Good PC Repair Shops to ask for DVDRW Drives?

[IsaacT]

Does anyone know of what kind of PC Repair shops to ask for broken drives? I tried Fry's but they said they couldn't give any broken items away....I figure it'll probably have to be your small stores or dumpster diving....not sure if I am down for that quite yet. I am just looking for some drives I can harvest for practice and to gain more raw materials. Any advice would be welcome!
:thanks:



-Isaac

 

[Coherent Light]

Try Alltex. I think You have one in Austin off I-35

 

[Morgan]

Simply put... Any you can actually walk into and ask a real person!

This kind of electronics, certainly in the UK anyway, must be disposed of in the proper manner. This means conforming to Health and Safety W.E.E. Regulations, and storing, "Waste Electrical and Electronics", until an official body can come and remove it. Often for a cost! This means, again in the UK, that many small PC repair shops are very happy to palm off what is useless to them and can offset some nominal cost.

I know Health and Safety may not be as harsh in the US but I feel sure that environmental regulations must exist, even if they may not adhered to.

Know what you're after, (16x DVD rewriters, whatever, it shows you know what you want), and be bold, walk right up to the guy and ask him. If you get one working and want another one, take your creation with you and show them. What's the worst that can happen? That's right, he says no!

Don't get carried away though, you'll fill your garage with junk in no time that way! (Although on return visits in my early days, and after burning the guy's desk on request, I've been given HDDs, mini HDDs, laptop heatsinks, etc... All cool stuff to rip into.)

Happy hunting...

M

 

[IsaacT]

Thanks for the replies! I got a map to the store and will go there tomorrow! Glad to know it at least works for some people. I don't know about yall but I just LOVE disassembling things.

 

[Morgan]

^ It's the, 'putting back together', that I always used to have trouble with!

M

 

[IsaacT]

Thats why this hobby is awesome! No need to put "humpty dumpty" back together again! :crackup:

 

[Coherent Light]

^ It's the, 'putting back together', that I always used to have trouble with!

M

And all the left over parts after it was reassembled.

 

[Morgan]

^ Yep, always seem to be less, and less, nuts and bolts to take out next time for sure!

M

 

[IsaacT]

Altex gave me 3 dvdrw drives for free! I am almost done harvesting, just need to get an open can red out of its heatsink and the IRs if I decide to use them....although the IRs are incredibly difficult to remove from a heatsink.

 

[Coherent Light]

Glad You made it to the store today. Any idea what speed they were?

 

[IsaacT]

Ya, I got these:

Sony CD/DVDRW MODEL NO. DW-D22A
Write speed is 16x/rewrite is 8x
1 Closed Can Red(did not survive removal from heatsink), and 1 IR

LITE-ON IT CORP. MODEL NO. LH-18A1P
Write speed is 18x/rewrite is 8x
1 Short Open Can Red & 1 IR

LITE-ON IT CORP. MODEL NO. SOHC-5236V
Only CDRW/DVD-ROM but got a red from it....maybe I could make it a weak pointer.
1 Closed Can Red, and gave up on getting the IR out because it was press fit into the sled itself

Overall pretty happy with my purcha.....wait, got em for free, nevermind....thanks for the tip on Altex again....really great idea!

 

[fullinfusion]

spamer, just place an add in the local web site asking if any body has broken dvd rom drives to give away.

I do it here and get like 10 a week lol

 

[IsaacT]

what is spamer? is it a website?