More Vintage Computer E-Waste.. Is it all Junk??

Let's go through some more Vintage Computer E-Waste and discover if it is salvageable or should have been left as Junk! But wait!!.....Is there a 'Silver' lining to it all? Let's find out! #retropc #nostalgia #ewaste #silverstone #vintage

[@waldfruchttee]

i think these computers are always something like a mistery box because you never know whats inside

[@TheRetroRecall]

Exactly! They can be fun... And challenging haha.

[@Otakunopodcast]

The daughterboard with the capacitors is probably a Voltage Regulation Module, or VRM. I say "probably" because it's kinda hard to tell from the video. Some motherboards had the capability to add external VRMs to allow you to use newer CPUs than the board may have originally supported. (because newer CPUs often use smaller voltages, e.g. use a 3.3v CPU whereas the motherboard is originally specced to output 5V to the CPU.)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks so much for this info, and it totally makes sense. It was just confusing for me to see to be honest as most systems I've worked on over the years never had that functionality / feature. Again, thanks for this and for watching!

[@Troppa17]

Yeah it's the VRM. Maybe they were worried about space constraints coming from Slot 1/A mainboards. So they "sloted" (the module is soldered afair) the VRM instead of the CPU. Just a guess. They were basiclly tring every board layout possible at this point. Later iterations of A7V and A7V133 did have this VRM module. Athlon K7 and XP CPUs were already at ~1,7V core voltage. Pretty sure this board works. Sometimes reseating the CPU helps on AMD boards, while reseting the CMOS does nothing. So maybe the board will fire up next time. Same for the AM2 board but that doesn't seems to be problem. I don't have high hopes for that board. The onboard graphics tend to run hot (~80°C or ~175°F just sitting on the desktop) and cook the entire northbrigde in an case like this with no airflow.

[@NSHG]

​@@Troppa17Gigabyte also did it durin their 478 fays - look at the 8KNNXP and generally every GB board ending with NXP.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Ok, good to know. I am definitely going to try to get it going. I'm getting many tips to try which is helpful. If not - it becomes a donor board! Thanks!!

[@l0ud5p34k4]

@Otaku no Podcast The 5V CPUs or single voltage 3.3V ones were a bit earlier, Necroware and Scrap Computing just did videos on designing VRM for installing lower voltage CPUs on boards that did not really support these newer CPUs but these were 486 and socket 7 boards. ASUS certainly made an interesting design choice here, although being full ATX width, they used up so much space on the right side, that they had to resort to putting the VRM on a daughterboard. ASUS also put the VRM on a daugherboard with the Maximus VII Impact in 2014, a Mini-ITX board.

[@thedungeondelver]

That silverstone was almost certainly an HTPC; those were big in the early 00s; someone probably had a DVD-ROM or DVD R/RW, TV card, etc. stuck in there and sitting on the home entertainment center.

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure. The more I read up on it the more I'm discovering that it was likely used for that purpose. Would be neat to duplicate that setup!

[@thedungeondelver]

@@TheRetroRecall For such a rig I'd say maybe C2D or even Dual-Core Celeron (I mean if we're being period-correct) and an 8000 series nvidia card (GT8600, which if I still had one I'd gladly donate...), maybe a WinTV PCI capture card for the TV-ing. I might cave to modernity and get SSDs tho for storage. Otherwise a DVD R/RW.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome... Thanks!

[@BenState]

@@thedungeondelver Windows MCE 2005 would be my choice.

[@livefreeprintguns]

Bro you gotta build it with an Athlon... not only is it slept on in the retro community but it was the first 64-bit consumer processor that beat Intel to the marketplace. I had an Athlon K7 when it first came out and would love to see a video where you had a system you could also run benchmarks on.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Well the case badge does say Athlon 64 on the front... It's only fitting we do a build with one of our boards from a previous video!! Stay tuned!

[@clintthompson4100]

Just saw this and great finds. Especially the Desktop case. Those Desktop cases are even harder to find then AT Tower cases. Just something about having your monitor sitting on the case has a whole different feel to them than the towers. Have a good one.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks! And yes, I agree! I'm still debating what to put into he build :)

[@daledickey8400]

I use to rebuild computers back in 1994 from thrift store parts. Before I pulled or placed any parts in a system I would unplug the power from the wall, press the power button to drain the capacitors. The board has power waiting, it's just as bad as an electrostatic charge, never wore a band either. I recommend pulling the motherboard first making sure a screw or piece of metal is not underneath it. Awesome find on the Silverstone case, I first saw it in 2004 I think they were $200usd plus shipping, tax & no power supply. I really wanted it, but $59 for a case & power supply was more in my budget. Love your channel.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hey Dale, that's awesome that you used to do that from parts - the hunt is always fun. I think there is a grounding issue somewhere for sure, however only time will tell when I get an opportunity to take it apart and troubleshoot :) As for the Silverstone case, I had no idea what the cost of them were, but it's definitely of higher build quality. I'm thinking a build with a media center centric theme would be neat. Thanks for the compliment as well... I'm happy you are enjoying!!

