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The boneyard

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Floppies_only

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2008
Messages
648
Location
Washington, United States of America
Hi Erik and all,

Seeing how the market for vintage computers has dried up so drastically since I last checked, and how BigDMcLean won't answer my calls anymore (he one sent me a magnetic card that offered repair services), and how my latest acquisition doesn't work right and I need to make it work right, I was thinking that perhaps the time has come for us to pool the pieces and parts we have to keep the systems we have going. Wow, that's a long sentence. Miss Hoops (the hot one from the sixth grade) would never approve.

I was thinking of either a new forum or a new tag for the "Wanted" forum (like WTT, FS) that would indicate that a system had conked out and the still working pieces were available for sale or trade. I have this image of the Pacific gyre turning into a whirlpool and all our stuff failing one by one and sinking, but maybe this would be a good way to keep it alive a little longer.

Does anyone think this is a good idea, a 'virtual junk yard' request line? I could start it off. I have a non-working Thinkpad 700 with an additional 4 megs of RAM that was misrepresented and won't start. Give me the new forum, so people wouln't have that let down feeling when they open the thread and see it's toast, and I'll start it off with the first post.

Thanks,
Sean
 
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DOS lives on!! said:
I think just putting "Not Working: (item name)" in the title will convey the point across just as good.
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I was thinking of a situation where, for shipping purposes, purchasing a whole but not working item might be undesirable. If a person was willing to take the machine apart and sell the pieces, a lot of money could be saved on shipping.

Take for example the original Compaq luggable. Looks like a sewing machine, competed with the IBM 5155, but wasn't as good. Both of the ones I had wound up with failed motherboards. It's possible that the cards, power supply, and chassis was still O.K. Suppose that I advertised it to be parted out but with bad motherboard. Then people would be able to call dibs on the parts they needed.

I think if this became standard practice and we didn't hagle too much over price, it's possible that a distributed warehouse of parts would be connected through the VCFs.

Sean
 
That's what private messages are for. People can call grabs on what they want, and not clutter up the main forum area saying that they want a specific part, because it wouldn't apply to people who want other parts.
 
DOS lives on!! said:
That's what private messages are for. People can call grabs on what they want, and not clutter up the main forum area saying that they want a specific part, because it wouldn't apply to people who want other parts.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I was hoping that if people got into the habit of listing the parts that were available when a machine died and they didn't want to fix it, or didn't want to call in a favor to get the replacement part, then the habit of saving the still-working parts would become a part of the culture of the VCFs. I don't think we have that now. Have you seen this in action? Look at my .sig. It's been that way for perhaps a year with no bites. Perhaps I should add some dollar signs to show that I'm willing to make it worth a persons while. I always am.

Thanks,
Sean
 
Or it might just be that no one has the IBM service and maint. add-in. :)
This is starting to get complicated. Not everybody has the expertise to ferret out which part is bad, and provide a list of what's in it that's good or not. Or if they list them, it's something like "video card, working, drive thing, maybe working..."
patscc
 
Some machines just don't post or boot at all, hard to figure out what isn't working so people just sell them as DOA and hope the buyer can figure it out or use some parts.

Putting a wanted post with a $ figure tends to get people motivated. Plenty of people want things but few are willing to pay for them.
 
Unknown_K said:
Some machines just don't post or boot at all, hard to figure out what isn't working so people just sell them as DOA and hope the buyer can figure it out or use some parts.

Putting a wanted post with a $ figure tends to get people motivated. Plenty of people want things but few are willing to pay for them.
Click to expand...

There's that. People pay good money over on ebay. The people who want things should be able to explain how to get them out, but we shouldn't really work on monitors. But one problem I thought of is that it's very expensive to get anti-static bags, and I don't think they make them in full-length card size anymore.

But still, based on the way I was told the Thinkpad failed, I am going to try to get a new charger for it, and if that doesn't work, I'll offer it whole, and then just the memory expansion.

But be honest, how could a stickie with a new abbreviation for "selling for parts" hurt anything?

Sean
 
Anti static bags come in a variety of sizes and certainly long enough for full length cards. I have a drawer full of them at work.
 
Caluser2000 said:
Anti static bags come in a variety of sizes and certainly long enough for full length cards. I have a drawer full of them at work.
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I'm glad to be wrong. I have found that for $27 I can purchase 100 in a size that I think would be right. I'd have to measure to make sure, but it's nice to know that I was incorrect in thinking that they were only making the pink ones now.

Thanks,
Sean
 
Because 10,000 anti-static bags are cheaper then the equivalent amount of tinfoil.
However, you can pull tin ( actually aluminum, before I get called on it ) foil out of your kitchen drawer. Especially for old funky big boards.
Think about it, what's the whole point about an anti-static bag ? It doesn't build up a static charge. Neither does metal. (This is the real simple version, but you can google your way through to whatever detail your physics itch desires :) )
patscc
 
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I suspect that the bag resists punctures by the leads just a smige better. Not much, but with irreplaceble items I'll take it. Or if I'm selling something on ebay for the first 99 times and want my feedback as a seller to be acceptable. I rarely bid if the seller has less than 98% positive feedback.

But, as far as the foil not creating a static charge, sure. But it would sure hold one after you walked over and grabbed it. And a customer probably doesn't have a wrist strap, you have to tell him or her how to handle the board while they unpack it and put it in their system.

That Apple video called "The Shocking Truth" is good for us people who got an "A" in physics only because the last quarter was a repeat of the whole year of electronics we took the previous year :)

Sean

patscc said:
Because 10,000 anti-static bags are cheaper then the equivalent amount of tinfoil.
However, you can pull tin ( actually aluminum, before I get called on it ) foil out of your kitchen drawer. Especially for old funky big boards.
Think about it, what's the whole point about an anti-static bag ? It doesn't build up a static charge. Neither does metal. (This is the real simple version, but you can google your way through to whatever detail your physics itch desires :) )
patscc
Click to expand...
 
The whole point of anti-static bags is to ensure a charge-free environment in the interior. Think of a Faraday cage. Same principle. I guess I should add that if what you're wrapping in tin foil already has a charge on it, you might have a problem.
patscc
 
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