The Freebies Thread

[TheShortTimer]

Another example of living in a throwaway society. Last night I was walking through my neighbourhood and spotted five sacks stuffed with DVDs perched atop a dumpster. I returned later to have a look and decide if there was anything that would be worth transferring into crates and rescuing.

As you can see, there was quite a few and these images do not reflect the full volume of items as I ended up with five crates of films. I checked the cases for missing/scratched discs and a good number were actually brand new and sealed in their wrapping. I'm saddened that someone took this route of tossing the whole lot in a dumpster, rather than giving them to a thrift/charity shop (they all take DVDs) or just leaving them in a box with a "take me!" sign.

There's a diverse selection ranging through the entire spectrum of genres and a good number of non-Hollywood material, particularly Spanish language content - which will come in handy as I'm embarking on yet another attempt to become fluent.

As for the titles that I won't be interested in, I'll donate them somewhere for resale - which is what the original owner should've done.

 

[Amethyst1]

Last night I was walking through my neighbourhood and spotted five sacks stuffed with DVDs perched atop a dumpster.

Unfortunately, one isn’t gonna find five sacks stuffed with LaserDiscs anymore.

 

[B S Magnet]

Unfortunately, one isn’t gonna find five sacks stuffed with LaserDiscs anymore.

I conjecture there was never such a time: laserdiscs were somewhat hard to find even when they were the only optical video format on the market. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, at the music/video retail stores where I worked during my teens and early twenties, only one copy, maybe two, of the most popular, new-release blockbusters, would get drop-shipped in LaserDisc format. Our chain of stores didn’t even rent them (even as we still had Betamax cassettes for rent). If a customer wanted a title we didn’t stock, we had to special order it always.

Years later, when the last local independent video rental-sales store in the major city where I was then living was also the last place in the region to stock laserdiscs, there were few to be found both before and after the format’s discontinuation. Their presence, after clearance pricing, remained even as the space they occupied in bins winnowed to practically nothing by around 2003. I doubt that small few copies remaining were tossed.

This probably had a great deal to do with the limited numbers pressed for pretty much all titles, relative to their videocassette and DVD counterparts, as well as their typical list prices. At least in North America, those prices tended to run at least double to quadruple (especially for letterboxes, CAV special editions) their VHS counterparts.

As for the titles that I won't be interested in, I'll donate them somewhere for resale - which is what the original owner should've done.

I’ll never stop feeling gobsmacked by the sheer abundance of stuff — usable, serviceable, even pristine stuff — people (er, consumers) toss so wantonly and readily. Just, my word… whyyyyy? [insert the paragraphs-long rant about consumers, our undoing as a species, and our complicity in how our consuming accelerates this planet’s Anthropocene and mass extinction event of our own creation.]

 

[TheShortTimer]

Unfortunately, one isn’t gonna find five sacks stuffed with LaserDiscs anymore.

One does, in the future envisaged by the writers and production staff of Back to the Future Part II.

I conjecture there was never such a time: laserdiscs were somewhat hard to find even when they were the only optical video format on the market.

My dad owned a consumer electronics store and I recall when he took me with him to a trade exhibition during the mid 80s and the Pioneer stand had a home cinema set-up featuring a rear projection TV and the newly released Laserdisc for The Empire Strikes Back being blasted out in stereo/possibly Dolby Surround. Truly incredible. I wish that I could've stuck around for the day and watched the whole film in that environment of splendour.

From a UK perspective, Laserdiscs - PAL and NTSC were easily available from mail order companies who advertised in the home video/consumer electronics enthusiast press, which is how I think most Brits obtained theirs and during the late 90s I visited a music store where I was surprised to discover racks of titles and spent a while pouring through them out of curiosity, even though I didn't have a player at the time.

In my dad's store, he sold Beta, VHS and for a while V2000 VCRs but he never had an LD machine in stock/on display but I do remember him providing them to customers, upon order, from Pioneer.

