita and from 1999

Bought this Creative Labs Sound Blaster 1.5 (CT1320C) locally for about US $120 (including postage).
Considering what they go for on eBay these days and the fact that I got this with the original box and manuals, I think it was a fair price (although, I originally didn't want to go above $100).

Haven't yet tested this, but this sound card looks brand new (doesn't appear to ever have been used).
Even came with the CMS upgrade chips (still sealed).

I've read that, back in the day, one could upgrade the DSP chip to version 2 - has anyone ever tried this?
Would it be possible to obtain the ROM data and burn it to an EEPROM chip?

I'm not familiar with the usual eBay prices for these but the card and the box look fantastic. My guess is that you made a good deal.

I found a system being sold online, really nice specs (Asus P5A, AMD K6-2, nice bigtower). Unfortunately, someone beat me to the Asus P5A (rev 1.04). Someone also active on these forums I assume... 😉 I did get the nice SCSI stuff from the system (and two smaller items he was also selling).

Since I was already paying for shipping, I added these two items for a few euros. They will come in handy some day.

@jesolo that's a great deal considering you got the CMS chips too, nice work!

oooooooo. i like those plextors