Plug in an external mouse, keyboard, and display and you've got yourself a nice portable gaming rig.

4 keys caps are missing, but KB still works, I'll try to find replacement or second hand KB.

DundyTheCroc wrote on 2021-09-30, 08:08:

A friend gave me old Dell Latitude C610 in bad shape: no RAM, broken HDD, some keys missing, overheating, CD not working etc. Fi […]
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A friend gave me old Dell Latitude C610 in bad shape: no RAM, broken HDD, some keys missing, overheating, CD not working etc.
Fixed it just because it has nice PIII 1GHz Tualatin and Mobility Radeon with 16MB local VRAM.
Now it works pretty nice, Unreal and RTCW are playable at 1024.
Dell_inside.jpg
Dell_3dmark.jpg

I have one identical to this. It is my go to little Win98 gaming laptop. It is a shame the audio chip has no real DOS support.

There are a bunch of AdLib compatible devices that can connect to the parallel port. But for digital sound you're out of luck.

DundyTheCroc wrote on 2021-09-30, 08:08:

A friend gave me old Dell Latitude C610 in bad shape: no RAM, broken HDD, some keys missing, overheating, CD not working etc.

Keep an eye on the Ni-MH reserve battery, it will eventually leak. Looks like it's pretty accessible on this model.

Ni-MH battery is under the keyboard and is fine. Yep, no DOS audio support, some newer games like Duke3D, Quake and Doom work fine in Windows, but Wolf3D has no music.
Some Internet sites say that Mobility Radeon M6-P has 64bit memory interface, but Everest reports it's 128bit 166MHz DDR memory.
p.s. Looks like I have laptop saving week, just rescued another one from recycling at work. Nice looking FS Celsius H240 E8210 with T7400 CPU, 2GB RAM and ATI FireGL V5200 256MB video.
Think that it is mu new retro XP gaming machine 😀

Last month I recovered an old PC of mine that I restarted, it is a 386SX with a 33 MHz AMD cpu.
The MB is a GMB-386SAL with a soldered 386SX cpu, it is quite similar to a 286 (i.e. 16-bit instead of the 386's 32), it currently has 2MB of ram, but if necessary I can easily upgrade it to 4MB by adding two more 30pin RAMs from 1MB.
The coprocessor is missing, but for DOS use it is not a problem, the VGA is a 256KB Hualon ISA, if I wanted I could add an ISA sound card, but I think it could only be used for some video games, even if most use the PC speaker .

Jasin Natael wrote on 2021-09-30, 20:16:

DundyTheCroc wrote on 2021-09-30, 08:08:

A friend gave me old Dell Latitude C610 in bad shape: no RAM, broken HDD, some keys missing, overheating, CD not working etc. Fi […]
Show full quote

A friend gave me old Dell Latitude C610 in bad shape: no RAM, broken HDD, some keys missing, overheating, CD not working etc.
Fixed it just because it has nice PIII 1GHz Tualatin and Mobility Radeon with 16MB local VRAM.
Now it works pretty nice, Unreal and RTCW are playable at 1024.
Dell_inside.jpg
Dell_3dmark.jpg

I have one identical to this. It is my go to little Win98 gaming laptop. It is a shame the audio chip has no real DOS support.

There's something about hearing the March of Death on OPL3 but I'm sure it sounds great on a harp 😉

A friend has a pile of Toshiba different Satellites he's offered me, I have yet to go through them to see which ones have real hardware OPL on them and which don't. I like the idea of a retro gaming laptop, but it kind of kills the mood when you have to plug it in.

Walked passed an e-waste recycler and saw an AT-styled case with a clicky mechanical AT keyboard that sounds like Cherry MX Blue.

Its back plate (sorry for not having any photo; my smartphone was at minimal battery power and I didn't want to risk depleting its lithium battery) has a 9-pin video connector (CGA/EGA) and an NIC with 10BASE5 (DA-15 AUI) and 10BASE2 (BNC) connectors but without more modern 10BASE-T (twisted pair 8P8C). Its front plate has one 5.25" floppy but no 3.5" floppy; all suggesting the machine was 386 or something even earlier as most 486 and later builds in early 1990's have a 3.5" floppy, and most NIC later than mid-1990's have 10BASE-T (my very first NIC, a D-Link DE-220PCT bought in 1995, had 10BASE-T and 10BASE2).

I'm really curious on what's inside but OTOH I'm unwilling to spend on something I have zero use for......

Not really a dumpster find ...but a customer donation.
I run a TV shop repair business.
Customer brought a TV for fixing...and a couple of donations.
Perhaps a bit modern for me...but I have trouble saying no..
an HP mini laptop with Vista (spit) installed.
...and a rather cute little SCENIC minitower running XP on a P4

I have a mini, put lubuntu on it. If there's one thing that really annoys me about it though, it's the screen res, most netbook screen res being stuck at 600 vertical is annoying enough, but this little a-hole has 576 or something weird.

edit: though just thinking if it had Vista factory, then maybe it's a 2140 that had a chance of having the high res screen, 1366x768

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-10-05, 15:38:

I have a mini, put lubuntu on it. If there's one thing that really annoys me about it though, it's the screen res, most netbook screen res being stuck at 600 vertical is annoying enough, but this little a-hole has 576 or something weird.

edit: though just thinking if it had Vista factory, then maybe it's a 2140 that had a chance of having the high res screen, 1366x768

I had an Acer Aspire 1 that had the 1024x600 screen. Had a problem with dialog boxes disappearing off the bottom of the screen, so I used xrandr to scale it to ~1230x720 and it was pretty usable. Worked fine with Devuan, could even just about scrape together a Zoom call with postage stamp sized video.

