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I need to learn when to give up and throw things away

B

beat_truck

Addicted Member
I have a low end Compaq laptop that we bought in around 2010. It always worked well. A good while back, I lost my cool and managed to break the screen,:oops: and it has sat on the shelf since. I plugged it into an external monitor, and it still worked, but evidently I may have damaged the track pad as it didn't work. Though, I suppose that could be unrelated as we always used it with a regular mouse.

I figured I'd buy a cheap parts unit to cannibalize on ebay. I picked one up for $20 shipped. Either the seller lied about the condition or it got damaged in shipping (which I doubt) because the screen turned out to be a little messed up in it, too.:rolleyes: The seller refunded my money and told me to just keep it. It didn't have a HD in it, but I popped in a USB stick with Linux on it just to see what it would do. I was watching a Youtube video on it in about a minute.:)

Long story short, used parts were dirt cheap, so I said screw it and ordered enough to fix both of them and max out the memory while I was at it. Since HP/Compaqs evidently had problems with overheating, I also ordered copper shims to replace the crummy foam thermal pads between the GPUs and the heat sinks and new thermal paste for the CPUs/GPUs.

I could have just bought a better laptop on CL for $75 or $100, but noooo. Heaven forbid I throw out something that kind of works.:)
 
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Hah, I've got a nice Pioneer HT subwoofer that recently had a fit and blew the transformer. Replacements are not an option so I should take it to the dump but NO ! Instead I am going to harvest it's internal organs and smash up the cabinet to be fuel in my fire. Give something away when I can burn it myself ? Not happening !
 
My judgment has gotten a lot better since I was younger, but I've been known to do the same thing with vehicles, too. I've blown a lot of money pissing with worthless JUNK over the years. I actually have a couple vehicles now that I need to decide what I want to do with. I used to enjoy wrenching, but I am losing interest and getting lazy.
 
Now you got me thinking about tossing that 23" Sylvania console tv in the basement. I mean, like ... it hasn't worked for 20 years, and it's not like the tuner could pick up anything if it did, so it may be time ...
 
If I'd thrown anything out all these years I wouldn't be where I am today....................too broke to fix any of it. cheesy.gif
 
gadget73 said:
I have that problem as well. My issue is that I can fix things, so I do. I've fixed things just for the simple technical challenge of it, only to end up with something that works that I still don't want.
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I have done the same. Just because I could and didn't think about the results. Not because I should have.
 
sKiZo said:
Now you got me thinking about tossing that 23" Sylvania console tv in the basement. I mean, like ... it hasn't worked for 20 years, and it's not like the tuner could pick up anything if it did, so it may be time ...
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That's what they make various converter boxes, RF modulators, DVD players, etc for.:biggrin: All my TVs are still old analog CRT sets. Friggin things just refuse to die. And if they do, there are free ones on CL every day.
 
Come to think of it, I DO still have my Sony Betamax here ... also a bunch of tapes I never watched ripped from my C band satellite dish ... which I also still have ... <G>

cband-may16.jpg
 
sKiZo said:
Come to think of it, I DO still have my Sony Betamax here ... also a bunch of tapes I never watched ripped from my C band satellite dish ... which I also still have ... <G>

cband-may16.jpg
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My aunt had one of those when I was little. I remember she paid like $600 for a descrambler so she could get all of the good channels. It worked..... for a few weeks.:rflmao: Not many of the regular channels it got were very interesting, and it always seemed to need calibrated and pissed with in general. It was useless when it got a little snow on it and it was useless in the summer because of the tree leaves.:rolleyes: I helped tear the thing down years ago.
 
fixing old and broken (or both) laptops means secondary use as
music server, CD/LP ripping station with no added hum, etc.

don't need the 40 core/80 threads at 4GHz to play 1000FPS WOW. good enough
for audio.

then when you're done you can donate to needy folks, gain karma points, and be
next in line for that billion dollar lottery top prize...
 
@beat_truck When my daughter had an accident with her laptop screen, I bought one from a seller (eBay or Amazon, I don't recall which) who had a nearly exact replacement, but noted it may be "generic." The only difference was that the screen we received was glossy vs. matte, and it made the images look sharper. It cost about $50 with shipping, but it turns out it was exactly the same screen (brand, and everything) that the manufacturer used in it initially. Replacement was only a matter of popping off the bezel around the screen and loosening four screws, then carefully disconnecting one or two ribbon cables. That's it! I had 'er done and rebooted within minutes.

