The [H]ardForum Perpetual Freebies Thread

[bbs lm-r]

Looking to rehome a couple of AMD cpus and DDR2 ram if anyone is interested. Phenom II x3 720, Phenom II x6 1090T, and 8GB of DDR2 ram (2 different sets of 2x2GB). All working when pulled, but YMMV of course. I only have one proper cpu container which will house the x6, the x3 will have to YOLO in a spare SSD container for shipping. Free plus the cost of a USPS small flat rate box.

x6 has been claimed.
x3 and ram available.

 

[Nostram]

I could use the 1090t

 

[Format _C:]

some require a certain chipset to work

I guess I was lucky then! I swapped the i3-3220 for a Xeon E3-1225V2 in my HP Elite 8300 and it booted up (after complaining about the new CPU and ram) and even had the right CPU listed in the UEFI screen!

PS: While do manufactures still call it BIOS as I believe BIOS is dead and it is UEFI Firmware now?

 

[Gillbot]

I guess I was lucky then! I swapped the i3-3220 for a Xeon E3-1225V2 in my HP Elite 8300 and it booted up (after complaining about the new CPU and ram) and even had the right CPU listed in the UEFI screen!

PS: While do manufactures still call it BIOS as I believe BIOS is dead and it is UEFI Firmware now?

Certain generations you can interchange Xeon and core I series, but I know on the 6th generation they are not. I found that out the hard way trying to upgrade my sons pc.

 

[atwood7fan]

Have a few things if anyone is interested:

• Pentium 4 CPU 1.8ghz/400fsb
• Pentium 4 CPU 2.66ghz/533fsb
• Core i3-2120 CPU
• Geforce 4 MX 440 128mb AGP
• Toshiba Satellite L305-S5865 laptop. Mfg date 2006. No power cord, no hard drive. Was told it worked but don't have a power cord to test it. So want to either give it away or... ISO a compatible power adapter?
• HTC Droid DNA (Verizon)
• Motorola Droid Mini (Verizon)

ISO:

• 2.5" PATA (IDE) laptop drive; preferably 7200rpm. Oh, I also need the Dell 2.5" IDE adapter as well it turns out.
• DDR3 desktop ram
• long shot, but I need a screen that is compatible with a 17" Dell Inspiron 9200/9300/e1705/XPS Gen 2/XPS M170/XPS M1710. The model I have that has gone bad is a LG LP171WX2(B4)
• also long shot, a video card for a Dell Inspiron 9300 or XPS Gen2/M170

Located in zip code 28025

 

[Fenris_Ulf]

I got DDR3 desktop ram, it's 2GB sticks though, so if you only have 2 slots you're limited to 4 GB.

 

[Lateralus]

Have a few things if anyone is interested:

• Pentium 4 CPU 1.8ghz/400fsb
• Pentium 4 CPU 2.66ghz/533fsb
• Core i3-2120 CPU
• Geforce 4 MX 440 128mb AGP
• Toshiba Satellite L305-S5865 laptop. Mfg date 2006. No power cord, not hard drive. Was told it worked but don't have a power cord to test it. So want to either give it away or... ISO a compatible power adapter?
• HTC Droid DNA (Verizon)
• Motorola Droid Mini (Verizon)

ISO:

• 2.5" PATA laptop drive; preferably 7200rpm
• DDR3 desktop ram
• long shot, but I need a screen that is compatible with a 17" Dell Inspiron 9200/9300/e1705/XPS Gen 2/XPS M170/XPS M1710. The model I have that has gone bad is a LG LP171WX2(B4)
• also long shot, a video card for a Dell Inspiron 9300 or XPS Gen2/M170

Located in zip code 28025

What about a 2.5" SSD? I only have 5,400rpm drives otherwise.

 

[kakureru]

What about a 2.5" SSD? I only have 5,400rpm drives otherwise.

I think this person wants a laptop IDE drive

 

[atwood7fan]

I think this person wants a laptop IDE drive

Correct. I suppose if you have a 2.5" IDE SSD that would work but I think those are pretty rare?

 

[kakureru]

Correct. I suppose if you have a 2.5" IDE SSD that would work but I think those are pretty rare?

I have only ever seen one irl when SSD started being a thing. I know cheap chinesium exists tho. If its for a classic computer and wear leveling is not a big issue, why not (insert memory card here) to IDE adapter?

