# What to refine in a computer ?



## Noxx

Hello,
I would like to know what you can refine/recover in a computer.
For the moment, I know there is precious metals in:
-CPU's
-Memory sticks
-Hard Drives

And what else ?

Thank You


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## lazersteve

Noxx,

A pc has a lot of gold hiding in places that you may not think of.

Here's a list (it's a tiny amount per pc):

Cpu socket
Card slots
Memory slots (some)
Plug in cards (on the cards= fingers)
Built in ports (network, serial, parallel, video)
Headers ( where you plug the drive cables in )
Components on the mobo itself (capacitors*, chipset ics, etc.)
Button contacts (some older machines)
Ribbon cable contacts ( older = better)
Drive pin headers ( on the floppy, cdrom, hdd, etc.)

* Monolithic capacitors can have more palladium and platinum than gold in them in some cases.

If you read this post and come up with something I missed let us know.

Steve


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## Noxx

Thanks !
I just sent an e-mail to many computer repair shops here. I hope they will keep me some parts.
I called someone too and he told me thats he sometimes gets 386,486 and P1. I will call him in one month to see how many he gets.


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## PRECIOUS METALS

hey where in cd roms do you find gold


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## Noxx

Drive pins headers. I think it is in cd-rom readers not in the cd-rom itself...


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## lazersteve

It's the part you plug the ribbon cable into. Just basic pin scrap nothing to write home about.


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## ThePierCer

I just received a load of 30 computers last night, 286, 386, 486 and some Pentiums I and II. I pulled all the figures, ram and CPU’s off for processing. 

So far, I left all the connectors on, and am still undecided on weather to process them. I notice a lot of the boards have what looks like gold plating on the boards themselves and on some of the wiring. 
Is it worth it to process them too? Or would it just be easier to put them on eBay and get what I can for them? I have atleast 50 lbs of boards. I pulled off the battery’s and heat sinks, so that weight is just the boards and the SM components.

Also, I’ve been using the AR method for my CPU’s and figures. Is this the best method? And, I’ve heard many times not to mix CPU’s and figures. Why is that?

Thanks for ur help.


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## ThePierCer

Another question. A lot of the older RAM doesn’t have gold on the figures. Is the silver or just plain metal? I have about 50 lbs I’ve been holding on too because I don’t know what it is and am not sure how to process them.
Thanks again


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## lazersteve

Welcome to the forum.

The type of 'raw' pc scrap you are talking about needs a lot of processing before you put it in any solution to get the gold out. I generally accumulate large quantities (100+ pounds) before I begin work on any one type of scrap (mobos, pc cards, headers, etc). Then I systematically strip the boards of all the valuable components in one pass, keeping the different types of scrap separate as they need different types of processsing later. After the first pass I set the remainder to the side until even larger amounts are on hand to do more refined work on them. The main reason that I use this multi-step process is to get the bulk of the highest grade scrap together for processing quickly. When I have enough to process, I them put the 'concentrated' scrap thru the appropriate recovery method that best fits it. This is all very labor intensive.

In a nutshell don't waste your valuable time on low yield items, work on the highest yielding parts first and get back to the others when you have some down time.

Steve


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## Noxx

Older RAM that is not gold color is not silver, it's just metal


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## lazersteve

The edges are solder covered (tin/lead 60/40). The memory stick itself has some value if you crush it and process.

Steve


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## ThePierCer

seriously..... is it worth it? I have about 20lbs of them..... i get so disappointed every time i find one. I really wished they were silver


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## ThePierCer

also, i strip all the IC's and caps off all the boards. Is there any gold/plat value in these? On every motherboard, there are 2 "chips" with a gold "tag". Are they worth processing? I have avout 100 lbs of various IC and caps i'm holding on to, just in case they have some value i was unaware of


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## lazersteve

Yes both of these items have some value in very large quantities. The chipset ics ("flatpaks") are the ones with the gold 'tag' in the corner. As an example, take one that has been freed from the pcb and flex it in between your thumbs, moving around the edges of the thin part as you flex. The ic will separate from the plastic portion and expose the gold plated copper traces inside the ic. Both the fiber portion and the plastic portion will contain these hair fine traces, enough of them will warrant processing.

