Laptop Builder Orientation

Welcome to Free Geek's Laptop Build program! Here, we evaluate and build all of the laptop donations Free Geek receives. As laptops have begun taking center stage in the personal computing world in recent years, this program is expected to become more central to Free Geek's mission of reuse.

Refurbishing laptops is a different world compared to working on desktop systems. Where almost all of the internal components in a desktop system are modular and replaceable, the same simply isn't true for laptop systems. Laptops are highly engineered machines that rely on very particular and proprietary components. In addition, the components and the pieces that hold them together are much smaller and require a delicate touch and a lot of patience. It's very easy to accidently render a system unusable by trying to force the system open, stripping a screw, or snapping an innocuous piece of plastic. This program is designed to introduce you to the many varied forms a laptop can take, and help you to gain experience in safely disassembling and troubleshooting them.