 

[Lateralus]

I think this person wants a laptop IDE drive

Whoops totally missed that, just saw the 2.5" and not the PATA. I did have some IDE laptop drives several years ago but they're long gone now. Still have the USB docks and everything.

Good luck atwood, I have some DDR3 SO-DIMMs but nothing for desktop unfortunately.

 

[atwood7fan]

I got DDR3 desktop ram, it's 2GB sticks though, so if you only have 2 slots you're limited to 4 GB.

Thanks; yeah, I only have 2 slots, so let me see if anyone else has any 4gb sticks otherwise 2gb sticks are better thank nothing

 

[commissioneranthony]

I have only ever seen one irl when SSD started being a thing. I know cheap chinesium exists tho. If its for a classic computer and wear leveling is not a big issue, why not (insert memory card here) to IDE adapter?

Super Talent remembers. I think these drives were actually ide drives and not just a sata to ide bridge + sata ssd. Look at those read writes. Hubba hubba.

 

[jojo69]

compact flash IS IDE, pin for pin, pretty sure that's what's inside these

 

[mnewxcv]

compact flash IS IDE, pin for pin, pretty sure that's what's inside these

Just like cfast is sata and cfexpress is nvme (though maybe not pin for pin)

 

[Fenris_Ulf]

PATA is the same as Compact Flash. I think I have a pinout adapter somewhere. WARNING - the lack of TRIM and wear leveling will kill the drive if you use it for paging. I used one in a K6-III on WinXP and it killed the drive in a week. Turning off the swap paging and it ran for years.

 

[dar124]

Thanks; yeah, I only have 2 slots, so let me see if anyone else has any 4gb sticks otherwise 2gb sticks are better thank nothing

I have a few sticks of "Dell 4GB PC3 12800 SDRAM SNP531R8C / 4G". They're currently listed in my FS thread, but havent had much interest.

I've been trying to clear things out recently, so I'd send you 2 sticks for shipping.

PM sent.

 

[kyang357]

Thanks; yeah, I only have 2 slots, so let me see if anyone else has any 4gb sticks otherwise 2gb sticks are better thank nothing

If you still need some, let me know. $5 should cover shipping.

 

[mvmiller12]

Figured I'd post an inspirational Trash-to-Treasure update on here.

About a month ago, GiGaBiTe posted an old iMac up on here that only booted to the flashing Folder icon (Mac for "Dude, Where's my Boot Drive?"), and I took him up on it. I was looking for a neww fun project, and this seemed like it would fit the bill fine. It was $90 for the shipping which was very fair - it is heavy and kinda awkwardly large, and there was probably at least $20 of raw packing material in the box alone . I got the machine with keyboard and mouse in GREAT condition.

First things first, I look up the model and this particular machine is a Model A1174 - the premium Early 2006 20" Intel CoreDuo model. Power it on and the classic Mac chime sounds and the flashing folder appears. I grab my nifty empty giftcard to pop some cleverly hidden plastic clips and get to work. Sure enough - there is no hard drive in the unit. However, whoever took out the hard drive was a person after my own heart, because they left all of the original mounting hardware and the temperature sensor taped up inside a plastic baggy. No problem - my local Best Buy had a sale on a 1TB SATA SSD for $50 and I grabbed that.

Problem #1 - It detects the SSD just fine, but this thing tops out at Snow Leopard, and a Snow Leopard bootable disk image was surprising difficult to find. Believe it or not, the Internet Archive had an ISO. - Resolving Problem #1 made the machine very workable in MacOS 10.6.8 (and diagnostics concluded the iMac was ENTIRELY functional AND I discovered it had 2G of RAM installed - yays!), but Macs are weird relative to Windows. On Windows machines, a LOT of software is both forward and backwards compatible with the OS. I could install Windows XP on a machine right now and there would be a ton of working software for it out there. Microsoft has gone through great pains in the past to make sure it works this way, but Apple sure as hell does not. It is super difficult to get any working software for OS X Snow Leopard. The best I could do was get a newer-but-still-REALLY-ancient FireFox on there which would at least let me access newer web sites, because the built-in Safari wouldn't open anything more complicated than Google . Problem #1 is solved! It's a Mac running MacOS!