The main type of capacitor you are after are the very tiny brown ones mounted directly to the board (monolithics) , these will contain gold, silver, palladium, and possibly some platinum. You will need many thousands of them before processing is warranted. The cylinder caps (electrolytics) have limited precious metals value if any. 

There are many other types of caps with varing amounts precious metals in each, you will need to research each types construction if you want to pursue recovery on these items.

Steve


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## toadiesop

Thanks for the info on the monolithics Steve. Getting thousands will be no problem!  

How would you suggest refining them. Just crushing them up and using HCL/ AR?


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## MacMasterMike

Though mostly frowned apon when I've read about it how well does burning the boards in a kiln do? You end up with ash and the metals for the most part I would figure.


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## Fever

Here's a pic of some monolithics, mixed in with some other surface mounts I've been accumulating. They are very time consuming, but as Steve has already mentioned, if you have enough of them, it becomes worth the effort.

I'm also curious as to what refining method would be best for these. I would assume a bath in Nitric first to extract the Silver and Palladium. Then wash and soak the remainder in AR for any Gold or Platinum that may be present.

Fever


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## lazersteve

Fever,

First welcome to the forum and thank you for the post.

You have a mix there of monolithics and other SMD's (surface mounted devices). The other items are not going to be of much value in the mix and should be removed.

Monolithics are specifically monolithic capacitors not any of the the other SMDs you have mixed in with them. I have pictured some of the components you have in your dish:

Inductors:





These are labeled Lx on the board with x as some location number.

Electrolytics::




These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.

Ferrite Beads:




These are labeled FBx on the board with x as some location number and the most easily confused SMD with monolithics.

Diodes:




These are labeled Dx or ZDx or Zx on the board with x as some location number.

Crystals:




These are labeled Yx or Xx on the board with x as some location number.

Resistors:




These are labeled Rx on the board with x as some location number.

Resistor Arrays:




These are labeled RAx or Rx on the board with x as some location number.

Fuses:




These are labeled Fx on the board with x as some location number.

Fusible Resistors:




These are labeled Rx on the board with x as some location number.

None of the above items are monolithic.

Here are some of the items in your dish that are monolithics:





These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.





These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.





These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.

I hope this info helps. If you have any questions please ask.

Steve


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## Fever

Thank you Steve!

This is exactly the kind of info I've been looking for left and right, with little results. Until now! Is there a comprehensive list (other than the beautiful one you just posted) where you acquired this info? There has to be a breakdown of these items somewhere on the web. I have scoured everything for specific info like this, but had little luck.

Thanks again for the info... Fever


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## lazersteve

Fever,
I've got years of electronics experience is how I know. I learned from schematics, the internet, datasheets, and lots of hands on experience. When you work with electronic circuits for 20 years you learn what it is you are looking at and how it works.

If you ever have any questions start a new topic and I'll help you along.

Steve


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## Fever

We'll do Steve. Thanks again....

Fever


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## rainmaker

Thanks Steve, good info. Could you provide us with bigger/clearer photos of the components you show here? I think it would be a good addition for a lot of us newbies.

Thanks,

Gary


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## lazersteve

Gary,

The photos were taken from Fever's original photo. If I enlarge them they will distort. Maybe I'll take the time to take some clearer photos of my own and post them.

Steve


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## goldsilverpro

It's hard to make out what is what but, the little brown chip capacitors - the 10th small photo down, I think - run about 2.5% palladium. They are multilayed ceramic with fired palladium paste between the layers. On the ones I've messed with, the metal on the ends is silver. They have to be ground fine to get the palladium (nitric). Don't confuse them with the same look, but different color, worthless? resistors - marked Rx on the board.