I have some of those little HP miniature notebooks. It's a pain even on Linux because over there they have a habit of making dialog boxes and windows huge with an obnoxious amount of whitespace for some reason. I had to modify the theme to shrink everything down enough to be usable.

Got a couple cards from my usual e-waste place. Each card description is top card first.

1st picture: Dell OEM Adaptec 29160N SCSI card, unknown Radeon PCI graphics card with 64MB of RAM

2nd picture: GeForce FX5500 256MB, what Google tells me is a Dell OEM GeForce 2 GTS

3rd picture: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 SB0240, SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS SB0350

This is not quite a dumpster find, I had to pay money for this blind purchase at my local Craig's List-type board.

1. Motherboard Acorp 6LX87 Ver: 1.5 (Cost me 5 USD) I hoped it was Intel 440BX board. Turned out to be 440LX. It's capacitors are damaged... from the outside! Seems as if someone poked those with a screwdriver!
2. CPU: Intel Celeron SL656 (Cost me 3 USD) It should run 1200 MHz at 100 MHz bus. I hope it shall work with my current 440BX setup.
3. HDD: Western Digital WD800BB 80GB at 7200 RPM (5 USD). Not good, not bad. Shall have some use for WIN98 or XP setup.

I am really disappointed with the motherboard. Don't mind the faulty capacitors, but I crucially need 100 MHz bus for my project.

Volo wrote on 2021-10-10, 13:25:

This is not quite a dumpster find, I had to pay money for this blind purchase at my local Craig's List-type board.

When you are buying random systems off people who don't know about computer hardware, it is always a huge tossup.

Sometimes you get rare and awesome hardware, other times, you get another batch of run of the mill hardware. (or broken hardware)

You gotta take the bad as well as the good. Of course, you get better at system identification from the vague information given, and you always make sure your not paying a fortune for anything. Some people price their retro gear far too high, despite not having a clue about what they are trying to sell and hence you have no clue about it either and can't determine if it is actually worth the price they are asking!

Still doesn't stop you from getting a whole pile of vomit inducing Geforce 4MX-SE cards after a while 😀

canthearu wrote on 2021-10-10, 14:29:

Still doesn't stop you from getting a whole pile of vomit inducing Geforce 4MX-SE cards after a while 😀

I've got two! 😉

I wish the local e-Waste vendors in my area would resell stuff, but they generally don't, and when they do, it's just rebuilt stuff from the last 10 years or random Enterprise bits and pieces. I'm at the point where anything from Windows Vista or before is exceedingly rare and occasional Windows 7 hardware is as old as it gets.

canthearu wrote on 2021-10-10, 14:29:

Volo wrote on 2021-10-10, 13:25:

This is not quite a dumpster find, I had to pay money for this blind purchase at my local Craig's List-type board.

When you are buying random systems off people who don't know about computer hardware, it is always a huge tossup.

Sometimes you get rare and awesome hardware, other times, you get another batch of run of the mill hardware. (or broken hardware)

IMHO in the age of smartphone cameras having 12 (mid-range) to 40+ (high-end) megapixels and websites / apps providing used item price estimates and comparisons, any seller not providing a clean, sharp photo of make and model of the item either has very poor knowledge (and likely lack of maintenance) of the item s/he is selling, or deliberately tries to hide some crucial info that may decrease the value of the item.

I don't feel comfortable making deals with sellers using photos from the original manufacturer or with traces of removed watermarks (i.e. the photo is probably stolen from another seller) either.

The only exception is when the seller lives nearby and is willing to meet up at a well-lit, surveillance camera-surrounded public area (often a transportation hub or a convenience store / fast food chain next to one; I don't like coffee shops like Starbucks due to dim lighting) and allows me to examine the item before the transaction completes. In addition to the item I'd buy him/her a cup of coffee or tea for the trouble.

dormcat wrote on 2021-10-10, 23:40:

IMHO in the age of smartphone cameras having 12 (mid-range) to 40+ (high-end) megapixels and websites / apps providing used item price estimates and comparisons, any seller not providing a clean, sharp photo of make and model of the item either has very poor knowledge (and likely lack of maintenance) of the item s/he is selling, or deliberately tries to hide some crucial info that may decrease the value of the item.

I totally agree that sellers giving totally useless photos of their stuff is a pain in the butt.

But I'm not quite as paranoid about it all as you are. I'm happy to go buy a random retro system based on a couple of photos of it booting and a few rough photos of the outside. If I'm paying $50 or less for the entire system, then it doesn't matter too much if it is even a complete loss.

People who know what they have typically charge a whole lot more, with pricing at $150 to $200 or more. Then you get the nice photo's, full spec rundowns and such. But you are also paying through the nose for that knowledge and detail.