What can you do with a busted laptop? (early in the morning)

Descendant X

My buddy dropped his Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, breaking the screen.

So he went and bought himself a new one.

And gave the old one to me. It sill works, but the screen is fucked, to put it lightly.

I was thinking that I would rip out the HD and use it in an external drive, but I just had a thought. What if I format it and use it as an XP machine so that I don't have to run XP (and Zune software) through VirtualBox in Linux? I would just need to get a switch of some sort to hook it up to my monitor so that I can switch back and forth between my desktop and the laptop. Or I could hook it up to my LCDTV downstairs when necessary.

If I go with the cannabalism option I can always take one of the 512 sticks that he has and put it in my netbook as well.

Do you guys have any suggestions that would cost less then $50, or even (gasp!) be free?

Goofball

Probably not an option that you will be able to do for less than 50$ but still I think the best way to go: Replace the broken LCD panel. You should be able to find an exact replacement fairly cheap and it usually isn't very hard to do if you are at all technically inclined.

http://www.google.com/products?q=dell+1525+lcd

Loathing

Can you see anything at *all* on the screen?

Would thinking hooking it up to a monitor would do the trick for using it. That is if you can get the settings setup.

shadydentist

I would just grab some cheap external drives and use it as a home server.

This will be the fate of my laptop when it finally dies.

Descendant X

Yeah, I think I'm going to see if I can find a *cheap* LCD or CRT and hook it up. My buddy managed to get to working hooked up to his monitor so it shouldn't be an issue.

I would replace the panel, but I'd feel bad with him buying a new computer while all I have to do is spend ~$100 to replace it. I'm kind of weird that way.

Improvolone

http://lifehacker.com/search/repurpose%20laptop/

ascannerlightly

(if you're so technically-inclined) offer it to someone you know that needs a laptop (since you say you had one already), or just needs a computer in general, they buy the new screen and you install it. any teachers you know would be a prime candidate.

tsmvengy

I like the idea of taking the LCD/lid off completely and hooking it up to a monitor.

Luq

You could just use it as a file server or something. You don't even need a monitor hooked up to it, just RDP to it.

Descendant X

tsmvengy wrote: »

I like the idea of taking the LCD/lid off completely and hooking it up to a monitor.

This intrigues me greatly. Tell me how this would be done.

EDIT: Nevermind. I figured it out.

Descendant X

So there. I ripped the LCD screen from the laptop and connected it to my LCDTV. I was able to reinstall Vista and I've got everything set up now.

My only hiccup was wireless reception - I failed to notice that two of the wires that were routed from the mobo through the lid were wireless antennae. So I pulled them out of the lid and reconnected them to the wireless card on the mobo et viola! Wireless reception! Now I just have to find a way to hide the antenna wires so the cats don't get at them...

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

FyreWulff

Yeah, I bought a halftop with no screen one time for 40$. The laptop itself was worth 500$ at the time, but it was some rich dude that just went and bought another one.

Just be careful about overheating.

Visti

Lots of awesome stuff can be done with it if you get some linux onto it that you can telnet into.. torrent slave, file server, game server.. hm, but a screen would be a good bet. I had an old macbook that just needed an external screen and it was fine.

Descendant X

Visti wrote: »

Lots of awesome stuff can be done with it if you get some linux onto it that you can telnet into.. torrent slave, file server, game server.. hm, but a screen would be a good bet. I had an old macbook that just needed an external screen and it was fine.

As cool as that stuff sounds, this thing is now running Vista and will for the most part be used to run the Zune software so I don't need to fuck about with VirtualBox.

Browsing the 'net in the lviving room on a proper-sized screen is nice though.