Getting Rid of Old Laptops

Irish Gunner · 30-06-2020 4:29pm #1

Ok Have some old Laptops thought I could use but they are so Sloooowww

Inspiron 6400
Inspiron 1545-8516
Samsung Notebook NP N140
Dell studio 1737

Added Windows 10 to them but dont think they are up to it

Not using them for anything but was trying to get them for basics like internet and skype for parents but they are slow

Not worth selling so what are the best options other than recycling them any places take them

Also whats best way of wiping them if I do

tphase · 30-06-2020 4:54pm

try installing a lightweight version of linux on them eg Lubuntu or Raspbian

Irish Gunner · 30-06-2020 5:09pm

tphase wrote: »

try installing a lightweight version of linux on them eg Lubuntu or Raspbian

Ok parents use to Windows so just looking at this so maybe a tad bit difficult to explain it to them. I dont need laptop but if I did would look at this

Thanks

Any place to donate them to even?

CucamarMor · 30-06-2020 5:12pm

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Ok parents use to Windows so just looking at this so maybe a tad bit difficult to explain it to them. I dont need laptop but if I did would look at this

Thanks

Any place to donate them to even?

Following. Curious about this myself.

KrakityJones · 30-06-2020 5:17pm

Might be worth putting a small solid state drive (SSD) in them and rebuilding? Makes a massive difference to performance as older laptop drives are usually wrecked and would be slower anyway.

Also Microsoft are releasing a new lightweight version of windows soon (10X) which will be like chrome o/s. I'd think with SSD and that you'd squeeze a bit more life out of them (small ssd like 128gb you can get now for less than 30 quid).

I'd chuck them up on adverts myself, someone will take them off you even if it's only for 50 quid, hell if it's only 20 quid better in your pocket than dumping them.

Edit : Or if you need a home for one of them PM I'll buy one off you for my mother in law who's looking for something just for web browsing, any of those would do the job

30-06-2020 5:29pm

if the benchmark score for the cpu on something like passmark is under 1500 it's probably not worth saving these days or wasting money putting an ssd in it

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/

just google "cpu passmark" e.g. "4010U passmark"

Rob2D · 30-06-2020 5:46pm

The studio was a lovely looking machine. You can donate it to me if you like. Better than the bin :pac:

mrperty2011 · 30-06-2020 5:54pm

Could try cloudready chromium home edition install if h/w compatible and transform into chromebook. Worked a treat on a number of old dell. Provides a list of models on hardware compatible lists. You can even boot off usb to test try before installing locally https://www.neverware.com/freedownload#intro-text

GrumpyMe · 30-06-2020 6:03pm

https://camara.org/give-computers-main/

Don't know if the take ones and twos but
"Some of the world's best known companies - Dell, Virgin, PwC - use Camara to provide a more sustainable and ethical solution for their end-of-life computers."

tphase · 30-06-2020 11:42pm

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Ok parents use to Windows so just looking at this so maybe a tad bit difficult to explain it to them. I don't need laptop but if I did would look at this

can they manage using a tablet? If so, I expect there would be nothing to explain. Install the applications they need (firefox, skype etc), put icons on the desktop. They can double click to start them up or you can set them to start automatically.

Putting in an SSD isn't a bad idea but unless you can extract the existing hard drive without stripping down the laptop, it may be more hassle than it's worth. It would speed up the boot time but for the kind of usage you suggest, I don't think you'd see much performance increase. Unless the hard drive is showing faults, I'd leave it be. I'd be more inclined to maximise the amount of memory the laptop can take initially.

cherryghost · 01-07-2020 11:52am

I've repurposed 2 laptops in the past couple of months, a crappy Atom Asus Netbook and an 8 year old laptop with semi-decent specs

The netbook used its old HDD, 1GB RAM etc, could barely run Lubuntu. Xubuntu performed similar. Useable but good luck doing anything productive on it. Windows XP ran so buttery smooth. A real pain, most drivers didnt install but got there in the end. I wouldnt recommend it though due to security concerns I may have.

