Got Any Cool Hacks for an Old Laptop?

Question

So, I have an old laptop that's not working any more. I suspect it's the hard drive that's playing up, but the hardware was already out of date enough that it was a sluggish beast anyhow. And the battery's pretty much useless now, too.

I'd considered putting a new hard drive in it, and installing one brand or another of Linux on it, or possibly sidestepping the hard drive altogether and running Chromium OS from an SD card.

But I don't really have a particular use for a non-portable laptop even if I did these things. I've got more computers than I can use already.

Neither do I want to throw it away, because that's just not cricket either. All that lovely hardware must have other uses, right?

So I was thinking you guys might have some devilishly cunning projects, hacks, or alternative uses for the laptop, or some combination of its parts.

Hit me!

fvan · Answer

Not a hack, but you could make a box of memories: On a more serious note, reusing the display is always a good idea. I found a driver board on eBay for one of my old laptops. Used in my PiDesk: Sci Fi Your Pi: PiDesk - Project Update #5

domdv77 · Answer

I've just hacked and re-purposed the LCD screen out of a dying laptop, and it was really quite an easy process. First of all remove the actual LCD panel from the laptop lid. This may be either held in place by screws, glue or locking plastic parts. Here you can be brutal since you will be discarding the casings anyway, but be careful not to damage the LCD. Once it is free, carefully remove all the connections too as you will need these later, and look on the back for a label which will show you the model number of the LCD. I googled my serial number and found a chinese distributor selling an LCD controller board for my LCD. £19 and 8 days later, I hooked up the controller board, powered it via a universal brick adaptor for the output I needed, which was 12v 4A. Connected up a RPi2 with debian wheezy installed, and hey presto it worked. I now have an extra display to play with. this video shows everything connected and working

https://youtu.be/jspCGCGPmww

electrorubixtech · Answer

You can make a portable monitor for raspberry pi at an laptop I don't try that yet but there is some tutorials on YouTube and my favorite video is by GreatScott! Reuse old laptop screen search this on you tube I hope you found it

oksbwn · Answer

You can use your old Laptop for networking stuffs like a server or Router or a firewall.....Again it depends on the requirement.....