I’ll never stop feeling gobsmacked by the sheer abundance of stuff — usable, serviceable, even pristine stuff — people (er, consumers) toss so wantonly and readily. Just, my word… whyyyyy? [insert the paragraphs-long rant about consumers, our undoing as a species, and our complicity in how our consuming accelerates this planet’s Anthropocene and mass extinction event of our own creation.]

Totally agree and I originally was going to include a rant along those lines in my previous post but then remembered that I've subjected you all to more than enough already. Whilst this thread is a great read in terms of marvelling at the items that we've found and rescued, there's also a dark side that you've eloquently addressed: the callous landfill culture of discarding things without even a moment of consideration that they could be beneficial to others. I dread to think how future generations will view us and our myopic behaviour.

 

[weckart]

As you can see, there was quite a few and these images do not reflect the full volume of items as I ended up with five crates of films. I checked the cases for missing/scratched discs and a good number were actually brand new and sealed in their wrapping. I'm saddened that someone took this route of tossing the whole lot in a dumpster, rather than giving them to a thrift/charity shop (they all take DVDs) or just leaving them in a box with a "take me!" sign.

To be honest, many charity shops are just full to the brim with these and can't give them away. I collect books and some charity shops have good collections of those to browse through so I visit a lot up and down the country. You do get the odd person looking at DVDs but they are mostly older.

I had a clear out recently and had a ton of music and movie video tapes to donate, many unopened. There doesn't seem to have been any revival in that vintage media format and the only place I could find that would take them was the local recycling centre. They were destined for the landfill skip, can't even be recycled. Somebody dumped a load of video tapes and DVDs -all movies - on the free book exchange shelves in our local Tesco supermarket. They are still sitting there a week later. So, I'm not that surprised at your discovery, even that large amount. Dumping en masse is the path of least resistance as opposed to running round a number of charity shops hoping that they will take a handful off your hands each.

On the other hand, my elder brother is very old school. He has cable and Amazon Prime but still has an aversion to online streaming. He buys all of his music and most of his films on CD and DVD, rips them to his home media server and them gets me to find storage in the loft for the discs. Bless him.

 

[TheShortTimer]

To be honest, many charity shops are just full to the brim with these and can't give them away. I collect books and some charity shops have good collections of those to browse through so I visit a lot up and down the country. You do get the odd person looking at DVDs but they are mostly older.

I had a clear out recently and had a ton of music and movie video tapes to donate, many unopened. There doesn't seem to have been any revival in that vintage media format and the only place I could find that would take them was the local recycling centre. They were destined for the landfill skip, can't even be recycled. Somebody dumped a load of video tapes and DVDs -all movies - on the free book exchange shelves in our local Tesco supermarket. They are still sitting there a week later. So, I'm not that surprised at your discovery, even that large amount. Dumping en masse is the path of least resistance as opposed to running round a number of charity shops hoping that they will take a handful off your hands each.

To reiterate, the original owner could have just left them in a box with a "take me!" notice. Most of them would've been taken. That they wasn't even prepared to do that is woeful. I live in a neighbourhood where abandoned items are snapped up almost instantly if they're visible. For example, not too long ago I saw that someone had jettisoned dozens of DVDs in a pile and when I returned later in the evening, the best ones had been taken.

It's a crying shame about your tapes because I know of people who would've beaten down your door to get them.

On the other hand, my elder brother is very old school. He has cable and Amazon Prime but still has an aversion to online streaming.

I also have Amazon Prime and used it to watch the entire Picard series but as with your brother, I'll prefer to rewatch it on Blu-ray.

He buys all of his music and most of his films on CD and DVD, rips them to his home media server and them gets me to find storage in the loft for the discs. Bless him.

The joys of family life!

 

[weckart]

To reiterate, the original owner could have just left them in a box with a "take me!" notice. Most of them would've been taken. That they wasn't even prepared to do that is woeful. I live in a neighbourhood where abandoned items are snapped up almost instantly if they're visible. For example, not too long ago I saw that someone had jettisoned dozens of DVDs in a pile and when I returned later in the evening, the best ones had been taken.

