My Big Computer "Collection".

[notabitail]

I've always loved computers. Ever since I was a wee little 6-year old, I wanted one of my own. I would make them out of card stock and cardboard, with slides for different functions. I've still got one around somewhere. 

 

One day, two years later, Dad finally let me drag a old Shuttle XPC SK43G off a shelf in the garage. He wiped the drive, then showed me how to install Ubuntu on it. That was the start of my collection. 

 

Ubuntu was terrible on it. Everything was slow. Dad ended up helping me find more Linux distros that would work better on it. I spent hours messing with that machine. I loved that computer. I still have it. It's one of my favorite, if not my favorite in my collection. It was even going to get taken to the ewaste shortly after I got my hands on it, but I saved it again.  

 

Dad then pulled out a laptop. I remember using this laptop with educational Flash games years before. Dad took his stuff off of it and gave it to me. That machine, along with the Shuttle, ended up being my favorite in my collection. It was a old Sony VAIO VGN-S380P laptop. It had frequent blue screens too, I ended up having to reinstall XP.

 

I found more computers that nobody was using in bins in the garage. These computers got added to my collection. Mostly nettops. To others, trash, but to me, treasures. 

 

I told just about everybody who wanted to listen to a bouncy 8 year old yapping about computers about them. Including my grandma. Who must have told my Uncle. From what I know he would buy refurbished computers, use them, and then get rid of them. I started getting more computers from him, usually from around 2012. Pretty much all laptops. He sent more tablets in recent years though, making them the majority over laptops. 

 

It ended up growing into a vast collection of what was essentially ewaste to just about everybody I met. I still need to inventory the desktops, but I have counted most of the laptops, phones, and tablets I have ended up with.

 

As of right now, the total counted of devices is 74, out of which 37 have no issues, 3 of them are projects that are being repaired, 19 are broken but still function, and 15 are unusable (as in does not work at all). 

 

Out of the laptops there are 22. 10 are broken, 3 are projects in progress, 5 have no issues, and 3 are dead/unusable.

 

16 phones, out of which 4 are broken, 4 are fine, and 8 are unusable. 

 

34 tablets, out of which 4 are unusable, 25 are fine, and 5 are broken. 

 

And since I don't know what the iPod touch categorizes as, I have two MP3 players, both just fine. 

 

I need to add the rest of the various laptops I have around here to the inventory, along with all of the desktops. 

 

I learned how to fix various devices, and am quite grateful that I ended up with such a collection of supposed ewaste. 

[notabitail]

Stack of laptops. Photo taken before inventory process. I cannot lift the stack all at once.

 

The Shuttle SK43G. I was given the iDeq next to it along with some other ewaste from the next door neighbor. I have seen another Shuttle much like mine but brown, and if it was priced cheaper I would buy it.

[LloydLynx]

2 hours ago, notabitail said:

What is that Latitude in the middle with the 9 cell battery? I recognize the 20/30 series design, but have never seen one with the body stuck out behind the hinges like that.

Also do you have any 1600x900 Inspiron/Vostro 1440's? I'm on the hunt for a TLA1 panel. It's the holy grail of LCD panels for the Sandy/Ivy Bridge 14" Latitudes.

[danalog]

I spot several HP Pavilions in there.... beautiful machines.

[notabitail]

5 minutes ago, LloydLynx said:

What is that Latitude in the middle with the 9 cell battery? I recognize the 20/30 series design, but have never seen one with the body stuck out behind the hinges like that.

Also do you have any 1600x900 Inspiron/Vostro 1440's? I'm on the hunt for a TLA1 panel. It's the holy grail of LCD panels for the Sandy/Ivy Bridge 14" Latitudes.

This one?

Dell Latitude E6230.

 

I don't have any 1600x900 Inspirons or Vostros. I have a pink Inspiron 1440 but it's the 1366x768 display. 

 

[notabitail]

1 minute ago, danalog said:

I spot several HP Pavilions in there.... beautiful machines.

They are. One was rescued from the trash. I couldn't say no to saving it. 

 

Sadly only two of the three Pavilions work. The broken one turns on but nothing appears on screen at all. I've tried different RAM and everything and it still doesn't work. Psivewri has a recent video and he ended up with a similar Pavilion with the same problem. 

[notabitail]

1 minute ago, notabitail said:

They are. One was rescued from the trash. I couldn't say no to saving it. 

 

Sadly only two of the three Pavilions work. The broken one turns on but nothing appears on screen at all. I've tried different RAM and everything and it still doesn't work. Psivewri has a recent video and he ended up with a similar Pavilion with the same problem. 

"Trash can" Pavilion. Dead battery, still works, needs hard drive replacement at some point.