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What To Do With Old Laptops?
An anonymous reader writes "I've recently acquired a few old P2/P3 laptops. Most either work properly but are slow, or have various problems with power supplies and/or batteries. Attempting to sell them would probably earn less than the cost of shipping, so that's out of the question. I was hoping the Slashdot crowd could give me some ideas on what to do with these old computers. As somebody who already has ~10 computers lying around the house there is certainly no need for an additional computer to 'experiment' with, so I was hoping for some more creative suggestions."
A gallon of gasoline and a match.
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Seems fairly common, but should be easy enough.
Turn them into picture frames. http://repair4laptop.org/notebook_picture_frame.html
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. --Albert Einstein
at craigslist.org? Offer the whole lot for a small charge (or not so small charge - I would think you could get at least $50 for a P3 laptop, if not more).
...I'd taken an old P2 200, flipped the screen around, threw a wireless card in it, and made a digital picture frame for my grandmother for Mother's Day two years ago. Been meaning to revisit that project. Another option is just as a heads-up display. I've got an old Compaq Presario hanging off my wall which does nothing but shell outputs of the status of my network, as well as a buffer for the latest SNMP traps. It blinks in big red text if anything goes particularly sideways (fatal trap). Took a fair bit of scripting, but it was fun.
Informatus Technologicus
Fix em up if you can and give em to a kids. I'm sure you could get at least a couple goin out of the pile, no?
I've put win2k on them and they seem to be fine for this purpose.
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
Create a virtual virus zoo.
the real question you're asking is Will it blend?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Donate to a charity - there are many developing 3rd world countries that I am sure would love to get their hands on something like that.
...To try to get Vista running on one of them.
Then again setting yourself on fire would probably be a much more pleasant experience.
Saying "I'll probably get modded down for this" in a post is the best way to get it modded up.
http://www.puppylinux.org/
Runs great on older systems. Just the thing to breathe new life into those old lappies.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I use old laptops for things like serving up web pages, running an FTP site, portable web-cam host, print server, file server, repeater, router or whatever other services where a power efficient, portable computer can be used. If you have it set up to run a single service or two, then performance is not going to be that big of an issue.
For a web server, for example. I install a low-overhead Linux distro with Apache, ssh and maybe vnc and copy my www directory to it. BAM! Web server! It uses less power than any of my PC's, and it allows me to reboot my "real" machine without taking the web page down.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Send them to me. I'll find a use for them. Hell, I'll pay your shipping.
My blog
here, do this: http://www.computerswithcauses.org/
If not Dell, but they are a major manufacturer then try contacing them to see if they also recycle.
I know this is not a creative use, but whats the point of having old hardware lying around if it they have "various problems with power supplies and/or batteries"
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Since OLPC seems to be voiding its own warranty, after a manner of speaking, why not stick an older Linux distro on them, like RH 7 or so, and give 'em away to some local kids who are into sci/tech but maybe don't have a lot of money?
I'm sure that relevant teachers at the local high school or something might be able to hook you up with the right kind of kids, and you maybe could get a tax deduction out of it, even if they required a tad bit of work on the power supplies or batteries I'm sure you'd still come out ahead, even if only morally.
There are many folks that would really benefit from a computer with an productivity suite and Internet capabilities. Install linux and open office then give away on freecycle.org. Caveat that there is no support available.
http://www.freecycle.org/
I realize that you have already have a number of computers to play around with, but why not use these? Even if they are old and slow, they will still run Linux (or Windows 2000/XP/2003 if you prefer, just not as well). It will also save you a little on your monthly power bill.
Or you could ship a good one to me. I'll give it a very good home.
My Sysadmin Blog
I use a Kurobox (266MHz PowerPC w/ 128MB RAM) running TorrentFlux as a Bittorrent server; it functions remarkably well. I'm sure those laptops are at least as powerful as that.