[@BenState]

The brushed aluminium case is awesome for a MCE box.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Cometely agreed. I did however do a slightly different build on the channel if you wanted to check it out!

[@nathann0100]

Anther great video from retrorecall glad to see you back again! I always look forward for your videos.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nathan, thank you Soo much!!!! There are lots on the channel, go take a peak!

[@nathann0100]

It would be cool to see a core 2 duo build in silver stoncase. The case looks a lot like a late xp era home theater pc.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's a great idea. Im pretty co fodent I have a core 2 Duo or core 2 quad around somewhere....

[@davidbaker7849]

I vote for a risc-v system. A very fortunate find!

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's an interesting suggestion and definitely a first. I will look into that!

[@skallywag258]

loving the videos!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for watching!!

[@geoffreyreuther5260]

Wow. The chassis on that first system looks like it was heavily inspired by the "Viper Hood" Compaqs of the mid-late 90's. I've never seen a generic designed like that.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Neat! I'll have to look it up!

[@christopherjames9843]

That aluminum fascia Silverstone case is sweet.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It is, and it really has amazing cooking options. Also, even though it is older - it still looks new! I feel like changing it over to some sort of sleeper pc :) just not sure if it would be a retro or modern sleeper.

[@mattparker9726]

34:30 an AM4 build. Super top end gaming beast, with a 4090 in it and everything!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome recommendation! Now to see if I have the parts :)

[@jdmcs]

5:26 Before you go through the trouble of pulling the board out, just try another known-working video card. I've run across so many Trident video cards that did not survive the test of time (one of which is that exact same model).

[@TheRetroRecall]

Sounds good, I have many video options and will definitely try that. Thanks for the tip!

[@l0ud5p34k4]

I've heard that with some boards, a dead CMOS battery will also cause a no post issue. Also, on my socket 7 board with the pentium MMX 233, the board will not post when booting from cold, only after resetting it once it will start normally, I have no idea whythat is.

[@jasmijndekkers]

Nice computer systems and case. I like the Silverstone case. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes the silverstone is a great case!

[@pjimmbojimmbo1990]

I have that exact same Case on the Right. It served as a home for a Pentuim 4, a Q6600. The latter as a Vista, then a Windows 7, a few years as a Hackentosh, and now a Win 10 computer

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome.... And it's still going!

[@atariforever2002]

My vote is too make that brushed metal case into an Athlon machine

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome, thanks! There seems to be a lot of athlon requests. I expected more intel to be honest. Maybe a Windows XP Media Center edition?!

[@stevencamp6824]

That first one reminds me of some of Compaq's case design

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha, you are totally right!

[@wizard-pirate]

Seeing that Athlon PC reminds me that I still have to remake my first (bought it myself) PC.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice and you should! It's a pile of fun bringing back old hardware!

[@wizard-pirate]

@@TheRetroRecall It was an Athlon X2 64 with 2GB of DDR2 RAM and an ATI Radeon X1900 It was an off the shelf Acer machine, so I think I can find a better motherboard for it. I have fond memories of playing command and conquer generals and mass effect on that thing.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome memory. Yeah.... The OEM boards weren't always that great but some were good.

[@matthewday7565]

The final one is PCI-E, AM2 socket

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks Matthew!! Don't know why I failed to mention it.

[@matthewday7565]

@@TheRetroRecall I think you said AGP, which had me thinking "doesn't look like AGP"

[@TheRetroRecall]

Sometimes my brain is a little behind my words haha.

[@2528drevas]

I would kill to have a place to get my hands on these vintage PC's for a reasonable price. Mainly just the cases.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, you always have to keep your eyes open. I'm fortunate to have friends and family who keep their eyes open for me... And others who donate. It's great to be able to share this with everyone!

[@georgez8859]

I have that First Asus Motherboard. Check those DIP Switches If you Set them all to OFF you can set FSB in BIOS Jumper free Mode Board wont post if set incorrectly. I hope you get yours working it`s a great board. Nice Find on that Silverstone Case Thanks for the Video, Keep Em Comming

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks! I really hope I get it going as well. It will be a repair video of motherboards.. Part 2 :) The silverstone case was definitely a nice find.. Just need to figure out what system to build in it! Thanks again for your support and for watching!!

