What should I do with old/broken hardware

[mclaren85]

Apart from my desktop system, I have a 2012 built Sony Vaio laptop, which were running fine until 2 years ago when the GPU failed and reballing temporarily fixed. After sometime it again failed but this time, I did the reflow which could be regarded as partial success since it has been working until yesterday.

It looks as though this procedure would be my routine if I willing to use this old system which I don't need. So if you were me, what would you do with this old system? Sell? Donate? Or else?
Here are the specs:
I7-3632qm
Amd Radeon 7650m 2 gb vram
8 GM ddr3 ram
750 GB hdd
Thanks in adence for your valuable input

 

[wheresmycar]

If you don't need it - do which ever pleases you best: "Sell? Donate? Or else?"

I'm more impressed by your effort with reballing and reflowing. Temporary or not, the fact that you managed to get it working again is just rewarding in itself.

 

[sLowEnd]

Donate or sell what's usable, recycle what isn't

 

[sepheronx]

Just sell as parts on ebay.

 

[mclaren85]

If you don't need it - do which ever pleases you best: "Sell? Donate? Or else?"

I'm more impressed by your effort with reballing and reflowing. Temporary or not, the fact that you managed to get it working again is just rewarding in itself.

Yes it was fun at first. But at the same time frustrating

 

[Bill_Bright]

If you cannot find a buyer, or someone to donate it to, do NOT toss it in trash. There is hazardous waste in electronics that are bad for the environment, and in some cases, can leach into the drinking water. Not good.

Check your local area for electronics disposal/recycling centers. They will properly dispose of the waste in an environmentally safe manner.

Note too, a lot of these devices have valuable recyclable materials in them. When I cleaned out my basement store room of old motherboards, CPUs, RAM, graphics, sound and network cards, cases, printers and other electronics, the electronics recycling center paid me $80 for the recyclable aluminum, steel, and recoverable precious metals commonly found in electronics (like gold!).

Even though my center was a 40 mile round trip, the $80 easily paid for my gas, a couple gallons of paint, and a 12 x 12 carpet remnant used to turn the now empty store room into a nice, cozy spare bedroom - making the wife happy. Happy wife, happy home.

Of course, $80 was cents on the dollar compared to original costs, or even what I thought they were still worth. But they were just sitting there, cluttering up my basement simply because "I might need it someday". "Someday" never came.

Note the only thing the recycling center would not take is 6 old CRT monitors unless I paid them $10 each to take them off my hands. The problem with CRTs is they contain a drop of mercury which takes special handling to recycle properly. And to recover the mercury from a CRT, the tube has to be broken open, which, if done wrong, WILL result in a powerful implosion and ensuing explosion potentially sending shards of sharp glass flying everywhere. Not good. So recovering the mercury from CRT monitors and TVs is an expensive process requiring special techniques and special training to be done safely.

So I ended up bringing the monitors back home. But I printed out a "FREE" sign, taped it one of the monitors and lugged it out to curb. By the time I was taking the 3rd monitor out, some guy was loading the first 2 into his truck. He took them all!

 

[wheresmycar]

Yes it was fun at first. But at the same time frustrating

I know the feeling. I had the same issue with my old XPS 17 from Dell... but no reball/reflow.

 

[mclaren85]

"I might need it someday". "Someday

This was the main reason I ended up waiting so long..
Currently I have 2 HP g6 and 1 sony vaio waiting to be delivered. They all dead due to chipset failure.
I also have a 2006 model Fujitsu laptop which reballed 10 years ago and working ever since.

 

[Bill_Bright]

This was the main reason I ended up waiting so long..

It is why my shed and my garage are still full of things I don't need now likely will never need. Luckily, my lawn mower and my snowblower still fit in my shed. And my truck still fit in my garage - barely.

I get "hoarders". Fortunately, I have never let it get that far.

 

[freeagent]

So if you were me, what would you do with this old system?

 

[jak_2456]

So effectively a Chromebook durability test (viral trend where students destroy their school Chromebooks for a TikTok)

 

[lexluthermiester]

Classic movie!