It doesn't need to be "poor people" necessarily. Sanitising and http://www.freecycle.org/ are good starts. Granted, I presume the poster didn't get them from CL or FC...
I would check ebay prices (final selling prices, not mid-auction bids) because I'm surprised you don't think they'd be worth the price of shipping. My experience is that used working laptops have surprisingly high prices because many people know they just need something simple for doing schoolwork etc. I mean, look at this (then again maybe those guys are just crazy - $930!!??). Linux should run great on those laptops. P3's in particular really are not bad computers and might even have a DVD reader.
Dig a big hole in your yard, throw them in and cover it over again.
It works for big business, so it should work for you too.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
Most laptops fit easily in racks, and can be used either as consoles or VNC terminals. They can basically function as the poor man's rack KVM and display & I/O tray. Another thing more relevant to the first use is that OLD laptops still mostly have real serial ports and all, whereas those are getting harder and harder to find on new laptops.
Autoconfig, extended range wireless adaptors, bittorrent 24x7 from every network you can get connected to; you know, for the children.
on a more serious note, I used to work at a place where we were required to take "retired" laptops to the dumpster, somehow they ended up in the trunk of my car more often than not...
NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) runs a laptop loaner program, where people without regular access to a computer can borrow one for a month for free in order to write a novel. It isn't exactly charity, but self-motivated intellectual persuits need all the support they can muster in our society. Most of the laptop loaners work fine but the batteries are shot (aka most used laptops).
I have "fixed up" (clean install with no bricking garbage on it) several and given them to family members at various times.
I have installed one with win2k+remote desktop client and NOTHING else so I could VPN + Remote in to our wintel machines at work without having to worry about work's big brother software locking me out because I have skype installed...
Finally, you could work on some decorative case mods, such as a Steampunk Laptop
Just sell them on Ebay as spare parts. The buyer can cover your shipping costs, so that's a non-issue. Depending on the model, the LCD itself is probably worth at least $50 so you will probably get plenty of bids.
Front end for a myth box... most laptops have one or more video outputs, are quiet, small, and energy efficient!
PULL!
"Give someone a program, frustrate them for a day... Teach someone to program, frustrate them for a lifetime."
If you don't think that selling them outright would be worth your money, than tear them down to their most significant brand/model specific parts, and sell those through your favorite auction site. I've seen parts for my 5 year-old P4 laptop going for non-trivial prices.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Use them as coasters.
I hear the air force is looking for some computers for a Bot Net
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
www.freecycle.org Give them to those that want. If you are feeling nice install a nice clean XP image (if they have a sticker for it) or install Ubuntu and tweak it to run well on old hardware for them.
Thin clients. Install a wifi card and mount one to the wall or cabinets in your kitchen. No battery necessary. Install LTSP or similar on a server and bammo! Instant kitchen terminal.
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i would take old laptops, install Linux on it with a bittorrent client, load it with lots of mp3 & mpeg files that make the MPAA & RIAA really angry and find a good wifi hotspot and plug the AC adapter to a spare outlet and abandon it, (be sure to wipe any fingerprints off beforehand)...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
Use them as control terminals (one for each room, maybe in the wall somewhere) and servers for your houses living controls: thermostat, phone, tv, music, lighting, and maybe some web-cams and other security features, to name the big ones I'd want.
Install Freenet 0.7, give it a small bandwidth allotment and a huge datastore, hook it up to your router, and keep it running. You'll be helping people all over the world to communicate securely and anonymously.
