Old laptops

walsgravematt

Hi all,

I have 2 or 3 older laptops that I don't use anymore, but would like to resurrect them.

A local computer shop offered to check each of them for £20 each, but I wonder if I could do this myself.

What would be the best way to do this?

Thanks

Matt

NiftyDigits

Brand names and model numbers?

googler

If all you did was stop using them, and there weren't any issues that you haven't told us about, 'checking' them should merely be a case of plugging them in to charge their batteries, and switching on.

What do you actually want to check?

debitcardmayhem

walsgravematt wrote: »

Hi all,

I have 2 or 3 older laptops that I don't use anymore, but would like to resurrect them.

A local computer shop offered to check each of them for £20 each, but I wonder if I could do this myself.

What would be the best way to do this?

Thanks

Matt

googler wrote: »

If all you did was stop using them, and there weren't any issues that you haven't told us about, 'checking' them should merely be a case of plugging them in to charge their batteries, and switching on.

What do you actually want to check?

I would check first if you have 2 or 3 :cool:

finrod

The only information you have given is that they are 'older' and 'unused'.

While I have no intention of contradicting the replies above, assuming they're Windows machines, you might go through the sticky for cleaning up and fine-tuning. Maybe see if a memory upgrade would help (assuming it's economic to get used cards).

If they are really elderly, and a clean-up has no great effect, you might give them a new lease of life by installing a Linux system such as Ubuntu, which is less demanding on system resources and space. I recently had a Toshiba Satellite Pro M40 limping along on XP, which was thoroughly rejuvenated on Ubuntu 10.10.

Whether Windows or Linux, a memory upgrade is likely to help.

almillar

Let's start at the beginning - plug them in and switch them on. What happens?
If it's a Pentium 3 or below I'd say it's not worth spending money on.

walsgravematt

Hi all,

Thanks for replies - sorry for my slow reply to these. Life happened !!!

I will have a look at the models and post back on here shortly.

Thanks again

Matt

kwikbreaks

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

I would check first if you have 2 or 3 :cool:

Excellent

buglawton

The question that will come up is, if I have no installation discs (and nearly all Windows 7 machines do not) then how to I clean down the machine and reinstall Windows to sell my old laptops?

macman

You have 3 'old' machines with Windows 7? It was only released in 2009.
Just do a Factory Restore from the recovery partition, which all modern laptops have, if no recovery disks.

GunJack

macman wrote: »

You have 3 'old' machines with Windows 7? It was only released in 2009.
Just do a Factory Restore from the recovery partition, which all modern laptops have, if no recovery disks.

depends on your definition of modern