Recycle or repair?

[yjzhou]

Hi guys,

 

 So I was doing a little bit of digging around in my laptop graveyard and found, with a bit of nostalgia, an old Toshiba Portege M400 Tablet PC which I used in the past to play maplestory. A bit of backstory here: So I accidentally left the laptop on overnight - running maplestory when I was younger and I think I must've overheated something because I could never turn it on afterwards.

The specs of the laptop are as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 - 2GHz (x2), 667MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache
• 1024 MB DDRII-533MHz SDRAM - Low cost double memory offer, call for details!
• 80 GB Hard Drive
• DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer
• 12.1" WXGA TFT Screen
• Integrated Graphics supporting 128MB
• Integrated Gigabit LAN
• Integrated wireless 802.11 LAN - Call for advice on Wireless networking
• Operating System: Windows XP Tablet Edition

I am unfortunately not as well versed in the realms of tech specs as I should be (despite being a computer science student) - but I assume that this is perhaps not that impressive? My question to the community however, is; is it worth me taking this laptop to a pc repair store? Or should I use it for one of my personal projects by taking it apart for parts and using the individual components? Also - are there any really good components worth keeping? For example is the inbuilt microphone and speaker any good?

 

Thank you for your time,

best wishes,

Yang-Jian Zhou a tech enthusiast who has just begun learning about tech

[TetraSky]

Recycle. Too old, not worth fixing up.

If you think you can reuse some parts as some sort of DIY project, go ahead, but none of it is worth reusing in a newer PC(not that you could reuse anything other than the hdd anyway)

[yjzhou]

Thank you for your reply @TetraSky. May I ask if the inbuilt microphone is suitable for reuse? As well as the inbuilt speakers and whether the screen could be repurposed as a secondary monitor for my current laptop?

[TetraSky]

2 minutes ago, yjzhou said:

Thank you for your reply @TetraSky. May I ask if the inbuilt microphone is suitable for reuse? As well as the inbuilt speakers and whether the screen could be repurposed as a secondary monitor for my current laptop?

If you are capable of re-purposing the mic and speakers, have fun with it. Cheap one from the dollar store would probably be just as good though.

As for the screen, considering what you'd need to make it compatible with a proper video input like hdmi... literally not worth. Personally, a laptop that old is only good for one thing, having fun disassembling it.

[it_dont_work]

I sold a hp dv200 with similar specs 7-8 years ago, because It was too old to run a cut down version of lbuntu well (basic low req linux distro). 

 

It'd make an ok print server I guess, not much else.