EEVblog #1212 - Dumpster Diving PC Motherlode

[EEVblog]

A whole stack of HP PC's found in the dumpster!

[Deodand2014]

Looks like a government office must have been cleaning out.

[tautech]

Watch for that horrible hydroscopic sealant on those proprietary slimline PSU's !
If they've been sitting around for a while unpowered and not in a aircon room they can go BANG when next powered on. 

[johnlsenchak]

Hey Dave, I  respectively disagree  with you when it comes to Windows 8.1. not being a popular  version  that  computer users wanted . All you have to do
is install  the  Classic  Shel program  ,  and make them look like  Windows 7. then "Bob's  your Uncle". 

This then  will get you  Microsoft   Security  updates  until  January  2023

You should fix them up  and donate them to  needy  poor  kids in your  area   who  can't  afford  a computer  for school

[alho]

Intel just launched their new marketing campaign, it's time to upgrade to newer processors.

New Intel security flaws could slow some chips by nearly 20% - Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-intel-cyber-idUSKCN1SK2OD

[johnlsenchak]

Fear  , uncertainty  and Doubt  (FUD)  the  internet  security  news  feeds  have been  going  around  and around  with this one  for months now

[BravoV]

Fear  , uncertainty  and Doubt  (FUD)  the  internet  security  news  feeds  have been  going  around  and around  with this one  for months now

You called it FUD even its admitted by Intel them self ? 

[retiredcaps]

I bought about 10 of these HP/Compaq form factors for about $15 CDN each with varying specs.  It runs lubuntu beautifully.  I added some cheap used $5 to $10 SSDs and it suits my needs perfectly.

I do have one dedicated for windows 10 + tax program for annual use.

Great build quality and quite heavy.

[james_s]

Hey Dave, I  respectively disagree  with you when it comes to Windows 8.1. not being a popular  version  that  computer users wanted . All you have to do
is install  the  Classic  Shel program  ,  and make them look like  Windows 7. then "Bob's  your Uncle". 

That certainly helps, but you still get a butt ugly flat UI that is a tremendous step backward from Win7. Either way it's impossible to argue that it was a popular operating system, the numbers very clearly say otherwise. Market share of both revisions of Windows 8 are down below 10%, while Windows 7 hovers around 40%.

[johnlsenchak]

Can you actual  believe those market  shares numbers  are all  that acute?   

I like  Windows 8.1. ,  I have it on two of my  computes with  the classic shell  program installed  .  I agree  with you that the  tile  interface  in  pretty  bad,  however it's  a amazingly   stable operating  system and  that's what matters  most    Windows  10 (1809) is  just  Windows  8.1.   with a heavily   mortified  GUI interface   to appease  all the  new  computer buyers   Windows  10 (1809) is 'just a dummy   downed  operating system  compared  to say Linux  Ubuntu  or  Mint

[capt bullshot]

Sometimes the IT department here dumps a lot of stuff. Once in a while you see a container like this one

full of old PCs, or other stuff.
Usually it isn't worth messing around with these PCs, since someone at IT removes and destroys the hard drives (this is done always, for plausible reasons), and often other vital parts (like memory and CPU) were removed.

[DedR4M]

Hi Dave,
here from ye olde UK....
Just because I'm lazy and gotta get ready to go out in a moment, I'll CTRL+C CTRL+V my post on youtube...

"About your "thermal runaway" dead machine....
 Where I work, we fix such machines usually for the E-POS market...
The reason for the fan running fast is because it's receiving no PWM signal and are designed to run in free-running mode just in case the PWM source/wire has gone faulty in an otherwise good machine...
Usually on the 2nd gen core-i systems the PCH goes all NVIDIA-geforce with flip-chip uBGA plague (on the Q67 chipset),

This is the first wild 3rd gen Core-i series system to fail this way....

Or alternately, there could be a shorted mosfet on the CPU VRM, the low side mosfet...
some machines detect over-current and shut down the VRMs.... this is quite rare though.

p.s. I'll assume you won't see this as I hardly log in to use youtube and such, thus my stats will be too low and thus I'll try signing up for your EEVBLOG forum to post the same there..."

Sorry for naff first post, gotta go...

[Fungus]

Can you actual  believe those market  shares numbers  are all  that acute?   

I like  Windows 8.1. ,  I have it on two of my  computes with  the classic shell  program installed  .  I agree  with you that the  tile  interface  in  pretty  bad,  however it's  a amazingly   stable operating  system and  that's what matters  most

You can upgrade to Windows 10 for free so why suffer with a half-finished OS?

(Windows 10 also works with classic shell, it's the first thing I install on it)

Windows  10 (1809) is  just  Windows  8.1.   with a heavily   mortified  GUI interface   to appease  all the  new  computer buyers   

No, it's a finished version of Windows 8.

And they're adding a "Linux subsystem" so you can use/program it like Linux.

Windows  10 (1809) is 'just a dummy   downed  operating system  compared  to say Linux  Ubuntu  or  Mint

Not even 1% true, but haters gonna hate.