It takes a zillion of these to make a pound. We got them by running the boards through a small conveyorized furnace, grabbing them with pliers as they came out, and banging them on the inside of a steel drum, which knocked all the parts off. We then put them through a screen only large enough to let the capacitors pass through - plus a lot of solder. They ended up a little over 1% Pd, because of the solder and the resistors.

Since the capacitors are attached with silver solder or regular solder combined with silver, which has a higher melting point than regular solder, I've always thought you could remove the parts in a two stage melting operation. The first pass through the furnace, at lower temp., to get everything but the capacitors. The second pass, at a higher temp., to get the capacitors. I don't remember if the resistors are silver soldered or not.

Steve. If I'm wrong on what I think I'm seeing, please correct me. What do you know about the chip resistors? On a hybrid circuit, many of the resistors are made with Ruthenium paste. Any possibility?


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## lazersteve

Chris,

Here's the low down on the resistors according to wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistor#Thick_and_thin_film

I've just been buying the monolithics in large spools of 3000. I haven't taken the time to process any off of boards yet.

Steve


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## goldsilverpro

Interesting. Ruthenium and Iridium compounds are both on the list.


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## Fever

goldsilverpro said:


> Interesting. Ruthenium and Iridium compounds are both on the list.



I wonder what the %'s are? I've been saving all of my monoliths, and everything else like in the photos above. So they have to be crushed prior to processing to get the Pd? That's good to know. I was just going to soak them in Nitric. That probably would not have done the trick.

Thanks for the great info, and Steve- If you could take some nice high-res pics of all the above critters with your digital cam, that would be super! My camera just doesn't have the nuts as far as megapixels go....

Fever


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## jimdoc

The percentages for the palladium in capacitors change year to year by
the changing prices of the metal,and the fact that they are being made smaller all the time. And the substitution of nickel for palladium in the newer capacitors is a problem, because how are you going to tell if they are nickel and not palladium just from looking at them on a board? Some companies have switched to nickel, and some will stay with palladium because they are setup for pd and changing over will cost $ and time.

I also would like to know about the ruthenium and iridium, platinum containing items because I save everything until I know it isn't worth saving. Megan Rose's books (pamphlets) on PGM's tell you a little about these things, but don't go into detail. I commented to her about that and she had some remark like "you men blah blah" so I didn't bother with asking her any questions. She commented on the other forum about companies selling chemicals without msds info, when she gives you little tiny samples of testing chemicals and doesn't even tell you what they are.
They are just labeled bag #1, bag #2, bag #3. She just says that you can always get the test crystals from her. If anybody knows what this stuff is
I would appreciate knowing, I am sure one bag is just salt.


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## mike.fortin

Steve-is 24K gold always used on computer parts I am hunting for? Thanks. Mike edit: If this has already been answered somewhere else, can someone post the link?


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## Fever

Here's another easy source of gold scrap in computers and other electronics, especially those with keypads or menu buttons. In the picture, each of these chrome squares with a black rubber center are hiding a nice gold plated disc underneath. These are the button switches that depress and make contact when you push on a keypad. The discs are very small, but they add up fast. The best ones, like on this Canon scanner board, are a deep yellow gold, indicating a nice thickness of plating. Some cheaper machines may have copper-plated discs, and some will be plated with silver or nickel, both of which have no gold at all. The best way to determine what you have is to pop one of the lids off of the chrome squares with a pliers and see what kind of disc it has. I usually don't bother with the silver/nickel ones, but I take the time to get the gold discs when I find them.

Happy hunting.....

Fever


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## Harold_V

mike.fortin said:


> Steve-is 24K gold always used on computer parts I am hunting for? Thanks. Mike edit: If this has already been answered somewhere else, can someone post the link?



I think you'll come to understand that almost all plating in electronic scrap is pure gold. There would be little benefit in using an alloy, and doing so could defeat the purpose of the plating, which is corrosion resistance and conductivity. 