It's a crying shame about your tapes because I know of people who would've beaten down your door to get them.

Yes, I suppose it is area dependent. As said, the free book stall hasn't seen any takers as yet. I think they will probably be chucked out by the staff soon to make way for more books, sad to say. It was a shame about the video tapes because next door to the council recycle centre is a charity which recycles/upcycles literally everything. I took all our electricals and furniture there and while they were happy to take the video recorders, they said they didn't have room for the tapes.

 

[B S Magnet]

One does, in the future envisaged by the writers and production staff of Back to the Future Part II.

Even when I first saw Back to the Future II (in ’90, either on cable TV or VHS), I remember rolling my eyes at that sight. Aside from there (or, even less likely, at a video label’s distribution warehouse, after entire titles were recalled from sale — less likely because labels would rather they be re-merchandised at “cut-outs” than losing all revenue, via destruction), I doubt there have been many moments when laserdiscs were trashed, en masse, like that. I even own an 8-inch “cut-out” laserdisc (though as memory serves, they used a hole-punch through the bar code) for cut-out copies of the Martin Briley video single laserdisc EP, containing the one-hit single, “Salt in My Tears”. (It was really cheap — like $5-cheap — ok?)

One other possibility: the very rare times a title was ready for release, only to be pulled at the very latest moment (typically, due to some legal reason). I do know of specific, actual examples of this happening with music media (vinyl, CDs, cassettes), but don’t off-hand know of the same with optical video media (including DVD and BluRay, though with the prevalence of these latter two, I’m sure it’s happened). The four music examples I know of, off-hand:

• Prince’s The Black Album, 1987 (reason: Prince demanded it just days before street [i.e., “drop”] date)
• Act’s “Chance” 7''/12'', 1988 (reason: uncleared ABBA sample used in remix of title track; fewer than 200 presumed survived)
• New Order’s “Run²" 7''/12''/CD maxi, 1989 (reason: John Denver alleged it sounded too much like “Leaving on a Jet Plane”; 20,500 copies total worldwide, the rest destroyed)
• Revolting Cocks’ “(Let’s Get) Physical” 12'', 1990 (reason: Olivia Newton-John disapproved of the cover and pursued legal action to halt it; unknown number of non-test-pressing copies, if any, survived)

This has been your nerdy tidbit of the day.

Anyhow, the probability of tossed laserdiscs, en masse, is probably pretty limited. One example I can imagine: when an old hoarder died and their belongings, cleared from their home, were left out by curbside by the property owner and/or the cleaner they hired.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I have picked up quite a few free bobs n bits over the past couple of years. Here’s a n Optiplex. Always loved the design language of this era Dell and the I/o is awesome. Picked this guy up off CL.

I picked up two iMac g4s, a 15 & a 17” free off CL as well. They were taken from a school computer lab and destined for recycling if no one wanted them.

I was driving behind a remodeled True Value hardware store and noticed that they had left the old work benches out back. These stayed put for weeks afterward so I grabbed one and put wheels on the bottom to use as a movable, multipurpose workstation. I primarily do computer & game system repair on here. I also snagged that CRT for free off CL.

Another CL find, I scooped these cdrom drives. The gpu… ehh threw it in my gpu box. I also got some neat TOTC drive boxes (barely pictured) and some torn up ATX psus I use for custom leads when I need to make one.

I scored a couple other neat things for zero dinero but haven’t gotten any decent pics of them. Figure I can
Post them when I get around to it.

 

[TheShortTimer]

This is an EE TV (Netgem N8500) set-top box that I came across in my neighbourhood.

From what I've been able to ascertain, these units are so heavily locked down that you're unable to even use the PVR facility for recording TV programmes onto the onboard 1TB HDD unless you subscribe to the box provider for a broadband account, so even if it does work, the scope of usage would be pretty limited. Besides, whoever dumped it had been savvy enough to remove the HDD anyway - which was a clue as to its status.