.She ended up buying a new Acer laptop in January, though, as she needed more horsepower to run Photoshop, Premiere, etc. for her courses at school. It was a lower end Acer but I upgraded it to a SSD and added more memory, and it works plenty fast now. It's also slimmer and lighter, so it is not such a dead weight to carry in the backpack. She'll likely need something more powerful in a few years but for now, this has been perfect. And the cost isn't so much that if it got damaged or stolen, she wouldn't be out a lot of money here. We live in great times for computing. :)
 
Wildcat said:
@beat_truck When my daughter had an accident with her laptop screen, I bought one from a seller (eBay or Amazon, I don't recall which) who had a nearly exact replacement, but noted it may be "generic." The only difference was that the screen we received was glossy vs. matte, and it made the images look sharper. It cost about $50 with shipping, but it turns out it was exactly the same screen (brand, and everything) that the manufacturer used in it initially. Replacement was only a matter of popping off the bezel around the screen and loosening four screws, then carefully disconnecting one or two ribbon cables. That's it! I had 'er done and rebooted within minutes.

.She ended up buying a new Acer laptop in January, though, as she needed more horsepower to run Photoshop, Premiere, etc. for her courses at school. It was a lower end Acer but I upgraded it to a SSD and added more memory, and it works plenty fast now. It's also slimmer and lighter, so it is not such a dead weight to carry in the backpack. She'll likely need something more powerful in a few years but for now, this has been perfect. And the cost isn't so much that if it got damaged or stolen, she wouldn't be out a lot of money here. We live in great times for computing. :)
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I just bought used OEM screens on ebay for both machines. They were cheaper, and some of the new generic ones I looked at had not-so-good reviews. I'm not into gaming, and I run a lighter weight version of Linux, so lack of speed isn't much of an issue for me, even with my older hardware. Last night, I was encoding a video that I had just edited, while switching back and forth between watching a Youtube video and looking at AK...on my Core Two Duo desktop made circa 2009. :) Even my anemic, 6 year old Acer netbook that I picked up for $20 does an acceptable job for most things. I will upgrade someday, but I'm good for now.
 
beat_truck said:
I just bought used OEM screens on ebay for both machines.
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We did OK here. :thumbsup: I had thought of getting a parts donor, but I already have enough junk from over the years that I just wanted to get what I knew would fit, and leave it at that. I guess this particular model of laptop had so many variations that the only way I could be assured of the same panel was to buy a new one.

I built a desktop two or three years ago and I don't see it being outdated for quite a while. But I don't know what to do with all the old ones. It's not like they don't work, but they're outdated enough, and not very energy efficient, that I can't see anyone wanting them.

My Acer laptop is, I think, five years old now. (Purchased it in 2013 new, built in 2012.) I put in the SSD right after purchasing it, maxxed out the memory, and I have no need to upgrade it either. It is one of their quad-core laptops. The battery life is still pretty good considering its age, and I could get at least five hours out of it when it was new (once I installed the SSD). While the screen may not be top of the line, it runs Photoshop well enough when I need to edit my work out in the field. I don't think software (other than for gaming) is all that CPU intensive anymore, so computing power doesn't get outdated as quickly as it used to. Your Acer will be fine for years to come, I'm thinking. :)
 
Wildcat said:
I guess this particular model of laptop had so many variations that the only way I could be assured of the same panel was to buy a new one.
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That was an issue for me, too. The laptop I had and the one I bought for parts were both a Compaq CQ60, but they had different makes and models of screens. And, in all of my searching, I couldn't find anything definitive that told me what would interchange or wouldn't. I read everything ranging from people saying that all the screens that are the same size will interchange, to none will, except for the ones with the same exact part number on them. So, I just bought replacements that had the exact same numbers as the old ones so I know that they will fit.
 
We're using a laptop for streaming that was my sons and is at least 8 years old with a screen I replaced. I can fix a lot of stuff but I like new stuff so if it breaks and the value isn't there it get pitched or recycled.
 
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