What to do with old computer stuff?

[Blue S2]

Ok, I have way too much computer stuff sitting around. Fried parts, working parts, cases, boards, sound cards, too many printers, etc... A lot of it is way out dated. PII era stuff. Some is more recent.

What do people usually do with this stuff. No one accepts this stuff as donation from what I found out.Technology has moved way beyond the usefulness of this stuff. Its just piling up now!

[Mike]

Throw it out?

[liza]

Donate it to a teen center so kids can use it. Just an idea. :)

[Blue S2]

Yeah, all the centers in the area wanted nothing to do with computer donations unless it was new stuff. I remember a few years back schools and centers would be glad to take stuff. I have at least half dozen working monitors that aren't being used and nobody wants them. "too old" Not even THAT old. It seems people have really gotten caught up in this "latest tech" thing.

Throwing out is an option, but ide rather that be the last option since a lot of it is still very usable. Oh well.

[Savagebasher]

set them all up to aid in heating your house/rooms in the winter

[liza]

Goodwill Industries would probably welcome the donation, also.

[tomvill]

I,d check with your local garbage pickup serive or local recyclers because here we can have our old computers and computer related items picked up for free and recycled.. I,d also check in the yellow pages for computer recyclers .

[rhys]

Try the salvation army

[dicky109]

Throw it out?

Please don't literally do that. Computers have toxic metals and we certainly don't need more of that stuff in our environment.

Don't know where you're located, however, here in northern NJ US, our local county government has a collection twice a year to recycle these things at no charge. Last year I took down about 6 or 7 old CPU's, CRT's, printers, parts, etc., dating back as far as the DOS days.

Some of the computer companies also recycle, but usually at a cost and your local directories should have listings for computer recyclers.

Don't forget to do a software shred on your hard drives. simply formatting doesn't erase information and the bad guys would have no problem recovering your personal and financial information.

[Morgandy]

Throw it out?

Here in California, tossing old computer parts into the trash (landfill) is now strictly illegal. We also can't toss things like old VCRs, TVs, etc. So we have to recycle. My house is full of old gear that I'm too lazy to take down to the official electronics recycling dump.

[camom]

I'm not sure where you are but you might be able to try freecycle.org

If you have stuff you don't need anymore and are willing to give it away free, you just send an email to your local freecycle group and see if anyone wants it.

[rhys]

Most of the time anyway you can use parts of your old PCs. If you have a PC with a CPU of 100Mhz or better then you can run SME Linux on it and use it s file/printer server.

[phocalphobe]

my usual cycle goes like this:

i keep repairing other peoples computers for a fee. some are fubar, some the customers feel the cost of reapir not worth it so i end up with them and stack them up in my garage.

when i have the time, i sort out the ones i want to repair, and the ones i want to cannabalize from. some i just keep a few parts and take the rest to a recycler.

the ones i repair, i either keep as loaners, but most are donated to an neighborhood elementary school i adopted as public service which includes maintenance.

this project got to be so popular, that other public utilities (local and state gov't offices) donate to me their old computers which i refurbish or cannibalize and give to recreation centers, non-profit clubs, etc. **when i have the time**

the referrals for paying pc repair jobs came rolling in right after 'um.;)

[hijinks]

Put it on craigs list someone will take it.

[kram]

Dont just put it into the trash as someone already mentioned. Best is to find a company that recycles such stuff in your area.

[Ferco]

could always try eBay... surprised no one has mentioned that yet... especially the monitors... lots of peeps need like second monitors; they don't even have to be that god; just something to show maybe a second computer works or something...

[gjl711]

Don’t toss it in the garbage as many hare have mentioned. There are toxic materials and much of the metal is valuable for recyclers.
But, you can have a bit of fun before heading to the recycler. Do some testing you have always wanted to do like, what happens when straight 120 is fed into a motherboard. Can a chip keep it’s top on with 20 amps coursing through its tiny little circuitry? Take it apart, I mean all the way apart. Disk platters make great desk conversation pieces.:D :D

WARNING… These will render anything you have truly useless and whenever playing around with 120, know what your doing. It can fry you as fast as a board. But it is fun. ;)

[Blue S2]

Oh I had plenty of experience doing that! I was a network tech years ago and the facility provided a nonstop barrage of broken stuff for me to fix. (play with!) Best education ever!

[ZJChaser]

ebay. I have an ebay store I setup mainly for selling used gear. When my company installs new equipent at a clients they often want nothing to do with the old stuff so we take it and sell it for cheap just to get rid of it.