Nonetheless, it's still a useful find in terms of having an additional PCB to practice soldering work on - particularly surface mounted work, as I have a couple of upcoming projects which will require me to be proficient on that front.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Another early morning jogging session and another games console discovered. Exercising yields all kinds of unexpected bonuses. This time it's a Phat PS3 that someone had dumped on a wall.

Beyond the expected scuffs and scratches for a product of its age that likely saw heavy usage, it's in very good condition and just needed a clean with some surgical wipes.

Unfortunately it's not the highly coveted four-USB port model that also plays PS1 and PS2 games.

More importantly though, does it actually power up? Let's find out with HDMI and power cables...

Yes!

Switching on is one thing, can it read discs?

Yep, a Blu-ray disc plays without a hitch.

Although I already have a PS3, it would've been insane not to grab this and if it didn't work, I could've potentially used it for parts or a repair project. As it stands, this will be my backup machine because it always pays to have options.

 

[B S Magnet]

Another early morning jogging session and another games console discovered. Exercising yields all kinds of unexpected bonuses. This time it's a Phat PS3 that someone had dumped on a wall.

Beyond the expected scuffs and scratches for a product of its age that likely saw heavy usage, it's in very good condition and just needed a clean with some surgical wipes.

Unfortunately it's not the highly coveted four-USB port model that also plays PS1 and PS2 games.

More importantly though, does it actually power up? Let's find out with HDMI and power cables...

Yes!

Switching on is one thing, can it read discs?

Yep, a Blu-ray disc plays without a hitch.

Although I already have a PS3, it would've been insane not to grab this and if it didn't work, I could've used potentially it for parts or a repair project. As it stands, this will be my backup machine because it always pays to have options.

From now on, I’ma call you “the clean-up crew”.

Simply astounding.

 

[TheShortTimer]

From now on, I’ma call you “the clean-up crew”.

A one-man crew? I can make that work.

Simply astounding.

 

[ToniCH]

What is this sorcery? In my parts one does not just find any, I mean any, discarded electronics laying around!

To solve this problem I vote for the free electronics recycling to be stopped as environment unfriendly activity! Second/third life with a new owner should be mandatory step before really recycling the stuff. Recycling is not 100% efficient anyways, there is always things that cannot be recycled. That fact could change in the future so longer the gear is in use less they pollute landfills.

Recycle to be green! **** No! 🤬
Reuse to be green! **** Yes! 😎

 

[TheShortTimer]

What is this sorcery? In my parts one does not just find any, I mean any, discarded electronics laying around!

That's my fifth games console which I found just from venturing out and about during the early hours. Check out this Sega duo of a Dreamcast and Mega Drive that was thoughtfully left in a crate with all the cables, controllers and games. Quite a haul.

This is my story, as outlined on a previous page.

I live in a highly densely populated neighbourhood in one of the top 10 most densely populated districts of the UK's most densely populated city and this means that I regularly find discards - of all kinds during the course of activities as basic as (very) early morning exercising, a stroll or day-to-day local travelling. Usually, they're either abandoned on the pavement, outside someone's home (often accompanied by a helpful note alerting passer-bys to their status), within a communal location or in the vicinity of a dumpster.

It's guaranteed that on a weekly or even a daily basis that I'll find something but I can't always justify to myself taking them - or I may not even feel enthused to do so if they're in poor condition and/or highly likely irreparably faulty - unless I want surface mounted boards to practice on.

Is this uncommon/less common in Sweden Finland?

 

[ToniCH]

Is this uncommon/less common in Sweden?

I don't know as I live in Finland but yes - nobody leaves any electronics or anything else lying anywhere. All electronics, home appliances, metals, glass, paper/cardboard, untreated wood, bicycles, motor vehicles etc. etc. can be recycled free. And there are recycling places in every single town, larger places have many. So, people either sell (or sometimes donate) their stuff or haul them to recycling. The stuff that is not free to recycle end up in trash or to recycling plants where they charge a small handling fee for it.

