Any advice on reusing old laptops?

I have 4 laptops from 2010 at home Also have another 2 at the office that are from 2004. It's incredible how all of them are still functional. These all have some minor issue or another though.

I also have 2 more that have been storage for God knows how long and they are properly dead.

What do you guys do? Is is any value in trying to sell them or maybe use for something?

Comments7

@mrmiyamoto

Emulator machine is a good idea, here are some that I’ve had some success with:

digital picture frame? Run a screensaver with family pictures on one
high end streaming box. Install Kodi or a version of XBMC and use it for your streaming platforms while hooked up to a TV
Plex server — be your own streaming platform. Using something like Plex you could turn an old computer into a media server and you can sail the high seas instead of paying whatever ridiculous price Netflix wants these days

@karanftw reply

I use mine as a plex server. Only problem with old laptops is the storage and the lack of usb 3 for any kind of decent external ssd transfers.

@mattdamon reply

What absolutely sucks about old laptops is that the LCD screen ALWAYS starts to get some weird arrifact. Usually a whole bunch of lines making any kind of display hack rather shabby.

@eyesofgod

Id say either scrap the screens to get an insane 5 screen station or turn them into oldschool gaming machines, some emulators will run on anything.

@rohanjosh reply

Great idea actually, if only I had a little bit of skill and solder to pull off this heist.

@eyesofgod reply

I feel like a cheap solder from amazon and some youtube videos might be enough, it might come out jankie as hell but atleast it will be a cool project!

@rohanjosh reply

Was thinking of using some as a streaming machine. The network adapter's on these things are ancient lols. I dont mind tossing the really old and non functional ones out. But having a bit of a hoarder personality, throwing out functional laptops is kind of hard for me..