20 ways to recycle your PC

So you have just bought a brand-new Windows Vista PC to replace your out-of-date machine, but what will happen to your old PC? If you’ve not yet earmarked it a role in your household, don’t rush to bin it: we Britons produce over 1.8 million tonnes of electric and electronic waste every single year, and even if you don’t care about the environment per se, we’re fast running out of landfill space.

In this article we’ll reveal 20 different ways of either finding a new role for your old PC, or disposing of it
responsibly, either to raise a small amount of cash or to provide someone else with the opportunity of using
it. We’ll cover everything from turning it into a back-up device, moving photo frame or vintage games machine to revealing different ways of offloading it at little or no effort to yourself, whether it’s by passing it on to a relative, or by giving it away through an organisation like Freecycle or a dedicated charity that specialises in
passing on old computers to those who can benefit from them.

Whatever you want to do with your old computer, take the time to read through our suggestions – you never know, you might discover a use for your old PC you never previously considered. So whether you’re looking for a sophisticated security device, games server to free up resources on your brand spanking new PC or a musical
jukebox for your entire CD collection, discover how to keep your old PC off the scrapheap and perhaps in gainful
employment for a number of years to come.

Oh, and did we mention you can use it as personal video recorder, or an aid in discovering cure for cancer? Or even a job as a dedicated hardware firewall? No? Read on to find out more.

1. Use it as a video recorder

Many modern TV tuner cards, such as the Hauppauge WinTV GO-Plus, only require a 100MHz processor to play live TV, though your chip will need to be capable of around 700MHz if you want to use your old system as a video recorder, too. If it’s up to scratch, then you can record shows at DVD quality, plus schedule recordings by using online programme guides. TV tuner cards are supplied with software to play and record live TV in
Windows, but you’ll probably want to watch shows over a TV rather than a monitor. Windows Media Center
would ordinarly be the best option for this, but you can’t buy it on its own without Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. Thankfully there are alternatives. If you want a freebie, try Media Portal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/), or check out one of Showshifter (£30, http://showshifter.showshiftergroup.com/) or SageTV (US$80, http://www.sagetv.com/). All three are designed to work on a TV screen.

2. Help find a cure for cancer

Distributed computing is one of the most philanthropic uses there is for an old computer. Essentially, it’s for
scientific projects that require an awesome amount of processing power to crunch the endless reams of data
generated, such as analysing DNA to help find cures for diseases such as cancer, or reports from space telescopes scanning interstellar static for signs of alien life.

A computer signed up to one of these projects receives data to analyse over the internet, and then dedicates its spare processing cycles to the task. You could leave your old PC doing this permanently in a spare room
– the sending and receiving and data is automatic, so you wouldn’t even need to touch it again.

3. Financial recycling

Old PCs lose value at an incredible rate (so if you do have something to sell, don’t sit on it), but if you’ve some sort of relatively uncommon component, you might fetch a few bob for it on eBay. Your best bet of getting slightly more than the pitiful online going-rate for a second-hand system is to advertise in local newspaper classifieds and the like, because their audience is a lot less tech-savvy (to the point where many won’t already own PCs) than that of eBay’s, so you might be able to get a higher price for your old equipment. Don’t expect
miracles though, so keep your asking price realistic – and scour other sources to get an idea of a reasonable going rate.

4. Assist a silver surfer

Why not bequeath your dear old computer to your dear old great-aunt? Never mind that it can’t play back high-def video – as long as it can browse the web, display digital photos and run a word processor… For a luddite it’ll make the perfect entry point to the world of everyday computing.

5. Environmental recycling

According to a recent UN study, the manufacture of a new computer and monitor uses 240kg of fossil fuels,
22kg of chemicals and 1,500 litres of water. To make matters worse, the government estimates around 1.8
million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste is generated every single year – that’s an awful lot of material, so it makes sense to keep as much of it out of landfill as possible, particularly considering the amount of toxic waste that can leech into the surrounding environment (and never mind the fact the UK is fast running out of landfill space).

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) initiative aims to improve recycling and recovery rates of this material, and you can do your bit too; instead of simply binning your old computer, take it to a dedicated PC recycling firm where it’ll either be refurbished for use by people and organisations in need of computers
or, as much of it as possible, will be safely recycled. Visit www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/ComputerRecyclersRefurbishers.htm to find a computer recycling centre near you.

If all of this sounds like too much hard work, consider giving the computer away via www.freecycle.org.uk.

GOGGLE BOX Turn your CRT monitor into a TV by connecting an external TV tuner.

