(06-22-2012, 04:57)Third Eye Wrote: Keep the motherboard, most likely it can be fixed. There is a machine that formats HDDs by using magnetism. You could probably go to a PC store and ask them to do it or do it your self. As for the CD drive you can fix or replace the motors that open and close the tray. Or, push the button. Open it manually. Push the button. Close it manually. A old computer isn't necessarily a bad computer. Have a specialist look at the motherboard. You probably just need to replace some components. If you get it working, put a older OS on it. Like DOS, BeOS, or Linux. Don't destroy it because you don't feel like fixing it. I find it fun to modify computers and fix "broken" ones. I have a really old computer (REALLY old) just lying around. I put it together and took it apart. Used the motherboard as a slave drive and a bunch of other stuff. You might learn something.
See, the problem here is while it's a good idea/learning experience, I don't really want to think about the cost to repair vs the usefulness of the thing after it's repaired. Disposable income is being saved for college and the biggest expenditure has been my new laptop. If I did have the funds to repair it, sure, I'd try. But I don't. So... I think I'll fry an egg on the CPU instead. After gutting any useful bits. I saw a tutorial that showed how to make a pretty powerful laser pointer out of a DVD/R Drive so I'm gonna try that.
As for safety, yeah fire would be bad. Forest preserve behind my house and such. It'd also be nice to recycle it when I finished with it.
Thanks for the suggestions so far!
