Two Trashpicked Computers - June 2011
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
- Have you ever been driving down the road, scanning the stuff set out for trash collection, only to see something that looked good or at least interesting? When I saw these computers, I did a double-take, stopped the truck, backed up and grabbed 'em both. Although I'm a bit on the "gun shy" side, I hooked both computers with the occupants of the house present on their front lawn. They didn't pay any attention to me.
I went back later and grabbed the monitor. All of it needs a cleaning, although it all seems to work passably well.
The Dimension 2300 and 2400 were great little workhorse computers, built much better than their pricing would suggest. They were also probably the first real "budget computer" entries to come from a well established computer manufacturer. The only downside? Many of these $300 systems probably ended up in the landfill because of inadequate RAM. - Наука та технологія
@MrStelmer I remember in 2003, you could order a Dell machine with Windows XP Home Edition, with as little as 128 MB of RAM. Along with all of the major security holes, this is really why people hung onto Windows 2000 and 98SE for so long, until affordable PC configurations finally caught up with the realistic minimums for XP.
I came to reply after watching your Windows ME Gateway video in which you watched this clip...... :)
"Windows Millenium! Oh no, get it away,EEK!" -UXWBill, 2011 "6:10"
***** That is what TheKeyKeeper said!
Windows Millenium! Oh No!
Your reaction to ME had me laughing so hard that I scared my cat
I'm looking back at this video and it turns out that this is the first UXWbill video I've ever watched
I love your reaction to ME. I got a rig through here with an AMD K6 and 128MB of RAM, with ME on it. Tears started to fall down my face...
I have an old Dimension XPS PIII-600 (Slot 1) running XP as my "utility computer" for testing old hardware (its one ISA slot comes in handy) and copying/formatting hard drives. It already has a FireWire card, so with the addition of some cheap SATA and USB 2.0 cards, it'd be ready to handle almost any kind of media.
Can't find such stuff around here anymore. Starting a few days before trashday, several pickup trucks roam the alleyways picking up almost anything that can be fixed and resold, or deconstructed for parts or recycled.
I have a machine similar to the Pentium III you picked up (probably the same model too, since they both have 866MHz CPUs), and it's actually a pretty decent rig for retro gaming or really anything that just doesn't need much processing power. It runs Windows 2000 and 98SE like a charm, and I'm sure it would be a great box for Linux too. The best part is that the fan on it is absolutely SILENT. I've never heard a quieter machine.
Only machine I've ever found on the curb was an old beige box machine and CRT monitor from 2001 or so, just down the street from my house around 2015 or so. The computer was completely dead, but I've since cleaned up the case and reused it for a "sleeper" build with modern components, which has worked pretty well so far.
Just for lolz (and partially inspired by your tongue-in-cheek "real computers have floppy drives" thing), I kept the floppy drive and have it hooked up internally with a USB to floppy adapter board I got from eBay. I wonder how many Windows 11 installations there are in the world right now with floppy drives...
i found a fully intact hp compaq elite on the side of the road running vista sometime last year.
has a core 2 duo and 2gb of ram.
ive been thinking of getting another 2gb of ram for it and seeing if it would run windows 7 and setting it up in the lounge as a "media player" pc
All of my new finds seem to be getting better and better. We got an SLI Pentium D motherboard off the street, and a Core 2 Quad Q6600, an SLI mobo, and 4gb 667mhz RAM for free off a dude.
I picked up three PIII Compaq Deskpro computers at the local village fete and they all worked fine. One even had a very nice LG DVD-RW! They are mostly used as backup computers or as computers to give to friends while I am fixing them.
yes i do it all the time. The last thing i turned around to grab was a 22" HP/Compaq LCD. It's business grade too. Has DVI VGA and DP output and can be rotated.
>Windows ME
>Mickey Mouse wallpaper
>taskbar on the left
You're right, this is *awful* .
I got 32 of the Dimension 4100 PCs from my school and I am stunned by how well they run even today.