[@therealjammit]

I've had some luck powering on an ATX machine that seems to "ignore" the front panel power button. I plug the ATX power into the mainboard, turn on the AC power, and jumper the green wire to a nearby ground. It's like powering on an ATX power supply without a computer, except in this case I do hook the mainboard up. Sometimes the board has an issue with the 5 volt standby and the circuitry that handles the power on has failed. It doesn't fix anything but it does let you test the rest of the machine.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Love this suggestion. Thank you! I will definitely try it.

[@ToniHiltunen1980]

First AMD system is very good for Win98/win2000 retroPC, that AGP Pro and Via KT133/A chipset...might support earlier version of Athlon XP. I have Soltek SL75-KAV motherboard, with same chipset, AGP Pro and also has one ISA slot in it. Those earlier AMD Athlons runs hot, so it needs a good cooling. I have one AMD 1ghz Thunderbird in one system and i added cooler with 120mm fan.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the info and suggestions! Definitely a lot of possibility once I get the board going! :)

[@mattparker9726]

Post analyzer card, it's cheap and indisputably useful.

[@TheRetroRecall]

The best addition to the troubleshooting toolset!

[@mattparker9726]

18:52 OMG PLEASE do a modern build inside this case!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha! So many opportunities! I was thinking of doing an AMD build in it.., we shall see!

[@mattparker9726]

@@TheRetroRecall I have an old Dell dimension 5150 case I want to do a modern MATX build in it, but it’s an old BTX case so I’m going to have to break out a Dremel.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes for sure. A Dremel and a few hopes / prayers. Lol

[@mattparker9726]

@@TheRetroRecall Lots of prayers, and also a dremel.

[@cidelogic]

Nice rescues! Im curious on how your able to get these from your E-Waste facilities. The facilities in my area just let me drop off waste not take or buy. Also its pronounced "ay -soos" :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the pronunciation. I have heard it pronounced many different ways so thanks for the clarity. For the ewaste, there are centers distributors, friends, donations etc. Not all comes from ewaste centers however when it does, they don't seem to have an issue with it. :)

[@PiercedJedi]

bummer you couldn't get one of these running, but you have some project stuff to work on now :) #silverstone lining

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure. Haha - see what I did there??? :). I ended up building a system in a later video with the Silverstone case!

[@PiercedJedi]

@@TheRetroRecall I've not seen that one yet, can't wait :)

[@waize]

The fan in bottom of silverstone is an intake, not exhaust. 99% of fans blow against the side the motor is at.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Got it. Thanks.

[@maxtornogood]

I see a bit of an AMD theme going on with the cases! With the 3rd case it reminds me of another video I watched long ago where the board light came on but also did not power on at all. It turned out to be a bad power supply which had fried the motherboard chipset with excess voltage. I would hope that's not what happened here but the current failure mode looks the same.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes for sure. Fortunately we tested the PSU and it worked just perfectly. Going to spend some time with it to troubleshoot and see if we can get it going!

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

Oh ,weeeell. At least, there's a one cool case,and 2 descent ones.

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure.. But there's always hope!

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

@@TheRetroRecall Yeap. And Almighty Fluke . 8))))

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha so true!

[@Mini-z1994]

That Asus m2a-vm board supports after a bios update a few am3 processors (limited too 95w though.) So got a decent platform there for a late Windows Vista too early windows 7 pc, id go all out putting in an am3 quadcore at 95w or one of the athlon II x3 cpus if the board after a bios update supports the cpu core unlock feature some later am2+ & am3 boards does, gpu wise I'd say anything between a midrange card from 2012 like a hd 7850 2 gb, or a gpu from 2006 wouldn't be out of place paired up with this motherboard depending on cpu & how much ram you plan on putting into it. It's DDR2 on AM2 btw so a 2x2 gb kit could be worth getting for this, sata ports are likely sata 3 gb.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks as always for the great info!! There are definitely a lot of possibilities.

[@MotownBatman]

Look at all that Peripheral Space!!! I've Always liked More Real Estate over Compact; Until I started trying my hand around 2k4 trying to make a Linux Media Center PC that didn't end well lol. I had a Dual Boot Win9x/Win2k system: Dual Dual-Layer DVD Burners, 3.5 & 5.25" Floppies, Multiple HDDS for Movies/Music/Xbox lol Real Estate!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha absolutely!!!! So many options!

