
Ask HN: What should I do with my old laptop? - th3o6a1d
What&#x27;s the coolest way to repurpose an old laptop? I&#x27;d love to put the excess computing power to use somehow, or start building connected home&#x2F;IoT stuff, but I&#x27;m mainly just interested in hearing what others have done...
======
satysin
Look into recycling it to somebody who could use a computer. Maybe it is
someone down on their luck or struggling to survive and can't find a way
forward or an elderly person or just a kid who could do with their own
computer.

Slap Ubuntu on it and pay it forward. If you gift it to somebody looking to
use it for more than Facebook then stick some free ebooks for Python or such
on it.

It is easy to think "but _everyone_ has access to a computer" and while that
is mostly true having your _own_ computer is very different from access to
one.

My father is a teacher and has recycled three laptops (and a desktop a long
time ago) to kids living on the poverty line. I know at least one was very
grateful as I got a lovely thank you letter from them.

~~~
sandworm101
I tried this once. All the local groups that took computers only wanted
machines less than 5 years old, and even then only if they were capable of
running the latest OS (ie win 8/10). Obviously my definition of "end of life"
is different than most and I decided to continue using the machine. In fact, I
am typing this on said machine. Continued use is better than recycling.

~~~
veddox
Having been on the receiving end of charitable laptop donations (working at a
school in the Third World), I fully understand and sympathize with this
5-year-rule. You wouldn't believe what kind of crappy old laptops get donated
- absolutely useless stuff. All too often, the only thing you gain out of a
well-meant donation is the hassle of disposing of a piece of junk. Of course
there are still laptops that are older than five years and still work fine,
but you have to draw the line somewhere.

------
haser_au
First Option: Donate it (as @cbanek and other have suggested)

Second Option: Put it on the wall near your door, and have it as a generic
assistant. Put the days weather, your family calendar, time until next
bus/train, news headlines, etc. on it. They should change at different periods
of the day to give you time relevant information (e.g. I want to know the time
until the next bus in the morning, but I don't care about this when I'm home
in the evening).

Advanced: Have the webcam in the laptop detect when someone comes home using
OpenCV or similar. Then, have that information accessible via an app (read:
HTML5 webpage). That way, you should know when your kids come home in the
afternoon and they forget to text you "I'm home safe". Or you can have it run
a script when you come home like reading the latest news stories, reading
emails, etc.

The combination of microphone, web camera, battery and screen in this make it
perfect for this. Your other options are to use a tablet. You could also link
to the Google/Microsoft voice recognition software to listen to your commands
(e.g. add Milk to the shopping list).

~~~
burkesquires
Any particular implementations of generic assistant that you can recommend?
Sounds intriguing...

------
cbanek
If it isn't too old, there are some charities in the US that take laptops and
give them to veterans. Goodwill is also a good place.

Other ideas might be to purpose it for your car, or somewhere else, but that
depends on how old / large / power hungry it is.

------
deftnerd
Is there a recommended place where geeks in need can apply for donated
laptops?

I took a year off with my wife in kids in the cheapest US locale I could find
(agricultural area of Puerto Rico) so I could survive on my passive income
projects while I learn some new skills (C++, Go, deep learning, and a few
others)

I didn't expect to lose both laptops I brought - One to power surges caused by
bad infrastructure and one to tiny sugar ants that decided to build a colony
inside the laptop.

I've ended my sabbatical and am heading back to the mainland, but it's hard to
do dev work on the laptop I managed to breath life back into when I know that
if it dies, I have no way to replace it.

I'm sure I'm not the only poor geek out there. Where should we look for cast-
off equipment that doesn't get mined by opportunists who just want free stuff
to sell on ebay?

~~~
knob
Where are you at in Puerto Rico? I am in San Juan, and have a laptop I can
give you. Would be happy to help a fellow-geek.

~~~
deftnerd
Overlooking Adjuntas. We wanted to go somewhere with perfect weather and
Adjuntas fits that bill :-)

~~~
Vivtek
Shout out! We're moving there in the next couple of years to grow coffee.

We'll be in Ponce in August (that's where we know the most people, so we'll
rent there for a year or two while learning the ropes from some coffee-grower
friends and looking for the right land).

~~~
deftnerd
You're picking a great place to live. The people are friendly, fairly low
crime rate, and the weather is amazing. I don't think it's been over 80 since
I've been here.

Everyone here grows coffee or bananas, so make sure you're not planning to
sell locally.

Water and Electric are inconsistent. Make sure wherever you live has a backup
water tank that you keep filled and that your fancy electronics are on a good
surge protector or better yet a UPS. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get an
inexpensive generator.

Internet is available too! alphanetwireless.com is a local WISP that serves
the valley and surrounding mountains. I pay $60 for a 10 down/4 up connection
if I remember correctly. Uptime is about 99%. Strong mobile phone signals in
the area too across at least 3 different networks my visitors have had.

Downsides? Not a lot of variety in restaurants. Most stuff is fried. Chinese
food even comes with french fries. Also, berries are rare and expensive.

My email is in my profile. Send me a message if you have any questions.