Do you still have those machines?
I sold some of them and donated some for charity, but I still have around 10 of them
Oh, and I use one as my firewall and one as a file server (bot with dual Gigabit Ethernet Cards)... not the fastest thing in the world, but good performance per price as I didn't pay anything for those and they don't take up much energy
AlmightyMaria PvB can you send me one but I am i n Australia
If you pay the shipping, I will...
This is would be expensive though since I live in Germany.
Good finds.. One thing though with electronics. Open them up OUTSIDE before taking them into your home. I used to do install DSL internet for the local phone company. We often had to put network cards in the computers.. I found that BUGS like to live inside these things. I had a few hundred scurry out of a PC once. NASTY STUFF sometimes.
I am like the same as you lol. I haven't been to school for anything yet, but I love to collect old computers and work on them. I have a few top notch systems, but I still appreciate a good classic setup.
my grandma used to have a Dimension 2300 o something a lot like one. They replaced it with an Inspiron a few years ago but they still have a CRT monitor like that in their basement.
Very awesome creation you bought up during your interview about the dell demintion old computer drive, featuring the key board, and everything else y'aaalll!!!😎😀🔥🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯💯 (underrated)
I haven't trash-picked any computers in a while, just haven't found any but I'm always on the lookout. The last one I trash-picked was a Compaq S6700NX 2.5ghz hyperthreaded P4 that only needed its power supply replaced to work again.
Id like to see more videos of computers going into the dishwasher and making them look like new and reusable.. I picked up a few trashed computers, completely washed two of them in a tub (except for cmos, hard drive and fans). Let them dry up a few days and once all placed back together they worked perfectly and looked great... I did this after watching your vids thinking I had nothing to lose, it works... so yeah more washing computer videos! haha
I often go to the dump and get things. Last week I found a still original sealed hitachi cd-rom drive from march 1996 with cables and software and an old bargate pentium-s pc. still works.
The 4100 looks like it uses the same chassis as the Dimension T550 I found near my place a few months ago. The machine I found had a 550MHz P3, 320MB of RAM, a clean(!) install of Win2000, and surprisingly enough, a 128MB GeForce FX5200 sitting in the AGP slot.
Honestly aside from the amazing older O-scopes and test equipment HP made, those big monster Laser Jet's were some of HP's best and most versatile products.
The first video of yours I saw! In 2012.
@TechGuru88 Windows ME wasn't really all that terrible in my experience. It's really just Windows 98SE with a few more graphical frills. Tech guys just love to pick on it because it was promised to be a worthwhile upgrade, and it wasn't. In fact, it took away most DOS functionality, such as adding commands to the CONFIG.SYS file. But otherwise, there was nothing especially horrible about it. I even use it on one of my older PCs which contains a non-XP/2000-compatible video capture card.
Sounds like a Quantum Fireball HDD in the white one. I love how they spin up and down, but they're pretty loud overall.
Only printers I will pick up are the big heavy older LaserJet series, especially if they have network adapters in them. Fantastic printers, fast operation, they NEVER break and re-manufactured toner cartridges last damn near forever and are as the brit's say "cheap as chips" and hardly ever give trouble. Plus, hook them to ANY wireless router and you can print to them from a smart phone or ipad! Wonderful things they are. Even when they get paper feed issues the kits are no big deal.
@kg4bga the strikes mostly happened on the terrestrial antenna on the top of a post on the uphill side of the property. it then spread to the electric wire on the sqme pole
dont be sad on the smell lol the hp i got from my neighbor probably smelled worse it was dusty and the dust was saturated in cigarette residue it was a gooey nasty mess however placing a dryer sheet on the back intake fans for a couple of hours really helped rid the smell
I love trash found computers. Who knows what you will find, or what you will find on them! I actually pick up printers too, for something to throw/beat around, literally.