I setup an LTSP setup a year ago and it is brilliant. We got one powerful machine (quadcore CPU, 4 GB RAM, etc.) and plug all the old machines we can get into a gigabyte switch connected to this server. Just plug it in, make it boot from the network and you got another (fast) machine to work on. I used K12LTSP 5EL (based on CentOS 5) and it just works out of the box. http://k12ltsp.org/
Some people seem to think that any computer older than 6 mos. is worthless. I think most people who run out and buy a brand new machine every year just to have the "latest and greatest" is a sucker. My oldest comp. is a 4 yr. old Thinkpad T30. It runs at 1.8 GHz and it works great. Yes, batteries go bad over time, but a replacement was only about $40. I don't download every MP3 on the net and I rarely play games on it. It does what I want and it does it well. I have 2 desktops, a home-made 1.7 GHz AMD and a 1.8 GHz Dell. They're about 4 years old as well and they still work great. Some will no doubt call my computers "slow" but let's get real. I'm not doing video editing. I'm not a "gamer". Therefore, they're plenty fast for what I do. Hell I've got a 486-DX (running DOS) that does some things pretty damn fast! Oh and by the way, there are certain things that ONLY 486-DX's can do. I won't get into the details here but sold in the proper venues (ham radio swap meets), they can fetch $50+.
I found an old Powebook 3400C in the trash that still works (battery is shot), and I proped it up on it's side and use it as a bedside e-book reader. It's neat because when I fall asleep, it will turn off it's screen automatically; I don't need to worry about closing the book and putting it on the side... :)
I was looking into this and it seemed that the two biggest costs were the lcd screen and the bulb. If your a hobbiest it might be something to consider doing with one of the lcd screens in the laptops. But your still left with the rest of them.
Not sure what else you could do with them. You could donate them to some local school and say have the kids fix them up to use as some kind of club. though the children probably have better computers already the little brats.
You could try taking all the LCD screens and making one big display, sounds like too much work though. Not alot you can do with some left over laptops. I know you said you didn't want to sell them but if you sell them on ebay for parts they can sometimes grab a couple hundred bucks after shipping.
They'll make great terminals. All you need is a simple boot image to get each one to attach to the network and connect to an Linux Terminal Server.
At that point you've got a nice farm of small terminals with a big powerful server behind them. If you don't need this for yourself, consider donating the whole setup to a local school, church, or other organization that could use a low-maintenance multiuser computing environment.
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Just sell them on eBay and have the buyer pay for S&H. S&H should be no more than $20, and with laptops that old, people don't expect the batteries to be too good. Hell, just sell them w/out the batteries and S&H will be even less.
For a while I was looking for 1Ghz T23's, just to have something to bring to class to take notes with. Prices for those hovered around $200+, I believe.
Bathtime surfing!!
and when one goes splash, just get out another.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
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Ok, just kidding... Well sort of. I don't know if it helps you out or not, but I know what I would do if I had an extra laptop or two lying around. I would repurpose one of them into a laptop for my 4 year old. He loves using the computer for TuxPaint and other games. I have an old computer that I set up for him, but my house's layout keeps it from being in a convenient spot for him to use. A laptop could be used by him on the couch, on the floor, in the car (while the battery lasted at least), or anywhere else. If you have any young nieces/nephews or if you have friends with young children, you could see if they want a laptop with Edubuntu installed. And speaking of Linux....
;-)
After having a laptop for my son, I would install Linux on a second spare laptop to play around with/learn Linux. Again, I'm not sure if this applies to you or not. I run Windows on all of my machines. I've wanted to try Linux out and have run a few LiveCDs (both boot-to-CD and inside VMWare), but it would be nice to have a whole system boot into Linux to try out. My two laptops are right now my work laptop (they probably wouldn't like it if I messed something up during my Linux install) and my wife's laptop (she definitely wouldn't like it if I messed something up during the Linux install). With an extra laptop, I could mess up and not really care about anything going wrong. From what I've heard, Linux shouldn't have a problem with the older systems (though I could be horribly wrong... I'm sure other users could clarify this point). So you could use one laptop as a test bed for various purposes. Get a nice system setup going, make an image of it, play around until the system is messed up, restore the image, play around some more, repeat.
Of course, if you seriously consider sending out old laptops to folks here, can I be the first in line?
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
About a month later I ask how the project is going and they just say either 1) They bought a monitor, or 2) Admit it's a tough problem!