~~~
Vivtek
Ha. I know all that. We lived in Puerto Rico for five years a couple years
back.

No, local sales are not at all profitable. The wholesale price of coffee is
fixed to benefit the big roasters - our plan is to roast it ourselves and sell
retail online as a boutique brand serving the mainland. Our friends already do
this, and do OK with it.

The electricity is fine in Ponce (water can be a temporary issue there, too,
but every house has a tank); when we do come to Adjuntas, we'll be building a
solar house, ideally somewhere with its own spring water.

No hurry. It's PR. :-)

------
hackathonguy
Something that doesn't come up very often: if you find an entrepreneur from
Africa/Middle East/Southeast Asia/LatAm they're often very interested in
purchasing second hand MacBooks or whatnot to power some new ideas :-) Ebay
isn't great because there are steep customs charges which you don't
necessarily have if you're selling privately.

~~~
eli
How is customs going to be any different whether or not eBay facilitated the
sale?

~~~
curiousgal
Shipping it as a gift usually works.

~~~
nathancahill
No, it doesn't.

~~~
curiousgal
_usually_. I live in a Third World country and I pay significantly less fees
when the item has been declared as a gift.

------
PeterStuer
The machine was future e-waste since it was produced. That is a sunken
environmental cost and shouldn't figure into the equation of whether it is
useful to prolong its life. There is a running environmental impact related to
power usage. This is the one that you need to offset with gained utility. But
perhaps the most important decision: at this point you are in control of the
end-of-life handling. You can opt for the most responsible process. Once you
donate or sell the machine, you have no control, and the further down it goes
the more chance it will end up in an illegal landfill, or in a Chinese toxic
child-labour scavenging yard.

------
RIMR
Do we really need 20+ comments calling for OP to give it to charity? It's
noble, but it's pretty clear OP wants to start a project with it.

Honestly, if you're a hacker, you're probably not going to want to part with
working hardware you might use later. I own a ton of parts and old computers
for this purpose.

So, if you're looking to use your old laptop for something novel, I suggest:

1\. Turn it into a TERM server.

2\. Turn it into a media center with KODI(XMBC).

3\. Turn it into a game server.

4\. Put Windows Server onto it and build a home domain.

5\. Install a different OS than your main laptop and use it interchangeably.

6\. Use it for projects that may put your main laptop into danger (water, high
voltage, etc.).

7\. Plug a Kinect into it and turn it into a machine vision robot.

8\. Add it to a BlenderGrid with all of your other computers and teach
yourself 3D animation.

9\. Install it into your car as a carputer / wardriving rig.

10\. If it has a GPU, use it as a Steambox for low-end gaming. (See also:
Media Center)

------
supersan
If it has an HDMI port, you can install Kodi[1] on it and plug it to your TV
to create a really cool media center.

[1] [https://kodi.tv/](https://kodi.tv/)

~~~
hbosch
I did this, but with Plex (I am a Plex user across multiple devices). I use
the computer in clamshell mode with HDMI to my living room TV.

Also, I use Rowmote[0] to control the computer -- an old Macbook -- from my
phone and run OpenEmu[1] next to Plex for a home arcade solution. I use a
Bluetooth PS3 controller for the arcade. SNES works great with Sixaxis
controllers, N64 is possible. Havent tried Dolphin[2] yet... But looking
forward to it.

Late 2011 MBP for the curious, runs great for the above uses.

0\. [http://regularrateandrhythm.com/apps/rowmote-
pro/](http://regularrateandrhythm.com/apps/rowmote-pro/) 1\.
[http://openemu.org/](http://openemu.org/) 2\. [https://dolphin-
emu.org/](https://dolphin-emu.org/)

~~~
mikewhy
If you use the SC drivers to turn the PS3 controller into an Xbox controller
you can use that to control Plex Home Theatre as well. The Plex mobile apps
also work as remotes.

Using a PS3 controller will work in Dolphin, but you'll need multiple
controller profiles (think Wiimote + nun chuck, Wiimote sideways, Classic
Controller, etc).

Retroarch takes a bit of the pain of setting up different controllers for
emulators.