I remember my grandmother had her Gateway with Windows 98 on it serviced, and they loaded Windows ME on it. I don't remember a lot of issues. I actually like Vista, I just need to backup my files before I put it back on my laptop. I have Windows XP now, that is what the computer guy who fixed it installed.
You want gear-grinding XP usage? My first computer I ever had was some older dell (I can't remember the model, but it was a 1998 system), I bought it at a yard sale for like $5, and the memory was only 192MB (128 and 64), and it was had XP installed. It ran ok for simple tasks, but nothing more. It came with a nice PCI wireless card as well, which was very fun tinkering around with.
you can use one pc in your garage for internet radio or sow.. or hook a screen on to it, and display a network camera/webcam in your home or something. I love computers, old or new. everyone gets a different task. ;)
The first thing I do when I start computers from the dumpster, is opening the CD/DVD drives, I find original game discs or DVD from time to time ^^ But on filthy computer like those, the first thing to do is to take them apart and clean them before any attempt at starting them, who knows what's inside that could make a short !
Im not the cleanliness person in the world, but i did learn to clean my processor fan!
YET AGAIN!!!!! Windows M.E is on my old dell dimmension l400c and it still works like a charm today
I used to live near a recycling depot with tons of discarded Dells, particularly Dimension 4600s and 2300s. I'm surprised how many of those things they produced. :O
Holy crap my family used to have the exact same machine, with the same specs, same old windows me junk, and an HP Deskjet printer XD. We also had a Scanjet flatbed scanner for it
+Jason Grimm ditto!!!
I'm posting this comment from a PC running Windows ME... and making a video about it too! :-)
Looks like that beige box is in need of some "dishwasher therapy"!
Nice finds Bill! Whenever I do find a PC on the side of the road, Or as given to me from a friend or someone, I never ever boot up into the OS. The drive gets nuked once I can gather the hardware aspect is good. The first, Last and only time I've ever booted into a trash-picked PC's OS.... I was rather disturbed and since then I just nuke the drive without any second thoughts.
What horrors did you see?
I've got a couple of Dell computers a little newer than that and in my personal experience, they've been very good computers. Certainly easy to get drivers for most of the time. Far as data goes, a few hours with killdisk and data never comes back.
I believe these older dell Dimensions (the white one) Used quantum and IBM drives for a while.
Yikes, Windows ME.
In Dutch we said Windows Meer Ellende, translated it's Windows More Misery.
But Meer Ellende sounds great in Dutch.
wow it's been a long time since i have seen WinME.
I once had a Gateway Solo 3350 that ran Windows Millennium Edition. IT actually wasn't that bad, just some software issues and personality from time to time, such as the fan being the equivalent of a rusty jet engine taking off, and the hard disk liking to sit and grind away.
Poor uxwbill for being stuck with a computer with Windows ME. I made the mistake of buying a Compaq with this system. Nothing but problems. I finally got tired of dealing with it and installed Windows XP in it. Best thing I ever did. I still have the computer and it still runs though slowly. Clean as brand new too. Good luck with these 2 machines.
I'd have to imagine that Millenium was the factory build on that 4100. Are there any programs that seem to be pre-installed Dell applications that can be found?
I recently pulled a Dim4100 from the scrapbin, and it went right back to it after salvaging all useful parts; the motherboard had failed.
My old Dell PIII tower was found in a dumpster parked out back of the city hall for a few weeks...
Windows ME might be horribad, but it worked for me...just enough. It was on a DerbyTech (East Moline IL) built, Canon Chassis. So I had a Canon computer, built up to spec (September 2000) and it ran until 2009 when I sold it to someone for $50. That computer withstood 7 (YES, SEVEN) Lightning Strikes on the house on Cemetary Hill. The house hadn't been rewired yet for 3-prong outlets and proper grounding, the electrics in it were from the 50's.
@talldude123 Yes, I realize, but the programs should either be on the desktop or in the programs menu.
