Very Old Laptops.

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Very Old Laptops.

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Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 16 2:15 pm Post subject: Very Old Laptops.
I have here a couple of very old laptops PIII processors and maxed out with 512MB RAM and I don't know what to do with them. I'm reluctant to bin them because they work and I am daft like that. It occurred to me today that they are probably out-performed by a Raspberry Pi, and I wondered about chucking the motherboard away and putting a Pi or somesuch in instead. Is that a really stupid idea?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 16 3:06 pm Post subject:
no idea but they would probably run linux mint quite well

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 16 5:45 pm Post subject:

dpack wrote:

no idea but they would probably run linux mint quite well

They are old Dell's and surprisingly resistant to Linux installations: I tried a few when they were first given to me, but I couldn't get any to work.
Maybe I'll try again.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 16 5:56 pm Post subject:
Mint would still rely on many old components. Gutting it and using a pi would remove some of that risk. If I'm right that a pi needs a screen, input devices, a box and maybe output ports to work then it seems a pretty good idea. I bet there's even a market for churning them out and old laptops can effectively be had as landfill.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 16 5:58 pm Post subject:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=100143 When you get problems. Ten seconds googling suggest it's a goer. And he's already built a 3D printer.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 16 6:22 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

And he's already built a 3D printer.

Yeah, OK, it's on the list. I just cannot find the motivation to get on with it...

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 16 8:19 pm Post subject:
Another possible thought (as I'm looking at a broken one) is to take the engine out of a tablet or a phone...

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 16 9:02 pm Post subject:

Hairyloon wrote:

Nick wrote:

And he's already built a 3D printer.

Yeah, OK, it's on the list. I just cannot find the motivation to get on with it...

In Belgium last week, at Carrefour they were selling 3D printers for a few hundred euro. 300 maybe.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 16 10:56 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

Hairyloon wrote:

Nick wrote:

And he's already built a 3D printer.

Yeah, OK, it's on the list. I just cannot find the motivation to get on with it...

In Belgium last week, at Carrefour they were selling 3D printers for a few hundred euro. 300 maybe.

I don't think I have enough proper use to justify buying one, but it would be interesting to build one...

Shane

Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 3467
Location: Doha. Is hot.

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 16 3:24 am Post subject:
Anything electronic I've ever bought from Carrefour has broken within two uses - although I guess they are probably just aligning with local customer expectations out this way.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 16 8:04 am Post subject:

Hairyloon wrote:

Another possible thought (as I'm looking at a broken one) is to take the engine out of a tablet or a phone...

I suspect a Pi will have handy and simple connectors. And that a tablet or phone set up will not. Reckon you might spend more hours than helpful doing the wiring.

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