What To Do With a Broken Laptop

Do you have a broken laptop in your possession? Before you toss it away, know that some of its components may still be in good condition. Sometimes, these laptops may even be repairable, although they may not always be your preferred model. In this case, what can you do with a broken laptop? 

If your laptop is not working because of some physical damage or software issue, then you know the reason it stopped working in the first place. Hence, depending on what works best, you can either salvage its part, repair the laptop or sell it. This guide will explain some creative things you can do with a broken laptop.   

Ways To Use a Broken Laptop

All hope is not lost if your MacBook or Windows laptop is broken beyond repair and you don’t want to spend on it. However, hardly will a laptop be broken to a level where the entire laptop becomes worthless. 

Even if you can’t sell the laptop as is, there are so many things you can do with a broken laptop. Here are three creative things you can do with it.

Method #1: Salvage Its Parts 

Most of the time, we dispose of our old laptop because it no longer performs as optimally as we’d want, or some of its software or hardware begins to malfunction. If the issue with your broken laptop relates to a software issue, you can target saving a couple of hardware from the laptop. 

Similarly, if the reason your laptop is broken is a hardware-related issue, then with some luck, you will be able to salvage some software from the laptop. 

Here are some valuable parts of a laptop you can salvage for other purposes.

• You can remove the laptop’s hard drive if it is still intact, buy a hard drive reader, and use it for external storage. 
• If the laptop’s battery is not too old, with a bit of DIY, you can transform it into a mobile power bank for smartphones and other devices. 
• If the motherboard is still working, but other components are damaged, you can plug in other peripherals like an external display, keyboard, and mouse and use it as a standalone desktop. 
• Another scenario could be that the screen is still intact and can be salvaged and turned into an ad hoc monitor. 
• If the laptop speakers are still in good condition, you can convert them to an external speaker. 

Method #2: Sell Parts of the Laptop

If you are not a DIY fan and prefer to make money off a broken laptop, then you are in luck. There are even more valuable parts of a broken laptop you can sell than you can use if you had chosen the DIY route. If you were to take any part out of a laptop, you would need a special cord or device to use it as a standalone. 

If you decide to sell parts of your broken laptop, there are several platforms—like eBay, Craigslist, and so on—where you can meet potential buyers. 

Here are some creative ways to make money by selling your laptop parts.

• The motherboard is the first thing you want to consider selling if it is still in good condition. 
• You can also sell the keyboard, especially if it is still the one directly from the manufacturer. 
• The RAM sticks and hard drives, particularly SSD, are in high demand, and you can quickly sell them off. 
• You can earn some cool cash selling the laptop’s display, especially a 4K screen. 
• You can also sell the battery of the laptop. 
• Even if all the laptop hardware is faulty, you can still profit from selling the laptop’s case. 

Method #3: Repair the Laptop 

If the reason you stopped using the laptop is nothing too serious, it will make sense to repair it. After fixing it, you can decide what to do with it. You can use it as a backup laptop after repairing it, gift it to a friend or family, or even consider selling it off to recoup the amount you spent fixing the laptop plus a bit more as your profit. 

Here are some scenarios where repairing a broken laptop would be profitable.

• If the PC runs too slow, you can consider upgrading the hard drive to SSD and buying more RAM. 
• If the issue with the laptop is a broken screen, you can easily replace it or use an external display. 
• If the issue is with a bad battery, you can as well replace it affordably. 
• If the laptop’s keyboard is broken, you can also consider replacing it without breaking the bank, or better still, you could use an external keyboard. 

Conclusion 

Ultimately, your broken laptop is not as worthless as you may have thought. Worst case scenario, you can sell its parts or the whole thing with a note that it is a broken laptop and for parts only. And you might be amazed to see how many will need or want to buy a broken laptop or how much they might be willing to pay for one. So, take a second thought before you toss that broken laptop away.