E-waste collection at the local daycare again, much better loot than the last one. That's exactly the same monitor I had back when I was a kid, nice memories!
Also dug out a bunch of non-computer related stuff so it was a good day.

Just noticed the pentagram on the bezel, kid probably played too much competitive UT so he needed Satan's help to git gud. 🤣

Mandrew wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:08:

E-waste collection at the local daycare again, much better loot than the last one. That's exactly the same monitor I had back when I was a kid, nice memories!
Also dug out a bunch of non-computer related stuff so it was a good day.

Drop m a note, if you need the recovery DVD for the Scenic. I can upload an Image.
Installation of XP does not need activation from the recovery disk, so its my preferred way of installation.

Mandrew wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:08:

E-waste collection at the local daycare again, much better loot than the last one. That's exactly the same monitor I had back when I was a kid, nice memories!
Also dug out a bunch of non-computer related stuff so it was a good day.

was the middle tower a fujitsu-siemens too? seems like a good haul anyway

eisapc wrote on 2025-10-16, 06:51:

Drop m a note, if you need the recovery DVD for the Scenic. I can upload an Image.
Installation of XP does not need activation from the recovery disk, so its my preferred way of installation.

Thanks, appreciate it, I'll have to declutter first.

gerry wrote on 2025-10-16, 17:19:

was the middle tower a fujitsu-siemens too? seems like a good haul anyway

Middle tower looks like a generic PC with the usual AM2 board inside.
I went back during the night and got an IBM OEM and 4 dirty/rusty rigs with these boards, got rid of the cases and kept the rest.
I'm happy with the outcome.
What's interesting is this modern Gigabyte H510M H V2 that was condemned for some reason, it was installed in one of the cases with no RAM or CPU. Probably dead but I need a DDR4 stick to test it. I'm still stuck in the DDR3 era. 🤣

I cleaned up this Dell XPs with an PIII 8000EB, 815 easton motherboard, Riva 128, Soundblaster Live, Modem, 10/100 Lan, 20GB HD

I had grabbed the Mobo and Powersupply because I wanted a board that was about twice as fast as a K6-III 400 with a Universal AGP slot and this guy fit the bill.

Since I was putting it back together, it seemed like a good idea to clean it up. It had enough lint in it to make a yard of felt.

It cleaned up pretty nicely, expect the one CD drawer wouldn't open. I got it open a 1/2 inch and put the vacuum on it. I heard something go flying into the bag. I was curious now.

douglar wrote on 2025-10-18, 04:27:

I cleaned up this Dell XPs with an PIII 8000EB, 815 easton motherboard, Soundblaster Live, Modem, 10/100 Lan, 20GB HD […]
Show full quote

I cleaned up this Dell XPs with an PIII 8000EB, 815 easton motherboard, Soundblaster Live, Modem, 10/100 Lan, 20GB HD

I had grabbed the Mobo and Powersupply because I wanted a board that was about twice as fast as a K6-III 400 with a Universal AGP slot and this guy fit the bill.

It had enough lint in it to make a yard of felt.

The attachment Photo Oct 17 2025, 11 39 02 PM.jpg is no longer available

It cleaned up pretty nicely, expect the one CD drawer wouldn't open. I got it open a 1/2 inch and put the vacuum on it. I heard something go flying into the bag. I was curious now.

The attachment Photo Oct 17 2025, 11 39 07 PM.jpg is no longer available

Haha... that's great.

Reminds me of the family PC at my friend's house back in the early 2000s. His step sister was maybe 2 years old at the time and was a bit of a terror (at least that's the impression I got). I sold him my old PC which went into his bedroom (Athlon XP 1800+, Gigabyte KT333, Geforce 2 GTS and Vortex2... really wish I could get that system back now), but he mentioned that the family computer was having some issues with the CD-ROM drive.

So, while I was there I tried to open the drive and couldn't get it open. I slid the side panel off of the PC and found... no joke... shards of broken CDs laying inside the bottom of the case, and large chunks of CDs poking out of the seams on the plastic backing plate on the CD-ROM drive!