Mostly random stuff.
I put Ubuntu on P3 laptops with WIFI cards and keep them in different rooms in the house to create "information at your fingertips" environment. They usually have google start page by default. So just type whatever question* you want answered, it gives you that. Best approximation to Omniscience that can ever be. e.g. maps, phone directory, calculator... Alternately, you can donate this configuration (plus openoffice) to a needy student who can use it quite well.
Something I've been wanting to try for a while. I've learned from past /. posts (sorry, I don't have the link) that you can build your own projector. I think it only costs about $300 and the lite bulbs will be a lot cheaper and last longer.
/. fan friend of mine and he laughed me out of the room - the case is made of wood. Personally, I think it's one of the coolest things I've seen. And Bob, the price IS RIGHT on that one.
Anyways, from my reading, I believe the most expensive part was an LCD screen, which is over $100. I'll bet you could remove the back off one of these laptops (the light has to shine thru LCD screen, I think) and use it.
I showed this website (http://www.lumenlab.com/) to a non
However, my time and money is not mine anymore (married with children), so I haven't tried it yet.
Also, MAKE magazine has some cool articles on borking your electronic stuff - such as attaching an old pda to a laptop screen and a keyboard. Etc...
7. Load some obscure OS on it and do automated smoke tests for Perl or another software project that's trying to maintain portability across platforms.
Haiku, JNode, FreeVMS, eComStation (commercial afterlife of OS/2, which runs damn snappily on a P2 or P3), ReactOS, Hurd, SkyOS, and more can always use more reports themselves, and lots of software packages would love bug reports (and even moreso -- patches!) for these OSes.
I'll pay for shipping for anything running or that fits my needs for parts for my old laptops. The newest laptop I've got that still runs is a 386, so I'd go crazy with a P3.
If they function AT ALL without further expense I can think of several deserving charities here in Costa Rica that would certainly appreciate getting 5 laptops. Contact me if interested
Stoptional
Sears doesn't send out those big thick catalogs any more, so children all over the country are hurting for booster seats during family get-togethers.
An old laptop is thick enough to get them high enough to reach their plates.
If you recycle it through Costco's web site, they'll sometimes give you cash for it. At the very least you can get rid of stuff for free, including monitors. You tell them what you have at the site and they send you a postage paid box.
They would work great as a thin client.
You could also use them in a public area like a library is a Kiosk machine. Lots of ways to do this. Opera has a built in kiosk mode (where it basically disables windows hotkeys and locks the browser full-screen). There's also a good Kiosk tool for KDE, which allows you to lock down the desktop environment.
Gee, tons of other options. A good hardened router/firewall, with an external hard drive in hand a NAS, a simple LAMP server for a blog, any number of things.
KDE (and other window managers) makes inverting the screen trivial. mount the laptop upside down under the cabinet like one of those Bose CD players. The screen flips down like in a minivan DVD player.
Add a wireless keyboard and (as you said) bammo!
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
I am putting together a charity to ship old computers to African schools.
Please contact me if interested. AlexZavatone(spamblock)@gmail.com
http://web.mac.com/zav/iWeb/Zav-O-Matic/Off%20to%20Africa.html
http://web.mac.com/zav/iWeb/Zav-O-Matic/Namibia%202008/D3A0AB87-8276-4741-8F1B-9225C7F23CF7.html
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
I've used laptops as a second monitor using MaxiVista (www.maxivista.com) Its not too good for high motion screens, but great for have the web on one screen and Word on another...
I'm surprised no one has mentioned helping out the /. community. Find a half dozen good ideas from the Securing Your Notebook Against US Customs thread and try them on each laptop. When you cross customs with a backpack full of laptops I'm sure you'll get a chance to see which encryption scheme works!
I look forward to hearing the results in a few months, IF you are ever let out of holding...
Take the circuit boards out, make your own computer cases out of wood, with dovetail joints and glossy finish, and sell them sans batteries as kitchen-table web browsing terminals.