Harold


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## toadiesop

This has probably been stated in this thread but I'll add a picture.

Always crack open any DIP switches you find too. It's easier if you remove them from the board first though. I pulled about 12 from an old satellite transmitter and they all had really heavy plate on them.

The ones I get from PC boards are hit or miss but its definitely worth looking into.


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## lazersteve

Hello,

Here are some of my monolithics, this is a small bag of them: 





Note how they have never been soldered to a board:







One of these days I'll post a tutorial dedicated to processing these little jewels.


Steve


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## Fever

Very nice virgin materials you have there Steve!

Can't wait for this tutorial! I'm sure there are others as well who share my enthusiasm in this area. Do you have to crush them prior to processing to get the Pd out from inbetween the layers?

Fever


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## lazersteve

I did NOT crush the last batch I processed. Of course, I'm *very* patient when it comes to my reactions. I processed them using the peroxide acid and it took several MONTHS to dissolve them completely. The results so far are several grams of Palladium and even some Platinum. I haven't finished the final cleanup on the batch so I don't have totals for the 10,000 monolithics that I started out with. 

It was very interesting to watch the decay of the monolithics over time. They dissolve in layers like a seashell flakes away over time. The platinum stays in the solution as fine black powder and the palladium turns the solution a pale orange color. 












The ceramic material decays and produces a white percipitate and large platelike crystals if you let it saturate. Be very aware of the hazards associated with these innocent looking capacitors, the decomposition by products of the ceramics can be deadly if absorbed thru the skin or if the powder is breathed.








In my future tutorial I'll most likely crush some to speed the reaction. I'm also going to go with Chris' method of processing with nitric acid and go straight for the Pd.

Steve


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## goldsilverpro

mikefortin,

Actually, most of the electronics gold plating isn't pure. They intentionally add alloy metals to the plating bath to make the deposit harder and more wear resistant. The most common metals used are nickel, cobalt, and indium. The resulting gold plating runs from about 96% to 99+% pure, depending on the application. The most common baths, of this type, plate about 99.0% pure. These alloy golds are usually very bright and shiny. There are also many specialty baths, such as the white Au/Pd gold that is used on things like reed switches.

On parts that require heating for such things as die attachment, very high purity gold plating is required. CPU packages fall into this category. Anything less than 99.99% purity will discolor when heated and the oxides produced will cause problems with the brazes. Pure gold plating is usually not as bright as alloy plating.


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## mike.fortin

lazersteve said:


> I hope this info helps. If you have any questions please ask.
> 
> Steve



lazersteve--I finaly got done with sorting a can of very little surface mounts from cellphones. Thank you earlier post. I matched up a lot of them with your picturs. I have a few that stumpt me. Would you take a look? I see holes but there dont seem to be any reason for the holes. Do you know the names of these small parts? I seen some bigger and longer and they gots holes to. But these are smaller gray ones. Mike.

new info. I took down old picturs and took new one down below. Mike


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## lazersteve

Mike,

Your photos are *too* close up. Can you post a photo or two that display the entire part? I'll be glad to identify them for you.

Steve


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## aflacglobal

Yeah i had problems telling what it was to. That's a dam good camera you got there mike.


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## aflacglobal

check this out. If i had some info i bet i could build one using a vaccum
suction table to hold the underside. Maybe a diamond tile saw blade and a table top rip saw with a fence and adjustment. :idea: :idea: Hummmm


To enhance wealth and asset recovery from printed circuit boards, NorthEast Surplus & Materials, LLC (NESM) introduced a printed wiring board depopulator. It is a machine with a conveyor system that removes the valuable components on a printed circuit board, which include chips, connectors and other components containing precious metals.

http://www.circuitree.com/CDA/Articles/Web_Only_Editorial/68af1291890f7010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____


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## mike.fortin

lazersteve said:


> Mike,
> Your photos are *too* close up. Can you post a photo or two that display the entire part? I'll be glad to identify them for you.
> Steve



Sorry. I got me a new camera. Im still learning. LOL I tired again and heres the new pictur. Thats my leather work glove. I tried to make it bigger. Those lines are thread on the thum. Mike.