Problem #2 - Snow Leopard is useless, let's go with Windows! Machine supports BootCamp with Windows 7, so it should theoretically work just fine with Windows 10. Well... not so much. The WiFi worked great right out of the box, I had full access to both 802.11g and .11n networks. I was able to get the necessary device drivers for everything out of BootCamp pack 4, and it worked... sort of. 1) I could only install Windows 10 32-bit. 64-bit was just not happening. 2) The graphics drivers for the Mobile Radeon x1600 in Windows 10 suck donkey balls. Missing textures on the desktop, video corruption, the works. 3) The default generic video driver ALSO sucks donkey balls because it does NOT properly support the resolution of the screen, AND compositing is V E R Y S L O W. Never fixed this - trashed the Windows install.
Problem #2 is now and will forever remain unresolved.

Problem #3 - Snow Leopard is useless, the Windows experience on this machine sucks, let's go with Linux! This was somewhat more complicated than I had expected. Long story short - I DID eventually get the machine triple-booted (after installing rEFInd) with Snow Leopard, Windows 10 32-bit, and Linux Mint DEBIAN 32-bit, but the Linux experience was sub-par. A lot of packages have apparently moved on from 32-bit and have become 64-bit only going forward. Debian is one of the few distributions that seems actively committed to 32-bit development, so I was at least able to get it to do something. The trick is, the only Linux Mint DEBIAN based 32-bit modern distro runs Cinammon, and Cinnamon is a little too "heavy" for this machine and so performance was sluggish. Also it was a pain in the ASS to get the WiFi working. Time to figure out why x64 is not working on this machine (and I bet you guys already knew why ). Problem #3 is now irrelevant BECAUSE...

Problem #4 - I never realized that CoreDuo processors ever made it into commercial desktop machines - I had also thought they were mobile-only chips that were rapidly replaced by the Core2Duo (which is an x64 chip). Well, I was entirely wrong about that. This machine can only run ia32 software - x64 is right out... BUT... the CPU in this machine is socketed! Internet research indicates that these machines are drop-in compatible with some Core2Duo T-series CPUs, so another $11 to eBay and a 2.16GHz T7400 Core2Duo is on its way (Pro-tip - the machine supports all the way up to the 2.33GHz T7600, but that thing is dramatically more expensive than the T7400 was - don't be afraid to look a step or 2 down when looking to do these sorts of upgrades because you can get most of the performance lift for a bunch less $$$). Installation went smoothly and I now had an x64 CPU in the machine. Getting TO the CPU required puling the mainboard entirely out to get to the backside, which was a slog, and of course, the plastic plug for the built-in camera and mic broke right off the motherboard because the old plastic plug was very brittle (fortunately it was the plug on the cable that shattered and not the actual socket) - this was another $20 down the hole to a Mac used parts seller. Easy fix.

Problem #5 - The EFI in this machine is 32-bit only, and it apparently gets super confused with multi-book ISOs. Long Story Short, I was eventually able to install Linux Mint xFCe in it's 64-bit glory, but tis was again more complicated than it initially appeared. I had to "patch" the Linux Mint ISO prior to burning it to DVD to remove the UEFI multibook "partition" from the volume, rendering it Legacy BIOS boot only (which the iMacs 32-bit EFI can emulate - its the core they added to make Boot Camp work for Windows installs). I patched the ISO using the instructions I found on an internet page hosted by a guy who helps people with 32-bit EFI Macs ('cuz apparently Apple stuck with that 32-bit EFI for a WHILE) and WSL on my Windows 11 machine. I got the new Linux Mint installed just fine after that, and xFCe is MUCH faster on the machine. WiFi was still a pain to get working, but the machine is now fully function and comfortably performant with a fully modern OS installed. Which left me with my last problem...

Problem #6 - Need More RAM! This is ALSO a little tricker than it first appears. The CoreDuo iMac only officially supported 2G of RAM. You could get 3G in it with mismatched sticks, but then you lose dual channel memory support. 2x2G would not work and would cause the Mac to hardlock on startup. the later LATE 2006 iMacs were still limited to 3G RAM tops, but would work fine and keep dual channel memory support with 2x2G sticks installed. Interestingly, the Late 2006 iMacs used the exact same mainboard as the Early 2006 iMacs did. This is where I went down the rabbit hole of updating my iMac 4.1 (what Apple calls the Early 2006 iMacs) firmware to iMac 5.1 (Late 2006 iMac). As you can imagine, Apple does NOT make this easy to do. There IS a script that does it, but the script and the instructions to use it are on a website forum that no longer exists and all direct links to it were dead. I was able to get the script from a guy who had posted it in a different forum talking about having used it, but the script did NOT work. It would crash with an obscure error message. I had to use the Internet Wayback machine to find the relevant posts on how to fix this issue on the original forum where the script was created - apparently the script craps out because Apple renamed and moved the download files on their servers, because of course they did . The updated instructions describe how to manually download and rename the correct files from Apple, and how to manually run the internal btis of the script to make it actually patch and bless the iMac 5.1 firmware to work on the iMac 4.1 machine. That worked very well, and I packaged up the script, the firmware files from Apple and the instructions on my server in case I (or anybody that happens to ask me) needs them again. Another $7 to eBay and I received and installed my 4G of RAM just fine.


