Dug up today a PCChips M912 V1.4 motheboard with AMD 486DX-40 CPU and SIMM30 memory at the same thicket where I've found IBM XT clone PC. Looks like it'll have to undergo some serious forensic examination 🤣

This post ^^^ made me -=LOL=. Damn kid, now that's dedication. We are only pretenders, you are the true archeologist.

@SSTV2: they make some pretty powerful metal detectors these days. Maybe you need to go treasure hunting.

Found an GeForce FX 5200 DDR 128MB and a Samsung 500GB HDD. Woo. 🤣

x0zm_ wrote:

Then we've got a little ASUS USB breakout board. Not much to say about it. Nice little board that I may find a use for. Likely too new for my P55T2P4, but I'll give it a shot if I can find the right length IDC connector somewhere (back in one of the boxes maybe? 😎 )

It's compatible with late ASUS AT boards like the TX97 series, super socket 7 boards, and such.

gdjacobs wrote:

It's compatible with late ASUS AT boards like the TX97 series, super socket 7 boards, and such.

Wonderful. I know where it's going then!

Trip number four, here's what I got. Just a singular thing this time, but a bloody awesome one:

IBM ThinkPad 600E!

It's in rough shape externally. The rubber has begun deteriorating and is sticky. There's some scratching on the top case. Internally though it's almost good as new. It does turn on, just using a power brick from another laptop I found around the house. It has Win2K loaded onto it.

This one is hopefully a keeper. I've always been a ThinkPad fan and am still using one to this day. However, I don't have much (read: any) experience in restoring them. The deteriorating rubber is the biggest issue, and I'm unsure what to do about that. The battery is seemingly dead too. The backlight is mildly flickery at max brightness. Seems like I've got some research to do this afternoon.

I don't want to sink too much money into it, but if I can fix it up for a reasonable cost, then it's a keeper. My only other retro "laptop" is the HP Internet Advisor, which doesn't really quality as a laptop. It would be nice to have one.

I'll be checking again tonight to see what else people have dropped off.

I love this apartment's throw out week. 😎

x0zm_ wrote:

This one is hopefully a keeper. I've always been a ThinkPad fan and am still using one to this day. However, I don't have much ( […]
Show full quote

This one is hopefully a keeper. I've always been a ThinkPad fan and am still using one to this day. However, I don't have much (read: any) experience in restoring them. The deteriorating rubber is the biggest issue, and I'm unsure what to do about that. The battery is seemingly dead too. The backlight is mildly flickery at max brightness. Seems like I've got some research to do this afternoon.

I don't want to sink too much money into it, but if I can fix it up for a reasonable cost, then it's a keeper. My only other retro "laptop" is the HP Internet Advisor, which doesn't really quality as a laptop. It would be nice to have one.

I'll be checking again tonight to see what else people have dropped off.

I love this apartment's throw out week. 😎

You can remove that sticky rubber junk pretty easily. I've had to do the same with a bunch of different stuff with that crappy rubber gunk on it.

Here are some things that will break it down:
1. Citrus based furniture polish - spray it on a rag or on the plastic itself. Let it sit there for a few minutes and it should be able to be scrubbed off with a rag... Will have to repeat a few times to get it all the way off
2. Lemon essential oil - a lot stronger than the furniture polish but also more expensive. Should take it off quicker though. You will want to test with a small area though as it will melt certain types of plastic.
3. 90% Isopropyl rubbing alchohol. Probably can get up to ~92% depending on the store and brand. This is probably the cheapest option. Put some on a rag and wipe it around. Work in a small area at a time. Will have to go over it a few times to get all the sticky off.

In any of the scenarios, you will probably end up using 3-4 rags to get it all off. For something that big it will definitely take a while to clean up.

I really wish companies would stop using whatever that grippy rubber coating is made of. It tends to start breaking down after a few years and then has to be removed unless you don't care that it sticks to everything.

What kind of finish does that leave behind? I've been tempted to do my X24 which isn't bad yet, but definitely will be in the near future. (Thankfully the only "rubber" Thinkpad out of the three I own.) If it leaves a nice matte black plastic I'd be fine taking it off, but not if the finish underneath is un-dyed or uneven.

xjas wrote:

What kind of finish does that leave behind? I've been tempted to do my X24 which isn't bad yet, but definitely will be in the near future. (Thankfully the only "rubber" Thinkpad out of the three I own.) If it leaves a nice matte black plastic I'd be fine taking it off, but not if the finish underneath is un-dyed or uneven.

I've just finished removing the lid's rubber finish. Underneath it looks like any of my more modern ThinkPads. Clean, black, even plastic.

