Old Computers

[Anonymous]

Hello All,

I use old computers and unfortunately old man time wins.

I’ve had several of my old 10 and 12 year old computers finally bit the dust due to bloated capacitors.

Being an old school amateur radio operator from the early 1960s recapping a motherboard is an easy task although for some of these computers it just ain’t worth the time or money as just to outdated.

Fortunately I have a slew of others a few years newer so time to migrate the usable components into them.

Only one working Pentium D computer holding on as I noticed it has a few capacitors with swollen tops although still working fine.

Just thought I would throw this out.

I just really like older electronics.

[Member 736b69646f6f]

Failed capacitors due to ???
poor quality components?
poor circuit design has stressed the capacitors?
overheating due to poor ventilation?
unprotected from surges in line voltage?
natural, inevitable, component failure?

Although I’ve seen pohotos of failed capacitors, for hundreds of “old” computers I’ve handled and serviced I’ve never seen it firsthand. Many, maybe most of the PCs I’ve serviced have been continuous-duty machines. Leaves me wondering whether what you’re describing is linked to, is due to, on/off power cycling.

[Anonymous]

Hello 736b69646f6f,

As you guessed “natural, inevitable, component failure”.

All of my computers are others discarded so uncertain how they treated them although I’ve had some of these from the days of Windows XP so yeah just old age.

[Anonymous]

Yeah being in the consumer electronics repair industry for many years I’ve seen quite a few swollen electrolytic capacitors for a number of different reasons.

Generally in most quality built electronics good components are used that last quite some time although eventually fail due to age.

Most modern electronics of today use cheap crap components and if you are lucky may see a few years use from them however I wouldn’t place any bets on them.

Just look at all of the flat screen tv on the side of the road on big trash day almost guarantee 3/4 of them won’t power on due to failed capacitors in the power supplies.

Thanks for the space.

[Member cyrilus31]

Anonymous wrote:

Yeah being in the consumer electronics repair industry for many years I’ve seen quite a few swollen electrolytic capacitors for a number of different reasons.

Generally in most quality built electronics good components are used that last quite some time although eventually fail due to age.

Most modern electronics of today use cheap crap components and if you are lucky may see a few years use from them however I wouldn’t place any bets on them.

Just look at all of the flat screen tv on the side of the road on big trash day almost guarantee 3/4 of them won’t power on due to failed capacitors in the power supplies.

Thanks for the space.

Not to mention, bad design. I remember TV whose capacitors were near ventilation and died quickly from heat.

[Anonymous]

Whats ironic is I have a shelf full of 2 to 3 year old Windows 10 computers from desktops all form factors and laptops that have failed for whatever reasons.

The positive side of the above said is I’ve lots of spare parts to put together in my Frankenstein Builds so not really complaining to much..

It’s really sad that the drive for manufacture today is production of products designed to fail in a short time due to the use of cheap poor quality parts.

I understand if products last then company’s aren’t making money although if company’s turn out crap products anyone with any common sense will not purchase anymore of their products.

Oh well it is what it is and it ain’t going to get any better as its been happening for along while now although there are still some company’s who design and build good reliable products although very few and far between.

Cynical as I am Life is Good.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

I am procrastinating about my emachine and IBM netvista desktops. I really should rape them for the screws, ram, and drives and call it a day.
I recycle the cases as scrap metal on my scrap metal pile. Comes in handy for sheet metal.
But I am stubborn and have this flighty idea I can fix them. Even though I got enough desktops from City Hall with better specs than those units.

I got crt monitors laying around on the floor. What for? Hell if I know. I already gave away a bunch of linux gear to the elderly and kids here. So that is tapped out.

Back at my Ranch. In the shop building. There is a floppy drive 1990’s unit desktop from my wife when she worked for Xerox just rotting, stored in the rafters.
200 miles away. I bet the rat babies are comfy cozy.

A psychiatric check would probably probably say I need some work. But who cares what they think. I don’t.

Just look at all of the flat screen tv on the side of the road

I like finding those big ass old style plasma tvs like you describe. The magnifying glass big ass screen makes a killer cover for a mexican water solar still.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by rokytnji.

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[Anonymous]

rokytnji wrote:

A psychiatric check would probably probably say I need some work. But who cares what they think. I don’t.