That puts my project totals at: $90 shipping + $50 new SATA SSD + $20 new camera/mic cable + $11 new CPU + $7 new RAM = $178. Not too shabby. It was quite the journey, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. The machine runs VERY well with Linux Mint xFCe with my only complaint being that WiFi is limited to 802.11g speeds in it. I cannot get the open source drivers for the Apple Airport Extreme (really, a Broadcom card) to see my 5GHz .11n networks for anything. I CAN use Ethernet to the machine if I happen to need full network speeds, but as a web browser, Discord, TeamSpeak, Steam Chat machine in my living room by the couch, it does not really NEED anything faster, and it only feels marginally less snappy for this purpose than my main machine in my sig. If I have any takeaway from this, it is to reaffirm what I already knew. Apple really does seem to go the extra mile to lock down their hardware, though I have heard that they have been better about this in recent years. Overall a great fun project that kept me occupied for a while, and kept another working machine out of the garbage. Thanks again GiGaBiTe!!

 

[bbs lm-r]

Problem #2 - Snow Leopard is useless, let's go with Windows! Machine supports BootCamp with Windows 7, so it should theoretically work just fine with Windows 10. Well... not so much. The WiFi worked great right out of the box, I had full access to both 802.11g and .11n networks. I was able to get the necessary device drivers for everything out of BootCamp pack 4, and it worked... sort of. 1) I could only install Windows 10 32-bit. 64-bit was just not happening. 2) The graphics drivers for the Mobile Radeon x1600 in Windows 10 suck donkey balls. Missing textures on the desktop, video corruption, the works. 3) The default generic video driver ALSO sucks donkey balls because it does NOT properly support the resolution of the screen, AND compositing is V E R Y S L O W. Never fixed this - trashed the Windows install.
Problem #2 is now and will forever remain unresolved.

TIL new word - compositing. In this case are you referring to a normal/base function of Windows, or trying to use an app?

 

[toast0]

Apple really does seem to go the extra mile to lock down their hardware

I'm not sure I'd say that. They went EFI rather than BIOS because they had no legacy. They never updated to UEFI because they had no need; also very little need to update to a 64-bit boot environment. They only have to support one OS and it only officially supports their hardware which is maybe 3 models a year added.

TIL new word - compositing. In this case are you referring to a normal/base function of Windows, or trying to use an app?

Compositing is basic functionality of Windows (since Vista?); in the before times, each window would draw directly to the output framebuffer, and get events when it was uncovered to redraw, etc. Now each window draws to its own output buffer and the compositor smooshes it together; if that's not hardware accelerated, it tends to be sluggish.

 

[mvmiller12]

I'm not sure I'd say that. They went EFI rather than BIOS because they had no legacy. They never updated to UEFI because they had no need; also very little need to update to a 64-bit boot environment. They only have to support one OS and it only officially supports their hardware which is maybe 3 models a year added.



Compositing is basic functionality of Windows (since Vista?); in the before times, each window would draw directly to the output framebuffer, and get events when it was uncovered to redraw, etc. Now each window draws to its own output buffer and the compositor smooshes it together; if that's not hardware accelerated, it tends to be sluggish.

Well, I can definitely say I learned a lot. I have been thinking that I might try to mod the iMac's back panel so I can mount it to a VESA arm, but that would definitely destroy the look of it. Also thought of trying to rig a way to securely attach the iMacs stand to a VESA arm It would look janky and be less elegant for sure, but it would preserve the integrity of the machine. I really want to be able to swing it out of my way when I'm not using it.

 

[Andrew_Carr]

I have a dead zotac rtx 3060ti if anyone wants it. No idea what's wrong with it. Failed soon after buying it, can't see any burnt out components or anything. Probably $20 for shipping (without original box). Also have a couple 120GB SATA HDDs as well I could throw in.

Taken. That was fast.

