Yesterday, the shipment containing the new Dell Inspiron E1705 arrived. I took it home, configured everything and put it through the motions. It looks and runs fantastic, especially after today’s shipment, 2GB of speedy RAM, arrived.
I got a great price on a machine with all the features I wanted, so waiting four months paid off. The price was great due to a combination good timing, coupons from Dell, and a coupon and 3% cash back from ebates.com [aff].
Now I have to decide what to do with my October 2001 vintage Fujitsu Lifebook C-6631. The AC connector doesn’t stay in the jack in the back of the computer without holding it continuously, and the battery won’t hold a charge. The display flickers occasionally. I upgraded the memory a while ago from 128MB to 256MB. Please leave me some suggestions.
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10:57 pm (reply)
Check around with local schools and/or non-profits to see if you can donate it.
Often, smaller non-profits are in need of all the resources they can get their hands on, especially if they’re constrained by a small budget.
Ideally, it’s a win-win. You can help out an organization (hopefully one you believe in and care about) and maybe get a charitable donation tax deduction in the process.
Good luck with it.
TMT
11:42 pm (reply)
Is there a Freecycle site in your area? I’ve never tried it, but you might get some takers. I have an old computer I’m thinking of listing on there soon.
12:30 am (reply)
I don’t know if your laptop will work but the below website show steps to how to convert it to a digital pic frame. Sounds cool. I’m going to accept to do it myself w/ no male supervision. Let us know what u end up doing.
link
3:52 am (reply)
Donate it, sell it, or throw it if you want…just make sure that you “wipe” off your hard drive before doing anything. Especially since you must be having a lot of your personal finance information (if you used it for blogging) on it.
Use a free program like Simple File Shredder 3.2, or other similar program.
I formatted a hard drive at work a few days ago..loaded a new version of windows on the hard drive and after all this I was able to retrieve about 17,000 files from the “before-formatting” state.
9:11 am (reply)
Whenever I upgrade my computer, I usually donate it to a local school. They’re usually more than happy to take it.
Another idea is to have a garage sale and sell off all your old goods along with your pc.
FT
http://www.MillionDollarJourney.com
9:33 am (reply)
Donate it if you can.
But I agree with Golbguru, make sure you wipe it clean!! You don’t want any information getting into the wrong hands.
10:34 am (reply)
I’ll give you five bucks for it.
12:52 pm (reply)
ebay it.
Take the hard drive out or wipe it very clean first. Be very clear about the issues(battery,flickeringscreen,ac adapter) and you should still net a couple hundred out of it.
Donating it might just cause issues if it decides to stop working.
5:25 pm (reply)
I agree with Kathy to make it a digital picture frame. If you have a Flickr account, there is a free screensaver program called Slickr that will play a slideshow of the pictures you have.
Popular Science had a great article about how to build it. Do -It-Yourself
2:26 pm (reply)
Give it to a 15-year-old geek. They’ll love it.
8:50 pm (reply)
You can send it to Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown Delaware. They will except it for their Electronics Technical Major. Look it up, its a wonderful school. Blue Ribbon, National School of Excellence