Computers in the trash

[Dragonbate]

Just yesterday I found a compaq Pentium II computert being thrown out by radioshack. Got it home and it booted rigth up into a fairly vigin installation of windows 98. It was apparently one oif their display models as I had to uninstall the compaq/radioshack demo software. Anyone else find anything like this? The best I've found is a pIII 1000 mhz computer with a 20 gb HD and an XP key still stuck to it. It had a faulty memory stick but once I swapped that out I set it up as my hme server and it's been solid ever since.

 

[cavemanmoron]

kool,hope that they don't try to charge you with theft,
for dumpster diving.

 

[Meltz]

it's a shame they throw those things out. They should donate them. They may be old, but there's a use for them somewhere.

 

[piroroadkill]

Well done dude, I've never found anything as nice, but a friend once had a 486 called Skippy, and you can guess why.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

My dad occationally gets free computers from work when they're getting rid of them.

Best one so far was a 1.5ghz P4 w/256mb ram. The hard drive was busted, which might have been why they were getting rid of it.

I ended up giving it to a guy who came to college last year with a 486 :Q

 

[spanky]

do u camp at dumpsters often? i've plucked a piii 800mhz optiplex from work before. had a bad hd and they got rid of it.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Two new in box Viewsonic PF775 monitors. I sold them to a friend for $50/ea, and then 5 days later my 5 year old PS790 died, and later my cousin's monitor started having problems. DAMMIT!

 

[rgwalt]

Originally posted by: piroroadkill
Well done dude, I've never found anything as nice, but a friend once had a 486 called Skippy, and you can guess why.

Did it follow him home from school?

R

 

[RaDragon]

Hmmm... They shouldn't throw their electronic stuff away in dumpsters; that's not very responsible of them.

Congrats on yer find, though!

I never get stuff in the trash -- don't have any big corporate dumpsters around me.

 

[nakedfrog]

Our work was tossing out a 24 port rack-based switch, cooling fans and all, because it powered on but "didn't work." Knowing our network staff, I rescued it since all I had was a 10mb network hub... the first few ports on it were bad (worked intermittently) but the last 12 seem fine.

 

[thegimp03]

I'm surprised they didn't donate it somewhere either...gotta wonder how much "useless" computers and electronic devices these stores actually throw out like this.

 

[lokiju]

At my last job I used to do all the home support for the execs which sucked big time, but the plus was that they'd be getting new stuff all the time and their old stuff is nicer than some of the new stuff I could afford and they'd just give it to me.

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Two new in box Viewsonic PF775 monitors. I sold them to a friend for $50/ea, and then 5 days later my 5 year old PS790 died, and later my cousin's monitor started having problems. DAMMIT!

damn I loved my ps790 monitor, had it for 6-7 years before it went kaput.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: cavemanmoron
kool,hope that they don't try to charge you with theft,
for dumpster diving.

Replace "dumpster" with "back of radio shack van".

 

[Ranger X]

Originally posted by: cavemanmoron
kool,hope that they don't try to charge you with theft,
for dumpster diving.

Is it theft if you steal someone's trash?

I wasn't aware that dumpster diving was illegal.

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: Ranger X

Originally posted by: cavemanmoron
kool,hope that they don't try to charge you with theft,
for dumpster diving.

Is it theft if you steal someone's trash?

I wasn't aware that dumpster diving was illegal.

Commercial dumpsters are almost always located on private property, so yes, it is theft.

 

[Biafra]

I found a powerpc w/ monitor, a voicemail server, netfinity 5500, routers, monitors. Upgrades instantly turns old computers into trash.

 

[konakona]

my secondary monitor is straight from our local dumpster. looks pretty archaic but works quite well for what i use it for. colors are vivid and its a 19''