 

[404]

I have a dead zotac rtx 3060ti if anyone wants it. No idea what's wrong with it. Failed soon after buying it, can't see any burnt out components or anything. Probably $20 for shipping (without original box). Also have a couple 120GB SATA HDDs as well I could throw in.

Taken. That was fast.

99.9% sure they were taken but if the SSDs are still available, i could use them.

 

[Lateralus]

99.9% sure they were taken but if the SSDs are still available, i could use them.

I should have a couple of 2.5" SATA HDDs in my stash, although I think they're 5,400rpm if that matters.

 

[404]

I should have a couple of 2.5" SATA HDDs in my stash, although I think they're 5,400rpm if that matters.

I have two lenovo mini PCs here that were tossed out at work. With the standard 2.5" drives still intact. Figured SSD's would be a decent upgrade for them.

 

[Lateralus]

I have two lenovo mini PCs here that were tossed out at work. With the standard 2.5" drives still intact. Figured SSD's would be a decent upgrade for them.

Gotcha. I didn't see where Andrew had 2.5" SATA SSDs, just the HDDs mentioned up there that he offered to toss in with the GPU. Perhaps I missed it.

I probably do have a couple of spare SATA SSDs also.

 

[404]

Gotcha. I didn't see where Andrew had 2.5" SATA SSDs, just the HDDs mentioned up there that he offered to toss in with the GPU. Perhaps I missed it.

I probably do have a couple of spare SATA SSDs also.

Ah i must have misread. Too early in the morning for me!

 

[Andrew_Carr]

99.9% sure they were taken but if the SSDs are still available, i could use them.

They’re HDDs not SSDs they’re still available . Just the GPU is taken.

 

[kyang357]

I have two lenovo mini PCs here that were tossed out at work. With the standard 2.5" drives still intact. Figured SSD's would be a decent upgrade for them.

I have these two drives, $6.21 should cover shipping. PM me your Paypal address.

 

[404]

I have these two drives, $6.21 should cover shipping. PM me your Paypal address.

Pm sent

 

[nanoscale]

I have some i5 2400 processors for cost of shipping.

Edited 03/06/2023 shipped 2 i5 2400's to Reefa_Madness

 

[jojo69]

Great writeup mvmiller12 , thanks for taking the time

 

[kyang357]

My old soundcard. Was working when pulled many, many years ago. $6 should cover shipping.

 

[kyang357]

MSI GT 710. Pulled from working Dell, $10 shipped.

 

[faster7]

Well, I can definitely say I learned a lot. I have been thinking that I might try to mod the iMac's back panel so I can mount it to a VESA arm, but that would definitely destroy the look of it. Also thought of trying to rig a way to securely attach the iMacs stand to a VESA arm It would look janky and be less elegant for sure, but it would preserve the integrity of the machine. I really want to be able to swing it out of my way when I'm not using it.

some "3m Panelbond" and the right flat vesa plate..... and you could probably put your whole weight on the thing.

I've collected some Mac stuff and if I get some time to tinker again, I may hit you up for some ideas, as two of them weren't cooperating the last I tried Linux.

 

[BeastGTS]

I have some vintage computer hardware, including Pentium 200MHz CPUs (claimed), miscellaneous ribbon cables, and a few graphics cards (NVidia Vanta, Matrox cards), 3Com network adapters. Is this worth anything to anyone for the cost of shipping, or just e-waste?

 

[Bird222]

Long shot but does anybody happen to have an old IBM Model M PS/2 keyboard cable?

 

[dar124]

I'm back looking to clear out a couple items that have been in my FS thread for a bit without much interest.

I've got 2 Dell Latitude E7440 laptops that I'm looking to get rid of for the cost of shipping. I'm figuring $30 shipped for each one will cover a large flat rate box and the additional packing to safely ship them. I do not have power cords, but any Dell 65w power cord will work. Both laptops have identical specs which are listed below, and an activated copy of W10 Pro installed. Just hoping someone here can use them as they're still decent machines. If there still available in a week I'll be recycling them.

Both laptops are in pretty good condition. Each has some scratches on the lid and minimal wear from normal use. But other than that they're really clean and in 100% working condition. The battery is in good condition. I've had them running unplugged while installing a few Windows updates the past couple of days and they hold a charge really well.

They both have an Intel i7 2.10GHz processor, 16GB of memory, a 256GB m.2 SATA SSD, a touch screen and a fresh / activated install of W10 Pro.

 

[Triolent]

No begging if you can afford a Quad Core Intel CPU you can afford an $8 tube of Arcitic Silver

Pm sent re: 1