Many homeowners have a desktop computer in their house. If you are looking to upgrade to a laptop, it can be difficult to find a place to recycle your old computer. After you have found a local scrap yard that accepts electronic waste or e-waste, you can bring your computer to be scrapped. Scrap yards will usually NOT accept monitors, mice, keyboards, or printers though, they will accept desktop towers as a whole unit. You can also take time to take them apart for more money.
11 Steps To Scrapping A Computer
Once you have a desktop tower you are looking to scrap, take a screwdriver and begin removing the steel case from the outside. The screws may be on the bottom or side of the tower.- Once you have successfully removed the steel case, begin to take the screws out of the back of the unit that hold things like the power supply in. This will be a large rectangular box on the bottom of the desktop tower. You can also remove the screws that hold in the disc drives in. Put the screws in your steel pile.
- Once you have removed the screws that are holding units in place, you can begin to cut out the insulated copper wires from the various parts inside. You will find bunches of wires from the power supply, disc drives, and more that you can clip out and place in your wire pile.
- Once you have removed the wires, begin to remove the units inside. You can pull out the power supply, disc drives, and plastic fans.
- The disc drives will be the CD or floppy disc drive. Those can be added to your low-grade board pile. The hard drive and the power supply should be both placed in separate piles.
- Once you have removed the above items you will see the motherboard will be left screwed to the case of the desktop. Find the screws that are holding it down and remove those to pull the motherboard out.
- Once you have the motherboard removed, begin to find the RAM boards, AL heatsinks, and CPU chip.
Find the RAM boards, they will be at least 2 of them that are skinny boards standing on the motherboard. Remove them by lifting the latch holding them down into the motherboard. You can add them to their own pile.- Next look for a couple AL heat sinks, they will be silver and look like standing up grills. There will be at least 2 or 3 of them on the motherboard. You can usually find a release latch next to them to pull them off or you may have to unscrew them.
- Underneath one of the plastic fans, you can sometimes find an AL heat sink. Remove that and then there should be a CPU chip underneath. The CPU chip will be smaller square board attached to the motherboard. You can usually remove it by releasing the latch.
- Once you have all of the components separated from the desktop computer tower, you will be ready to bring it to a scrap yard and get paid for it.
Suggested Reading: What You Need & What Metals You’ll Find In A Computer