Apparently the little one had been mercilessly jamming CD after CD into the drive when no one was looking. I have no idea how many were actually in there... I'm guessing at least four or five.

I have never seen anything like that since. If camera phones had been a thing back then, I'd have definitely taken some pictures of that one. We laughed hysterically when was saw it. Pretty sure I just picked up some of the shards, disconnected the drive so it wouldn't catch on fire for some reason and left it as is. 🤣

Wow... so, today I was going through a little pile of weird circuit boards I had picked up over the past year from scrap lots and couldn't identify. Among them were a couple of these...

I thought they looked like game cartridge PCBs, and a reverse image search told me they probably were, but they didn't look like any particular system I could identify. I only looked closely at the one at first (honestly forgot there were two in the pile). Eventually I was able to make out the word "CALLIGRAPHY" printed on the ROM labels, but couldn't make sense of what that would refer to. I then found the other one and saw that it was labeled "GOTHIC" ! Hah, these are fonts! I see now that they are dated 1988!

So yeah, today I learned that laser printers used to have font cartridges. Apparently with jumpers on the inside? What goofy old relics these are. I'm sure lots of people that worked in offices in the 80s and 90s are probably familiar with these, but I've never heard of anything like this.

Mandrew wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:08:

E-waste collection at the local daycare again, much better loot than the last one. That's exactly the same monitor I had back when I was a kid, nice memories!
Also dug out a bunch of non-computer related stuff so it was a good day.

Too bad in my experience all these early to mid 2000s Samsung CRTs have terrible RGB drift that can only be adjusted using a proprietary service jig that you have about as much hope of finding as you have hope of finding the holy grail.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2025-10-20, 21:43:

Mandrew wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:08:

E-waste collection at the local daycare again, much better loot than the last one. That's exactly the same monitor I had back when I was a kid, nice memories!
Also dug out a bunch of non-computer related stuff so it was a good day.

Too bad in my experience all these early to mid 2000s Samsung CRTs have terrible RGB drift that can only be adjusted using a proprietary service jig that you have about as much hope of finding as you have hope of finding the holy grail.

Any particular models come to mind ? And 'RGB drift', what symptoms would that be ?
(having some Samsungs, and wondering if I should worry)

bestemor wrote on 2025-10-23, 09:42:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2025-10-20, 21:43:

Mandrew wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:08:

E-waste collection at the local daycare again, much better loot than the last one. That's exactly the same monitor I had back when I was a kid, nice memories!
Also dug out a bunch of non-computer related stuff so it was a good day.

Too bad in my experience all these early to mid 2000s Samsung CRTs have terrible RGB drift that can only be adjusted using a proprietary service jig that you have about as much hope of finding as you have hope of finding the holy grail.

Any particular models come to mind ? And 'RGB drift', what symptoms would that be ?
(having some Samsungs, and wondering if I should worry)

Literally all from the late 1990s through the early 2000s require that service jig, and all of the 2000s ones of that style are prone to RGB drift. The earlier more rounded 1990s style ones are a bit less prone from what I've seen.

RGB drift symptoms start with greys that tilt towards one of the 3 colors, and eventually the entire image will have a strong tint to one color.

Buddy of mine grabbed this for me from an estate sale. Haven't had a chance to fire it up yet.

Mandrew wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:08:

E-waste collection at the local daycare again, much better loot than the last one. That's exactly the same monitor I had back when I was a kid, nice memories!
Also dug out a bunch of non-computer related stuff so it was a good day.

I need to understand this ... E-waste collection at the daycare? Is that an event where parents go from door to door in the neighbourhood and collect e-waste for raising money for the daycare? Or do parents just bring their e-waste, which is then sold for money to the daycare or how does that work?

And most of all, how do I get a similar event here, to get "e-waste" computers? 🤣

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-10-27, 07:30:

I need to understand this ...

