I milk crate full of older ide cd readers. That's what they say on them.

And

A selenium drum charge pack out of a ancient laser jet.

I count this as "dumpster find" as it was free (I only had to pay the shiping)

I received : ~100 5"1/4 DD floppy disks as well as ~100 3.5" floppy disks (most of them seem to be DD too), a 5"1/4 cleaning kit which was only used once as well as a functionnal 5"1/4 floppy disk drive.

They are full of data (backups of different softwares) so this might come handy. There's even some floppy disks containing one of the first windows (I don't know which, but since it's dated from 1987 I'd say Windows 2)

I'm really really happy as most of the floppy disks I found so far always had problems (sometimes they suicide themselves by making a rattling noise and circular marks on the disk. And this isn't the drive's fault because other floppy disks are working like a charm and since I've got 2 5"1/4 floppy disk drives (now 3), I can say that both drives behave the same way with the same floppy (if one floppy don't want to work inside one, it won't like the second one. A good floppy disk on the other hand will work in both of them)

With that extra 5"1/4 FDD, I'll finaly be able to fix my 8088 which has a dead FDD (probalbly misaligned heads or something. I can't fix it because I don't have a scope but I will try to fix it if someday I find one)

Retired friend of mine called and asked if i wanted an old monitor. Turns out, his wife bought it for him brand new when they came out, he never got around to using it and was about to e-waste it before he realized i collected these things. It's sat in a dark closet all this time, hasn't even had time to yellow yet.

BTW, how do i prevent this from yellowing?

Hide it from sunlight ? There's not really other solutions than this ...

Deksor wrote:

Hide it from sunlight ? There's not really other solutions than this ...

Yeah. Don't place it near a window. Ideally you may consider placing it in an interior room. I forget which type it is but there's one type of light bulb that's safer for plastics.

Deksor wrote:

I count this as "dumpster find" as it was free (I only had to pay the shiping) […]
Show full quote

I count this as "dumpster find" as it was free (I only had to pay the shiping)

I received : ~100 5"1/4 DD floppy disks as well as ~100 3.5" floppy disks (most of them seem to be DD too), a 5"1/4 cleaning kit which was only used once as well as a functionnal 5"1/4 floppy disk drive.

They are full of data (backups of different softwares) so this might come handy. There's even some floppy disks containing one of the first windows (I don't know which, but since it's dated from 1987 I'd say Windows 2)

I'm really really happy as most of the floppy disks I found so far always had problems (sometimes they suicide themselves by making a rattling noise and circular marks on the disk. And this isn't the drive's fault because other floppy disks are working like a charm and since I've got 2 5"1/4 floppy disk drives (now 3), I can say that both drives behave the same way with the same floppy (if one floppy don't want to work inside one, it won't like the second one. A good floppy disk on the other hand will work in both of them)

With that extra 5"1/4 FDD, I'll finaly be able to fix my 8088 which has a dead FDD (probalbly misaligned heads or something. I can't fix it because I don't have a scope but I will try to fix it if someday I find one)

Archive all that data, selectively scan for personal documents, remove said documents, upload programs to the internet archive. You would be amazed how many may not otherwise still be available.

Deksor wrote:

Hide it from sunlight ? There's not really other solutions than this ...

i was thinking of applying 303 Aerospace to it. I use that product on carbon fiber and plastics on my cars because it's supposed to protect against UV damage. I wonder if yellowing counts as UV damage

DaveJustDave wrote:

Deksor wrote:

Hide it from sunlight ? There's not really other solutions than this ...

i was thinking of applying 303 Aerospace to it. I use that product on carbon fiber and plastics on my cars because it's supposed to protect against UV damage. I wonder if yellowing counts as UV damage

Yes I believe you are right, because what causes the yellowing is the UV light reacting with a fireproofing chemical over the years IIRC of course. So your plan seems solid

As far as I know, yellowing is some kind of reaction with oxygen and UV light greatly helps this reaction as well as heat. I'm not a chemist at all, that's just the only explanation I can give to the plastics that yellow even without light or heat.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Deksor wrote:

I count this as "dumpster find" as it was free (I only had to pay the shiping) […]
Show full quote

I count this as "dumpster find" as it was free (I only had to pay the shiping)

I received : ~100 5"1/4 DD floppy disks as well as ~100 3.5" floppy disks (most of them seem to be DD too), a 5"1/4 cleaning kit which was only used once as well as a functionnal 5"1/4 floppy disk drive.

They are full of data (backups of different softwares) so this might come handy. There's even some floppy disks containing one of the first windows (I don't know which, but since it's dated from 1987 I'd say Windows 2)

I'm really really happy as most of the floppy disks I found so far always had problems (sometimes they suicide themselves by making a rattling noise and circular marks on the disk. And this isn't the drive's fault because other floppy disks are working like a charm and since I've got 2 5"1/4 floppy disk drives (now 3), I can say that both drives behave the same way with the same floppy (if one floppy don't want to work inside one, it won't like the second one. A good floppy disk on the other hand will work in both of them)

With that extra 5"1/4 FDD, I'll finaly be able to fix my 8088 which has a dead FDD (probalbly misaligned heads or something. I can't fix it because I don't have a scope but I will try to fix it if someday I find one)

Archive all that data, selectively scan for personal documents, remove said documents, upload programs to the internet archive. You would be amazed how many may not otherwise still be available.

Since this software is localized for my country, that's even rarer to find ! Winworldpc stores many things, but most of these are in english, not in my native language. Those floppy disks on the other hands are containing data in my native language so this is even rarer ^^

Don't worry, I already started to save them. But I have to be careful : there's a virus in some of them ! Hopefully it's not a really bad one, it's just the "ping pong" virus.

