To be fair those EliteBooks are 7-8 years old now

oeuvre wrote:

To be fair those EliteBooks are 7-8 years old now

Still, they could have been resold or given to charity. It runs W10 fine.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Still, they could have been resold or given to charity. It runs W10 fine.

Start a business. Get insured, get bonded, get employees that are similarly covered, and offer that service to these firms: ie, Guaranteed data removal converted into tax-friendly charity donations.

Probably it's not worth it. Probably this is just another example showing how the info on hardware is so much more valuable than the hardware. Not that I don't sympathize with you -- it's gutting to be faced with junking good kit like that. Just... it's not always that wrong. And if you still think it is, hey presto: maybe you've found something decently profitable to think about.

I had an EliteBook 745 G3 that had no SSD and ran slow, froze all the time, and had issues left and right at my old job. My 486 was more reliable than that piece of plastic.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

oeuvre wrote:

To be fair those EliteBooks are 7-8 years old now

Still, they could have been resold or given to charity. It runs W10 fine.

Maybe they were thinking of the potential liability they would face if the laptop had a battery catch fire or something like that. That is the reason many companies around here scrap stuff rather than resell it, they simply don't want to face any potential legal issues.

gca wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

oeuvre wrote:

To be fair those EliteBooks are 7-8 years old now

Still, they could have been resold or given to charity. It runs W10 fine.

Maybe they were thinking of the potential liability they would face if the laptop had a battery catch fire or something like that. That is the reason many companies around here scrap stuff rather than resell it, they simply don't want to face any potential legal issues.

Not just liability of the battery, but hardware security flaws too. And time=money, a older slower PC will cost more to run in time then a new one.
On the surface a older still working computer might sound like a good idea, but at the end of the day the cost and liability is to high.

Since many of you had great success finding good stuff in municipal waste collections I gave it a go.
It was mostly old TVs and fridges but I found this Hercules Dynamite 128 in a garbage bag in excellent condition.
Thanks for the good folks who let me look through the containers! Too bad it's only once a year.

Think of company computers as fleet vehicles not computers, cars get replaced just as often after all and much higher investment.
after 3 years users want something new and shiny and companies don't want to invest the time and manpower to maintain them.

Working in IT Dept I can say hardware is replaced before necessary due to the below in this order

1) Time = Money. To take apart, troubleshoot, re assemble a machine is 15 minutes minimum That's 15 minutes I'm NOT doing something else.
2) Downtime. While troubleshooting a users machine they are at best inconvenienced at worse cant work.
3) Users. Even when it is a quick easy fix 9 times out of 10 the users simply want a new machine doesn't matter if it makes a difference or not

Just about all clients I've worked for now work on if it's not covered by warranty it's beyond economical repair.
Scrapping is the same. Whats the quickest cheapest option. in the old days companies were more then happy to give away old hardware, now with data protection laws even I've struggled at times.
I haven't purchased a new PC or laptop since I started in 2002 and always had at least a daily driver PC, test PC and laptop running the currant OS. but I cant save them all!

Another workplace scrap haul. A bunch of 1GB and 4GB DDR2-800 DIMMS (non-ECC), 3x AMD Athlon X2 5800+, Pentium III 500MHz, beige CD-ROM, and 2x 80GB Velociraptors. Also snagged a bunch of cables -- floppy, IDE and analog sound 4-pin not shown.

Found this LG 42" plasma TV today. It's in great shape, with no hint of burn-in or image retention. Manufactured in 2014, it's probably one of the last plasma sets that LG made. Because of the grayish screen, however, it kinda has that "old school" plasma look. Most newer plasma sets, such as my Samsung F8500 from 2013, have an anti-glare filter behind the glass, which makes the screen look much darker (almost black). This bottom of the barrel LG does not:

This is one of those ultra budget units with a resolution of 1024x768. It's not at all ideal for PC use, as the rectangular pixels make it impossible to get sharp text. It scales every input signal that it receives. It looks somewhat decent when hooked up to a cable box, although you can still easily see the pixel structure:

Even though I've always been a bit of a plasma fanboi, I probably won't be keeping this set. With its non-square pixels, low native resolution, poor contrast ratio, and very aggressive ABL--there's just not much to like here. The 64" 1080p Samsung F8500 plasma in the living room, 4K JVC DLA-NX7 projector down in the batcave, and even the old 34" 1080i Panasonic CRT in the bedroom all produce a much better picture than this LG.