The other notebook (4GB RAM, 1st gen core i3, 250gb HDD), ran Lubuntu smoothly without issues. Struggled a bit on Windows 10.

Irish Gunner · 01-07-2020 1:06pm

Thanks for the replies

For any of these if I try them but not workign etc can I revert back to Windows 10?

Parents have android phones so use to this as long as icons on desktop. What is security like on them if they wish to buy something online?

They currently use desktop but for easiness laptop would be easier

Homelander · 04-07-2020 12:22pm

They are so old it's not worth doing anything with them, two of them I looked up are Core2 era and would've been modest even by standards 10-12 years ago.

Win10 may not even have all necessary drivers for them. I don't agree they'd be good for web browsing with an SSD, they are just so old and likely only have 2GB RAM as well.

You could sell them for €40 apiece though I'd say. That's €160 you could use to buy a genuinely decent 2nd hand i5 laptop with an SSD for on Ebay for your parents.

My own parents have an old i5 Thinkpad with 4GB ram and a 120GB SSD for web browsing, Zoom/Skype, and it's perfect. Cost me about €130.

Irish Gunner · 06-07-2020 5:39pm

Thanks

At this stage just might try and get rid of them

Would they be worth much so to stick up on Adverts?

Also whats best on how to wipe them first?

mrperty2011 · 08-07-2020 4:20pm

Used killdisk.com freeware in past. can take a while depending on size

antix80 · 17-07-2020 3:37pm

If you installed windows 10, please say you did a clean install... I was being lazy and "upgraded" a PC to windows 10 and it was so slow. In the end I did the clean install and it was much more usable.

Handy option to wipe the harddrive is just to delete everything private including the user profile and use cheap software to overwrite unused disk space with 1s and 0s. I'm open to correction on that.

Safer option is to format the partition with all your data on, return the laptop to factory settings using the installation files on the hidden partition, and then flog the machine.

Safest and handiest option is to remove the harddrive and sell the machine without the harddrive.

80j2lc5y7u6qs9 · 20-07-2020 11:27pm

I thought laptops have everything tied to the motherboard.? I have a 2007 sony vaio vgn nr11z with vista but too slow to use

Could I put a different CPU, more RAM and windows 10 ? I'm sure when i researched it i found only the existing OS would work in it?

antix80 · 21-07-2020 8:41am

Abram Billions Pocket wrote: »

I thought laptops have everything tied to the motherboard.? I have a 2007

I'm not an expert but if your laptop is from 2007, the best cpu you could put in is probably from 2009. Same for memory.
If your laptop is more than 5 years old you're usually best off replacing rather than upgrading

21-07-2020 4:29pm

it's been a long time since you could upgrade a laptop cpu

on older laptops you can upgrade ram for sure and if it's a spinning HDD then a 2.5inch sata ssd can be put in

but if the cpu is under 1500 on passmark benchmark I woudln't bother as it's not going to be up to running windows 10 well

Irish Gunner · 16-09-2020 12:53pm

Finally getting around to getting rid of these

Inspiron 6400
Inspiron 1545-8516
Samsung Notebook NP N140
Dell studio 1737

How much would they be worth? Need to wipe them

Worth selling or recycle?

bobbyy gee · 19-09-2020 3:56am

buy ssd drive and more memory it will speed it up and install windows 10 you can download the installation took onto usb stick from microsoft siteif upgrading watch out some laptops have 2 ribbon cables when you lift up keyboard.you have to lift up clip other laptops you take off back and you don't get the ribbon cabled

Joeface · 19-09-2020 1:55pm

If it was me

Inspiron 6400
Inspiron 1545-8516
Samsung Notebook NP N140 , these three just remove the drive and either donate or put on adverts as a bundle , I dont think there is much value in them at all . Someone might use them for parts

