AngryByDefault wrote on 2024-11-06, 16:12:

What about the rest? Do you take off any of it "just in case"? Only if you already have a use for it?
Fan headers or PS/2 connectors to DIY some kind of handy adapter?

Thanks.

I would keep one motherboard that at least draws some power (even if otherwise dead) to use as a load for testing PSUs of unknown condition. In addition maybe a dead HDD as well for the same purpose. If the PSU goes pop, then no harm done.

I usually salvage heatsinks from dead motherboards. But not much else.

Well, if you have the knowledge and tools to do so, removing the RAM, PCI and ISA slots for future use is a good idea.

You could possibly salvage BIOS chips if they are removable. If you have the ability to flash them, then I think it is handy to have spares when experimenting.

Personally, if the caps are okay, I'll salvage those. I also keep some dead boards (can be HDD's, GPU's or anything electronic related) as spare parts cause those can come in useful, sometimes.
I would also recommend selling the boards you don't wanna fix just to make up for the money lost. Someone else might like to play around with cheap older stuff nobody cares for (like me) 😀

I would salvage:

1. All ICs including BIOS, Northbridge/Southbridge chips, cache, clock generator, and other ICs
2. All sockets including keyboard, PS/2, ISA, PCI, memory sockets, CPU, etc.
3. Heatsinks
4. Possibly voltage regulators

I typically wouldn't bother with common components like capacitors, resistors, fan headers or jumpers, etc, since those can usually be bought new. The exception might be if there are some components that are no longer manufactured or otherwise available in a certain spec.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2024-11-06, 16:24:

I would keep one motherboard that at least draws some power (even if otherwise dead) to use as a load for testing PSUs of unknown condition. In addition maybe a dead HDD as well for the same purpose. If the PSU goes pop, then no harm done.
I usually salvage heatsinks from dead motherboards. But not much else.

I do have a couple of barely working HDDs for these tests but I never thought about using a dead board for this instead (or besides) of a hard drive.
I'm curious why you find an hdd would not be enough?

dominusprog wrote on 2024-11-06, 16:26:

Well, if you have the knowledge and tools to do so, removing the RAM, PCI and ISA slots for future use is a good idea.

I don't think I have what it takes. At least not untill I get some good time to practice and probably some gear. Neither of those seem easy.
But yeah, ISA Slots in particular could be worth it.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2024-11-06, 16:26:

You could possibly salvage BIOS chips if they are removable. If you have the ability to flash them, then I think it is handy to have spares when experimenting.

Yes! Absolutely. I probably would have seen them and saved them before throwing anything away, but they weren't in my mind ATM.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-11-06, 17:06:

I would salvage: […]
Show full quote

I would salvage:

1. All ICs including BIOS, Northbridge/Southbridge chips, cache, clock generator, and other ICs
2. All sockets including keyboard, PS/2, ISA, PCI, memory sockets, CPU, etc.
3. Heatsinks
4. Possibly voltage regulators

Basically you just give up the dead battery and keep the board 😜 .

With my lack of tools and expertise, I think taking the electronics would take me a lot of time and I couldn't make use of that later.

kotel wrote on 2024-11-06, 17:01:

I would also recommend selling the boards you don't wanna fix just to make up for the money lost. Someone else might like to play around with cheap older stuff nobody cares for (like me) 😀

I often see ads for packs of dead boards and they don't seem to sell, even for quite little money.
My guts tell me that the extra points I'd make with my girl when she sees me getting rid of the box (one of the boxes!) would offset any penny I'd could eventually make selling 5 dead boards 🤣 !!

I'll add that I have 3 or 4 broken video cards that I'll use for practice, since they are simpler and smaller than a whole mainboard.

AngryByDefault wrote on 2024-11-06, 18:05:

With my lack of tools and expertise, I think taking the electronics would take me a lot of time and I couldn't make use of that later.

All the more reason to use these boards for practice. If the boards are going to be scrapped, the stakes are low. Better to learn on something that would otherwise be thrown away rather than on something important.

AngryByDefault wrote on 2024-11-06, 18:05:

I'm curious why you find an hdd would not be enough?

Because of what was said 9 minutes into this video:

https://youtu.be/j1hGepWb6nY?si=YGtpgngei11VYrST

AngryByDefault wrote on 2024-11-06, 18:05:

kotel wrote on 2024-11-06, 17:01:

I would also recommend selling the boards you don't wanna fix just to make up for the money lost. Someone else might like to play around with cheap older stuff nobody cares for (like me) 😀

I often see ads for packs of dead boards and they don't seem to sell, even for quite little money.
My guts tell me that the extra points I'd make with my girl when she sees me getting rid of the box (one of the boxes!) would offset any penny I'd could eventually make selling 5 dead boards 🤣 !!

Well, I also do see some pc parts stuff labled as "scrap" here and there, although they're either too expensive, seller doesn't wanna ship it or combination of both.
I once also saw an 80% complete 386 pc for quite cheap tbh (more or less 33zł), although seller didn't wanna ship it.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2024-11-06, 18:29:

AngryByDefault wrote on 2024-11-06, 18:05:

I'm curious why you find an hdd would not be enough?