------
keithpeter
Thinkpad X60 manufactured December 2006. Runs any recent Linux well and could
be used for daily tasks including Libreoffice and Web, so I support donation
to one who needs basics. Can also run a customised ChromeOS install from

[http://www.neverware.com/](http://www.neverware.com/)

which allows use as Web terminal and music player with local storage.

------
gambiting
I've got a 1998 Fujitsu laptop that is on 24/7, displaying a digital watch on
an old 17" LCD monitor. It's so old it doesn't even have a fan, so it's
completely silent(I've also replaced the hdd with a CF->IDE adapter with a 1GB
CF card), and it runs Windows 95. I think it's a Pentium MMX 166Mhz + 64MB of
ram. I guess nowadays a raspberry pi could do the same job with a slightly
lower power consumption, but I've been using that laptop this way for years,
so I feel bad about retiring it now.

~~~
barbs
Is it networked? Just wondering about the possibility of time-drift

~~~
gambiting
It is actually! I've got an absolutely ancient PCMCIA wifi card that only
supports 802.11b, but that's enough to connect to wifi and sync with NTP
servers. Without it, the time drift is really bad, about 5-10 minutes/month.

~~~
peatmoss
I'm always amazed how bad time drift is with non NTP synced systems. I have a
couple very inexpensive Timex Quartz analog watches that manage a month
without any drift that I notice (they get reset when I need to reset the date
wheel).

------
ebcase
Run ArchiveTeam Warrior --
[http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=ArchiveTeam_Warri...](http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=ArchiveTeam_Warrior)
to help the Internet Archive create archival copies of websites and services
that are being decommissioned.

Also BOINC from UC Berkeley --
[http://boinc.berkeley.edu/](http://boinc.berkeley.edu/) \-- to volunteer your
processor cycles to scientific research. E.g. the current OpenZika project:

[https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/zika/overview.do](https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/zika/overview.do)

------
nulltype
I use mine as a cat heater.

~~~
kijin
Ceiling cat called. He wants his Prescott back. He is threatening to switch to
AMD's FX-9590 unless Intel comes up with a warmer processor a.s.a.p.

~~~
8draco8
Funny thing is that FX-9590 max temp is 61C. In comparision 61C is consider
"normal" on i5-6500 with stock cooler under heavy load.

------
glenda
If you're willing to part with it you should consider giving it to someone
that doesn't have a computer. Otherwise, just save the computer and run
another operating system on it for testing or hold on to it until you find a
need for it in your life.

------
prymitive
How about recycling it? We won't need another wind turbine if people stop
looking for excuses to keep old and less power efficient devices up & running.

~~~
fencepost
Bear in mind though that if an older laptop displaces a comparably priced
older desktop it's likely to use significantly less energy. Typical power
consumption is likely to be under 30 watts even for most older laptops, with
peaks still well under 100.

~~~
astrodust
They still consume power and generate heat. If you want something truly low
power, the Raspberry Pi 3 is actually quite capable. Add on the 7" touch-
screen display and it's amazing what it can do on a handful of watts.

~~~
fencepost
Yes, I understand that the Vespa can do amazing things, is fun to ride and is
very economical to use. Still, I was actually looking for a car.

------
known
DONATE to
[http://www.computerswithcauses.org/](http://www.computerswithcauses.org/)

~~~
grhmc
This option is refreshingly direct, for this thread.

------
Daneel_
Run pfSense on it as your router, using VLANs to make use of the single NIC on
it.

I've done this myself, and it was a great learning tool.

You get the benefit of having a built-in UPS too. Note that you'll need a
switch capable of supporting VLANs too, but you can pick these up very cheaply
nowadays.

------
lgleason
We are always collecting them for a program that teaches kids to code in South
Africa....anything 10 years old or newer works great for them.

~~~
sixhobbits
I have an old laptop in SA. Could you link to details of the programme?

------
dhruvkar
I've just started doing this, but here's all I'd like to do. Setup a Twilio
service number that hits your old laptop. Write scripts for things you want
automated in and around the house. Two I'm working on - buy gifts for people
based on their Amazon wish list & download movies based on rotten tomatoes
ratings.

When I'm finished, I should be able to text my PA number: "gift John" and a
script runs on my old laptop that buys and sends a gift to John.

Admittedly, this is a somewhat contrived use case, but I like automation and
repurposing old hardware :D

------
Lorenzo45
You could make a smart mirror using the monitor behind a one-way mirror.
Haven't done it myself but I've seen tutorials online before.

