Long term storage of Laptops

MouldyOldDough

I have two laptops that I intend to keep for years (Decades ?) Simply to allow me to use CD's/DVD's

The reason is that they are worth virtually zero in terms of £'s but one is "as new" (despite it being almost 10 years old) - the other is a high spec 5 year old i5 with a 1Tb SSD and 12Gb RAM - Yet is only valued at £12

Whilst I didn't expect £100's - I resent this tiny value

So my question is what to do with the lithium batteries ?

Should I remove them or leave them in place ?

Both laptops will run without batteries

but you do hear of old Lithium batteries starting fires !!

Sarahspangles

I’d certainly take the batteries out, whether or not you recycle them.

From experience the next thing to ‘go’ with older laptops is the thermal paste used to seat the chip. Which then overheats if you use the device for an extended time.

We’ve been a four-laptop household in the past, at least one would be ten years old but ‘Trigger’s broom’ with upgraded memory and SSD, that might eventually be inherited by the next oldest laptop. Any time we exposed the motherboard we’d consider replacing the thermal paste. I wouldn’t have bothered running them so long if we hadn’t already had the kit to maintain them.

Bear in mind if you connect a laptop to the internet after a long interval it will want to do a zillion updates, so consider disabling that when you store it.

SiliconChip

It would be much simpler to buy a USB DVD drive for around £20, no batteries and you can use it with whatever computer you have now and in the future.

GDB2222

Sarahspangles said:

I’d certainly take the batteries out, whether or not you recycle them.

From experience the next thing to ‘go’ with older laptops is the thermal paste used to seat the chip. Which then overheats if you use the device for an extended time.

We’ve been a four-laptop household in the past, at least one would be ten years old but ‘Trigger’s broom’ with upgraded memory and SSD, that might eventually be inherited by the next oldest laptop. Any time we exposed the motherboard we’d consider replacing the thermal paste. I wouldn’t have bothered running them so long if we hadn’t already had the kit to maintain them.

Bear in mind if you connect a laptop to the internet after a long interval it will want to do a zillion updates, so consider disabling that when you store it.

I agree with all that, except the last paragraph. It is tempting fate not to update the OS. Unless, of course, you don’t connect it to the internet, in which case it can’t update anyway. 

By the way, I wonder where the £12 valuation came from? I’d have thought at least £100, sight unseen!  If it really is high spec, I would think it is worth a good deal more. 

Sarahspangles

GDB2222 said:

It is tempting fate not to update the OS. Unless, of course, you don’t connect it to the internet, in which case it can’t update anyway. 

As OP said the devices are CD/DVD players there shouldn’t be a need to connect. So in option 1 they can be ’off grid’. If connected (option 2) then security updates ought be applied if OP might log into anything like email. However it’s likely the laptop will then ‘break’ within a few years as the OS requires higher spec.

outtatune

Buy a cheap external USB DVD writer for £25 or even less and give the laptops away to someone who can make use of them.

cerebus

Sarahspangles said:

GDB2222 said:

It is tempting fate not to update the OS. Unless, of course, you don’t connect it to the internet, in which case it can’t update anyway. 

As OP said the devices are CD/DVD players there shouldn’t be a need to connect. So in option 1 they can be ’off grid’. If connected (option 2) then security updates ought be applied if OP might log into anything like email. However it’s likely the laptop will then ‘break’ within a few years as the OS requires higher spec.

If you're running Windows 10 or 11 you cannot turn off updates

The other issue is that Windows 10 support ends in 2025 so if storing a laptop for years even if you do decide to connect to the net with it on the future,  the software on it might not function correctly (browsers for example)

If you intend keeping them and there's nothing wrong with that as it's good for the planet I would keep the batteries charged and the laptops upto date , that way as well if the laptop breaks you can fix it whilst parts are still available rather than years down the line where you might find parts are scarce and have a brick 

zagubov

My macbook is 12 years old but is the last one that can play DVDs or CDs. It can also aircast the screen onto the TV. I'm planning to keep it running for as long as possible, as it meets my needs adequately and I don't need it for gaming.
But I'm very wary about upgrading its software. Windows seem to pay a lot more attention to backwards-compatibility than macs do.  Same applies to iphones.

Newcad

Just for a bit of fun to lighten your day.

What to do with an old Macbook? - Use it for opening windows.

cerebus

Newcad said:

Just for a bit of fun to lighten your day.

What to do with an old Macbook? - Use it for opening windows.

Brilliant! As much as I dislike macs as they are well overpriced they are well built and strong!

MouldyOldDough

GDB2222 said:

Sarahspangles said:

I’d certainly take the batteries out, whether or not you recycle them.

From experience the next thing to ‘go’ with older laptops is the thermal paste used to seat the chip. Which then overheats if you use the device for an extended time.

We’ve been a four-laptop household in the past, at least one would be ten years old but ‘Trigger’s broom’ with upgraded memory and SSD, that might eventually be inherited by the next oldest laptop. Any time we exposed the motherboard we’d consider replacing the thermal paste. I wouldn’t have bothered running them so long if we hadn’t already had the kit to maintain them.

Bear in mind if you connect a laptop to the internet after a long interval it will want to do a zillion updates, so consider disabling that when you store it.

I agree with all that, except the last paragraph. It is tempting fate not to update the OS. Unless, of course, you don’t connect it to the internet, in which case it can’t update anyway. 

By the way, I wonder where the £12 valuation came from? I’d have thought at least £100, sight unseen!  If it really is high spec, I would think it is worth a good deal more. 

Laptops direct have offered me £21.60 for it based on it being in poor condition (battery  (non-OEM) dead and keyboard worn) with 1Tb HDD (SSD !) and 8 Gb RAM (12Gb) and it having an i5 processor - that's the best that I can find !

The other one (in "as new" condition) is a low spec Toshiba (4Gb RAM. 500Gb HDD and a 1.6Ghz AMD processor) has been valued at £8 - the battery in this one, holds its charge remarkably as long as from new..... several hours