Forum Topic

Printers, old laptop..

Anyone have any ideas about charities which recycle these or use them? BHF in West Ealing always took them before but say they no longer do.

Clare Gittins ● 3179d6 Comments

I install and use Debian Linux which uses a totally different disc format by default, and I use the formatter to test any old drives by writing a series of four different patterns to every memory location and ensuring that they read back the correct data. It takes a while, but there is nothing left from any previous data. The formatting can be done from a "live" DVD or USB such as Knoppix, download from the University of Kent http://www.mirrorservice.org or I can give you a copy.My website is http://chrisbell.org.uk

Christopher Bell ● 3178d

Registering the item on freecycle might get you a happy taker.

Urs Esser ● 3178d

Google 'dispose old computers' and there are quite a few firms that do this and, importantly, completely delete data. Some will only take large quantities but some will help with just one

Nina Battleday ● 3178d

The Cancer Research charity shop in King Street Hammersmith check out and sell these, printersat least and apparently if you take them into any Cancer Research Branch they will pass them on.michael adams

Michael Adams ● 3178d

Manufacturers will sell new inkjet printers at a loss because they can make their profits on the ink cartridges, and some brands insert a microchip in the cartridge so that the printer can be programmed to reject substitutes. The printer may report the cartridge as "empty" after "printing" a set number of pages, even if every page is blank.I use computers and laptops that have been rejected as too old when the real problem is that they are either full of viruses or the installed version of Microsoft is too old. They often work well with a new installation of Free Open Source Software.

Christopher Bell ● 3178d

- and BHF no longer take old TVs with digi boxes. Anyone know where these can go, other than down the tip? Seems a terrible waste and I have 2 cluttering up the space...

Lorna Dodd ● 3178d