------
barbs
I have an old laptop (seems to be from the mid-00s) donated from a friend that
I installed Arch Linux on and have constantly on and plugged into my network.
It runs an ssh server and I can log into it anywhere remotely. It comes in
handy for running scripts, downloading torrents/files when I'm out or I run
cronjobs to do certain things at certain times.

------
tony-allan
A bit off-topic, but old phones and tablets make great clocks for around the
house!

And as @haser_au suggests, great information panels.

------
randomsearch
Donation is probably the best way to use it.

I had an old laptop I used to run Linux + Spotify on, so that I could take it
to people's house parties and run music off it. No concerns about drink
spillages or it being stolen, and you can let anyone add songs to the
playlist. Warning: be selective over who you let near it! :-).

------
Yenrabbit
Aside from giving it away or using it as a cheap 'server' for ssh or whatever,
there are a few other fun options. Mount it behind a picture frame or do what
I did and pop it in a briefcase as a picture frame.
[https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/resize/600x600/61801513953197...](https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/resize/600x600/6180151395319767958.jpg)
This is a fun project but you'll quickly get bored with it using up a plug
socket :P Another option: I don't know your background or anything, but I see
a lot of people with a dedicated laptop running a printer, laser cutter or
whatever - saves tying up your primary machine during print jobs.

------
rekado
My main machine is actually a x200s. It's a perfectly fine machine for my
daily needs, free software development, browsing the web, etc. If it is a
machine like that I'd suggest to keep using it and treating it just like any
other machine. You could even get rid of the hardware backdoor (ME+AMT) by
replacing the BIOS with libreboot and use it as a slightly more secure machine
for crypto.

If it's considerably older than that it might still be sufficient for software
development, so you could either sell it, or have a refurbisher sell it, or
donate it to projects like a local CoderDojo group.

------
cheniel
VPN server. I've been using a Raspberry Pi for this purpose for a while now.

~~~
MasterScrat
Check out Pi Hole as well to block ads: [https://pi-hole.net/](https://pi-
hole.net/)

------
th3o6a1d
Wow. These are all great responses. It's funny...I've installed Ubuntu, messed
with Kodi and Plex, and run a personal website on it, but at the end of the
day, I think I might just actually donate it.

------
sc0rt
I've turned an HP 2000 laptop with an Intel CORE i3 and a smashed screen into
a hub for some old scrypt miners, as well as just a general purpose terminal
in my 'noc'. If I had another one I would probably use it to learn more about,
and set up, a honeypot on my home network.

Does it have a good GPU? Have it run password hashes for Aircrack-ng instead.
Are you versed in Linux distros? If not, use it to play with unfamiliar OS
(driver issues notwithstanding) without too much worry about breaking anything
important.

#tldnr use it to learn something new

------
jlarocco
I always have the same idea when I replace my old machines, but eventually I
just recycle them or give them away.

Usually the hardware I'm replacing it is so much faster that using the old
machine as a compile farm or something like that doesn't make sense.

Using it in a robot or something sounds fun, but I'm more likely to use a
Rasberry Pi or Arduino for that.

Could use it to play with distributed computing, but even that might be easier
using a couple VMs on your new machine.

------
zhte415
As many others say, give it away. Many don't have access to computers, and
$100 or less is still a lot of money. Seriously can transform someone's life.

------
sgt
Another idea is to be able to run dashboards in the office from these laptops.
We have a couple of laptops doing this in the office. We hid the laptops away
somewhere so it doesn't look awkward, then route a VGA or HDMI cable to 27
inch screens that are mounted on the wall. We had a pretty complicated
dashboard, one that the Raspberry Pi (at the time we set this up) struggled to
display.

------
ekr
I'm using a 2009-era laptop as a server (ssh, http, irc-bouncer). Having
tested the power consumption, (with the screen off), it sits at 6.5 W in idle,
according to powertop, so it's very convenient. (I'm quite surprised by this
figure, as I doubt modern Core M cpus can be much better than that). It's a
P8400 cpu.

~~~
sspiff
Modern CPU's and systems can do much better than that. A colleague of mine has
a Dell XPS 13, and with the screen off it sips ~3.4W being mostly idle
(running Unity desktop doing nothing). I was surprised by this, since the last
time I took the time to optimize my laptop's power consumption was in 2010,
when 17W was a respectable result.

It's not just the CPU, either. M.2 SSD's are quite a bit more power efficient
than SATA, and when you're going to low single digit power usage, even those
things start to stack up.

------
anthk
LibertyBSD, learn to use bundled FVWM2 , install SPlayer - Seamonkey - Rox.

Set up ~/.fvwm2rc. Copy it and hack it a lot. Enjoy an ultrafast machine.

