I agree with finding a local nerd listed, i used to do that local nerds
rock.
Otherwise i'd say play with it, research it, and see what happens. When you
get something for free, or for cheap, mess with it! What do you have to
loose?
odds are it's software. If not, you may have to throw some hardware at it.
Buy used hardware if you're just doing it for testing purposes. A used
20-30gb hd is around $10 on ebay. So if the hard drive is bad and that's all
you need it for, spend the $10, if that doesnt fix it, try some new ram,
512mb of ram (heck even 1gb) an usually be had for under $20. Aside from
that, if anything else is broken it most likely isn't too worth fixing
unless it's rather new. It likely isn't worth replacing the motherboard,
unless a used one can be found.

Just grab a windows XP install disk, try that first (booting into Bios and
then booting off the disk), and that should pretty well tell you what's up.

-Craig

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 6:06 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:

> > From: "John Rodgers" <inua@CHARTER.NET>
> > To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> > Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 12:03 PM
> > Subject: Refurbishing a dead laptop
> >
> >
> >   I've got an HP and a Gateway - both bought new by a lady friend who
> >> simply gave them to me. Says she - "They don't work". I suspect not much
> >> is wrong with them, and I need something to use in my ol' '88GL when
> >> camping or otherwise on the road for e-mail and a little browsing, so
> >> I'm wondering about whether it's possible for ME to refurbish these
> >> things. I've never torn into one of these things.
> >>
> >> Any ideas and comments are appreciated.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >> --
> >> John Rodgers
> >>
> >
>
>     You might consider your 'local'  Geeks.   Most cities have a bunch of
> Computer Service  businesses and they can do the same things that the big
> companies will do to make your free laptops "Refurbished".  Probably  for
> not much money.  You will have to endure the...."Yes, we can fix it, but
> why
> don't just get one of these________" and their sales pitches...
>
>  They will know where to source all the needed parts and exactly what to
> look for...whereas you will have to probably "learn" a lot.  Don't you know
> that Laptops are passe this week?  Tablets, dude!  Or a real
> PDA.."Laptops"...how 2010!
>