Disposing of a very old Windows XP laptop

Is the council recycling centre the best option or is there another way to pass it on to someone who would use it?

It is an ancient heavy Dell with no battery life but it does work with not so bang up to date Windows XP. Is it time for it to be crunched to a fine metallic and plastic dust or is there a better way?

Throw it onto the sea, coral reef.

is there another way to pass it on to someone who would use it?

Use it for what? Unless it can be upgraded to Win10 or have Linux installed, it’s not useful as a computer that’s connected to the internet. If the battery is knackered, it’s not much use as a laptop. Dispose of it as junk.

Ebay it. If no interest skip it. PC World stopped their scrappeage scheme after I traded in a 486 for a new Atom core so that heist is long gone.

Not so bang up to date

microsoft stopped supporting XP in 2014?

sounds like this is a barely-functioning laptop. If you have no use for it, it’s unlikely others will. To the recycling center with it once you’ve erased the hard drive.

there are usually local charities which will take it and either put *nix on it for people or strip it for useful parts.

I’d stick it on ebay first. There are plenty of people out there using stand-alone computers (not connected to a network or internet) for running certain things like old production equipment/scientific kit etc.

This, then down the tip with the other electronics for recycling

https://dban.org/

I have taken a look and don’t think the specification is up to donation standard for the local charity 🙁 tip it is. Thanks all.

Ebaying it is probably still a fair idea, at least then it’ll get reused. 99p start, I’m flinging some similarly ancient ones on this weekend.

The retro gaming community might have a sniff.

The retro gaming community might have a sniff.

Is a possibility, I’m peeved at the number of old games that don’t run anymore.

OTOH a lot of faff to sell it for 99p.

Smash the terminals off the hard drive and take it to the tip.

OTOH a lot of faff to sell it for 99p.

Are you for real?

erased the hard drive.

As in, hit it with a sledge hammer. It’s more fun than repeatedly wiping it with random 1’s and 0’s. Still quite low on the fun scale though. But really do many people find it hard to resist picking up some crusty old barely functional laptop out the skip just to see what’s on the HDD? What is on it? Anything we should know about?

As in, hit it with a sledge hammer.

They are surprisingly robust. After the three hundred and twenty-seventh Fujitsu hard drive died on me that month I had at one with a meaty claw hammer and it barely marked it. A sledge might give it pause though.

But really do many people find it hard to resist picking up some crusty old barely functional laptop out the skip just to see what’s on the HDD?

For most practical purposes it’s unlikely. I would want to properly erase enterprise file server drives, but no-one is going to be doing data recovery / password cracking on a drive they’ve pulled out of a skip unless it’s a targeted attack. People can download their own goat porn these days, they don’t need your laptop.

But if you want to do it properly – and for the little amount of hassle it is, I would – google “DBAN”.

OTOH a lot of faff to sell it for 99p.

Are you for real?

How much do ancient laptops sell for?

At least two pounds 60.

I meant more in relation to the supposed faff. Take a photo, basic description, fling it in a box, throw it at a courier, done.

Someone gets what they want, one more thing gets reused, you get rid without playing the Gumtree game.

If you’ve got the right screwdriver bits disassembling an old hard drive is quite fun.
There’s a pair of mental strong magnets in there.
(I clearly need a life).

But really do many people find it hard to resist picking up some crusty old barely functional laptop out the skip just to see what’s on the HDD? What is on it? Anything we should know about?

As above probably not, and they really are quite tough to kill mechanically. I went though several bulk packs of 6mm drill bits when I destroyed a few hundred of the things for a job.

Hence I now just smash the terminals/controller off, quicker and realistically no one will put the effort into recovering them after that.

I used to work for a WEEE recycling company. We saw thousands of computers a week. No one gave the hard drives a second look, they just got bulldozed into the shredder along with everything else.

There’s a pair of mental strong magnets in there.

Currently using one to hold a full size hand saw to the side of a filing cabinet in the shed. It’s lost magnetism from rattling around in the junk drawer for a few years. Saturday night and it’s come to this.

During the first lockdown there were charities taking old laptops and upcycling them to give to kids who didn’t have laptops. There must be a limit on what they can do, but better than just dumping it?

What’s the actual spec OP?

You might be surprised what Win10 will actually run on. Failing that if it is functional it will go for more than you might think on eBay (but then you have to deal with eBay users)…

People still love to bung Linux on old machines and use them as cheap file servers or little project PCs despite living in the age of the Raspberry pi…

I’ve got W10 on machine that was originally Vista and it’s “OK.” XP era might be pushing it.

Could totally work as a Linux box or as I said before, retro gaming / emulation duties especially if it’s a 4:3 screen. Absolute dollar value will be minimal but I expect someone would be willing to cover P&P at least if your primary driver here was not sending it to landfill.

I’ve got W10 on machine that was originally Vista and it’s “OK.” XP era might be pushing it.

Definitely, internet is a complete no-go on anything that age. Can handle Spotify and light work but otherwise its better as a gaming or Edubuntu machine.

Lots of valuable metals in phones and laptops… Saves mining tons of rock to find a few grams of metal! So get it in the electrical recycling at the tip 🙂

(Hopefully it will end up in a proper facility though and not shipped to India to be picked apart over a fire on the beach)