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## lazersteve

Mike looks like those parts have been thru some sort of solution already! :lol: 

The parts are what I would refer to as inductors. They appear to be balancing/matching transformers or Balun's for short. In the cell phone circuit they are like miniature waveguides.

I've included a snapshot of some that are a little healthier than the ones you photographed:







The healthy ones appear to have a silvery coating on them. Most likely the solder or a protective layer of some sort.

I hope this helps.

Steve


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## mike.fortin

lazersteve--they sat around in a rusty cofee can. I havent soaked anything yet. Going to do that soon. :wink: Any reason to crush or soak them wave guides? I thougt I read microwave wave guides had platnum in them. You take good picturs Steve. Thanks. Mike.


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## lazersteve

Mike,

I'm not certain that the baluns have any platinum in them. A quick test would be to toss the whole thing in nitric and see what's left when the dust settles.

Steve


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## jimmy759

Is there any gold or other pms in regular cmos IC's. There seem to be a fair amount on the boards.

Also what about the lazers in cdrom drives or is that just a piece of glass.


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## postmako

jimmy759 said:


> Is there any gold or other pms in regular cmos IC's. There seem to be a fair amount on the boards.
> 
> Also what about the lazers in cdrom drives or is that just a piece of glass.



All ICs will generally have Gold (Au), Silver (Ag), and perhaps Palladium (Pd), very few may contain Platinum (Pt). The best way to recover these would be to use a ball mill to crush them:
http://www.unitednuclear.com/mills.htm

Then you would process the powder like normal...

Just a note, the Gold content may be the only thing worth going after unless you have something special (Mil-spec stuff with Platinum for instance).

Cheers,
Kory


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## hilld2000

I spent some time cutting off the fingers from memory modules over the last few days and was wondering what to do with the chips that were left....

*Do I assume that these chips may also have some value* if I get enough of them? I have not yet removed them from the PCB but they stack and store fairly neatly for the time being anyway... unlike motherboards etc that seem to take up loads of room...


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## postmako

They should have gold in them and I just cracked open a GPU and noticed that it was copper only, no noticeable gold. Luck of the draw I guess...


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## badastro

Not all IC's have gold wire in them. Manufacturers are constantly looking for ways of reducing costs. The materials they use are the cheapest material that meet their requirements. This has led to the use of aluminum wire bonds (and sometimes copper in newer chips). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_bond

Those silvery wires you see in pentium chips are not palladium.... :lol: :wink:


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## goldsilverpro

Aluminum wire bonding has been widely used at least since the early '70's. On this forum, some have said that the silver colored wire is silver. It's not. It's aluminum.


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## badastro

Attached is an X-ray micrograph of an NEC D8085 microprocessor. It is very old, gold plated everywhere, and very nice looking.

The picture shows the gold pads, gold surface, and silicon chip among other things. It can be noticed that you can't see the wire bonds. This is because they are aluminum, which is too low contrast compared to gold to show up. I know this because i sawed the the thing in half. :twisted: 
I'm not sure what the runner wires from the pads to the pins are made of, but I would not bet that it has any gold.

In other chips, the wire bonds do show up in an X-ray micrograph when they are gold. I'm not sure about copper.


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## goldsilverpro

The traces running between the ceramic layers used to be molybdenum - manganese thick film. I assume it's still the same. Also, the leads on side braze IC packages are silver soldered to plated moly-manganese pads.


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## flankdrive04

lazersteve said:


> Chris,
> 
> Here's the low down on the resistors according to wiki:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistor#Thick_and_thin_film
> 
> I've just been buying the monolithics in large spools of 3000. I haven't taken the time to process any off of boards yet.
> 
> Steve



I have been looking for these on rolls, but can only find loose ones here in OZ....or am I looking in the wrong place???