I’m right there my own self and as you I don’t care.

rokytnji wrote:

I like finding those big ass old style plasma tvs like you describe. The magnifying glass big ass screen makes a killer cover for a mexican water solar still.

That would definitely need to be used with caution and not by a dumb ass.

I can see where that could have some purpose.

[Moderator fatmac]

2008/2010 seem to be my most used laptops, hope they aren’t going to die – I’m not very keen on this ‘modern’ UEFI stuff…… 😆

Linux (& BSD) since 1999

[Anonymous]

I just bought a couple of these at a local thrift store for $25.00 each and can’t complain.

@Dell-OptiPlex-XE:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: Dell-OptiPlex-XE Kernel: 4.15.0-22-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Gnome 3.28.1 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1) Distro: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Machine:   Device: desktop System: Dell product: OptiPlex XE serial: N/A
           Mobo: Dell model: 0TNXNR v: A01 serial: N/A BIOS: Dell v: A05 date: 01/09/2013
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo E7400 (-MCP-) arch: Penryn rev.10 cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 11172
           clock speeds: max: 2800 MHz 1: 1596 MHz 2: 1596 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel 4 Series Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) driver: i915 Resolution: 1152x864@75.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Q45/Q43 version: 2.1 Mesa 18.0.0-rc5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801JD/DO (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-22-generic
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom Limited NetLink BCM57780 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 v: 3.137 bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5761 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 v: 3.137 bus-ID: 06:00.0
           IF: enp6s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 320.1GB (2.8% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST3320418AS size: 320.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 293G used: 8.3G (3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 31.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 185 Uptime: 32 min Memory: 1266.6/7876.4MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56 
@Dell-OptiPlex-XE:~$

[Member cyrilus31]

Interesting. I had to look up the definition in a dictionary. Are those kind of second hand store easily found in the US?
In France we have a website called “Leboncoin”. Everybody can easily sell second hand material.
When I go to the local waste collection centre I often find dumped material that could be easily repaired. Too bad we are not allowed to take it.

[Anonymous]

Hey cyrilus31,

My apologies for not explaining thrift store better I forget that not everyone is from the USA.

Yeah that isn’t good that you aren’t allowed to take usable things or at least purchase them for a reasonable fair price.

I never understood why some always seem to have to have the newest available when what most already own and are using works without problems.

[Moderator masinick]

There is an astonishing amount of fairly OLD equipment that (at least in the past) worked for a remarkably long time.

Dell had many examples that I used from 2000-2010:
(Desktop): Dell Dimension 4100, outstanding desktop system in its day
(Laptop): Dell Latitude (?) D series, such as D600, D610, D620, D630. I had a couple that lasted pretty close to a decade.
I have a Dell Inspiron 5558 that’s not as old, and it’s pretty heavy, but I’m using it now.

IBM USED to have an EXCELLENT series of “T” Thinkpad laptops, T41, T60, etc. Sold to Lenovo a long time ago, but the original Thinkpad series BY IBM were robust, had EXCELLENT keyboards that were better than most desktop keyboards, solid, and generally worked with Linux too.

Hewlett Packard has also had some pretty good models, but their names are not as easy for me to remember; HP, like Dell and IBM, invested a lot in Linux, mostly for servers, but they’ve had a LOT of models that work well for interactive Linux use too.

System 76 is a great US-based Linux vendor; wish I had the money to plunk down on one of their models, so I don’t have hands-on experience with them, but I’ve read good reports – and one of my friends DID own at least one of their units in the past.

Brian Masinick

[Anonymous]

Hey Brian Masinick,

Last time I spent a lot of money on a computer was in 2006 on a desktop build for Flight Simulator X and that desktop is still going strong.

There are to many kick ass computers around that others discard after only a few years or so and I’ll happily grab those up for a few dollars and install Linux and use for years.

I’d like to have a brand new computer although just don’t see the need to if what I have is working good then why not use it.

I’m a cheap old bastard.

[Moderator masinick]

Yeah, I tend to be that way too. In my entire life I have only purchased a couple of computer systems new and they were always on sale well after release, usually just before a replacement or a new generation of models was introduced.

Most of the time I get previosuly used units, sometimes offered at a low price from someone I know.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by masinick.

Brian Masinick

[Author]

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