Nice find. That would be the last generation. LG was the last manufacturer (at least in the US market) to cease production.
Panasonic -- ended 2013
Samsung -- ended October 2014
LG -- ended November 2014

Still using my LG 60PM6700, and I'm struggling to find a replacement TV that looks better. About the only thing that beats it is the new OLED TV's, but they have worse longevity issues with panel degradation (red subpixel dimming) / permanent burn-in less than 5000hrs into ownership as of 2019 model year panels.

Saved from the dumpster.

2x Compaq Alpha DS10's.. Gotta clean them up a little. Some silicone RTV on the front of one. (both fully work)

2x Compaq Alpha DS10 starter kits, new.

2x Compaq Alpha keyboards, new.

Ye Data YD-580 360kb floppy drive (untested)

Wow wiretap that is an excellent find. I wish I could find more than just P4 dells and whatnot

wiretap wrote:

Saved from the dumpster. […]
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Saved from the dumpster.

2x Compaq Alpha DS10's.. Gotta clean them up a little. Some silicone RTV on the front of one. (both fully work)

2x Compaq Alpha DS10 starter kits, new.

2x Compaq Alpha keyboards, new.

Ye Data YD-580 360kb floppy drive (untested)

Ok, dumpster parties in your neighborhood. I'll bring the nachos.

The star embossed in the drive bezel and *yellow* LED of 1.22mb drive was originally installed in IBM computers but which one I don't know.

Cheers,

It came out of a IBM PC AT. 😀

chrismeyer6 wrote:

Wow wiretap that is an excellent find. I wish I could find more than just P4 dells and whatnot

Because that's what people throw out now. Wiretap's "find" was actually bought on a local sale and wasn't in a dumpster at all. Half of this stuff is actually paid for handsomely and not found in a magic retro dumpster, those don't exist. They buy them on local sites and claim it was free.
I know because I always find the original ads pointing to some minor local site.
Dumpster.. 🤣.

Colder wrote:

Because that's what people throw out now. Wiretap's "find" was actually bought on a local sale and wasn't in a dumpster at all. […]
Show full quote

chrismeyer6 wrote:

Wow wiretap that is an excellent find. I wish I could find more than just P4 dells and whatnot

Because that's what people throw out now. Wiretap's "find" was actually bought on a local sale and wasn't in a dumpster at all. Half of this stuff is actually paid for handsomely and not found in a magic retro dumpster, those don't exist. They buy them on local sites and claim it was free.
I know because I always find the original ads pointing to some minor local site.
Dumpster.. 🤣.

It was being thrown away, not purchased. Welcome newbie. 😀 Feel free to find the ad for this one, rofl. I'll give you a hint, it was being thrown away at my place of work, and I can tell you the entire history of the machines.. I really doubt anyone in a local sale would have Alpha's, haha.

wiretap wrote:

I'll give you a hint, it was being thrown away at my place of work, and I can tell you the entire history of the machines.

Still he is kind of right then, as this thread is about dumpster finds.

derSammler wrote:

wiretap wrote:

I'll give you a hint, it was being thrown away at my place of work, and I can tell you the entire history of the machines.

Still he is kind of right then, as this thread is about dumpster finds.

They did come from the dumpster bin. I check the electronics scrap dumpster weekly. He said it was purchased, and that would not be correct. If you look at his post history, so far he's just signed up for this site and complained about other people. Just a troll..