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## Anonymous

lazersteve said:


> Fever,
> 
> Here are some of the items in your dish that are monolithics:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> I hope this info helps. If you have any questions please ask.
> 
> Steve



Wow! So would I be correct when I say there upwards of a hundred of these monolithics on an average motherboard? and if so how is it possible to seperate them from all of the other smd's surrounding them in a timely manner?


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## Palladium




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## wop1969

Steve Any Idea on this SMD's containing PM's? they have the CX next to them but does not look like any of the other Monocaps in this post, outlined with red.

And another one outlined in blue with CX next to it?


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## jimdoc

They look like one variety of tantalum capacitors.
There are ones like that, and the "dip type" little
tear drop shaped ones.
Jim


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## g_axelsson

C60, C61 and C62 are capacitors but they have a polarity mark, that wide stripe across one end. They could be either tantalum or electrolytic capacitors but not monolithic ceramic capacitors. I leave them on the boards and sell it as electronic scrap to a bigger refinery.
My guess is that the orange ones is tantalum capacitors and the black one is an electrolytic aluminum capacitor.

The monolithic capacitors doesn't have any polarity so they don't need any markings to keep track of it.

I have started to collect them by using a hot air gun and tweezers just picking them off the boards. I just have to be careful with the heat, I've blown up one electrolytic capacitor that was close to some monolithics.


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## texan

PRECIOUS METALS said:


> hey where in cd roms do you find gold




I am new to the list and enjoy finding info about doing something with the e-scrap I have been throwing back for 20 years or so....and after getting into this I now know I have trown away a fair amount of PM's over the years.

Anyway...I have come by some 7 year old Dell Computers and have taken the CD-R apart just to see what was inside. the CD-R reader has a small fine chip on the lazer head that has gold wire and what appears to be a gold ground plane under the actual chip...I had to look at it thru my microscope to see how it was made. I will be keeping one for my growing chip collection and reclaiming the gold in the rest....I have about 15 of them. The only PM's appear to be some componets on the circuit board and the gold in the lazer head. This was a CD-R by Data Storage GCR-8481b built in 2002.

Texan


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## istari9

I find the gold in most NOT ALL CDR CDRW and DVD & DVDRW players and write and rewriters. Some have 2 of the gold buttons with the gold wires and such. I have been posting about this fo a while. I have also found this button in old cd players and dvd players not just computer drives... 

Ray


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## patnor1011

post picture of that buton please...


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## stihl88

If you mean these Gold buttons then you are reffering to the Laser Diode. I just disected one and found nothing of significance.
The legs are magnetic and the gold can is magnetic also. I also filed away a small section which revealed some iron underneath the gold plating.


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## 61 silverman

Hi, I did a search a while back ..Typed in IC Chemical Composition,,-The results I looked at were for A =Spartan 3 CPU ( i think that is the one ) anyway it gave a % by chip weight analysis Au 0.583 , Ag 1.35 , mentioned tin and copper also I did not note those.. This is % by weight...wirebonding ==Thermosonic Ball Method using 1.2mil. O.D.gold wire


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## CARRJAM1981

Are flat screen monitors worth tearing down ? What will I find ? I have been looking around the forums and see nothing.


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## glorycloud

Do you mean flat screen LCD type monitors or flat screen CRT monitors?
If the LCD's are dead - they can be repaired and resold. The CRT's are a 
different story altogether.

Check around locally and see if anyone does LCD repairs. I have a guy who
can do it reasonably for me here in GA. Depending on size, cosmetic conditin
and MFG, they can resell for $50 and up.

It is normally better to resell, then to invest all the time and effort to scrap
monitors out for parts. 8)


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## CARRJAM1981

Sorry LCD. Is there anything inside worth tearing them apart for ?