What's sad..is we still use those black Dell's in one if the classrooms at school
dude am am big fan!!!
great knowledge
I like ur videos these old computers are interesting.
I was one of those people who have had 0 problems with vista. I was using the 64bit version too. Up until windows 7 came out.
I recently got a dell dimension 8400 with 3.6 ghz penitum 4 north wood processor and 8 gigs of ram and a monitor plus keyboard and mouse for $40. The guy did a good thing of wiping the hard rive clean then reinstalling windows XP. My first computer ran on windows M.E. It was a nightmare. It had 256 mb of ram and a 2.0 ghz processor.
I've not had too much experience with Windows 98 Make-up Edition as I call it, but I know not too many people liked it, what was so bad about it? You could put Linux on these machines and give them a new lease on life. It's interesting that the white one has a Lightscribe DVD writer in it being so old.
Only thing I saw on the streets was a CRT TV when I was on the bus. Unfortunately, it rained while I was still on the bus so it probably stopped working
Most electronic devices that get wet will be fine, so long as they're not powered up when it happens or until after they have dried out.
Oh, so it probably was still good but I didn't see it where I saw it the next day
I've always been fascinated by the similarities between vwestlife and uxwbill. I think I prefer to watch uxwbill videos because he slips in quite a few jokes and is quite perky where vwestlife is a little more serious. Both channels are very interesting tho.
touche!
Bill, you mentioned that the next stop the computer was going to get hit with a D-ban boot floppy or cd. Can you show us how to do that? Or do you mean a complete new install?
Thank you....
If you think the dell was slow, you should see the 12 yr old curves we have ib school that were upgraded to run XP, they take a whole 55 minutes to log you in and display the remnants of what seems to be a desktop, they run minecraft quite well considering though!!!
I am looking into a Dell Dimension 4100. Found it at a local flea market. The man's wife was running the store and I asked her how much the computer was. She said that her husband just brought it in yesterday and she didn't know. Her husband is supposed to call me today on the price.
I picked up both those computers on seperate occasions for free. Lol what a coincidence.
lol. My father use to have a DELL Dimension 4100, it ran Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. I had a DELL Dimension L600c, my mother had a DELL Optiplex GX150, brings back memories ^_^
Yes, glad to see that there are others who pay attention. I just got 2 Dell Latitude D600 laptops from a business who claimed they "did not work". Well, uneducated people talking. I replaced the CMOS battery, they both work fine. They are light and fast. Not a single scratch on them. One runs like crazy with Linux (Ubuntu), the other one I sold was asked to have loser Windows on it, so I put maximum RAM in it and a 250 gb harddrive, Windows 7 runs pretty good.
gahaha! Windows ME!! Havnt seen that in FOREVER. I remember being in 6th Grade and my father bought me the 1st and last new computer I ever got (besides a HP Laptop about a year ago) and it was a beautiful piece of art SONY VAIO that although was endlessly cosmetically pleasing it was a Celeron and was preloaded with good ol Windows ME! Long story short, within a year the entire front fascia fell off I kicked and punched it so many times. =P
And on the Windows Vista thing, I never really had any issues with it. The biggest problems I had with it were the UAC and other "security" features that made it annoying to use or made it difficult to file share with my Macs. I still have the computer I ran Vista on (custom built one) but when 7 came out I pre-ordered and upgraded the thing the night the disk got there. I have 7 Ultimate 64bit and its been good as far as Windows goes. And the UAC is easy to kill!!!!!
Then windows 8 came out a year later
I use Windows Vista SP2 for my computer in my bedroom! It is fine, I actually like it!
Windows Vista isn't all bad. I like the design of vista, but Microsoft could've worked harder on making it reliable.
Cool. I always wanted to try Vista.
@animaxanimation "Will it blend" reference? Nice.
OPINIONS! I love Windows Me! Me is my favorite Windows, infact.
@Duratec86 I made the same mistake. Then I discovered Windows 2000 and the NT kernel and I was a fan of anything based off the NT kernel.