[@l0ud5p34k4]

21:39 *intake ; ) (at least in the way that the fan is mounted at the moment, and it probably would be a good idea to have it be an intake if that computer is placed in a media rack or TV stand, so it can draw in fresh air (and dust) from the front.) 22:15 The two cables, that you're holding at this moment, are usb, so +5V, Ground, Data+ and Data-, a bit inconvenient, that they are not in a standard 5 pin or 2x5 pin connector, but maybe this case predates standards for USB headers, you will have to look in the mainboard manual to figure out the correct pinout then, the thinner cables are most likely for the audio connectors, again, on more modern cases, these would be bundled in an HD Audio or AC'97 compliant connector, but my Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 CT4520 ISA card for example also has pins on the board for connecting outputs in other places. 27:27 My guess would be serial RS-232 because the front USB is connected left of the front panel button and LED/PC speaker block, the two 5 pin connectors. Also the color is the same as a RS-232 9 pin connector should be.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahah, foiled again. I figured it was to remove heat from the system (where it was on the bottom...) logically speaking so it would not draw dirt etc into the case. As for the cables totally makes sense and is super annoying haha! Front headers are bad enough, let alone individual pin outs on the board. Thanks again for this info and for keeping me honest :)

[@johnnydee6340]

Turn it into a sleeper pc that case is awesome

[@TheRetroRecall]

Its a great case. I used it in The Athlon 64 build, but it can be used for so much more!! Stay tuned!!!

[@johnnydee6340]

@@TheRetroRecall awsome cant wait lol 👍

[@BRBTechTalk]

18: 39 What a nice case! Where do you find these machines? 26:21 Nice crossover board with SATA and IDE drive options I have an ASUS board of that generation too.

[@TheRetroRecall]

All E-waste systems! It's a combination of lots of systems being recycled, donations, finds on the side of the road, and the occasional thrift store find :). I love the boards that have sata and legacy options. In my most recent video a couple of the systems had that as well.

[@BRBTechTalk]

@@TheRetroRecall I wish our local thrift store accepted used PCs as a donation but they don't accept them. I might find a monitor or a set of speakers but no computers are on the shelves.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yeah ours takes them and are sold cheaply - 5-10 bux maybe. I'm also fortunate to have a friend who orders 50-150 systems at a time and older systems are thrown Into the mix which he passes along to me.

[@DGTelevsionNetwork]

In all honesty I'd put something like an am2 or am3 board in the silverstone. Make that thing into a 2000s DVD and media playback powerhouse!

[@TheRetroRecall]

That actually sounds fun. Throw an HDMI card in it, and major retro connected to the big screen!

[@DFX4509B]

I'd put a decent AM4 build in there and use it as a stealthy gaming PC, pair it to some decent wireless peripherals, eg. like DualSenses for controllers and a K400+ keyboard/mouse combo, and then hook it up to the main TV and there 'ya go, and you can go pretty far even with something like a B350/450/550 board, an R5 4500 or 5500 for a CPU, and something like an RX 570/580, Vega 56/64, or 5700/5700 XT for a GPU, and then your choice of heatsink as long as it can handle a 65W heatload from a modern Zen2 or Zen3 CPU, and you have a fully-featured, modern gaming PC hiding away in your AV stack.

[@noise_43]

This time no luck for working hardware :/ Few things: You can use 20-pin power supply instead of 24-pin. It should work without any problems (for me always work). Ofc for that motherboard power supply with 20-pin plug must have 4-pin for CPU. If you suspecting not working power button, you can plug reset button to power pins. It's only switch, nothing else, only diffrent position on front panel :) No need to use that jumper :D Last thing, bit risky is... If motherboard won't powering after pressed button you can short green and black wire in 20/24-pin (maybe with THAT jumper :D) cross your fingers then try to switch on power supply. 70% it will start with black screen and any beeps, 30% blowing sth :) I hope you understand me :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

I totally understand and this is amazing advice, please keep it coming! Yes, you are right... No working hardware this time... But it's going to be exciting trying to get it going in the future!!! Thanks for all of this great info and for watching!

[@stevencamp6824]

The silverstone case screams an xp build lol

[@TheRetroRecall]

Media Center!

[@PatientXero607]

I hated that case on the left. I was 'forced' to use it due to my limited build costs for my Duron 750 in 2001.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha I love this comment. Bringing back memories (even not so good ones haha!)

[@randomcrap7682]

i hate how calling a pci express slot an agp slot is kind of right

[@TheRetroRecall]

Oops!