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Sad morning...with Happy ending!
- Thread starter philgxxd
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Go take it. It’s trash. If it’s a recycler throw 10 bucks at it.
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Out of curiosity, did you offer them $$$ for it? If it’s their source of income (e-waste recyclers) I get that response. Throw a tenner at it and they might do it. Heck who knows, it might come right back to them years later & they get a chance to make money off it twice (if they’re smart lol) 😅
But yeah I agree - that response was a total drag.
But yeah I agree - that response was a total drag.
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It's the city's recycling company so it's a local company but they are under city's government control so to speak but no, I didn't offer money.
I work for an e-waste recycling company which is audited and governed by the city and I can assure you that there is nothing sad about these machines being dismantled. Some parts will be recycled into building new computers and other electronic items, so it's not a final death and no rebirth. There are a few reasons why e-waste recyclers refuse to let you take that machine. Mainly first the hard drive and any memory devices that are still in those machines need to be properly dismantled and wiped first before being fully dismantled. That is the proper e-waste recycling way, but of course a few places don't wipe drives using DBAN or no less than 2 pass wipes with random writes and employees paying $10 for scrap and only to make fun of customers' data and worse than not leak it on the net. A few e-waste recyclers got audited and fined as a result. Which is why this is the attitude coming from this recycling place, which is really what they are supposed to do. If you can take it off this lot for $10, then they ARE NOT doing their job and they can be audited. Secondly, e-waste recycling companies are not your typical computer graveyard, because they really want to know what are you planning to do with those machines. Mostly, people buy those machines simply to FLIP on eBay for big absurd prices, thus again creating MORE e-waste and this unfortunately does happen because some collectors don't really care about e-waste. They just care to own a piece of collectable and if they are fed up with it, it's either dumped in the trash or sit somewhere rotting while the caps will leak, thus creating an even more e-waste problem down the road. Some of these "It's me" people only care about themselves and their needs, rather than being concerned about keeping the environment clean and sustainable. the point of having e-waste recycling is to reduce e-waste and not create more e-waste. So that's why they would refuse people taking things out of the dumpster, despite if your intentions are just. Hope this helps.
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@philgxxd, taking @iluvmacs99's insight into account, go back to talk to them, and tell them that you'll remove the hard drive and memory (and perhaps anything else they might have a problem with) to be destroyed before the machine leaves the premises, and then tell them exactly what you'll do with the machine and why you want to take it in, and how, when the rare opportunity arises (such as someone like yourself happening across the unit), being lovingly cared for by an informed individual is so much more advantageous for the environment, technology, and people involved than spending more time and more energy to recycle the entire assembly while creating even more carbon waste in the process.
Go try! Be sincere.
Go try! Be sincere.
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LOL, I’ve bought more junk boxes that way than I can count. Then again, if the recycler is making money off data security, it makes sense why they’d not want to hand off a box under the traditional reduce/repurpose/reuse/RECYCLE mantra as their bread & butter is data security.
Regardless, Moving forward when I approach that situation, I will now add the “take the drive I want the box” bit. Might help lubricate the situation if they’re hesitant.
Regardless, Moving forward when I approach that situation, I will now add the “take the drive I want the box” bit. Might help lubricate the situation if they’re hesitant.
Well...I don't know how but it ended up on my desk 
It's a dual 1.25Ghz model from 2002! Nice osx machine.
It came with an extra harddrive cage which you can spot above the optical drive bay, a loose (bent) 1gb DDR ram stick, a loose ethernet card, the two latter ones just cramped inside the usual harddrive cage (already taken out, not shown here) and the two cards which you can see there still in. USB card and graphics.
Well, the stock ethernet port is missing hence the additional ethernet card (probably someone yanked out the plugged in cable?)
and the ram slots are bent (that bent ram stick was a bad sign).
I guess while the loose parts where thrown inside someone force-closed the side door.
I already began to disassemble the whole thing and will test the power supply first.
I also looked at the other side of the board for these ram slots but the pins seem to be all in place still. Maybe salvageable after all...
I tried to bent them back with care.
As you can see one of the plastic retention clips is missing.
It seems someone did some rework on that missing ethernet port. White superglue residue?
Also one of the firewire ports has a damaged plastic pin inside (the contacts seem fine though).
I hope to report back soon...very excited!
It's a dual 1.25Ghz model from 2002! Nice osx machine.
It came with an extra harddrive cage which you can spot above the optical drive bay, a loose (bent) 1gb DDR ram stick, a loose ethernet card, the two latter ones just cramped inside the usual harddrive cage (already taken out, not shown here) and the two cards which you can see there still in. USB card and graphics.
Well, the stock ethernet port is missing hence the additional ethernet card (probably someone yanked out the plugged in cable?)
and the ram slots are bent (that bent ram stick was a bad sign).
I guess while the loose parts where thrown inside someone force-closed the side door.
I already began to disassemble the whole thing and will test the power supply first.
I also looked at the other side of the board for these ram slots but the pins seem to be all in place still. Maybe salvageable after all...
I tried to bent them back with care.
As you can see one of the plastic retention clips is missing.
It seems someone did some rework on that missing ethernet port. White superglue residue?
Also one of the firewire ports has a damaged plastic pin inside (the contacts seem fine though).
I hope to report back soon...very excited!
Wow, I’ve never seen a ram slot warp like that. It looks like something got jammed in there & pushed the slot & ram module sideways. Nice pickup. Even if it ends up being dead, there’s alot of good parts & cards in there & I love those cases.
I hope it works for you
I hope it works for you
How did you manage the acquisition after all? Did you follow my script?
I stayed up late at night...some quick impressions.
I connected a 20" acrylic Cinema Display knowing that I would stress test the power supply with such a load but it's so convenient to have to connect only one cable...
Of course I fall almost asleep waiting for the installer to finish but I managed to do this final photo!
Dried out - Cleaned
Fresh Arctic Silver
Hot Copper Block
It's Alive!
Only after I assured that the voltages are present and correct I tried to turn it on. You have to have the mainboard connected while measuring.
Everything else was disconnected. No RAM, no Graphics.
3x RAM sticks from my stock pile.
I tried with the upper one.
I quickly put back the graphics card, throwed in a 40gb harddrive and connected an external Firewire optical drive to do a fresh Tiger install.It's Alive!
Only after I assured that the voltages are present and correct I tried to turn it on. You have to have the mainboard connected while measuring.
Everything else was disconnected. No RAM, no Graphics.
3x RAM sticks from my stock pile.
I tried with the upper one.
I connected a 20" acrylic Cinema Display knowing that I would stress test the power supply with such a load but it's so convenient to have to connect only one cable...
Of course I fall almost asleep waiting for the installer to finish but I managed to do this final photo!
Great work and success- congrats and chapeau for your endurance!
That dual-processor MDD is an outstanding machine and runs like hell compared to the fastest PowerBooks.
You may put in another graphic-card and run a multi-monitor-setting like @eyoungren.
Here's a little teaser about what pleasure to expect ...
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