Several years ago I bought a Compaq Proliant 800 (Pentium Pro era) server on eBay. Naturally the seller never wiped the hard disks. It turned out to be an NT4 server from a Nationwide Insurance agency. It had all their form letters on it, and some Excel and Access files containing customer data. Some of them had Office encryption which I didn't try to crack but to the wrong person they're definitely crackable. That's not a layman's system, apparently some very careless IT guy let it out.
I guess for the white one's sake its good that you know how to really clean them up well. I don't get why people don't clear these out like they should, it is pretty risky...
7 Lightning Strikes on the house. I think I would move!
the windows ME part made me lol so fricking hard XD
i got a dell xps with the same case as that one you have the white one and lol there was a SCSI dvd RAM drive in it with a scsi card i couldn't believe it
My windows ME was good after I reloaded it and got rid of all my dad's crap though. It was an upgrade to me because my computer before that was windows for workgroups 3.11.
I do miss 3.11 though
"Windows Millennium?! OH, NO!" I LOL'ed!
@bamdadkhan you just don't notice maybe. the nicotine get in everything. i had a xbox (not 360 since people think that for some reason) that smelled even after i took and cleaned. think it got in the circuit board. seems to have gone away over time though.
I'm actually surprised they even updated to the last version of Firefox 2. (Firefox 3 and later don't run on anything older than 2K) I mean, people who use ME aren't exactly computer literate.
I honestly don't think Windows ME was that bad. With a LOT of tweaking, it was fairly usable, at least.
i also forgott to say please can you do an update video on the dell 4100
I would like to work with you Bill. You are a great tech.... Teach me!!! :)
By the way, Thank you for the advice. I now work on computers and I built my first machine a month ago.
Sounds about right!
WOOOOOOOOT more computer videos PLZZZZZ
Windows Millennium get it away eeeek ! LOL
just about fell out my chair laughing....
lol when I saw that the Dell had WIndows ME on it, I laughed so hard :P
@2:30... Hmmm, maybe I just got lucky or I don't try to stress the machine out, but I got Windows XP to run on a 300/400 Mhz K6/K6-2 with 256MB RAM just fine. Granted, it's not my primary computer (and is a testbed for vintage hardware/software and HAM radio), but I'm surprised it runs as well as it does.
@uxwbill these older dells are great, i had 4, and only one remains, (The toughest one survived, dimension xps r400) i did have a t550 at one point as well.
I'm happy to say that i got the audio working on Windows ME.
believe it or not, i just downloaded that mickey mouse background :-P
+Composite guy That's Cool... *CRASHES*
So far i havent had a single problem with ME.
I like your name btw
+Composite guy never used it, but I've heard if one knows how to fix the memory leaks the couse of most ME troubles it's not such a bad OS.
Link?
Hehe, I have a ThinkPad 600X, when I got it it smelled a bit like cigarette smoke and makeup (a weird combination)... but it does work perfectly :D I run Windows 2000 on it and use it for old games, web browsing, etc.
Hi
@uxwbill can you please make a full video on the 4100
I agree I too, always scan peoples trash for interesting stuff. I haven't found a single computer at the curb yet. Do you still have the Dimension 4100? And if you do does it still run Windows ME? I agree with what you said about ME it was a horrible OS!
@vwestlife Does it support Flash/CSSing/Javascript? A bit too much for a ME-based computer :)
For me, windows mellenium worked good.
+PowerDVD3000 same.
whats the best printer you recoemnd uxwbill? hp, epson, canon?
I found a Windows 95 computer while trashpicking.
that p4 is a little faster then mine. also if that computer has rambus memory dull channel that would make it run faster i think. not going to like.i would have left the stuff on that computer and looked around some. i wouldn't use personal stuff though. the games would have been fun to look through.
Used to call that thing "windows multiple errors" it was horrible. I swear Microsoft must have realized their total screw up and brought out XP to remedy it.