Not a bad haul...NB, desktop & backpack

[Druid6900]

My lady was cruising the goodwills yesterday with the daughter of a friend and came home with the following;

Compaq LTE 5000 in amazing condition. No yellowing except for a little around the edges of the Compaq sticker on top. This thing looks like it just came out of the box and had the power brick and a 28.8 fax/modem in one of the card slots. Works perfectly except it could use a new battery. Anyone?

A IBM 350 Personal computer with all the original parts. Works fine.

A Microsolutions external CD-ROM with power supply and cabe, also works fine.

I don't know what I'm going to DO with this stuff, but, for a total of 11 bucks, it wasn't a bad deal at all.

[kb2syd]

A Microsolutions external CD-ROM with power supply and cabe, also works fine.


I just got 2 of these at the local hamfest for free. It included the drivers on CD if you need them.

[Druid6900]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind when it gets its turn in the queue. I think mine cost a buck.

[Unknown_K]

I like the sliding door on the IBM 350 cases, should be built nicely too.

Havn't seen a computer here at the goodwill ever (just monitors, joysticks, scanners, printers, and some software).

[nymetropolitans]

I like the sliding door on the IBM 350 cases, should be built nicely too.

Havn't seen a computer here at the goodwill ever (just monitors, joysticks, scanners, printers, and some software).

The Goodwill by me donates every computer that comes in to schools or needy kids. None of em get resold, even the really old stuff. I bet each individual store handles it differently, though....I seem to recall seeing a few computers at the one near where I lived in upstate NY.

....

Nice finds, Druid! If I'm remembering correctly, those Compaq notebooks were some of the last to use the bright white case that was popular in the early 90s? When are Pentiums officially gonna become "vintage" ? I just found a mint generic P5-100 minitower in the trash myself and have been having a blast dicking around with it. I always wanted one of these when all I could afford was a used 286! :D

[Micom 2000]

Damn. Curb-find, or dumpster trash and good thift-shops is what I miss most about the big city. An IBM 350 found in the big spring toss in Vancouver some years ago is one of the central computers in my work-staton set-up, upgraded a bit, mainly because of its many interface abilities and reliability. I also bought a Microsolutions Backpack with a built-in ESS sound card on E-pay a while back. It supplies me with a CD and sound for my portables which don't have them. After shipping I think I paid about $50 for it. One of my treasured peripherals.

Damn you city-folk !! Out here the thrifty locals even still hang on to their old Commodores.

Lawrence

[NathanAllan]

I like that about living in the city, Micom, people throw everything away. I remember a thrift store asking a hunderd-something for an older Apple, like a Quadra or something like that. And a guy up the street wanted about the same for a C64!! That's one thing I *don't* miss about country life.

[Yzzerdd]

I find that different Goodwills handle PCs differently. Where I used to live in TX, they just put in a Goodwill this year. They don't accept PCs for donation, but take all the other stuff. They charge a teensy bit too much, BUT they guarunteed what they sold to work, and if it didn't you could take it back within 3 days for a full cash refund. Where I live now in WV you have to travel 20 minutes to Goodwill, but they accept PCs. They sell pretty cheap, but don't guaruntee their items. Then at the Salvation Army they sell anything they can dirt cheap.

Dumpster diving has never brought me any PCs, but dumpster diving at Goodwill has brought me cool assorteds they didn't sell, like a really nice winter wreath with cardinals and holly berry on it(fake ones) for grandma, a nice older touch-tone phone, a cutting board, and a few caller-ID sets. Oh, and some mint condition bamboo blinds, but thats all off topic.

On the subject of PCs I find locally, oh boy are there LOTS. I picked up 15 free PCs out of this guys attic, and a few monitors, including my MAMMOTH Gateway 2000 Vivitron 21" monitor. Most of the PCs were newer 2001-2004 stuff, but I found some vintage ones deep within. A CompuAdd 3/25, a Midwest Micro I haven't looked at yet but is likely a 386-486 by style, and I even picked up a dual processor 486 rackmount server that works perfectly, except it needs a new FDD controller card. There might be more, I am going back soon to grab the crap out of the basement.

All of this and I still haven't gotten around to posting my wanted signs for older model(vintage) PCs at the local bulletin boards yet!

--Jack

[Druid6900]

Yeah, I have a complete Aptiva tower system, all the software that came with it originally, even an early copy of the Colorado Memory Systems tape software for the T-1000 tape drive in it that has that slide-up/slide down feature and a couple of P3 clone tower systems where the case has that feature.

My Sparc Ultra 3D Creator system came with a 21" monitor and I have another 21 incher kicking around and they are great, until you have to move them.

One of the things I DIDN'T have my lady pick up was an IBM 300GL as I have two already and SOMEONE is trying to fob off another half dozen or so on me :)

[MikeS]

<snip>
One of the things I DIDN'T have my lady pick up was an IBM 300GL as I have two already and SOMEONE is trying to fob off another half dozen or so on me :)
---
FOB OFF??? Here I am prepared to part with some of my prized treasures and even deliver them, and that's the gratitude? Hrmph!

But if you want some Aptivas and NetVistas as well, that can be arranged...

Hrmph!

m

[Druid6900]

Yeah, Fob off, as in, when I get tired of looking at them, I can have them hauled off and made into key fobs and you can't :)

You'll notice that telling my lady that she was a saint didn't work, right? LOL

Big problem is that not many people want to pay the shipping on whole computers anymore.

That PowerPC system I sold cost more to ship than it did to buy. We need a relay system LOL

[barythrin]

Hey, I've been becoming more willing to pay for shipping as the systems I do look for dry up in the local area. I just calculate my pricing accordingly which also backfires on some items. But the last 2 I've paid higher shipping than ever before.

[squirrel-steam]

I picked up one of those IBM 300GL's and a hp vectra vli8, as well as a quad pentium pro 200 compaq proliant from my friend who does a lot of networking for large companies. I can't figure out why I can't upgrade the ram on my 300GL. It has a 128 stick of pc133, I tried to put in a stick of 128 pc100, but it dosen't work. I can mix and match pc100+133 in my p2 Abit motherboard, but perhaps that ibm only likes pc133?

[MikeS]

Well, there are quite a few different models in the 300GL series; why would you expect pc100 memory to work in a system that apparently uses (requires?) pc133?

I suspect your Abit board uses pc100 so pc133 should work, although I try to avoid mixing different speeds/types.

m

[squirrel-steam]

Hmm, thats true. That Abit is a pent 2, I will have to try the kingston 256mb stick thats in the vectra, i think thats pc133.