Here's quick pic. Took maybe 45 minutes.

When cleaning the crap off my hands afterwards, I found it came off really easily when using warm water, so I might try that for the next parts. I'll likely have to disassemble the whole thing and do panels individually, and I'll put that in a build log.

There's still patches here and there to remove, but the end result is nice. Even if it's a little bit scratched up, I'll take that over sticky, gloopy melting rubber texturing any day. Compared to the before pic it's night and day.

Here's hoping I can score some more stuff from there tonight. I think it's all getting collected tomorrow morning 🙁

gca wrote:

If memory serves those blue Traveling Software cables shipped with LapLink.

Correct. Although there were gray and beige ones too.
And if these DB25 cables have no DB9 fork, they are for parallel. Can be used for Intersvr/Interlink, NC etc as well.

cyclone3d wrote:

I really wish companies would stop using whatever that grippy rubber coating is made of. It tends to start breaking down after a few years and then has to be removed unless you don't care that it sticks to everything.

Couldn't agree more! Especially hate this on Logitech mice!

SSTV2 wrote:

Dug up today a PCChips M912 V1.4 motheboard with AMD 486DX-40 CPU and SIMM30 memory at the same thicket where I've found IBM XT clone PC. Looks like it'll have to undergo some serious forensic examination 🤣

1.jpg

2.jpg

Oh man, If that works and has real cache that's a great 486 board.

damn nice thiccpad bro

x0zm_ wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

If you have any 3.5” ones for Dell Dimension Xps D series (they are not standard) please let me know 😀

Got any photo of the exact one you're after? I can try sort through it and see.

I will get you a photo next weekend if you can hold on until then 😀

Got these off freecycle last weekend

The post just said 3 working computers, hard drives removed. It was the beige dell that got my attention but the pic in the post wasn't clear enough to work out model numbers.

So what did I get?

Dell Inspiron 530s

I liked the case but it doesn't turn on so its getting parted out.
The motherboard gets power so will sell the PSU, someone might want that. DVD drive is going to my XP PC as its drive died last month. Also keeping the 2 sticks of 1GB RAM, the E4500 CPU and the card reader as they sell cheaper then shipping but may be useful

The Fujitsu is even more boring but maybe slightly more "useful"
Socket 478 Celeron 2800, 256MB ram, Asus P4GE-FSC motherboard.
It turns on and has a AGP slot so will probably just dump it in storage for now.

and best for last the Dell 4100

P3 1Ghz, 2x 128MB ram, ES1373 Sound, NEC D720101GJ USB 2.0 card with internal USB port, Ati Rage 128 Pro AGP, Realtec Nic, and a 20GB HDD?
oh and dust

Starting that up was a real step back in time. Looking at the WinXP logs looks like it was used till 2006 and had the typical software back then. Office XP, LimeWire, dial up ISP software, jokes in powerpoint you would email each other. Guess he thought anything over 10 years old doesn't matter anyway. After 5 minutes of poking round I was board and started stripping it down to clean.

Also got a pair of those Cambrige Creative speakers every OEM were giving away back then a 4:3 15" no name and a 16:9 or something dell screen. I'll keep the dell as I'm still using 5:4 17" on my desk, but the 15" and cheap filthy keyboards will get chucked

SSTV2 wrote:

Dug up today a PCChips M912 V1.4 motheboard with AMD 486DX-40 CPU and SIMM30 memory at the same thicket where I've found IBM XT clone PC. Looks like it'll have to undergo some serious forensic examination 🤣

Great, now I'm going to be staring suspiciously at thickets everywhere I go.

Merovign wrote:

SSTV2 wrote:

Dug up today a PCChips M912 V1.4 motheboard with AMD 486DX-40 CPU and SIMM30 memory at the same thicket where I've found IBM XT clone PC. Looks like it'll have to undergo some serious forensic examination 🤣

Great, now I'm going to be staring suspiciously at thickets everywhere I go.

Merovign wrote:

SSTV2 wrote:

Dug up today a PCChips M912 V1.4 motheboard with AMD 486DX-40 CPU and SIMM30 memory at the same thicket where I've found IBM XT clone PC. Looks like it'll have to undergo some serious forensic examination 🤣

Great, now I'm going to be staring suspiciously at thickets everywhere I go.

I once found an Amiga 500 bundle at a garage sale years ago for $50. As far as I'm concerned, forever that street's name is

and now I have magic pie bushes to worry about. Wonderful.

I don't even have any history with Amigas and I'd take an Amiga for $50.

Heck, I'd even take two!

Found what I think is a G5 Proliant in municipal recycle today.