[cv007]

Windows Pro versions have downgrade rights to the previous version, which no one cared about except for Vista and Win8, which businesses didn't want.  I don't think some of these manufactures cared for these versions either, and were happy to make available out-of-the-box downgraded versions of the Vista/Win8 pc's. My experience is it was quite a rare event when a business wanted the Vista/Win8 version and not the downgraded version (XP/Win7).

FYI, you can put Windows 10 Pro on any of those pc's- in the case of those that have the Win8 sticker on them, they will have a (unique) Win8 product key embedded in bios and Windows 10 will activate automatically using the Win8 key. For the Windows 7 versions, you just have to activate Win10 using the product key on the sticker (you type it in).

[Fungus]

FYI, you can put Windows 10 Pro on any of those pc's- in the case of those that have the Win8 sticker on them, they will have a (unique) Win8 product key embedded in bios and Windows 10 will activate automatically using the Win8 key. For the Windows 7 versions, you just have to activate Win10 using the product key on the sticker (you type it in).

Yes, Windows 10 is still a free upgrade even though they don't advertise it.

(FWIW I'm still on Windows 7 but I use Windows 10 a lot on other machines and don't have a problem with it as an OS)

[johnlsenchak]

I  don't hate Windows  10 (1809)  to me it's  just a  ongoing , unfinished  operating system  which forces you  to do two major  updates  twice  a year.  I  say  force  because if you don't  do the major build updates   twice a year  , then after  18  months from a previous  build,    you will no longer get security  updates. That  is a fact  you can't deny

It's  all  about  security updates  and upgrading to  whatever  standards  Microsoft sets , and not about the user  experience   getting to that point  year after year

[Fungus]

I  don't hate Windows  10 (1809)  to me it's  just a  ongoing , unfinished  operating system

By that yardstick, no Linux distribution will ever be more than about 25% finished. 

The thing that bothers me is that Microsoft is constantly pushing crapware on you (Candy Crush) and that everybody knows they really want to turn Windows into a subscription service. Home users are migrating to smartphones for their daily needs, corporations will be happy to pay expensive subscriptions, where does that leave the small users?

[johnlsenchak]

The free  upgrade  from Windows 7  and Windows  8.1.  is  called a digital  entitlement with a new license  key 

[james_s]

Can you actual  believe those market  shares numbers  are all  that acute?   

I like  Windows 8.1. ,  I have it on two of my  computes with  the classic shell  program installed  .  I agree  with you that the  tile  interface  in  pretty  bad,  however it's  a amazingly   stable operating  system and  that's what matters  most    Windows  10 (1809) is  just  Windows  8.1.   with a heavily   mortified  GUI interface   to appease  all the  new  computer buyers   Windows  10 (1809) is 'just a dummy   downed  operating system  compared  to say Linux  Ubuntu  or  Mint

Yes I believe they're accurate enough, especially then it correlates with my personal experience, I have encountered exactly zero Win8 installs in at least two years now. That's fine if you like it, I too would choose Win8 + classic shell over Win10 but that doesn't mean it was or is a popular operating system, on the contrary it was an unmitigated disaster that the company has tried to bury.

[Razor512]

Chances are that since many of those machines may activate under windows 10, could be worth a try.

Beyond that, if they are below a 4th gen intel CPU, then I recommend getting rid of them since due to the meltdown and speculative execution issues, the software fixes for those CPUs have a massive performance hit , thus not only are they outdated, but they are running even slower than they did when they first came out.

If it lacks INVPCID then it is not then it will likely be 30-40% slower than it was when it first came out.

[johnlsenchak]

Beyond that, if they are below a 4th gen intel CPU, then I recommend getting rid of them since due to the meltdown and speculative execution issues, the software fixes for those CPUs have a massive performance hit , thus not only are they outdated, but they are running even slower than they did when they first came out.

I'll  agree  100 percent  with this  statement ,as those processors  are more suited  for Linux

[capt bullshot]

Beyond that, if they are below a 4th gen intel CPU, then I recommend getting rid of them since due to the meltdown and speculative execution issues, the software fixes for those CPUs have a massive performance hit , thus not only are they outdated, but they are running even slower than they did when they first came out.

Meltdown and its relatives aren't relevant for home / small office use of these computers, so if one knows what to do (disable the fixes) there's no impact either.

[Fungus]

Meltdown and its relatives aren't relevant for home / small office use of these computers, so if one knows what to do (disable the fixes) there's no impact either.

I don't think Microsoft applies a patch automatically so nothing to disable.

[akimmet]

The windows 8 sticker actually is the COA sticker.
That sticker means a there is a SLIC Windows license embedded in the firmware. If Win8 sees this key it will automatically activate. It may also work with Windows 10, I just haven't bothered to actually try it.
The label mentioning Windows 8 downgraded to Windows 7 was a way for OEMs to continue selling PCs with windows 7 pre-installed, after Microsoft stopped issuing new Windows 7 keys. I forget the exact details, but I believe there was a clause in the Windows 8 license stating one had the rights to downgrade to an earlier version.