Hasan
My old laptop's LCD died. This was one of many parts that had died over the last year or two, including the HDD (twice), the motherboard, and the RAM. So I got a new Asus G1 lappy which continues to serve me well.
But what to do with the old lappy? Well, it still boots up and connects to an external display... Bingo, a web server! Generally, if you're running a personal server on your home connection, as long as you're not adversely affecting your ISP's network, they won't care (or know about it). If your battery still works (mine does not, alas), you've even got a built-in UPS!
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Attach some wooden legs to them and use them as end tables. I have made many a nice furniture piece using old computers. Including a coffee table, night stands, and even a fish tank. The last one isn't finished yet because of leak issues.
Somewhere in a dark place you will find:
www.m1
Bad choice -- Clay pigeons don't spray plastic shards and toxic chemicals everywhere.
When I have shot up laptops or other electronics, I've pulled the batteries and screens, and then set up a tarp underneath where they were hanging so I could clean up easily.
Laptops only make good targets because of the keys -- try stripping them off one at a time from 200 yards. But I can just as easily use a $10 keyboard for that. The one time I did set up a laptop to shoot at, we put it with the targets for people with pistols -- I got maybe 3 shots at it before someone took a 12ga to it.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
No big deal on shipping - most ebay sellers will list that separately from the sales price.
If you don't want to futz with them (get them working again), then: (1) post on Craigs List under Free and "Porch Pickup" and do that or (2) post on ebay with all defects (needs battery, cracked case, powers up etc), the manufacturer/model number and what it has (10GB HDD, 128MB RAM, etc) with $1 starting price and $15 for shipping. I ship many repaired desktop towers for $20 that have full CD/HDD/metal cases - I suspect your laptops will ship in the (newer/larger) post office priority mail box for $12 with some padding.
If you have a P2/3-500Mhz or faster you can run Xubuntu Linux fine (I'm using one for work travel and presentations now with the latest 8.04 loaded - battery is bad but the rest is ok) And have used a P2-350Mhz with Xubuntu 6.06 since it has a good battery. I save any files on a USB flash drive anyway. Open Office productivity suite, Firefox browser, Thunderbird email, and Gimp are my main tools (you can try these out on Windows too).
I only hear about laptops and desktops "being too old/slow for anything by people living in Windows... 98SE worked ok for P2's, needed P3/P4's for XP, need multicore/big ram for Vista...
I just set up a Xubuntu 8.04 server with LTSP.org for the neighbors kids (to get them off Mom & Dad's pc). The server is P3-733Mhz, one client is P2-233Mhz - that only displays/keyboard/mouse activity for that user logged into the server while the other kid is local on the server. Also installed Dansguardian to protect the kids from the shadier side of the internet. Happy kids and Parents.
I have set up a small manufacturing company based on Linux and LTSP - from receptionist to shipping department for $50 in purchased equipment (the rest was considered "scrap - too old to use" by the those getting rid of it. Great for bootstrapping new businesses.
Keep in mind, the typical recycling center just shreds equipment (there are some impressive YouTube videos if you search). This takes a significant amount of energy and nasty chemicals to sort, remelt, and create new computer equipment from. This especially includes computer manufacturers taking returns (they want old units out of circulation so you buy new ones they make). Refurbishing/reusing allows people to avoid the expense and environmental issues of a few upgrade cycles.
For some more ideas see a project of mine (Green Land PC) I'm sure there is someone near your location (craig's list is the quickest way to locate) for local support. If you can cover shipping I can suggest alternatives or find homes for them.
No one has suggested it yet, but I recommend you try building a Beowulf cluster. Just for fun. And for added fun, make it a DOS Beowulf. Follow the step-by-step at building your own low-cost supercomputing cluster. If you have two or more old machines, the cost can probably be kept under $10. The machines don't need a lot of memory, but they must have a working parallel port.