The daycare organizes e-waste collection twice a year because they get money from the company. My wife has a somewhat large social circle because she works as the GP's assistant and she knows the childcare director who works there. I have her permission to take stuff as long as I don't take too much and I bring back things in return. My second source is the local dump where a grumpy guy is the plant supervisor who's willing to look the other way for some monetary encouragement.
So basically you have two options: you either know someone who knows someone or pay the man in power.
Such is the way of the World...

My pal mkarcher found a stack of hardware lying on the pavement near a main road in Cologne, Germany.
We did not care about all cases, since it was rainy, and the cases looked rusty. Since we are low on HDDs we took them out of the custom cases and we kept the K6-3 one with the standard case.

AMD K6-3 400 AHX
Epox EP-MVP3-G with 1 MB LLC (very picky with DIMM contacts) https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/epox-p … mvp3g-1mb-cache
Quantum Fireball SE 2.1 GB PATA
Western Digital WD200 20 GB PATA
Seagate ST320413A 20 GB PATA
Western Digital WD400 40 GB PATA
Seagate ST340823A 40 GB PATA
Samsung SP0842N 80 GB PATA
Diamond Viper 550 16 MB AGP TNT (with glued fan, takes 2 slots)
Some DIMM SDRAM modules

The K6-3 is now working in my unmodified IBM AT 5170 case, it was tricky to find a suitable motherboard for that (luckily done that years ago): QDI Titanium IB+ https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/qdi-p5 … 0tx-titanium-ib (need to have a flat place near the HDD slot of the AT case: no CPU socket there, no RAM sockets there!). It replaced an underclocked K6-2+ 533. However, I failed to get a Matrox G450 PCI to work there - so it currently remains a Mystique.
The now free K6-2+ did not work in the Epox EP-MVP3-G board because it needs a BIOS update. Jan Steunebrink's J.2 BIOS does not support K6-2+/K6-3+ and the newer version J.3 requires a 2 MBit flash.

I still like spinning rust and it's rare to come across PATA drives so while I don't find 20-40GB overly desirable I'd be taking them as well!

For cases I'd grab anything AT. ATX I'm more selective but new cases with external drive bays are becoming rare so can imagine they will become like beige ATX cases of today at some point
(hard but not impossible to find) Problem is cases are to big to stockpile.

Disruptor wrote on 2025-10-28, 18:57:

: QDI Titanium IB+ https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/qdi-p5 … 0tx-titanium-ib (need to have a flat place near the HDD slot of the AT case: no CPU socket there, no RAM sockets there!)

That’s one of my favorite boards. You can do custom boot graphics too if I remember correctly.

Well this is pretty sweet.

I have a good friend that is in a position where he's able to get equipment headed to e-waste and send them my way. I help out by making sure the drives get wiped properly if they are still installed, and the organization doesn't have to pay to dispose of stuff that someone is just going to profit from anyway. I very very rarely get any vintage stuff, sadly, but I do get a lot of decommissioned office machines. Usually optiplex systems of various generations and form factors. This time last year I got a whole pile of Optiplex 3070 Micro systems with i5-9500T processors, some with 256GB nvme drives, some without. They aren't screaming fast for anything that even remotely needs 3D capabilities, but they are solid systems and super handy for their size. I normally get piles of Optiplex SFF systems from the Ivy Bridge (9010) to the Skylake (3050) generations. In years prior I got lots of i5 and i7 3rd and 4th gen mid towers, which were great systems to add a GPU to for ultra low budget gaming builds.

With Windows 10 support ending, a lot of places that hung onto their older systems were being forced to upgrade so I figured I'd be getting a pile of these same old-ish machines (that basically all perform the same) again this time.

And, for the most part, that's what I got. Around 20 Optiplex (and one Precision) SFF systems, some with Ivy Bridge i5 processors, some Haswell, some Skylake, and several Kaby Lake. What I wasn't expecting was to get one Optiplex 5060 SFF with an i7 8700 (got one of these last year and have been using it as a Minecraft server) and THREE 3080 SFFs, two with i5 10500 processors and one with a 10505. Nice! The cherry on top was one that had an unusually modern looking dark blue i5 sticker on it. It is an Optiplex 3000 SFF with an i5 12500! Holy smokes! That processor is barely three years old and trades blows with the 5600X in my living room PC.

