My company was responsible for breaking a client’s laptop. We ended up buying it from him. So, now I have an HP Pavillion ZT1135 Laptop. I think the PC itself it’s fine, but the monitor is smashed. From what I understand, replacing the monitor would cost something like $900.00. The guy paid $1,100 for it new, so that doesn’t seem worthwhile.
So, my question is, what do I do with it? I have a G3 Mac at home. Are there any parts in the computer that would be worth anything to me? Or, could I simply hook up the computer to my monitor, and use it as a second computer at home (i.e. one that can play all those PC-only games that never get converted to my Mac!) Or, is there a cheaper way to replace the monitor? Any ideas?
It’s a little behind the horse power specification curve for low end notbooks at 1.2 Ghz as most new low end notebooks are selling for 800 - 900 or so at Circuit City and elsewhere are now at about 1.8 - 2.0 GHz. Based on Ebay recent sale histories it’s worth about 700 or so on Ebay right now if it was in perfect and fully functioning condition. The last otherwise functioning Pavillion ZT1135 unit with a broken screen that sold a week or so ago went for 300.
There is not much onboard that unt that’s really going to be worth the effort to part out and use for you desktop system. Dump it on Ebay and take your $ 300. or so and move on.
If can you can find a unit with a busted MB but with an intact screen you can replace the screen, but having done this several times on various notebooks let me assure you it is not for the faint of heart or the shaky of hand on modern notebooks, as the connections are often very tiny, delicate and hard to get at and if you screw up and break something you’re out both the new screen and the busted CPU.
You can geta replacement VGA monitor and use the video out port for disply, but that would be kind of … welll kludgy and ugly, but it woud work if the CPU is OK.
Sell it on eBay, you would be amazed what some people will pay when they need some parts. For your own protection remove or reformat the hard drive before you sell, I have found amazing things on old hard drives, you do not want to be the one who discloses confidential or personal information.
First off, assert that the laptop is fine by hooking it up to a regular desktop monitor, there should be a connector for it on the back of the machine. *(I have not looked up the specs for this laptop, last time I knew monitor connectors were a de facto standard)
If it works you’ve got a perfectly usable 1.2Ghz (as per Astro’s post) computer. Plug a keyboard, a mouse, and a monitor into it and use it as a low profile desktop.
Another vote for keep it. I have a 550MHz Celeron laptop with a broken screen hooked up to a PC monitor. It’s great when I want to mess around with stuff that I’m afraid might crash my desktop. It’s also nice to have handy in case I’m doing something very processor-intensive on my desktop and would rather not surf the web or play Civ III while I’m doing it.
An old laptop is ideal for use as a firewall / file- / web- / mailserver on a home network. It needs very little space and uses less power than a desktop, and even comes with a built-in UPS! Connect it to a monitor for the installation; once it works, you can stuff it in a corner and maintain it over the network.
If you’re not interested in that kind of thing yourself, there are plenty of hobbyists you could make very happy with it.
Totally keep it, or ship it to me
Hook it up to a monitor and you have a fully functional PC. Depending on the model you can hook up external mouse and keyboard as well, it is small enough that you could keep it in a drawer and run the cables out the back. You could also do some fun case-mods on it, rebuild it inside a nice-looking old stereo and use it for mp3 playing in the living room etc. If it has TV-out you could put it under your television in the case from a broken DVD player and put a load of games on it to play on the TV. There are a million and one things you can do.