This is good and bad...

Good as the trash is not thrown into nature, streets etc. Well, of course there is always that one douche who discards his old fridge to nearby forest instead of hauling it to the recycling plant, where they would accept it free, but that is quite rare.

Bad as loads of great and usable stuff and vintage gear go to recycling and hobbyists miss them completely. Ignorant people throw expensive, rare, unique or otherwise special gear into recycling when they have no interest to such stuff. Most of vintage electronics, hifi and computers have gone that way into oblivion.

Ps. I used to live in Fulham, London area in late 80's and early 90's. This was still the time when all computers and such electronics were relatively new and expensive. At that time I don't remember seeing any discarded usable stuff anywhere. In 90's - 00's I am sure lots of stuff aged badly and came obsolete and then I can imagine them being thrown away as worthless crap nobody is interested. That happened sadly here also.

 

[TheShortTimer]

I don't know as I live in Finland...

Sorry! I saw a post where you'd mentioned Scandinavian keyboards and somehow I got Sweden into my head.

Bad as loads of great and usable stuff and vintage gear go to recycling and hobbyists miss them completely. Ignorant people throw expensive, rare, unique or otherwise special gear into recycling when they have no interest to such stuff. Most of vintage electronics, hifi and computers have gone that way into oblivion.

Unfortunately and infuriatingly, that also happens here. The culprits are often spouses and children of deceased owners who are completely ignorant or indifferent to their value and significance. Its got me thinking that I'll have to make arrangements within my will so that after I'm no longer around, my gear will be offered/donated to enthusiast groups and the Science Museum.

The sadly defunct Museum of Moving Image had warned that the early years of video-gaming history could go the way of elements of early cinema and end up lost to the sands of time. A similar fate is faced by the technologies that you've mentioned.

Ps. I used to live in Fulham, London area in late 80's and early 90's. This was still the time when all computers and such electronics were relatively new and expensive. At that time I don't remember seeing any discarded usable stuff anywhere. In 90-00's I am sure lots of stuff aged badly and came obsolete and then I can imagine them being thrown away as worthless crap nobody is interested. That happened sadly here also.

It's a small world! I spent substantial time in Fulham (North End Road to be exact) from the mid 90s to late 2000s and yes, I remember despairing at learning of business owners dumping new old stock simply because it had fallen out of favour when the reality is that people still wanted those items but no longer knew where to find them...

 

[ToniCH]

Sorry! I saw a post where you'd mentioned Scandinavian keyboards and somehow I got Sweden into my head.

It's a small world! I spent substantial time in Fulham (North End Road to be exact) from the mid 90s to late 2000s

Well, we and the Swedes use the same keyboard and used to be parts of the same country few hundred years ago so...

I lived at Ifield Road, close to Fulham Road and very close to the stadium. Dunno if its actually more of Earl's court or Fulham, Chelsea or what? Took a tube or a bus every morning to go to school (IT and programming) at... hmm... what was that street with all the electronics/computer stores back then? Regent Street maybe? There was a Virgin store at the corner of Oxford street too. Great stores to visit at that time.

EDIT: no, wait - it was Tottenham Court Road! I was looking at the Google map and got the orientation wrong.

 

[swamprock]

Unfortunately, one isn’t gonna find five sacks stuffed with LaserDiscs anymore.

Luckily, they're still relatively cheap on eBay... for now.

 

[B S Magnet]

I remember despairing at learning of business owners dumping new old stock simply because it had fallen out of favour when the reality is that people still wanted those items but no longer knew where to find them...

(I know you already know this, and many here also probably know this, but it bears repeating nevertheless, even if that means shouting at the forest fire smog.)

This is the business proprietor world view: when one can’t sell inventory, even at clearance, then one throws away inventory. Whatever happens, never give inventory away — as giving away dumped, written-down inventory constitutes an act of business impropriety, a sin.

