I recommend antique stores. You can get things that can be repaired.
My current computer is a 2003 Gateway notebook. All of the more recent machines I have bought have died. Only this old machine works and it has fluorescent backlighting.
The good news is that round-a-bouts are now very popular in my area. We are ready for the return of the horse-and-buggy.
“The good news is that round-a-bouts are now very popular in my area. “
They love them some round-a-bouts here in Colorado. They’re so European you know.
I have a Dell laptop that came with XP.
It was refurbished from EBay when I bought the unit a couple of years ago for very little.
Still working. I use it for some games that only run on CP.
I have fixed a lot of computers that have had malfunctioning hardware over the years. I replaced many inverters (ballasts) and also the tiny fluorescent tubes found in old laptops. I always assumed that LED back-lighting would be more dependable and longer lasting, but as my parent's flat screen television has proved... this is definitely not the case.
It is interesting how newer hardware often tends to fail shortly after the machines go past their warranties. I always have assumed that extended warranties were a complete rip-off, but I have bought a couple recently for items that were obviously not going to be repairable if they failed. The most recent example was a tiny “Remote ID” for large older drones that I paid $35 for. The extended warranty for the Remote ID was $3.99 and the chances of it being damaged or malfunctioning are fairly high...
My parent's television should have been easy to diagnose and repair. The primary problems are that it is difficult to find parts and documentation and also to take apart and reassemble without damaging something.
I have laptops that still work from 2003 and I try to keep the batteries charged to 20% and 70% to keep them from going bad. I keep these laptops because they are part of my collection of vintage electronic and computer hardware which is one of my hobbies. I have computer and electronic hardware going back to the mid 1970s, some of it from kits.
That said, your laptop is an antique by modern computer standards. I assume that it came with Windows XP. If you have not installed a Linux build on it; you probably should consider doing so for security, dependability, and compatibility.
When the motherboard on my wife's 4-year-old laptop failed a few months ago, I was able to find a used laptop motherboard that fit her case which came with a GPU.
It was actually an upgrade and ironically because the other model of computer was not as popular as hers the used motherboard was about half the price of the exact replacement. The only complication was that I had to find a new fan and heatsink that fit the replacement motherboard. So, she ended up with a significant upgrade to her computer.
If you have a name brand laptop used, parts are usually available. Most tend not to be that difficult to repair. But Apple started making them intentionally impossible to repair years ago. So on the computer side of things it is largely Apple users who have tended to be involved in the Right to Repair movement.