6. Use it as a television

Your decrepit computer itself may be next to useless, but its old 19-inch CRT monitor could be perfect to use as a second television. Get yourself an external TV tuner, such as the AVerTV DVB-T STB7 (£82 from www.komplett.co.uk), plug an aerial cable into one end and the VGA lead from your monitor into the other, and you’ve got yourself a fully functional TV. The STB7 is a digital tuner, so will work after the analogue switch-off, but you can pick up both analogue and hybrid models from AverMedia too – visit www.avermedia.com/AVerTV/UK/ (click the TV on Display link) for more details.

7. Deter thieves

A ten-year-old coffee-splattered beige PC with a 486 sticker in a highly visible spot in your home will appear
so valueless that thieves won’t think you have a computer worth nicking… Just make sure the real one’s kept out of sight from prying, suspicious eyes.

8. Make a jukebox

Even the hoariest processor is capable of playing back digital music in WMA or MP3 format, and a venerable 40GB hard drive will quite happily store thousands of tracks. So, rig your old PC up to your hi-fi and you’ve got yourself a jukebox.

If it’s an old laptop you’re using, perfect, but one thing you don’t want is a giant CRT sat on top of your amplifier if you’re using a desktop PC, so here’s an alternative. Put a shortcut to Windows Media Player (WMP)
in the Startup folder on your Start Menu, so the program will auto-load when Windows does. Create a new playlist containing every song on the PC, and then set WMP to random playback mode (Play > Shuffle or
Ctrl + H). If you’ve not got one already, pick-up a cheap keyboard with media playback controls, for example the Microsoft Black Wired Keyboard available from ebuyer (http://tinyurl.com/ryfdx) for £7. You can then load the PC up without a monitor attached at all, and simply pressing the Play key will start playing songs at random from your library. Granted, you won’t be able to select specific albums this way, but if you like being surprised, it’s perfect. Versions of Media Player for old version of Windows can be found by visiting http://windowsmedia.com/download.

9. Charitable recycling

We may be living in the internet age but that doesn’t mean for a moment that everyone in the UK, let alone the world, is computer-enabled. Ask if any local schools or charities would be able to make use of your old PC – though ensure it’s in good working condition beforehand, because their having to spend money, resources and time getting a broken machine (be it a hardware or a software problem) back on its feet again is counter-productive.

There are also various organisations, such as www.express-link-up.org (0115 979 1200), dedicated to collecting old PCs and giving them to the disadvantaged. Express Link Up’s mission is:“To provide all children and young people who are sick, disabled or underprivileged with access to ICT”, and has celebrity support from the likes of
Carol Vorderman and Cherie Blair. One thing to look out for before disposing of your PC is the data stored on your hard drive. Even if you format the drive, the data can still be recovered, so use a tool like Eraser from www.heidi.ie/eraser/ to make sure that all sensitive data is removed from your hard drive.

10. Make a games server

If you play online multiplayer games with a group of mates, it’s preferable to play on your own server than hop on to a random one that’s probably a continent away, thus introducing lag and the whim of moderators you don’t know. And if one of the players hosts the server, it means their PC won’t perform as well in the game, because it’s spending precious system resources to keep all the other PCs in the loop.

Enter your old PC – use it as a dedicated server that only has to deal in web traffic, so it doesn’t have to load
the game itself, meaning it doesn’t need a fancy 3D card or a beefy CPU, and most games have an option for a dedicated server in their Start menu folder.

EYE-SPY Rig up a webcam on your old PC to protect your home when you’re away.

11. Set up a security system

Any old webcam – you can find them for as cheap as £15 – can be used for makeshift CCTV. The latest Creative models include software to capture video or pictures upon motion detection, and you can view the entire range at http://uk.europe.creative.com/ (choose Products > Web Cameras). Just make sure you pick a model that uses the Live! Cam software, like the Live! Cam Video IM (£19.99) or Live! Cam Optia (£39.99).

If you already own another make of webcam, try webcamXP available at www.webcamxp.com. It runs on Windows XP or Windows Vista, but you’ll need the Pro version (€59.95) for motion detection, although there’s a 21-day trial to look before you leap. It supports up to five different cameras at any one time, so you can cover multiple angles. One final consideration: if you’re going away for a while and want to record any sign of  movement, it’s worth investing in a bigger hard drive so all the captured video can be stored.

12. Artful recycling

Old printed circuit boards make a versatile craft material – how about a stick of memory hanging off
your keyring or a working clockface mounted on an ISA network card? For more inspiration, check out the
products at www.revolve-uk.com.