Because of what was said 9 minutes into this video:

https://youtu.be/j1hGepWb6nY?si=YGtpgngei11VYrST

Interesting, I was under the impression that an HDD was enough. I'll try to keep it in mind. Thks.

When I decide to recycle a motherboard I salvage most chips (except BGA stuff) and connectors that I lack or need more of. I always liberate VLB slots and RAM + CPU sockets. I used to remove PCI and ISA connectors and sometimes IDE/floppy ones too, but all of those are easy to buy new and I have enough for any random repair or some alternate hobby use so I don't need more of them.

I also always remove the capacitors, partially because they will explode if left on a board that is gonna undergo a lot of heatgunning for connector removal etc., and because parts that are outside the capacitor plague are still usable for quick fixes and in case of modern motherboards, those polymer capacitors are kinda expensive and have wonderful performance and sometimes you can use them even in retro stuff. My PIII machine has some modern polymers in use, the very least I won't have to think of recapping it anytime soon. I also salvage tantalums if the equipment is modern enough, these are also expensive to buy and in some applications they are ideal or even the only option. I have amassed relatively large collection of capacitors over the years, whenever I build or repair something, I can at least get a temporary fix until good stuff gets ordered if it was something good enough for that ~

What is left will go to recycling, the rest to revive something else and into hobby stuff. Power transistors and sometimes the power controllers are good for that too, and a good power MOSFET can be quite expensive but some dead (modern) motherboard or a laptop is full of them and you can buy faulty stuff sometimes next to nothing and get a load of great goodies from them that are otherwise expensive to buy.

AngryByDefault wrote on 2024-11-06, 16:12:

I don't have the knowledge or tools for this kind of repair

Same here, If I'm ever firing up the soldering Iron then hardware should be worried. I just grab jumpers and screws.

I know it would make for a good practice board to improve my soldering, but I just don't have the time.
I do keep a small stash of dead hardware though, I've saved a few things from work by substituting it with my dead item.
Doesn't even have to work, eg an IDE hard drive in a modern PC without IDE connectors. As long as the PC looks more, or less complete people don't care if it's just getting sent off the the recyclers.

Additional to the Heatsinks, removable Bios Chips and Jumpers I frequently harvest the battery holder, that can be used to mod worn Dallas chips.
Caps are just harvested if they are non standard format, like these extra slim ones.
Sockets only if there is an actual need for a replacement.

Lets face it, you will _never_ use any of the desoldered components. This isnt the 80s anymore where everything is hard to get.
If the boards in question are not rare/desirable best thing is to just throw them into recycle bin and move on. If throwing stuff pains you there is also an option of putting it on classifieds as "broken for parts" $5 no questions asked pickup in person only for a week before throwing it out.

The parts I take off dead boards/dead computers are :
- battery
- ram
- all drives and their cables
- jumpers, screws and other easily-removable hardware bits
- the speaker if it's easy to get to and it's a real speaker (not a piezo device)
- sometimes the power supply
- sometimes the case fan
- boards that unplug (e.g ISA/PCI boards)

I won't desolder anything, and I won't bother with the CPU or its fan.

Funny, at my work this week is slower so I'm culling irreparable devices for parts and toss what left over. Especially very little left over for apple parts as we nearly use all of it. I use boards' parts and their chassis for the repairs. Which is useful since I cannot obtain specific parts and to save time.

Also to tear apart the parts for experience and for fun. Found out that was correct that I'm bumbling with separating the soldered sandwich motherboard, that we kept advising customers to send their to other shop who is experts on CPU reballing and sandwich motherboard repairs.

Speaking of solder balls issues:
ipad 7 and later have CPU solder ball failures since CPU is so large than previous devices, which we see about 2 to 3 a month like this, that we kept advising customers to send them to another shop for this but I didn't know if my co-workers and boss bothered to advise them.

Cheers,

Depends on the board's platform and age.

Anything non-PC I keep around for any hard-to-find chip that I might need down the line (if they are socketed). I kept an acid bombed 68040 Apple board and I eventually needed the floppy controller chip for a Mac II upgrade for example. Never toss any Amiga boards unless they burned to ashes.

For PC I will desolder the AT keyboard plug because of the many boards with leaky batteries that destroyed that plug. Anything socketed gets removed and kept. Anything I think I might be able to revive down the road (example would be a 486 EISA motherboard with discrete logic chips instead of a more modern chipset).

Don't think you mentioned HD's but they all have a decent (for the time) DSP chip on them and a RAM chip. Somebody I ran into destroyed a shitload of old VLB/PCI video cards by cutting the RAM section off and tossing the rest and gave me some very useful RAM for my video cards. I keep problematic GPUs for when I start replacing RAM chips down the road (when the cards are worth the effort).

Put it on eBay for $20-50 and let someone with more patience and skill fix them.

Imagine if there are no more old boards left except for broken ones, but you've taken all the parts off them making it even harder to fix...

Yeah, I'd sell it for a price that lets me break even (e.g. sell it for as much as I paid for it) so that someone else could take a stab. Definitely better than recycling.

I do wanna say that more often than not years later I find myself having the skills that could've rescued the board. Unless it has some heavy physical damage, of course.