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## glorycloud

Again, their greater value will be for parts to be resold at this point
than for PM's and other metals that you may recover.

Rip one apart and see what's in it if you like. My advise would be to do the following:

The LCD screen in working condition, the plastic bezels, stands, and other internal parts
can have value to the maintenance companies and resellers. Google your MFG and model
number / part number and see who repairs them and sell them. Contact those companies
and see if they would buy your LCD's. Try it and report back what happens. 8)


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## tranqmorne

lazersteve said:


> Fever,
> 
> First welcome to the forum and thank you for the post.
> 
> You have a mix there of monolithics and other SMD's (surface mounted devices). The other items are not going to be of much value in the mix and should be removed.
> 
> Monolithics are specifically monolithic capacitors not any of the the other SMDs you have mixed in with them. I have pictured some of the components you have in your dish:
> 
> Inductors:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Lx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Electrolytics::
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Ferrite Beads:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled FBx on the board with x as some location number and the most easily confused SMD with monolithics.
> 
> Diodes:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Dx or ZDx or Zx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Crystals:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Yx or Xx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Resistors:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Rx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Resistor Arrays:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled RAx or Rx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Fuses:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Fx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Fusible Resistors:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Rx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> None of the above items are monolithic.
> 
> Here are some of the items in your dish that are monolithics:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> I hope this info helps. If you have any questions please ask.
> 
> Steve



So of all of these which have PM's? Also would it be better to sort each of these SMD's into same types for easier refining or does it really matter?


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## jimdoc

tranqmorne said:


> lazersteve said:
> 
> 
> 
> Fever,
> 
> First welcome to the forum and thank you for the post.
> 
> You have a mix there of monolithics and other SMD's (surface mounted devices). The other items are not going to be of much value in the mix and should be removed.
> 
> Monolithics are specifically monolithic capacitors not any of the the other SMDs you have mixed in with them. I have pictured some of the components you have in your dish:
> 
> Inductors:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Lx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Electrolytics::
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Ferrite Beads:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled FBx on the board with x as some location number and the most easily confused SMD with monolithics.
> 
> Diodes:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Dx or ZDx or Zx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Crystals:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Yx or Xx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Resistors:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Rx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Resistor Arrays:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled RAx or Rx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Fuses:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Fx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> Fusible Resistors:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Rx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> None of the above items are monolithic.
> 
> Here are some of the items in your dish that are monolithics:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These are labeled Cx on the board with x as some location number.
> 
> I hope this info helps. If you have any questions please ask.
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So of all of these which have PM's? Also would it be better to sort each of these SMD's into same types for easier refining or does it really matter?
Click to expand...


Did you read the rest of that topic?
Monolith capacitors may have palladium, they are probably the only thing worth going after in group of pictures.

Jim


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## tranqmorne

I did read through the posts I guess I just didn't ask my questions clearly enough.
As I was reading through all the other questions and comments I picked up that the monolithics noted as Cx can have a number of different PM's. But it seemed like there could be PM's in others but only in large quantities.. My question is which of the other SMD's have PM's.

I under stand that it may take a lot of them but I look at it as if I'm depopulating the board anyway why not save them up for a later time.. As long as they have some sort of PM's.


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## jimdoc

There may be Ruthenium in some of the resistors. I doubt they are worth taking off boards. If you found large quantities of new ones, then they may be worth processing.
Selling the boards whole makes sense most of the time.

Jim


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## tranqmorne

Thank you Jim! I think I am going to do a little more digging on what all of these components are made of. Hopefully I will be able to put something to gether that will help clarify the mystery of the SMD's


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## Geo

some sound cards and video cards are gold plated on both sides under the solder mask.i dont think its very thick because when you scratch it the copper underlay comes through pretty quickly.but every little bit counts.too some older comps have a set of micro switches that are usually red with tiny white toggles.they come in one unit with six or eight switches,be careful pulling them off or taking them apart as they have small balls in them that for the best i can make out, must be pure gold.ive never been able to get one to react to any type acid.if anyone knows about these please post.


