What Do You Do With Old Computers?

[semipenguin]

I have three old Gateway laptops that have all died on me in various ways. One doesn't even have a power cord anymore.

I read on the Goodwill donation webpage, they take old laptops.

Goodwill Donation Guidelines and Accepted Items | Amazing Goodwill

It doesn't say they have to be working. I wouldn't even know what to do to keep personal information from being taken off the hard drives.

What do you do with your old computers?

What do you think I should do with my old laptops?

 

[Casual Fan]

I give them to Goodwill. I have a pretty strong feeling that everything ends up ruining the water and causing birth defects in some village in China, but there's a glimmer of hope that the "recycling" is done in an environmentally friendly manner. Goodwill is a pretty large national charity to engage in a program they hadn't researched fully.

 

[Casual Fan]

After Dump, What Happens To Electronic Waste? : NPR
Where Do Recycled Electronics Go? | Popular Science
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/opinion/sunday/where-do-old-cellphones-go-to-die.html

 

[HecticArt]

I pull the hard drives and drop them off at Best Buy. They take them for free. They are supposed to recycle them.

 

[Casual Fan]

You know what's fun? Using them like depth charges against rogue manatees. BONK!

 

[semipenguin]

After Dump, What Happens To Electronic Waste? : NPR
Where Do Recycled Electronics Go? | Popular Science
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/opinion/sunday/where-do-old-cellphones-go-to-die.html

We should ship all our broken electronics to North Korea

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I pull the hard drives and drop them off at Best Buy. They take them for free. They are supposed to recycle them.

Good point on the hard drives. Don't want your porn ... I mean data getting in the wrong hands.

 

[Jon]

I pull the hard drives and drop them off at Best Buy. They take them for free. They are supposed to recycle them.

We used to have fun when I worked for geek squad destroying old hard drives. We took a hammer to them and just went off. It was good stress relief after a hard day at work.

 

[HecticArt]

Good point on the hard drives. Don't want your porn ... I mean data getting in the wrong hands.

True, but they told me at the store to remove the drives.

 

[Casual Fan]

True, but they told me at the store to remove the drives.

Humor for one?

 

[HecticArt]

Humor for one?

Usually 2, but sometimes 3 or 4.

 

[blyons200]

True, but they told me at the store to remove the drives.

Take the hard drives out and drill a hole through it, or smash it with a hammer, both pretty fun and helps protect your privacy/personal info.

 

[blyons200]

I use my old laptop that still lives as a linux machine. I have a huge stockpile of old machines, printers, and other electronic relics sitting in boxes in my basement. Should probably drop that off at a recycling center. I destroyed the hard drives of non functional machines if they were too small to be re-purposed as an external/backup drive.