This is why thousands of E.T.: The Extraterrestrial game cartridges for the 2600 ended up in the middle of rural New Mexico, buried in landfill. This is why edible, safe food, pulled from shelves following a vendor “guaranteed by” date (thus no longer able to be merchandised), gets tossed into skips and dumpsters thousands of people locally go to bed hungry.

Anti-scavenging, anti-salvaging by-laws locally facilitate this wanton, wasteful, and anti-social conduct. The criminalization of giving away salvaged, usable essentials, like food and toiletries, further worsens the problem. In the end, we dump it on the planet and wonder why we’re in the microplastics, landfill, and carbon dioxide overload mess we now find ourselves — including regions and localities which were never involved with that industrial production (and dumping).

(Sorry. My faith in how many this world are choosing to do things, in spite of knowing what needs to be done to assure survival, has been flagging especially of late.)

 

[TheShortTimer]

(I know you already know this, and many here also probably know this, but it bears repeating nevertheless, even if that means shouting at the forest fire smog.)

Go for it!

This is the business proprietor world view: when one can’t sell inventory, even at clearance, then one throws away inventory. Whatever happens, never give inventory away — as giving away dumped, written-down inventory constitutes an act of business impropriety, a sin.

A depressingly accurate analysis of the philosophy among many proprietors (and corporations) - if I can't gain anything from it then neither can you. There's often a tinge of malice involved too - "I'd rather see the items end up on a landfill or destroyed by my own hand than let you have them for free."

Even more depressing is that there are instances where this behaviour stems from a failure to understand and recognise the existence of other avenues to sell their stock. For example, a friend mentioned that he threw away SIMMS that were compatible with 68K/PPC Macs because there was no demand for them. I chastised him about this and pointed out that he could've sold them on the then fledgling e-commerce site known as eBay. He reacted with shock as this had never occurred to him.

This is why thousands of E.T.: The Extraterrestrial game cartridges for the 2600 ended up in the middle of rural New Mexico, buried in landfill.

Yeah, along with a number of other titles and even hardware too. Terrible.

This is why edible, safe food, pulled from shelves following a vendor “guaranteed by” date (thus no longer able to be merchandised), gets tossed into skips and dumpsters thousands of people locally go to bed hungry.

As you know, this is something that I feel very passionately about and for almost a decade I've been involved in activities that seek to rescue as much food as possible from needless (and morally criminal) wastage.

Anti-scavenging, anti-salvaging by-laws locally facilitate this wanton, wasteful, and anti-social conduct. The criminalization of giving away salvaged, usable essentials, like food and toiletries, further worsens the problem. In the end, we dump it on the planet and wonder why we’re in the microplastics, landfill, and carbon dioxide overload mess we now find ourselves — including regions and localities which were never involved with that industrial production (and dumping).

Couldn't agree more. Our selfishness, myopia and lust for profit are destroying the world - and ultimately, ourselves in the long term unless there's drastic action on the political and public front much sooner than later.

(Sorry. My faith in how many this world are choosing to do things, in spite of knowing what needs to be done to assure survival, has been flagging especially of late.)

No need to apologise. I suspect that most of us within this thread are on the same page as you.

 

[B S Magnet]

A depressingly accurate analysis of the philosophy among many proprietors (and corporations) - if I can't gain anything from it then neither can you. There's often a tinge of malice involved too - "I'd rather see the items end up on a landfill or destroyed by my own hand than let you have them for free."

I didn’t think to to add this until now:

Back when I used to work for chain book retail stores (two out of three in all), the chains were given partial reimbursement on trade paperbacks which didn’t sell — not by sending them back to warehouse, but to have a purpose-designated Rubbermaid rubbish bin in the back room. The covers on each was ripped away and the rest of the book, still intact sans cover, was tossed in the bin, to be sent to the dumpster (this was before recycling bins were present in the shopping centres where I worked). The covers, meanwhile, were inventoried and sent back to either the distributor or the publisher for a partial reimbursement.