Dell studio 1737 I liked these . and this is just me , Upgrade CPU and Ram and put an SSD , Linux Mint install.
The CPU I think can be a T9400 they are 6-7euro on ebay , 8GB kit which i think it supports as about 12euro ebay again ., And a half decent 60ssd , these laptops have 2 hard drive bays so , move the current boot drive to the second bay for storage. Decent web browsers , with a nice size screen as its 17inch and ATI(AMD) gfx should be decent enough for watch stuff . less that 50€ to do that as long as the battery is still decent .

much longer reply than was necessary

Irish Gunner · 20-09-2020 1:57pm

Joeface wrote: »

If it was me

Inspiron 6400
Inspiron 1545-8516
Samsung Notebook NP N140 , these three just remove the drive and either donate or put on adverts as a bundle , I dont think there is much value in them at all . Someone might use them for parts

Dell studio 1737 I liked these . and this is just me , Upgrade CPU and Ram and put an SSD , Linux Mint install.
The CPU I think can be a T9400 they are 6-7euro on ebay , 8GB kit which i think it supports as about 12euro ebay again ., And a half decent 60ssd , these laptops have 2 hard drive bays so , move the current boot drive to the second bay for storage. Decent web browsers , with a nice size screen as its 17inch and ATI(AMD) gfx should be decent enough for watch stuff . less that 50€ to do that as long as the battery is still decent .

much longer reply than was necessary

If I take the drive out would it be just used for memory and put it in an enclosure

I've enough memory but I want to wipe them and if worth f all easier to recycle them but just want everything wipped

Joeface · 21-09-2020 11:27am

Irish Gunner wrote: »

If I take the drive out would it be just used for memory and put it in an enclosure

I've enough memory but I want to wipe them and if worth f all easier to recycle them but just want everything wipped

Yeah most of those are Sata connectors so should be fine to put in an enclosure . Not sure about the Inspiron 6400 , that might be old as hell IDE ...A hammer will wipe that pretty good ,.

Irish Gunner · 21-09-2020 12:38pm

Joeface wrote: »

Yeah most of those are Sata connectors so should be fine to put in an enclosure . Not sure about the Inspiron 6400 , that might be old as hell IDE ...A hammer will wipe that pretty good ,.

Took them out

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cAKLfyL8pBHNo7DK8

Not sure which is for the 6400

Any recommendations for enclosure for these and which one of these gets the hammer treatment :-)

Ignore these are dvd so not worth for HDD as small memory

Joeface · 21-09-2020 2:39pm

250GB isn't too bad for external spare/ back up storage image looks like SATA, Any 2.5inch USB chassis you can grab will would be fine .

e.g. https://www.adverts.ie/other-computers/usb-2-0-sata-2-5-sdd-hdd-hard-drive-external-mobile-disk-case-adapter-cable-box/18670433

MrFrisp · 24-09-2020 12:28pm

Hi guys..

While thread is going on old laptops, my wife has a Toshiba Satellite C50D-A--136.

It's fairly slow, in fact pathetic. Everything takes ages to load, stuff runs at a chronic pace.

Is this worth an SSD upgrade, or is it fit for the bin?

I think this is the one..

https://ie.dynabook.com/discontinued-products/satellite-c50d-a-136/

24-09-2020 3:04pm

Cpu is way too bad to waste putting an ssd in it.

MrFrisp · 24-09-2020 5:45pm

glasso wrote: »

Cpu is way too bad to waste putting an ssd in it.

.
Thanks Glasso.

Looks like it is time to search for a good second-hand one so.
.

Charles Babbage · 26-09-2020 4:08pm

If you do decide to give them away consider Camara https://camara.org/
I used DBAN to wipe the disk https://dban.org/

beauf · 03-10-2020 3:53pm

While you can upgrade to a CPU that will be better then an atom or celeron. Everything else on those machines is to old.

Take out the hard drive and either overwrite them or physically destroy then. Machines to recycling.

Just not worth saving.

Getting Rid of Old Laptops

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