#I took the hard drive home for the second laptop. it’s a 60 gig magnetic drive but I can get a 128 gb flash drive at office max

[spectraspecs-writes]

Today, I took apart 3 laptops. The first two were running Windows XP. The first laptop took forever to do anything - came with a floppy drive, that’s how old it was - and in fact didn’t do anything. I held down the power button - “it’s okay, you can rest now” - and gently and deliberately took it apart.

The second had last been used in 2015, though I don’t remember it being out then. (The last recorded access date for some of the files was 2015.) It… worked. Ran at a comparable speed to the work laptop sitting behind it, the one I use for my job running Windows 10 Pro. Could I connect it to internet? Technically, but it wouldn’t have been wise. Security updates have long since stopped coming out for Windows XP, and my workplace is on Wifi 6 - the last standard this laptop probably saw was Wifi 4 (802.11ac), so I think it might have been too much for the boy. But that’s not a computer problem - that’s an operating system problem. The computer was fine. Running off DDR2 memory - out of date, I didn’t catch the CPU make, but I guarantee it was out of date, DVD capable drive included, VGA and DB-9 ports out the back, Ethernet and RJ-11 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone Jack, and it was a thicc boy. And. It had a docking port on the bottom, which at least a former boss’s laptop also had. And I’m willing to bet they all still worked. I took it apart because it was no longer needed and would not do the tasks we would need a computer to do. Because of limitations that could not have been conceived of when the hardware was constructed. But I kept the hard drive.

Both of these laptops did not need to be so thoroughly taken apart. I did not even have to remove any screws to remove the battery AND the hard drive. Both could be accessed and removed from the side of the case. At most, a single screw would have to be loosened to open the compartment, but even that was minimal. I took these laptops apart for the educational value. And because on the first one, I could not believe that I removed the hard drive so early in the interaction. I have removed batteries and hard drives from several laptops in this job, most running Windows 7 natively and up. Much like Zuko reading Sozin’s tale, I could not help thinking “that can’t be it. Where’s the rest of it?”

The third laptop resembled my work laptop in age, form factor, and manufacture. Physically, I could see nothing wrong with it. But it had a sticky note on it that said “broken laptop.” To remove the battery and hard drive, nine tiny screws had to be removed on the bottom of the laptop, four around the battery, and for the hard drive - it depends. All of these laptops have a slot for a normal solid state drive - four screws must be removed - or an M.2, where you only have to remove one screw and a metal cover. The screw has a sticker on it so small that it is difficult if not impossible to remove, and in fact it’s easier just to screwdriver through the sticker. Often, the screws are two different types, requiring two different bits. Tiny bits. (I’ve only seen one type of screw on the outside and one type in the inside, as opposed to Apple which has special screws, I think, that don’t have readily available bits.) Removing the battery and drive are relatively easy, but you have to do a lot more work to do it.

These laptops are all different kinds of beasts. And the old laptops were fairly heavy. But I carried two of them plus a tower PC into work this morning, so it wasn’t that bad. I love taking apart these laptops, no matter the age, but it’s no guess for me to say which one would still work in 10 years.

You know what, fuck it, I don't *want* some frivolous, artisanal, lighter-than-air computer with no customizability, no upgradeability, no reparability, no ports, and a lifetime of *maybe* 3 years if you're lucky. I want a fucking great BEAST of a computer that's designed to last a minimum of 50 years, with ports up the wazoo and optional drives for every kind of media! I want modular components that you can drop in a bog for a year, dry them off, and have them still work fine! I want them to make a noise like "ker-chunk!" when you slide them into place! I want a switch that you pull to turn it on! And I don't want software that constantly forces you to get a pointless, cosmetic "upgrade" every few months either! I want durability! I want longevity! I want satisfying haptics! I want Silicon Valley to go fuck itself!