What should I do with my old laptop?

NecroJoe

Stool Chef
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So, I just bought a new laptop...what do I do with my old one?

I was originally planning on selling/donating it, but herein lies problems:

I don't want to do that until I have at least gone one step beyond deleting files and emptying the trash. I can't seem to find a system recovery CD...don't even remember if it had one...but in any event, the DVD-ROM drive has stopped showing up anywhere...(My Computer, System/Hardware/Device Manager, etc) so even if I found the recovery disc, it would do me no good.

Add to that, the fact that the battery gets 20 minutes of life on Powersave mode with the screen turned all the way down and wireless turned off, extra touchpad function buttons not working since the first week after I bought it...

It's only got 512mb ram and a 40gb drive (in two 20gb partitions) and a Celeron M 1.6gHz. it's got g wireless and a DVD-Reader/CD-RW combo drive that does spin-up at boot and responds when you put a disc in it...it just doesn't come up at all in the OS.

I know it's not worth much, but it'd be worth even less if I just pulled the hard drive or used one of those clean-wipe programs and tried to get rid of it with no OS disc.

Oh yeah...and one of the fans stopped working about 2 years ago, and it's cooked itself to a blue screen about 2 dozen times in the last couple of years.

Is it worth trying to to anything with it?

Any other ideas?
 
Does the cd drive show up in the bios hardware listing?

You're not going to get any money for it, in all likelihood. I'd pop linux on it (you can install off of a usb stick and a net connection) and use it for something low key (personal file server, for example).
 
It does not, which is odd. The drive gets power, but doesn't register anywhere.

As for a file server, well, it's only 40GB. The few times a week that I transfer data to my new netbook, my desktop is probably turned on (or will be soon) anyways.

Add to that, that my girlfriend is an energy-hippy, who sees digital photo frames as an offensive waste of energy... "Why do you need another computer plugged in, and turned on?"
 
If the CD drive and battery are gone then itd be more expensive to repair than its worth.

If you do want to rid it of all your stuff, installing linux would be the best way to go since you can do it from a usb stick. you can also do a complete format of the hard drive from it which (for most practical purposes) should sufficiently get rid of all your data. Then install Linux (id suggest Ubuntu) which'll give it a good amount of functionality.

It is possible to install Windows XP from a USB stick, ive done it before but it wasnt easy...and somehow the iso got messed up when it got converted to a USB stick 'cause the system crashed instantly after installing it. You could try it but I wouldnt recommend it.
 
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Take out HDD, drill a couple of holes in it. Then, take the laptop, light it on fire and throw it a vagrant while yelling obscenities.
 
Salvage the magnets from the hard drive (just to have fun with them, since they're supposed to be quite powerful), and take out the LCD panel to make a DIY projector.
 
If you don't want to completely destroy the hard drive. Download a tool like DBAN (http://dban.sourceforge.net), and use that to wipe the machine. It comes as an ISO and with your aforementioned DVD drive problems it'll take a bit of work, but it can be loaded to boot off a USB stick.

I'd say after you wipe it, donate it, there are places that take any type of semi-working computer equipment, fix it up and give it to schools and such.
 
If you cannot fix it, return to the age of 8 and blow it u with fireworks during new year celebration.

:D
 
also, if you want to wipe it, just use software a few times?

"dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda"
 
well i wanted to try an experminet i found on the internet way back, if you take apart a tablet and take that special sensitive skin from the tablet wich they said is transparent you could overlay it on the monitor thus makeing a cheapo-tablet. From what i saw on the net, you can buy the touch screen film or whatevere it's called without an actual screen so it looks possible. So given that it's summer, so lots of time, and a discared but working tablet this is what i would do.
 
just remembered one thing, if you want (pretty much) government level data destruction, use a program called DBAN. Its pretty old, havent used it in at least 4 yrs, but trust me itll get the job done.
 
Use it to download stuff to keep the new computer virus free. Thats what I do. Works well.
 
Use it as a seeding machine for torrents. And Folding@Home...
 
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