[Jonathan Mac]

Staff note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means Pentax Forums may earn a small commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase. If you would like to support the forum directly, you may also make a donation here.

---

My Tokina 35-105 f/3.5-4.3 arrived this morning and is in excellent condition. A few test shots on the DSLR suggets it's useable wide open and pretty sharp stopped down to f/5.6.

[magkelly]

Dell Optiplex GX260 PC's X2 with their original Windows XP Pro Keys....

I got these FOR FREE from a print shop near here that was upgrading their machines. They're 2GHZ machines so they're decent enough for most things except high end games and intensive graphics. They pulled the memory and the HD but otherwise they are intact and look to work fine, or so I am told.

I'm going to rehab and give one to my parents so they don't have to some here to do all their computing and then rehab the other for my nieces as soon as I can swing the extra parts. I've actually got the Dell XP Pro disks too which means no problems loading them.They both need IDE hard drives and 2GB of RAM but I have some memory from our old PS that I believe might be compatible and 80GB hard drives are like $20 to buy used on Amazon.

Memory is cheap too like $13 a stick so it wouldn't cost me more than $25 a pop to take them up to the max 2GB RAM anyhow. $50 each and they'd be working. I have a 19" LCD monitor for my parents. Still got the one that came with my Dell in the box because I kept it as a backup. I'm guessing they can pick up a 17-19" one for the kids cheap on CL because people are dumping those for 22" screens a lot not. Other than that all they need is regular keyboards and mice and those are cheap enough to get. $12 at Big lots for a set with both. They can pick their own up, upgrade to a better set or not as they like.

I can't believe I actually got them. Usually I totally miss out when people post this kind of thing and there was actually a guy literally right behind me while I was there. I picked out my 2 and started loading them into the car and he was walked up just as I finished. He was none too happy when he realized that the only one that was left was older than dirt and nearly unusable, laugh. 2 secs later though and I would not have had these... :P

They are a lot less equipped than my current Dell but that's okay. Backup PC's are good and my parents having one at their place will mean I have to share this one less which pleases me. I hate when Dad uses my PC. The man cannot be trusted not to screw things up even just reading email et all. Now he can screw his own PC up. I'll still have to fix it when he does, but at least I won't have to worry about it being my PC!

[68wSteve]

Starting to pick up my gear while I am still deployed in Afghanistan. Will be home to enjoy it soon. From the forums I have picked up a Sigma 24-70 f2.8, DA *50-135, Pentax 1.7tc and AF-540 Flash. Will pick up a Pentax K5iis just before I come home. Might pick up a DA*300 again as well, unless I can somehow get my hands on a 300 f2.8. If anybody has one please let me know

[littledrawe]

unless I can somehow get my hands on a 300 f2.8.

I think KEH had an FA* I know they have some Tamron adaptall 2s 60B & 360B. There are 2 A* 300mm f2.8s on ebay right now too.
With the 1.7XAFA I would grab one of the Tamrons or A*s and you'd have a great start!

[68wSteve]

I think KEH had an FA* I know they have some Tamron adaptall 2s 60B & 360B. There are 2 A* 300mm f2.8s on ebay right now too.
With the 1.7XAFA I would grab one of the Tamrons or A*s and you'd have a great start!

I really don't want to go through Ebay. I am still deployed and would like to go through the forums or a reliable sight. I will check out KEH though. Appreciate the help. I posted in the Wanted Section

Steve

[hangman43]

I really don't want to go through Ebay. I am still deployed and would like to go through the forums or a reliable sight. I will check out KEH though. Appreciate the help. I posted in the Wanted Section

Steve

I see you are from Ft. Riley that is where I met my wife her family lives in Chapman I was there late 80's to the early 90's thanks for your service.

[Medium FormatPro]

Dell Optiplex GX260 PC's X2 with their original Windows XP Pro Keys....

I got these FOR FREE from a print shop near here that was upgrading their machines. They're 2GHZ machines so they're decent enough for most things except high end games and intensive graphics. They pulled the memory and the HD but otherwise they are intact and look to work fine, or so I am told.

I'm going to rehab and give one to my parents so they don't have to some here to do all their computing and then rehab the other for my nieces as soon as I can swing the extra parts. I've actually got the Dell XP Pro disks too which means no problems loading them.They both need IDE hard drives and 2GB of RAM but I have some memory from our old PS that I believe might be compatible and 80GB hard drives are like $20 to buy used on Amazon.

Memory is cheap too like $13 a stick so it wouldn't cost me more than $25 a pop to take them up to the max 2GB RAM anyhow. $50 each and they'd be working. I have a 19" LCD monitor for my parents. Still got the one that came with my Dell in the box because I kept it as a backup. I'm guessing they can pick up a 17-19" one for the kids cheap on CL because people are dumping those for 22" screens a lot not. Other than that all they need is regular keyboards and mice and those are cheap enough to get. $12 at Big lots for a set with both. They can pick their own up, upgrade to a better set or not as they like.