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## Claudie

I don't think they are pure Gold. I think they are plated on the entire surface, and that Gold plating protects the base metal from the acid, like those little pins and springs you find inside of HP printers. I have some of the balls in question, I will try to find them and do some testing.


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## darshevo

From my experience they are not pure as they react to a magnet. The 8 year old sure has a lot of fun breaking them open to get the gold balls out tho :mrgreen: 

-Lance


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## Geo

i didnt try a magnet.thanks for the info.


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## Claudie

The last I knew, Gold was not magnetic, so I guess that answers the question.


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## nickvc

darshevo said:


> From my experience they are not pure as they react to a magnet. The 8 year old sure has a lot of fun breaking them open to get the gold balls out tho :mrgreen:
> 
> -Lance




Another great tool for testing, but don't discard without further testing even if items are magnetic.
Many modern platinum casting alloys are magnetic due to the cobalt and I have even found some karat scrap that was weirdly slightly magnetic but was still gold.


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## tranqmorne

My appoligies for reverting the topic back to a older conversation; but i recently discombobulated :lol: a PS2 (broken) and found that it has many Monolitics.. i understand that certain ones have PM's and others dont. However many on this board are not labled and also there seem to be various different colors or shades of brown, tan and gray/black. Is there a color code to these to understand what is what?

Also I have tried to search high and low on the forum for a effective way to remove the BGA's and haven't found it.. im sure i am missing something. Does one just pry it off with something or is there a less bullish way of removing them?


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## macfixer01

Geo said:


> some sound cards and video cards are gold plated on both sides under the solder mask.i dont think its very thick because when you scratch it the copper underlay comes through pretty quickly.but every little bit counts.too some older comps have a set of micro switches that are usually red with tiny white toggles.they come in one unit with six or eight switches,be careful pulling them off or taking them apart as they have small balls in them that for the best i can make out, must be pure gold.ive never been able to get one to react to any type acid.if anyone knows about these please post.




This sounds like the red Grayhill brand dip switches. I too originally thought the balls were gold since someone selling gold recycling info on Ebay a few years back claimed that they were pure gold. I looked up the manufacturer data sheet once on the internet though, and it said the balls are just brass with a gold plated surface. I don't think it gave any thickness specification as I recall.

macfixer01


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## tranqmorne

Below is a pdf full of information about the different types of Monolithic Capaciters made by a single manufacturer.. hope it helps.

http://www.avx.com/docs/masterpubs/smccp.pdf


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## Grelko

Fever said:


> Here's another easy source of gold scrap in computers and other electronics, especially those with keypads or menu buttons. In the picture, each of these chrome squares with a black rubber center are hiding a nice gold plated disc underneath. These are the button switches that depress and make contact when you push on a keypad. The discs are very small, but they add up fast. The best ones, like on this Canon scanner board, are a deep yellow gold, indicating a nice thickness of plating. Some cheaper machines may have copper-plated discs, and some will be plated with silver or nickel, both of which have no gold at all. The best way to determine what you have is to pop one of the lids off of the chrome squares with a pliers and see what kind of disc it has. I usually don't bother with the silver/nickel ones, but I take the time to get the gold discs when I find them.
> 
> Happy hunting.....
> 
> Fever



I stumbled across this post and had to bump it.

I always thought the small push buttons only had that tiny dot of silver in the bottom. I never knew that those small discs "that I've been throwing out as scrap  " could be gold plated... I must have tossed out a couple hundred of those discs while tearing the buttons apart. The good thing is, I still have a pound or 2 of the push buttons and many more on boards, so I'm definately going to be adding another container specifically for those.

I also found a few silver mica caps on some old boards earlier "now that I know what to look for". So I guess I should go through my pile of boards, that I was going to take to the scrapyard yet again :lol:


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