Btw, if you come across a french version of windows 98 which is on floppy disks instead of CDs on the internet, it's mine 😉. I must be the only known person on the internet that owns this version

Deksor wrote:

As far as I know, yellowing is some kind of reaction with oxygen and UV light greatly helps this reaction as well as heat. I'm not a chemist at all, that's just the only explanation I can give to the plastics that yellow even without light or heat.

Yes! a lot of people talk about UV light but the heat often gets overlooked.
I had something in a cupboard in a caravan so no light, but couple of Australian summers produced a very yellowed bit of plastic, still the worst case I've had

I got some freebies recently.

First one was an WHOLE PC with a quite nice beige case. Had a slot A mobo with bulged caps, 15GB HDD, a JNC PSU (I'd smell these from kilometers away), SiS 6326 AGP GPU ( are these even useful?), a Compaq branded Intel NIC, and 256MB of RAM. It's the one I actually cleaned up and posted on system specs. I got it from a friend - we actually planned to throw a 775 system in it for his girlfriend, but because of a few problems, I took it home, and threw the parts in another case (which initially stored a AMD Duron 1.2GHz system) along with a rebuilt PSU (an Deer that was pretty fit for low power machines. It's been recapped anyways.), and gave it back to him. The rest I got to keep.

The second one wasn't something very interesting - a fat PS2, model SCPH-30004R with a modchip and a bad motherboard. Harvested the laser, the power/eject buttons and the Memory Card/Controller ports and fixed two PS2s this way - another 30004R that works but had a bad power/eject ribbon, and a 50003 that had a bad laser and bad MC/Controller ports.

I might get some more stuff from my friend, as his girlfriend also has a Socket A machine with - you guessed it - another gutless wonder L&C PSU, this time it's branded Premier instead that she wants to fix. I'll probably just upgrade it to some Skt478 or 754 stuff, add some RAM, a bigger HDD and an absolutely new PSU (I can't trust any L&C that isn't rebuilt unless they used very good parts in it.) and give it back.

WARNING: Not strictly dumpster or PC-related, but it is a retro freebie
The SEGA Dreamcast is my favourite console, had it since its first days and still do. After meeting a friend and telling him about my old hardware collection, he decided to dig up and give me his old DC, with a controller and its A/V cable! It hadn't been used for ages. Its yellowing is a bit worse than mine, but overall it's okay 😀 Turns out it wouldn't power up at all; I had to open it up, shake the PSU board a bit (known issue, my own DC suffered from random reboots due to the very same problem) and it came to life. It passed all of my tests - all four Maple ports are fine, the controller's fine, the GD drive is fine both with GDs and with badly scratched backups! On the plus side, it's import modded (no boot CD needed for NTSC games)! Cleaned its lens, plugged my VMU and I'm up for some gaming action 🤣 Since it's a spare one, might pimp it up with ATA mod etc.

Indrid Cold wrote:

Found this next to the dumpster: IBM Thinkpad 1161, in really excellent condition and fully working (though dead battery and no […]
Show full quote

Found this next to the dumpster: IBM Thinkpad 1161, in really excellent condition and fully working (though dead battery and no original PSU) - this month has been a lucky one talking about my recently found/bought ThinkPads... this should be AGP based, with Celeron CPU, 32 MB RAM and chipset Intel 440 MX or something like that. Unfortunately I don't think it is compatible with my IBM Dock II 3546, that I'm currently using with ThinkPad 370C.

investigating the HD content, I've found this one was owned by people working in a bank - Here, at least up to a decade ago, some banks donated laptops to their employees to facilitate them in their work or something... I guess this TP was one of these examples - the little use justifies the excellent condition... and the people who work in banks are lazy, preferring to 'throw' things instead of bothering to sell them with a few announcements... good for me.

It's actually an acer, not a real thinkpad.

Not from a dumpster but a garage sale, got a slocket + cpu for free ...

Unfortunately it's a Celeron SL3EH 466Mhz, nothing very exciting 😁

That can still make a nice upgrade for an old slot 1 motherboard locked to 66MHz FSB ^^

Deksor wrote:

That can still make a nice upgrade for an old slot 1 motherboard locked to 66MHz FSB ^^

Exactly. Try to see the benefits and possibilities here! 😁

Mendocino is a nice chip, good performance for what it is. And I think the Mendocino looks cool too 😁

Went by a newly opened recycle center, and it turns out I know the guy that runs it. We had a chat, now he has my number when any goodies show up. He's also a computer buff, but only likes modern equipment. I picked up a socket A system (I want the case for a project, although it needs a little TLC) and a switch box.

cliffclaven wrote:

Went by a newly opened recycle center, and it turns out I know the guy that runs it. We had a chat, now he has my number when an […]
Show full quote

Went by a newly opened recycle center, and it turns out I know the guy that runs it. We had a chat, now he has my number when any goodies show up. He's also a computer buff, but only likes modern equipment. I picked up a socket A system (I want the case for a project, although it needs a little TLC) and a switch box.

I have that same case with the same Touch logo on the front (mine is also a socket A, Asus A7V).

cliffclaven wrote:

Went by a newly opened recycle center, and it turns out I know the guy that runs it. We had a chat, now he has my number when an […]
Show full quote

Went by a newly opened recycle center, and it turns out I know the guy that runs it. We had a chat, now he has my number when any goodies show up. He's also a computer buff, but only likes modern equipment. I picked up a socket A system (I want the case for a project, although it needs a little TLC) and a switch box.

Looks like it was stored in an outdoor humid environment at one point with the rust on the back. I hate it when people do that. I've seen some really cool old cases totally ruined in rust from people storing them improperly.

You can repaint it.