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Myself I wouldn't want the battery to come out too easily.
I have a remote where the battery cover has disappeared. Certainly would not want to deal with that on a laptop.
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Never in my life have I ever seen a laptop battery just "fall out", even with old laptops with physically worn out parts. Usually you have to hold a button or slide a switch to unlock the battery.
Not exactly a fair comparison to look at a remote control, and hope the same thing doesn't happen with a laptop.
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Replaced the battery in an old MacBook.
It was bulging to the point that the scratch pad didn't work. Lithium Ion. Made me a little nervous.
Then, of all things, they insisted in installing Windows. 
I will say that a new battery and replacing the spinny-gp-round with an SSD did wonders for it.
>64
There is never enough time to do it right, but there is enough time to do it over.
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I did something like that with my daughter's college laptop. When she graduated the hard drive was nearly full and the thing took forever to boot. She left it with me to see what I could do with it. I maxed out the RAM, replaced the hard drive with an SSD, and put a minty-fresh install of Windows 10 on it. I think she still uses it to play some PC games.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Be careful when doing this since you have a working battery now! I blew up a wifi card when working on a laptop with a charged battery. I was too used to working with desktops where you just unplug them. Shorted something.
“Charged batteries considered dangerous”
For your keyboard problem, I had a similar problem. Check all connector ends between the keyboard and the motherboard. One end has probably loosened up. Push it back together if it is loose or disconnect and clean each end and then reconnect.
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Lost track of all the laptops I have. All sizes.
I have disabled most with removed batteries.
Can't recycle until drives removed.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Why can't you just securely erase all your private stuff on the drives, leaving a working operating system? Who on earth would want an old laptop without a drive?
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Discarding a computer of any sort with a drive in it should be considered a security problem.
Removing it and destroying the drive is one option.
Securely erasing it is another option but doing that requires that you find software to do that (compatible with os/hardware) and then actually get it on to the computer. This also presumes that the computer still runs. And with a laptop there might be concern about how old the battery is.
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You can use a live install CD and "dd" to overwrite the disk sufficiently to ensure it's not recoverable - with some caveats:
1) If the disk is SSD - then the wear levelling makes it impossible to guarantee deletion, short of using the manufacturers utility for the purpose (if you can get it).
2) There are variations on what you need to do, depending on the age, the ACSC ISM says this:
Control: ISM-0354; Revision: 6; Updated: Dec-21; Applicability: All; Essential Eight: N/A
Non-volatile magnetic media is sanitised by overwriting it at least once (or three times if pre-2001 or under 15 GB) in its entirety with a random pattern followed by a read back for verification.
3) It takes hours to delete the disk - so unless you plan to re-use it, physical destruction is usually easier.
This page decribes how to use dd as hinted earlier. How to Wipe Hard Drive Clean Using dd Command in Linux - LookLinux
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pmauriks wrote: You can use a live install CD
I have at least one computer that does not and never did have a CD drive.
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But does it have a USB port you can plug a drive into. . drives are like $40 AUD nowadays.
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lol.
No it definitely does not have a USB port either. I know I have at least two computers with parallel ports since I had a old HP Laser Jet that I used for probably 20 years.
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Unrelated to your post, but your signature...
Methaphor (noun):
1. A metaphor so quickly pulled from the psyche that listeners can only ask, 'are you on drugs'?
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Aaah! My spleen!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Another Brewster Rockit fan!
But, let's keep it quiet we don't want everyone reading that great comic. 
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I knew a manager who had a poster on his door:
"If you're coming with a problem, go back.
If you're coming with a solution, come in".
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I had that too... I wrote above it: I have no problems between these walls - they all yours...
"If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization." ― Gerald Weinberg
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I have had at least one manager that was more like 'Leeroy Jenkins'
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i had to google that and then I found a youtube video[^]...
Oh so rush in like a fool before thinking, right?
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Yes. Then followed by a lot of crashing and cussing.
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Just changed my 7 year old varifocals for new ones, and wow are they weird.
Everything is a load closer on the right hand side, so it permanently looks like I'm on a slope. Walking down narrow corridors is like being drunk, but without the good bits ... My monitors are no longer square, they are all trapezia with the narrow side on the right. (But only when I open both eyes - they are perfect rectangles if I close either eye.)
On the other hand, I don't have to lean towards my monitors to see text clearly any more, but these are going to take some getting used to before my brain rewires to straighten stuff out!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I got lucky. I had to get bifocals or progressives because I work with electronics, and constantly taking my glasses on and off to see the silkscreened print on the boards was driving me batty.
I went with progressives despite the risks, and it took less than a day for me to adapt to them.
Good luck. Don't run into any walls! 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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I don't do the "R" word! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Greetings & Kind Regards
As you work w/ electronics may I inquire how you manage the soldering smoke so it does no harm.
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