Run SMPlayer, search for the option "Skip loop filter", enable it for HD
videos.

Get Audacious, you'd need some background music to relax yourself.

Learn to code in Scheme, and get some books on AI .

------
lazyjones
An old laptop is probably best used as a terminal, provided it has decent
keyboard and screen. I put my ThinkPad 720C (best laptop keyboard ever, but
4MB RAM) to good use as a Linux terminal using VNC back in 1999... It'd
probably be still useful in that role today for what I typically do.

------
2suave
I repurposed my old laptop for my writing so I'd encourage you to do the same.
Since I'm currently in the process of writing a book I thought it would be the
most logical action to take. The laptop is running debian and the text editor
of my choice (for the drafting) is Sublime Text.

------
milankragujevic
donate it to me. im a poor high school student who is looking to get a mac
computer to sart iOS development.

------
ajaimk
I recently turned a 6 year old 11" MBA into my coding laptop for coffeeshops
on the weekend. Smaller screen helps me focus and it's good use. Took it to
the apple store for a new battery but the sad part is how far technology has
come.

------
thomashl
[http://www.relentlessplay.com/broken-laptop-cool-utility-
mon...](http://www.relentlessplay.com/broken-laptop-cool-utility-monitor/)

------
LAMike
Run Tensorflow stuff on it

------
ssijak
Will it blend?

------
emantos
If it's one of those small ones (thinkpad x60 and x2xx generation), use it as
a robot controller. Put it on top of an iRobot Create and experiment with
robotics.

------
tim333
Not especially cool but I use my old one mostly for uploading video to youtube
which can take many hours (slow broadband) while I'm using the new one in
cafes.

------
rreyes1979
Xubuntu + MPD = Wireless Music Player For your home ;)

------
DanBC
Reformat it and put an emulation-focussed distro on it.

You could then practice your hardware modification skills and fit it into a
different box.

------
niall777
RDP terminal, Asterisk pbx, web server, local/cloud file server, torrent
uploads/downloads, tiny core system

------
jjuliano
Create your own home VPN, useful on restrictive network environments like
office, school.

------
andrepd
Owncloud server or similar. Having control over your "cloud" is invaluable.

------
toyg
I put an undemanding Linux on it and passed it to my 6-year-old daughter.

------
akerro
I just my old netbook as CI sever for all my projects, even the simplest.

------
Artlav
Give it to kids! (yours or someone else's)

They'd love taking one apart.

------
aaronelkins
Make it as a free VPN/VPS for other to connect to...

------
89vision
home-assistant.io is a pretty fun little hobby. I run it on the same core2 duo
laptop I use as my media server. Old laptops work great as home servers.

~~~
tony-allan
Starting to get into Raspberry Pi territory — low cost and low power
consumption although you need to bring your own external disk.

------
yuhong
technical specs?

------
lotusko
just keep it，after decades，it would be your memory

------
clentaminator
Beowulf cluster

------
crispytx
Puppy Linux!

------
bbcbasic
Keep it in a drawer. In 10 years time having hardware that you truly own that
doesn't spy on you, and open backdoors will seem novel and may be worth a lot
of money as a result!

~~~
emsy
If it's an Intel laptop with an Intel ME the op is already out of luck.

~~~
Scarblac
It's tech. In 10 years the spying tools of that time won't be compatible with
current Intel ME chips.

~~~
adrianN
Implying the government doesn't run on hardware that is at least ten years
old.

~~~
cptskippy
It only runs on proven technology that's no less than 30 years old.

------
vacri
Laptops make great low-power 'servers' for soho needs, all in a slim form
factor. Obviously won't do if you need grunt, but for light work they're
great. They even come with their own Uninterruptible Power Supply and local
console!

------
OneNoteIsFree
Besides giving it away- use it a backup, personal repository, remote server
for times you don't want to carry a laptop with you...?

------
Caparico
Format and clean it entirely, then install the least resources consuming Linux
OS you can find (something like PuppyLinux is great, even though CentOS was
good for me, too). Now, you can use it as an extra screen. If it has an HDMI
socket you're in luck. If no, just get a HDMI to VGA adapter and you're set.

~~~
wallacoloo
Can you elaborate? You seem to be saying that the HDMI or VGA socket in a
laptop can also act as an input instead of just an output? That intrigues me,
though I'd also be really surprised if it were the case.

You _could_ potentially use one of those wireless display technologies
(Miracast, I think it's called) and setup the computer as a sink, but the
software seemed far from usable when I tried that a year ago.

------
otempomores
Use it as embedded controller in a side project.