Anyway... now I just need to figure out what to do with each one. Before Windows 10 was announced as being dead in the water it was lot easier to just sell an older PC on the cheap, knowing it would do what 90% of people needed as long as it wasn't gaming. Now though, even if I can install 11 on one, I will have this concern in the back of my mind that Microsoft will break functionality on unsupported systems soon and I'll have an upset buyer. I don't care about that for my own machines, but selling one like that just creates a lot of potential headaches that I don't need to deal with. It was barely worth trying to sell one before support ended, now it just isn't worth it at all.

The newer machines though... yeah, those are sweet. This was a great dumpster find and I don't think anyone even had to go into a dumpster.

Disruptor wrote on 2025-10-28, 18:57:

... Epox EP-MVP3-G with 1 MB LLC (very picky with DIMM contacts) https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/epox-p … mvp3g-1mb-cache […]
Show full quote

...
Epox EP-MVP3-G with 1 MB LLC (very picky with DIMM contacts) https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/epox-p … mvp3g-1mb-cache
...
The now free K6-2+ did not work in the Epox EP-MVP3-G board because it needs a BIOS update. Jan Steunebrink's J.2 BIOS does not support K6-2+/K6-3+ and the newer version J.3 requires a 2 MBit flash.

Well, we have an update to a 2 MBit flash and the K6-2+ runs.
However, we hat to ask Jan Steunebrink for aid with the BIOS because it was unable to update ESCD on our used Winbond chip.
Now with the update it works but however sometimes after a warm boot we aren't able to enter BIOS setup.
Re: DIY Bios Modding guide Jan Steunebrink k6-2+/3+ 128gb
This BIOS hasn't been released yet.

chinny22 wrote on 2025-10-29, 00:02:

I still like spinning rust and it's rare to come across PATA drives so while I don't find 20-40GB overly desirable I'd be taking them as well!

Here, they are still relatively abundant on the flea market. Almost every weekend I will find one or two, though I don't always buy them as 1/3 of the time, they don't work. And even the ones that do, actually only worked after I noticed and fixed chipped components on their PCBs. A lot of times, these are pulled by trash pickers and often without any regards as to -how-. So some are pretty mangled up, while others are OK. All in all, if I can get them at $1.50 to $2 per drive on average, I'll go for it.

But yeah, I've stacked about 30 or so IDE drives now - most in the 10 to 80 GB range. Haven't had the time to test them all out yet, though, other than does it spin up properly and not make any weird noises. The ones that passed this pretty much all turned alright.

chinny22 wrote on 2025-10-29, 00:02:

Problem is cases are to big to stockpile.

Indeed.
Though I started filling them with spare parts and stacking them up that way. This makes them a little easier to stockpile... well, up to a point anyways. Recently, I started passing them by. Need to re-organize my storage before I can take any more. And most of the ATX cases I find locally here are only of the very cheapo variety - paper-thin steel, clunky plastic-y fronts, cheapo plastic standoffs, and etc - basically the cheap garbage cases that come with cheap garbage PSUs. On the plus side, they are often free or $1-$2 tops. If I find something decent, it's always missing either a side panel or some other major piece and the seller is asking way more than reasonable for its condition.

