Found a 52X CDRW drive in the dumpster

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
76
whoa...this can't be legal though, right?

anyways, at my brothers old college, at the end of the year everyone threw away....well...everything...there were computers, tvs, couches, etc in the dumpster...they were in perfect condition....that is...until they actually got to the dumpster...just because you can throw your "trash" out the window doesnt mean you should!!! grr...i almost did jump in and get stuff

my friend claims he found a working laptop (win xp) in a dumpster behind some realtor office or something...
 

tami

Lifer
Nov 14, 2004
11,588
3
81
Originally posted by: sniperruff
Originally posted by: tami
damn. and about an hour ago, i just bought a new CD-RW because my old one is starting to die. i should have waited for you to come along and give it to me. :p

you should have just bought a dvd burner.

i already own one. i wanted a cd-burner.
 

edi sucks

Member
Apr 14, 2005
176
0
0
52x cdrw drives are kinda worthless nowdays anyway...i have a couple just sitting around that i've always been meaning to dump on ebay, i just checked and they hardly sell for $5-$10 (minus fees and crap)...
 

amdskip

Lifer
Jan 6, 2001
22,530
13
81
You guys will hate me. Last summer we had to get rid of a 36" $800 tv because it had been a display and the cart pushers dropped it when they were loading it into a customers car and cracked the bottom plastic. Needless to say they didn't want it so we had to throw it away. I picked it up with the fork truck with the screen facing me. I went full throttle with the forks in the air and slanted fowards and slammed on the brakes. The glass screen destroyed the tv. I've also destroyed metal swing sets and all sorts of stuff. I've salvaged what I could. I have a very nice metal wire tv stand right now, should get another by the end of the summer.
 

Nebben

Senior member
May 20, 2004
706
0
0
Originally posted by: hans030390
whoa...this can't be legal though, right?

anyways, at my brothers old college, at the end of the year everyone threw away....well...everything...there were computers, tvs, couches, etc in the dumpster...they were in perfect condition....that is...until they actually got to the dumpster...just because you can throw your "trash" out the window doesnt mean you should!!! grr...i almost did jump in and get stuff

my friend claims he found a working laptop (win xp) in a dumpster behind some realtor office or something...


The legality depends on where you live. And the reason to give police if you're ever spotted is "we're looking for boxes" :)

We always make sure to leave it as it was when we arrived, don't throw stuff on the ground, etc. And be quiet. Don't yell 'OH MY GOD ITS A COMPUTAR'
 

Nebben

Senior member
May 20, 2004
706
0
0
Oh yeah, if you're cheap enough to do it, places like Frito-Lay often throw away tons of stuff that is expired by like one day. I can't bring myself to eat stuff out of a dumpster personally, even though it's sealed and I know it's safe. :eek:
 

Nebben

Senior member
May 20, 2004
706
0
0
Originally posted by: edi sucks
52x cdrw drives are kinda worthless nowdays anyway...i have a couple just sitting around that i've always been meaning to dump on ebay, i just checked and they hardly sell for $5-$10 (minus fees and crap)...


Yeah, I know the resale value isn't much, but this was dumped at a place that builds PCs for people, you'd think they could use it somehow. And I'll be giving it to my parents, they just have a normal CDROM drive now and I'm sure they'd appreciate not having to borrow my brother's PC all the time.

 

Demon-Xanth

Lifer
Feb 15, 2000
20,551
2
81
I've pulled two NEW IN BOX Viewsonic PF775 monitors from a dumpster. Sold them to a guy for $50 each. Then had my 5 year old PS790 die 5 days later.
 

murphy55d

Lifer
Dec 26, 2000
11,542
5
81
Originally posted by: amdskip
You guys will hate me. Last summer we had to get rid of a 36" $800 tv because it had been a display and the cart pushers dropped it when they were loading it into a customers car and cracked the bottom plastic. Needless to say they didn't want it so we had to throw it away. I picked it up with the fork truck with the screen facing me. I went full throttle with the forks in the air and slanted fowards and slammed on the brakes. The glass screen destroyed the tv. I've also destroyed metal swing sets and all sorts of stuff. I've salvaged what I could. I have a very nice metal wire tv stand right now, should get another by the end of the summer.


we had to get rid of a few big screen TVs at the store i worked at, too.
 

