I have (had) a great laptop… I’ve used it so much the LCD is shot, the ports are loose, it’s bad news.
Lately, I use my desktop much more often. However, it tends to be much slower with less memory.
So, what can I use from my laptop in my desktop? Are there hard drive connections or anything?
The hard drive is generally usable. But it is probably a 2.5" size, while desktop hard drive spaces are designed for a 3.5" size. So you will need to buy special mounting brackets to make it fit. You also need to match the drive connections – nowadays, IDE (PATA) & SATA are the 2 types you will see.
Or you can put the laptop hard drive in an external drive case (they come in the 2.5" size) and then connect it via USB to your desktop, or use it as a movable backup drive.
Sometimes the memory in your laptop can be reused in your desktop, but often they are different types. And a few laptop manufacturers still pull that trick of having their own, proprietary type of memory rather than a standard module (so they can charge you extortionate prices on memory upgrades).
Even if it can’t be re-used in your desktop, memory chips don’t really wear out, so unlike other parts, the memory can be sold via ebay or craigslist.
And that’s the final way to re-use it – sell it. Then use that money to upgrade your desktop.
Either sell the whole thing " as is – worn but working", or disassemble it (take out the plug-in CD-drive, floppy disk drive, wireless card, etc.) and advertise each of them for sale. There are likely other people out there with the same model laptop who are trying to keep it going, and would be willing to buy working parts from you.
When not plug your monitor, mouse, and keyboard in it and use it as your desktop?
The nice thing about using a 2.5" hard drive as an external drive is that it doesn’t need an AC adapter, but instead can be powered via the USB port.