The profligate waste of it never ceased to baffle me. Over at my other retail job, music retail, titles which didn’t sell were returned to distributor, which would then sell unsold stock to rackjobbers. Rackjobbers would randomly mix up those titles and distribute them as “cut-outs” — often to many of the same stores where they began life, except with a drilled hole and sawed corner in the media cover or jewel case, and sold for maybe a fourth or fifth the retail price.

But books… my lordt, that used to bother me tremendously.

 

[weckart]

The profligate waste of it never ceased to baffle me. Over at my other retail job, music retail, titles which didn’t sell were returned to distributor, which would then sell unsold stock to rackjobbers. Rackjobbers would randomly mix up those titles and distribute them as “cut-outs” — often to many of the same stores where they began life, except with a drilled hole and sawed corner in the media cover or jewel case, and sold for maybe a fourth or fifth the retail price.

I have quite a few of those clipped and perforated LPs. I did wonder why they did this until someone in the trade explained what you did above. You can still see some old 70s NOS albums for sale on eBay US with those discount mutilations. Discount albums would just get stickered in the UK, whether or not they found their way back to the retail chain at full price.

As for books, Oxfam in the UK has a chain of charity bookshops. With some exceptions for rare titles, they tend to keep books for three months. Those who linger longer will get pulped unless a bulk reseller will take them off their hands. This annoys me no end considering the number of genuine second hand bookshops, which Oxfam etc have succeeded in pushing out of the business but that's another story.

 

[TheShortTimer]

As for books, Oxfam in the UK has a chain of charity bookshops. With some exceptions for rare titles, they tend to keep books for three months. Those who linger longer will get pulped unless a bulk reseller will take them off their hands. This annoys me no end considering the number of genuine second hand bookshops, which Oxfam etc have succeeded in pushing out of the business but that's another story.

I was unaware that this is how Oxfam conduct themselves. They're supposed to be an ethical organisation! It's a rarity for me to consider buying anything from them because their items are grossly overpriced - you can buy books brand new for the same price that Oxfam usually charge for used copies.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Someone in my neighbourhood had a clear out and among the many items abandoned was this remnant of a PC:

This was a Compaq Presario SR1000 (P4 2.99Ghz?) at some point. The Win XP Home Edition product key remains intact on what's left of the casing but I can't see myself needing it because I have the corporate version anyway that dispenses with entering product keys. Very handy for naughty behaviour and unattended installations.

Inevitably the HDD(s) had been pulled - not that I'd want someone else's. Though a stick of RAM remained on the motherboard:

I'll have to check what among my gear can make usage of it.

However, I was more interested in the twin optical drives...

They'll be very handy, provided that they work. Let's find out.

This is a really nifty powered adapter which offers 2x IDE connectors (2.5 & 3.5), a SATA port and connects to your computer via USB 3.0. Its proven to be a godsend for testing and accessing stuff. I might have to replace the stock USB cable with something a tad more snug though.

Time for the moment of truth with Optical Drive #1 (top).

Look at this, there's a film inside!

What about the drive itself and does it work?

Yes!

Now for Drive #2...

Well, it's recognised within System Information so that's a good start.

This is an interesting one - it doesn't detect retail DVD film discs but it does recognise and read burned DVD discs (like the one pictured below) and also retail audio CDs and VCDs. Which makes me suspect that there's a laser fault/alignment issue or it might need cleaning.

Ok, so I've got two PATA/EIDE optical drives and one is completely functional and the other is largely working. What will I do with them? Drive #1 will almost certainly wind up being installed into a FireWire and USB enclosure so that it can be used with PCs and Macs - particularly the iBooks which have CDRW only drives and USB 1.1 ports which are too slow for efficient DVD functionality but have FW400 - which is perfect for DVD playback and disc burning.

As for Drive #2 - it can go in a desktop where playing retail DVDs won't be an issue and I have the perfect candidate: an IBM ThinkCentre (another freebie story in itself) that currently only has a DVD-ROM unit - so that will be a tremendous improvement.

Another successful salvage by "the clean-up crew."