13. Install Windows Vista Home Basic on it

The official system requirements for Windows Vista Home Basic are a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, so it should run on most systems that are four to six years old. If you do install it on such a system, however, you’ll notice that it struggles to cope with most tasks. To optimise Windows Vista on such a system, you should cut back as much as possible – start by opening the Start menu, right-clicking on Computer and selecting Properties > Advanced system settings, switching to the Advanced tab and clicking Settings under Performance. Choose “Adjust for best performance”, click OK and wait.

14. Convert it into a test machine

If you reglarly fall foul of viruses and the like, consider pressing your old PC into service as a test machine. You could even use it specifically for opening attachments or downloading programs from the internet, thereby creating another layer of security and removing your main PC from the front line. It’s also worth using your test
machine for installing software on to, whether you want to compare a number of programs without cluttering
up your main machine, or you want to make sure a program won’t cause any problems. Either way, your main PC is left untouched and free from clutter until you’re happy with the program in question.

You could even press your test machine into action with new hardware components – while it’s not possible to provide an exact like-for-like environment for testing, you could still preview the hardware’s performance and
research any possible niggles before introducing it to your main PC after testing has finished.

15. Moving picture frame

Why take loads of photos on your digital camera only to leave them hidden away on your hard drive? If your old PC doesn’t have Windows XP or Windows Vista and its image gallery screensaver, use a free application such
as gPhotoShow (www.gphotoshow.com) to create a screensaver that randomly or sequentially flicks through all your digital photos. Buy a cheap flat-panel monitor, find a picture frame that fits around it, hide the old PC behind a book case, then leave the screensaver running 24/7 – and you’ve got yourself an eye-catching conversation piece.

16. Play classic games on your old PC

Classic PC games from the 1980s and early 1990s don’t always run on Windows Vista, because they’re designed
for the archaic text-only DOS operating system. So, have that old PC dedicated to running DOS – if you have the original install floppy discs or can find them on eBay, great; otherwise give FreeDOS (www.freedos.org) a try.

Most old videogaming systems can now be emulated by special software. MAME is the most widely used, which
specifically recreates old arcade machines and their thousands of games. Download the lates version of MAMEUI
from www.vg-network.com/mame, connect up a USB gamepad and if your CPU can muster 100MHz or above, you’re away. You’ll need to supply your own game ROMs – a number of legitimate ROMs can be found at www.mamedev.org/roms; other ROMs on the internet haven’t been cleared for use, so are illegal. If you’re really keen, you could buy a classic arcade machine (around £200 on eBay) and then fit your old PC into it.

17. Use it as a back-up device

Rather than ending up with an ever-growing 20ft pile of CD-Rs, simply copy all your important files from your main PC to your old one regularly – a £10 USB flash drive will do the job nicely. Alternatively, if your PCs are on the same network, use the free verson of SyncBack from www.2brightsparks.com (click Downloads > Freeware) to backup automatically every day.

18. Upgrade it

Check before you chuck – just because that PC’s struggling to load Microsoft Word doesn’t mean it’s beyond redemption. Upgrading your memory or hard drive costs under £50 and can give your PC a whole new lease of
life, enabling you to put off buying an expensive replacement for another few years.

19. Turn it into a firewall

Windows Firewall that comes with Windows Vista keeps out most nasties, but it isn’t bullet proof. However, even the dustiest old 486 can be used as a hardware firewall, standing as a permanent barrier between the
internet and your main computer to prevent any undesired information requests from reaching your important
data in the first place.

Give m0n0wall (www.m0n0.ch) a try. Setup is too lengthy to explain in just a few words, so follow the helpful guides on the site to get it up and running. There are a few things you’ll need to know about your internet connection however, such as which category it falls into. Most broadband ISPs in the UK use either static IP or PPPoE. This is the kind of information you’ll usually find on your ISP’s website, but if you have no luck there you’ll have to contact them directly. M0n0wall’s system requirements aren’t excessive: it requires a minimum
of 64MB RAM, a Pentium-class processor (you can get away with a 486 CPU if your internet connection is less
than 10Mbps) and minimal hard drive space; in fact, the firewall can be run directly from a bootable CD/floppy drive (the latter is used to store your settngs).

20. Case-mod it

Computers have been built into everything from Lego structures to toilets, so try something similar with an old system of your own – a low power, low heat PC that can be installed into a small space without the need for huge cooling fans is ideal. Check out sites suchas www.casemodgod.com for modding guides and inspiration.

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