Use for a broken Laptop?

Hi everyone,

I’ve got a Laptop with a broken graphics adaptor lying around the house which I was thinking of putting to use somehow. It was a pretty good spec when I bought it a couple of years ago so it’s got a fair amount of computing power to give from it’s core 2 duo and 2gb ram, and is in fact a lot more powerful than the desktop I’m using at the moment.

So basically I was wondering if anyone out there has an idea of what I could use such a laptop for? The graphics adaptor is completely dead so running it off an external monitor or using it as some kind of photo viewer isn’t an option, but I was wondering about using it as a sort of server as part of my home network would be an option. I’ve got vista on the laptop and XP on my desktop… is there any way to link the two using my home wireless network to put that core 2 duo to work with my desktop. Or would it be possible to use it as a wireless back-up hard drive somehow?

At the moment I can boot vista on the laptop with the graphics card in an 'all-but dead' very low resolution mode and everything (apart from the display!) is working as it should be so I'm guessing there should be something I can use this system for.

As you can probably guess I’m a little out of my depth here, but any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jimi

 

You can buy "Windows Home Server" and use the laptop as a home server.
I may do that with my old laptop...

Alternatively you can run it as a little web server - etc

So running it as a server is definitely a possibility

 

You could use it as some form of server, check out ubuntu server that can be acessed VIA ssh from another computer which would allow you to set it up without a screen which would be usefull in your case.

 

Just to add - Remote Desktop or Team Viewer wil allow you to remte control a server - but teamviwer won't be free on a server OS

 

what are the advantages of making an old laptop a server.....what purposes does it supply.....i have an old laptop still works but no one uses it so i want to try this..............

 

I would part that out and sell the usable parts (CPU, HDD, RAMs, LCD screen etc.) on Craigslist or ebay...

It would be hard to use it as a server since you don't have the graphics.

--

 

Well, as someone else mentioned, part it and sell

or you maybe able to get a replacement main board salvaged from a laptop using the same board on eBay and fix it.

 

Sell the parts then use it as a doorstopper

 

Whatever you want...

Host a web site.
Back up various computers' files (or whole drives) to the server
Host and stream media files (to Squeezebox, Xbox, PCs...)
Share data among different computers, and access it remotely

 

wow those are good uses might try that backing up thing u mentioned.............

 

Why not use a usb graphic card (can be easily obtained under $40) and use it as a desktop computer.

 

The question is, will the laptop still actually work with the GPU being dead. Most computers won't even POST without a working graphics card.

I vote for parting it out.

 

I second this proposal.

 

People - what's the point of "parting out" an old latop?

The only piece worth selling is possibly the motherboard.

 

Find a motherboard for your laptop on ebay, then replace the old one with a new one. You gain experience working with laptop, and have a functional laptop again. Win-win situation.

 

How very strange - how do you know that the graphics card is dead? You say the laptop actually boots, and the display runs at a very low resolution?

 

I think is possible to have the CPU render graphics at 800*600 - its possible the same pic you get when you unistal your graphics driver - the laptop still works, only at 800*600.

 

i currently use my old and broken HP 2510p with a U7700 1.33 ULV cpu and dead X3100 gpu for my home server. i got the internal 120gb and 2 500gb usb hard drivers in the 2 USB ports. i simply tape the external drivers to the top lip on the laptop and put it in the closet out of the way from people or things that can damage it further. i dont need this laptop to show graphics of any kind that why i got my two other laptops for. this way i get a very low power server (under 30 watts tops) and still store tons of other things. if i want more storage i will a UBS add-on port and install more drivers to it, plus i need to buy more tape cuz i just ran out.

i love this little thing, i undervolt the cpu to .85 from .925. the cpu goes from 10w to maybe 8w or 7w at full speed. i really need to test this thing on those Kill-a-Watt devices.

 

what is broken really? graphic card? does it boot? etc etc lots of questions