Any laptop with a real serial port will be treated like gold and gladly put to good use at any research lab as a data logging tool connecting to some oddball piece of scientific equipment. Computers age much faster than instruments, and so often the interface software needs some old out of date OS and hardware to run. Try giving a call to the research focused department of your choice at your local university- and try and talk to the lab folk doing research, not the IT support who deal with student & email issues.
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
And, laptops are low-profile. Shove them in a closet or under your desk. If they'll run too hot, spend $5 and get one of those cooling-pads with fans built in. remote control the laptop server whenever you need to. If you need console access-- it has a built-in keyboard, mouse and screen.
If you can fit 2 nics in them, they'll make excellent firewall appliances. Most laptops will come with a NIC built-in. Add a second PC-MCIA nic. If they're P2/P3, they might even have a modem built in. You can add fax-capabilities onto the server. Heck, if you're ambitious enough, set it up as a PBX. Have fun automatically routing telemarketers to an eternal on-hold "Chocolate Rain" message. Automatically reply to fax-spam with Hello.JPG.
If you are going to go the donation route, then look into making a portable lab for a school. Install wireless nics on each computer, and configure them to talk nicely to a wireless router. Then donate the whole shebang to a school. Schools need a computers for a lot of students, but not necessarily all at once. A lab of 10-20 computers that can be moved room-to-room is perfect for a lesson that needs computer access in a place other than a computer lab. (Taking it into a science lab so they can run spreadsheet calculations on experiment results, eg).
If it's a P3, it should be powerful enough to make a usable HTPC out of. Most P3 laptops I've seen have TV-Out built into them. Hook them up to a TV. Transfer media files to it as needed (I assume they have a 8-12GB HDD). Alternately, slap a large-capacity USB hard drive onto it and make it double as a fileserver.
Lots of uses.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
I have an old PII/266 which runs DSL (Damn Small Linux) very nicely. I put XMMS on it, and hooked the speaker out to one of the alternate audio inputs on my stereo. It's not phenomenally high quality stereo, but at least better than most FM reception, and you've got hundreds (thousands?) of online radio stations to pick from.
DSL has some problems, such as shutting down the system if I close the lid on the laptop, and then not recovering the ethernet connection when I open it up again, but for the most part, it's better than tossing out the laptop. It's a lot smaller and cleaner looking than trying to get a full blown system with a monitor and keyboard to do the same thing.
Your Servant, B. Baggins
The one reason that older Laptops retain value after their life expectancy have run out is that they are complete compact computers that comes with screen, keyboard, storage ready to use right there and now.
...yes..it's more compatible with my old style centronic port rather than those windowsy modern equivalents that absolutely wants to control all the hardware by itself... this old unit has full "dos" control and can run old "protel" software to create those Nice Direct-to-plotter pcb layouts that make the life of a nerd a bit easier and cheaper.
What do I use them for?
I've refurbished one of the smallest laptops in the world (3010ct) from Toshiba (Weighs around 1.2 kg) as a lightweight practical surfing machine that I can take with me anywhere (take THAT pricey Macbook AIR!) cost me 15 dollars plus 10 bucks for the wireless CF card + adapter - downloaded some russian win 98 usb hack to give it usb powers + some wifi cf hack to give it wifi...voila...it's a fantastic Wireless surfer.
I've got a couple of nice IBM 600's that I've turned into portable Commodore 64's! Thanks to FRODO it instantly boots into a Commodore 64 within 10 seconds (take THAT you SLOW SLOOOW booting modern pcs that take 1-2 minutes to boot win xp!) This one can play all the cool games of our past years...and provide a nice prototyping platform to quickly try out some programming theories...
I've turned my Olivetti Echos 100E into a super-Eprom-Programming station! Yes - Todays modern PCs'doesnt come with Parallel or Serial ports (sure...usb is some sort of ultra fast serial port..but it doesnt work...and converterboards suck in general so...) I use this one to burn EPROMS with those nice 80-90's eprom programmers!