I can't believe I actually got them. Usually I totally miss out when people post this kind of thing and there was actually a guy literally right behind me while I was there. I picked out my 2 and started loading them into the car and he was walked up just as I finished. He was none too happy when he realized that the only one that was left was older than dirt and nearly unusable, laugh. 2 secs later though and I would not have had these... :P

They are a lot less equipped than my current Dell but that's okay. Backup PC's are good and my parents having one at their place will mean I have to share this one less which pleases me. I hate when Dad uses my PC. The man cannot be trusted not to screw things up even just reading email et all. Now he can screw his own PC up. I'll still have to fix it when he does, but at least I won't have to worry about it being my PC!

By the book... I've always wondered how that work with a formerly owned (or used) computer? Whether it's Apple/Mac, Windows, or even Linux, that... Basically over the last 10++ years that the TOS (end user agreement) has remained much the same with very little modification. But the contract (as they say) basically states that the operating system is for that computer only - but it gets better... Technically only for that user and/or their immediate family.

So if one purchass any used computer... Do you have to reinstall an operating sytem?

[magkelly]

By the book... I've always wondered how that work with a formerly owned (or used) computer? Whether it's Apple/Mac, Windows, or even Linux, that... Basically over the last 10++ years that the TOS (end user agreement) has remained much the same with very little modification. But the contract (as they say) basically states that the operating system is for that computer only - but it gets better... Technically only for that user and/or their immediate family.

So if one purchass any used computer... Do you have to reinstall an operating sytem?

It depends. If they yank the HD and most people do, yes. The OS is often on that drive on a partition. You have no choice but to reinstall from DVD. Some people include the DVD disks with a used computer, some don't. Most computers don't have a set after a certain point anymore. They may have never had them to give. I had to bug Dell for my Win 7 ones. They wanted me to pay for a set. I got them finally for free because I insisted they should have come with, but it wasn't that easy. They didn't want to do that.

I got XP Pro disks from CL a while back. Someone was giving those away, didn't need them anymore, so I grabbed them. I use that on my laptop and had a legit # for it but no discs for pro. My laptop actually came sans backup partition actually so I needed those discs if I was ever going to reinstall. But the XP disc is a Dell XP Pro disc. It can install on whatever Dell I want or even on a non Dell PC if you know what you are doing. I do, shrug. I can use these with the same disks and the numbers on the PC's. But those #'s probably can only be used for a Dell install. I doubt they'd work on my non-Dell laptop or another brand of PC. The discs, yeah, but not the #'s...

This place didn't have any discs but those keys are still perfectly valid and so long as I have a Dell XP Pro CD, which I do, I can use them legally because I have these machines. They shouldn't attempt to install the OS on their new computer and use it with these serials though. That's not considered okay. The license is for the computer not the install discs. They have new Win 7 machines though so there was no ownership issue here regardless. All I need is a clean HD, the Dell disks, and the # and I am okay to go.

The license is supposed to be for the PC though and linked to it till it's destroyed when it's supposed to be deactivated. But really no one at MS cares so long as you don't install the same # on two PC's at the same time. That can get you deactivated but just switching it from an old Dell to a new one? They don't really care.

[hks_kansei]

My laptop is registered to a now liquidated company


I got it for free from my partner's work, they were throwing it out because according to one of the users, and their IT guy "the HDD has failed".....
Once I plugged it into the charger it worked fine....... the battery was flat, that was all.


I didn't realise there was an issue with who used it though, I always just assumed as long as it's a legitimate copy, and registered to somebody, all was good?

[magkelly]

As for new acquisitions my aunt bought me some toys on Amazon just now, photography related. I got 3 O-ring sealed military ammo boxes, a humidity gauge, a big jar of desiccant, a K to M4/3 adapter, new lens fluid, new tissues, and a good lens pen. Necessary evil though my lovely auntie picked up the tab, bless her.

I just lost a really nice 45mm pancake Minolta lens to high humidity and fungus. I had that particular lens on a Minolta camera in my desk drawer, fortunately not near the rest of my kit, used it for bird watching the bird bath outside the window. Apparently even though I threw a couple of desiccant bags in there from dolls the lens on the camera got fungus!!! Or maybe it had it to begin with and I just didn't see it till now but either way that lens has to go now. I'm really ticked because I really wanted to have that one for my Pen. It's the only small pancake I have ever had and I just loved it. Now I'll have to spend $$$ to replace it or forget it, I guess.

I spent the night last night carefully checking over every single lens in the house I was so freaked. I've had one come in from Goodwill infected. I tossed that immediately. I almost got one from CL last year that was crawling but that one didn't even make it home with me. I gave it back to the guy and told him "NO thanks." I am very careful with my lenses, or I thought I was. If I see anything like that, it GOES.

Darn humidity here in the tropics, it finally got me!!!