Phoenix15

Golden Member
Aug 9, 2001
1,587
3
81
My brother is a regional safety manager for Waste Management. Part of his job is to ride with the driver s and make sure they are following safety measures. He calls me one day and tells me to meet him at Lowes. I get over there and they have the dumpster pluued aways from the store. there was this HUGE stack of stuff. He said he thought some employee put a bunch of returns out there, planning to come back and get them later. He looked at me and grinned and said "We beat them too it!" Some of the things we got

2 NICE ceiling fans. One retailed for $198, the other for $128 (one now hanging in my kitchen, and one in my bedroom :D )
2 cheapo table saws
a Wagner power sprayer
a Dewalt circular saw with the plug cut about 1 inch from the end (took 5 minutes to fix)
2 small chandeliers that were slightly bent. My wife fixed them in a hour or so (One now hanging in my dining room :D )
a rolling toolbox
some kind of solar powered house number thingie. It was shaped like a landscaping rock, with a plac eon the front to put your house number.

All in all, probablly close to a thousand dollars worth of stuff. The only thing I found wrong with ANY of it was one of the ceiling fans had a broken globe in it.
 

Nomada

Banned
Apr 27, 2005
967
0
0
I do alright finding throw away stuff myself.
Recently a fine GE 27"tv man. date 2002
Dell 17" crt(using now)
Decent keyboards and mice
2 quality desks
240 watt Sony min hi-fi(hooked up to computer mp3 jukebox)
 

Nebben

Senior member
May 20, 2004
706
0
0
Went again tonight, found an $80 computer chair with a rip in the fabric. Also a DVD drive and 20GB HDD, not yet tested. So far 1 in 3 computer components have been undamaged, not too bad for odds :)

 

PeteRoy

Senior member
Jun 28, 2004
958
2
91
www.youtube.com
Sometimes the IDE cable are messed up and you just need to disconnect and reconnect them or replace them to make the drive work again.

The dude might thought his drive was dead.
 

AdamSnow

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2002
5,736
0
76
Originally posted by: Nebben
The CDRW drive was at a local computer shop, I'm still trying to figure out why it was tossed. It reads fine, I've burned a few discs with it and they work fine...

There was also a 120GB HDD there, I knew it had to be dead but tried anyway. And yup, it was dead.

And like 100 copies of WinXP preinstall kits. But I have no use for those.

Send the dead hard drive to me...

I'll RMA it and get a new one :)
 

Mani

Diamond Member
Aug 9, 2001
4,808
1
0
Man, dumpster divers would love where I work. A computer company, so you can just guess the kinds of stuff that gets tossed. Any type of add-in card usually in perfect working condition, monitors (lots of CRTS incl. trinitrons of all sizes), routers, switches, entire systems in working order...you name it. The stuff goes to some disposal agency which supposedly sorts through it and tries to salvage some, but the vast majority of it most likely just goes to a dump somewhere.

The real killer is for preproduction development samples that don't have the regulatory clearance to be sold. We're talking laptops, systems, televisions, DLP projectors, monitors of all kinds, etc. have to be destroyed simply because they can't be sold legally. You guys would cry if you saw this stuff.
 

Cal166

Diamond Member
May 6, 2000
5,081
8
81
Good Job.

Make some money off these items.

The same people who throws away these items are probably the same kind of people who bid on ebay trying to buy them.
 

Mo0o

Lifer
Jul 31, 2001
24,227
3
76
Originally posted by: AdamSnow
Originally posted by: Nebben
The CDRW drive was at a local computer shop, I'm still trying to figure out why it was tossed. It reads fine, I've burned a few discs with it and they work fine...

There was also a 120GB HDD there, I knew it had to be dead but tried anyway. And yup, it was dead.

And like 100 copies of WinXP preinstall kits. But I have no use for those.

Send the dead hard drive to me...

I'll RMA it and get a new one :)

Isn't that fraud?
 

Nebben

Senior member
May 20, 2004
706
0
0
Originally posted by: Mani
Man, dumpster divers would love where I work. A computer company, so you can just guess the kinds of stuff that gets tossed. Any type of add-in card usually in perfect working condition, monitors (lots of CRTS incl. trinitrons of all sizes), routers, switches, entire systems in working order...you name it. The stuff goes to some disposal agency which supposedly sorts through it and tries to salvage some, but the vast majority of it most likely just goes to a dump somewhere.

The real killer is for preproduction development samples that don't have the regulatory clearance to be sold. We're talking laptops, systems, televisions, DLP projectors, monitors of all kinds, etc. have to be destroyed simply because they can't be sold legally. You guys would cry if you saw this stuff.


There's a place like that here, and I just don't understand. Why don't they donate all that stuff to schools or something? I know the reason they destroy it before dumping it is probably to keep people like me out :p but why not give it away? :/

America. Sheesh.
 

geno

Lifer
Dec 26, 1999
25,074
4
0
Originally posted by: Nebben
Wondering why someone would throw this away. And yeah, dumpster diving is something a few of my friends and I do for entertainment occasionally. No gross dumpsters, just ones at computer/office stores mostly.

Be careful, some of those dumpsters have cameras on them. I know they do at Home Depots...