I've turned my other laptop into a Plotting Machine to make PCB's (Printed Circuit boards)
So yes - There's life in them old lappies still! I love'em!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Another option: I was able to donate an ancient, not-great-when-it-was-new lap-top to the local community center.
It was virtually useless to me, but they loved it. Some of the kids they work with are very techie-inclined, but their families can't afford even one computer. The center has computers that they can use, but of course they can't let the kids do anything that might mess them up. So an anchient, free, laptop was just the thing. First the some of the kids had fun figuring out how to work the Linux. And then since it was so old, they could let the kids who loved to tinker with things go to town on it, without worrying that they might break it. Great fun was had by all.
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At least then he can shut it down gracefully, maybe with a script that does so a few minutes after the DC power disappears. In this case it probably won't be used for something mission critical, so it wouldn't be practical to keep the server going through a whole power failure anyway.
Saying "I'll probably get modded down for this" in a post is the best way to get it modded up.
db
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
Guess what - a computer that old that doesn't run commonly used software (in others, MS Office, and an up to date web browser) is of no more interest to most non-profit groups that it is to you. They can buy a new system for $500 and likely have no interest in whatever ancient laptops are cluttering up you garage.
If you can't think of a use for it, and you can't think of anyone in your immediate circle that would want it, then it's better to pass it on to whatever group in your town can at least take a stab at recycling it.
Three Squirrels
Make a cheap car-puter/dvd player for your kids. You could mount it almost anywhere, or even recess it into the dash...
... and if you were really keen, you could use a 3G connection card to triangulate your position as a poor man's GPS.
You could set it up for war-driving, wire it into your sound system, add an external drive that you could plug in (and use for transfers)
... or you could set it up and pretend to be a cop...
Sorry to go so far OT, but the parent poster is wildly misleading about the process of removing the fuel pump. "...removing the in tank fuel pump (not too hard on many cars)..."
The in-tank fuel pump is attached to a "manhole" opening on the top of the tank. Since the tank is mounted under the car this means removal requires first removing the gas tank, a nontrivial task. In the US market, the overwhelming majority require removal of the tank in order to service the in-tank fuel pump.
The only exceptions I know of were 2 European manufacturers' products, all from the early 80's through early 90's. There may be others, but I do not have 1st hand knowledge of them.
Hey, if I'm gonna take off on a tangent, I'm gonna take it well past the limits of sanity.
I recently heard from someone who manages a mailroom in a large firm that _none_ of her staff knew how to type, so they were really unable to apply to move up to any other job in the organization.
They were locked into the low end job slot.
I got an old laptop, erased Windows from its tiny old hard drive, set it up to boot DOS (FreeDOS, I think) and installed an autoexec file to run an old copy of Typing Tutor III -- which is still probably the best thing going to learn the home row then slowly add keys and build speed and sequences.
You can still find it for sale, look around.
No eye candy, no other programs, no mouse, nothing to fiddle with.
It remembers different people so they all are using it -- and now they're competing with each other to get faster and better.
Typing Tutor was an incredible simple DOS program.
Enter your name. It remembers where you left off and what you need next.
And it has a lovely little Letter Invaders game -- falling letters, lower case and upper case, that's tied to your current level of keyboard experience.
Put headphones on the laptop so nobody bothers the student because of the music it plays.
There's _no_garbage_ on this setup. I pulled out the floppy/CD drive modules.
All it does is -- teach people to type.
Show them just the home row ASDF JKL; and tell them where to put their fingers at the start.
That's all you need.
** I know it seems incredible but there are a _lot_ of adults still who never learned to use a keyboard. Poor family. Poor schools with no tech at all. No tools, no teachers.
Help someone out with your old laptops. Set one up so you know it works as needed and then shop it around.
Figure it's a throwaway -- tie it down maybe, but make clear it's a doorstop, tell people they can borrow it, take it home, it's not worth stealing.
All it can do is teach.