Mandrew wrote on 2025-10-17, 06:31:

I'm still stuck in the DDR3 era. 🤣

Heh, I those words cut deep through my soul too. 🤣
FWIW, I'm just catching up to the DDR3 era now (well, the earliest DDR3 PC I got was in 2018, but I didn't start using it until 2019-ish or so... and that's only when I got two DDR3 sticks "borrowed" from the e-waste bin at work, which we weren't actually allowed to touch... but whatever 😉 .)
I'm catching up fast, though - I bought 2 sticks of DDR4 RAM this summer (2025) just so I can test DDR4 boards if that ever comes in the "near" future. Actually, I do have one AM4 board that needs testing... but I need to find a Ryzen CPU to test it with first. I got the board for less than $2 all by itself, so I'm almost certain it would be dead. But hey, for less than $2, it was worth getting it just for the parts (caps and MOSFETs). I'm sure I'll get to test it... someday.
I also need DDR4 SODIMM/laptop RAM, as I have a board from some mini PC with a i5-6700u CPU.
... so yeah, I'm also very much stuck in the DDR3 era and/or before it.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2025-10-20, 21:43:

Too bad in my experience all these early to mid 2000s Samsung CRTs have terrible RGB drift

Maybe you've just had bad luck with the ones you encountered? Or just certain models?
I know for example, that the Dell M782's are Samsungs underneath and most I've encountered were still perfectly fine - both cold and warmed up.
Now, my Syncmaster 955DF does have a bit of a reddish-pinkish tint on the blacks, but it's mostly balanced out when I set the color temperature to the coolest preset. What bugs me more about that monitor is the really high G2, making black colors too bright and washed out, even with brightness set to 0 (zero). It was definitely a factory mistake. And like you say, G2 on post-2000's Samsungs is only adjustable via Softjig software... which is both non-existent and not documented as far as I have searched. On the plus side, that monitor is bright enough to use even in the daytime - something that I don't like to do with my other CRTs that are set to have proper black levels.

Samsung CRTs aside, IME, RGB drift tends to be worst on >2000's Sony's. And while at least the Sony WinDAS software is readily available and at least somewhat documented, I still find it too much work to do. Not to mention I always find the picture rather lackluster on most Sony's. As much as people praise them, I'm exactly the opposite, especially with their 21" screens (which I have a few of.) And the GDM-FW900? - I have one too, and honestly I think it's quite a poor monitor, picture-wise. I only keep it because it's rare and rather funky being a widescreen. I've tried using it over the years, and it always left me tweaking at it for hours and still dissatisfied with its picture. FWIW, I only like the 17" Sony's and perhaps some of their older, not completely flat, 19" CRTs.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-11-12, 06:54:

Anyway... now I just need to figure out what to do with each one. Before Windows 10 was announced as being dead in the water it was lot easier to just sell an older PC on the cheap, knowing it would do what 90% of people needed as long as it wasn't gaming. Now though, even if I can install 11 on one, I will have this concern in the back of my mind that Microsoft will break functionality on unsupported systems soon and I'll have an upset buyer. I don't care about that for my own machines, but selling one like that just creates a lot of potential headaches that I don't need to deal with. It was barely worth trying to sell one before support ended, now it just isn't worth it at all.

Well, why not just put Windows 10 back on them and sell them that way?
Sure support has ended, but who cares anyways. The Windows 10 support is really only relevant to large organizations whose IT departments don't want to be running non-updated machines anymore due to liability/legal reasons. For home use, Windows 10 is still perfectly fine, IMO. And if you price them right, they should still sell... though obviously not very fast.
FWIW, I bought two i5-4570 -based Dell SFFs this summer (3010's, I think) for $15 each - no HDD or RAM either. Probably could have haggled the guy to lower the price a little more, as he himself admitted I was one of the very few people that contacted him regarding these PCs *and* even the only one that actually showed up to buy anything. They were on CL for like a year.

Alternatively, you could put some modern flavor of a relatively more "user friendly" Linux distro on there and pass it on with that. Though I personally don't think that would sell as easily as a Windows machine.

Perhaps maybe just sell them for like $10 without any OS and hope for the best. Won't be a big profit, but it would also be the least amount of work too.
I personally absolutely HATE doing Windows 10 installs, as the configuration/debloating/neutering afterwards takes way way more time than I like to spend on configuring any PC. I used to dislike doing Windows 7 for the same exact reason (compared to XP), but even 7 is a walk in the park compared to W10. (And for this reason, I'm still stuck on XP and 7 for my personal machines.)