It's time for a more pro-active approach, using dry boxes, not just desiccant in the camera bags. I'm not losing one more lens to it if I can help it. I'm just very grateful that it was the lens on the camera in the office drawer and not the ones in my big kit bags. If that had been a Tak? I'd have been crying my eyes out about now probably, sniff. As it was I'm really upset about the Nikkor. It's too expensive to repair though. It's only a $20-30 lens...

Hopefully this will do it. I can't afford one of those fancy dry cabinets, I wish...

[magkelly]

My laptop is registered to a now liquidated company


I got it for free from my partner's work, they were throwing it out because according to one of the users, and their IT guy "the HDD has failed".....
Once I plugged it into the charger it worked fine....... the battery was flat, that was all.


I didn't realise there was an issue with who used it though, I always just assumed as long as it's a legitimate copy, and registered to somebody, all was good?

So long as it's only on one PC or laptop that's usually fine. They won't care if it's your laptop or the original machine it was on. But you can't take a number off a PC at work and use it for an install at home, or something like if that machine is still actively using it. If the original computer is out of commission that's usually fine. Technically it's supposed to be destroyed with the original computer but they don't really do anything about it if it's registered only on one machine and XP? I can't imagine they'd care very much. If it's the computer it came on though, no problem. You could call them and re-register that laptop to you if you wanted. Lots of people get laptops from their company when they upgrade. No conflict at all.

[hks_kansei]

Cool.

To my knowledge it's only on the one PC, it appears to be an OEM install of Vista (it had the OEM sticker on the bottom when I got it, but it's since fallen off somewhere and disappeared deep into the magical vaccuum cleaner land of dust and dropped tiny objects)

One day I might upgrade, but to be honest, all the laptop does is hold/edit images, browse the web, and used to play music (not an issue now that my partner and I moved into our own place, I can setup my speakers/stereo that have been sitting on the backseat of my car for 18months!!!

[Julie]

Speaking of computers... my laptop is giving me a message, "Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer may shut down suddenly."
I'm just surprised that it has held up this well; I've had it for 2.5 years used at least 5 or so hours a day.

I think I know what my next latest acquisition will be... Original Gateway NV53A51U NV53A52u NV53A63U NV53A71U 6 Cell Battery 7803 | eBay

[cyclone3d]

Dell Optiplex GX260 PC's X2 with their original Windows XP Pro Keys....

I got these FOR FREE from a print shop near here that was upgrading their machines. They're 2GHZ machines so they're decent enough for most things except high end games and intensive graphics. They pulled the memory and the HD but otherwise they are intact and look to work fine, or so I am told.

I'm going to rehab and give one to my parents so they don't have to some here to do all their computing and then rehab the other for my nieces as soon as I can swing the extra parts. I've actually got the Dell XP Pro disks too which means no problems loading them.They both need IDE hard drives and 2GB of RAM but I have some memory from our old PS that I believe might be compatible and 80GB hard drives are like $20 to buy used on Amazon.

Memory is cheap too like $13 a stick so it wouldn't cost me more than $25 a pop to take them up to the max 2GB RAM anyhow. $50 each and they'd be working. I have a 19" LCD monitor for my parents. Still got the one that came with my Dell in the box because I kept it as a backup. I'm guessing they can pick up a 17-19" one for the kids cheap on CL because people are dumping those for 22" screens a lot not. Other than that all they need is regular keyboards and mice and those are cheap enough to get. $12 at Big lots for a set with both. They can pick their own up, upgrade to a better set or not as they like.

I can't believe I actually got them. Usually I totally miss out when people post this kind of thing and there was actually a guy literally right behind me while I was there. I picked out my 2 and started loading them into the car and he was walked up just as I finished. He was none too happy when he realized that the only one that was left was older than dirt and nearly unusable, laugh. 2 secs later though and I would not have had these... :P

They are a lot less equipped than my current Dell but that's okay. Backup PC's are good and my parents having one at their place will mean I have to share this one less which pleases me. I hate when Dad uses my PC. The man cannot be trusted not to screw things up even just reading email et all. Now he can screw his own PC up. I'll still have to fix it when he does, but at least I won't have to worry about it being my PC!

Make sure to examine the capcitors on the motherboards. The SX/GX 260-280s had a huge problem of leaking capacitors. I must have replaced at least 2-300 motherboards on those models within 2 years of doing onsite Dell warranty repair. Another place I worked had a bunch of them as well. They were out of warranty by then, but it was always the leaking capacitors that killed them.

[Canada_Rockies]

My laptop is registered to a now liquidated company


I got it for free from my partner's work, they were throwing it out because according to one of the users, and their IT guy "the HDD has failed".....
Once I plugged it into the charger it worked fine....... the battery was flat, that was all.


I didn't realise there was an issue with who used it though, I always just assumed as long as it's a legitimate copy, and registered to somebody, all was good?

It is registered to the specific computer. There is an identification number associated with each computer that is unique. That is what is used as the registration ID. The name and address are attached to specific ID or ID's in my case. The name and address are only useful to notify you of the annoyingly frequent updates.

You may need to spring for a new battery. They do have a service life.