Donate an Old Laptop

Tony Bourke delivering laptops to Boxmoor Primary School, Hemel Hempstead.

Nobody likes to throw away a laptop just because it’s old. That’s why many of us have one in the cupboard.

We take donated laptops to fix, upgrade and refurbish as best we can into Windows 10 laptops and CloudReady ChromeOS devices.

Schools then tell us what they need to keep their pupils online when they are isolating or working from home.

So what’s the secret? Well, a team of dedicated unpaid enthusiast volunteers, some new high speed memory drives (SSDs) and a lot of tinkering! We can even reuse many components from broken laptops: keyboards, screens, batteries, memory and power supplies are often interchangeable to prolong the life of another laptop. “Two become one”, as they say in the song.

How you can help us…

Go on! Bring us your old laptops and we’ll give them a new lease of life in the hands of the younger members of our society. (A few of the laptops are older than their users!)

As well as laptops, we can also reuse tablets and smartphones for schools and other supporting organisations as listed below.

Click <<here>> for our wish list of what we would like to receive.

To recycle your item, simply send an email to recycle@computerfriendly.org.uk or phone us on 01727 617359.

Oh, if you are worried about any data left on your hard disk storage in your laptop, click <<here>> to see the shredder we used to destroy and recycle the old hard disks. All devices are wiped / factory reset.

The stats…

To date, we have delivered 405 devices made up of: 305 Laptops, 71 Tablets (58 iPads & 13 Android), 14 Desktops, 5 iMacs, 1 All-in-one PC screen, 1 Printer, 7 Smartphones.

These were delivered to 28 schools as well as Herts Police Domestic Violence team, Herts Leavers from Care, Luton Probation Service, Emmaus St Albans, Modern Victims of Slavery, The Vineyard, HAWA St Albans, Young People’s Support Team, Beds CC, Catholic Worker Farm, Watford.

That’s at least 833kg of equipment (nearly a tonne) that hasn’t ended up at the dump.

We estimate that between us we have saved 87,000kg of CO2 (yes, 87 tonnes!) from being created, that’s equivalent to 89 Return transatlantic flights (based on new laptop CO2 estimated by The Restart Project data).

Who have you helped so far?

Here are the names of some of those that benefited from your donations:

St Albans & Harpenden

Cunningham Hill Junior School Mandeville Primary St George’s
HAWA St Albans Manland School St Helen’s Primary
Herts Police Domestic Violence Margaret Wix Primary The Grove School
Katherine Warington School Redbourn Primary The King’s School
Killigrew Primary St Dominic Catholic Primary Beds Young People’s Support Team
London Colney Primary Sauncey Wood Wood End
St Helens CE Primary The Maple School Camp School
St Albans City Crabtree Junior Victims of Slavery Support
Aboyne Lodge Primary Luton Probation Service Emmaus St Albans
The Vineyard Church

Hatfield/Welwyn Garden City

Birchwood Avenue Primary St Michaels Woolmer Green Stanborough School
Green Lanes Primary St Johns Primary Tenterfield Nursery
Onslow St Audrey

Hemel Hempstead

Brockswood Primary and Nursery Leverstock Green Primary Chailden Infants School
Boxmoor Infants Catholic Worker Farm, Watford

Last year Herts Advertiser published a complimentary article about what we were doing. Click here to read the article, and what Cathy Longhurst, headteacher at Mandeville School, said about how we help their students.

Once again, to recycle your item, simply email recycle@computerfriendly.org.uk or phone us on 01727 617359.

Computer Friendly Delivers Laptops to Margaret Wix Primary School

On 3rd December 2021, Tony Bourke Chairman of Computer Friendly was delighted to deliver laptops to Margaret Wix Primary School in St. Albans. The Headteacher Claire Gibbs had made a request to help fund the equipment needed to deliver their computing curriculum. Claire was absolutely thrilled when Tony was able to provide 15 Computer Friendly refurbished machines.

A new Computer Friendly Drop-In Centre

We are pleased to announce the opening of a new Computer Friendly Drop-In Centre at the Islamic Community Centre, 145-147 Hatfield Road, St Albans, AL1 4JY. The Drop-In is open every Saturday from 2:oo pm to 4:30 pm.

If you need help why not come along and speak to one of our knowledgeable members.

 

Computer Friendly Drop-Ins Feedback

When Computer Friendly Drop-Ins restarted as Covid restrictions were lifted, we got some excellent feedback from our visitors:

I just want to send some feedback re my booked session this morning.
It was EXCELLENT and I thank  Carol Brazier for her kindness and patience with my problems. She certainly solved 18 months of confusion!
Many thanks,
Jill Tuddenham

PS there was also a gentleman there who also helped with some issues but I am afraid I did not register his name. Thank you to him too.

Following 18 months of enforced lockdown, we opened ready to help with addressing any problems.  Unfortunately owing to the increasing infection rates and Omicron uncertainty we have again suspended all face-to-face Drop-Ins until further notice.

Heroes of Hertfordshire

Heroes of Hertfordshire

In addition to the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service we are delighted to have received a “Heroes of Hertfordshire” certificate from Robert Voss, Lord-Lieutenant, as thanks for the support we have given the people of Hertfordshire in recent times.