where they sell old equipment

Someone, probably within a few miles of you, has a working computer, a computer they don't use anymore, a laptop with a damaged screen, (which you can hook up to an old 12" discarded monitor).

People buy new ones, people die and leave their spouse with an old computer he/she never uses, people buy new ones for their JHS kid when he becomes a HS senior, etc. I have an old working MAC I never use, and just haven't gotten around to recycling.

Hey, I want a supped-up laptop for less than 50, okay?

Something like this might go a long way:

One can post a "services" ad for free items, or "wanted" or whatever as often as one needs to.

Find a kindly old woman who just lost her husband six months ago, she has his laptop and wants to make sure she has all the old pictures and email etc from it, and she's putty in your hands.

I offer this service, (a little differently) to folks in my commnity center of seniors. Some of them just want the damn computer out of their house, some of them want to know each and every email their husband sent in his last 3 years on the planet. Some of them just want the photos of the great grandchildren printed out on paper. I do this for free. I collected 2 MAC laptops last year, traded one in for an almost new one, (plus $400), at a used Mac laptop shop in a big city near me. I have now two MAC laptops, one 8 years old, still works, one laptop 3 years old.. ($400)..

Get the idea? Making yourself useful to older people is a way to go.

On a more tragic level, a teenager died in an auto accident, (she was a passenger), an only child. Her parents didn't want to know what was on her laptop, and wanted it out of the house, (she evidently didn't have the best of upscale friends). So they gave it to me for $100, even tho they say they paid $600 for it a couple years before. I used it for 2 months, refurbished it, updated the OS, and sold it for $200. I made a few bucks, never told the buyer where it came from originally, but gave him the sales receipt, disks, manuals etc. He got a 2.4 yr old $600 computer, for $200.........I made money, everyone is happy.

I tried eBay and got a super old laptop that I wanted. The laptop was fine, but the LCD had severe motion blur, even the pointer was invisible when moving quickly across the screen. Buying laptops in person and being able to test them is a big deal. Ask a friend, a friend of a friend, or anyone who tends to have older computer stuff. If you can't test it yourself, be wary.

I just need it to run for two weeks--but I have other uses for it until it craps out.

Get a lappy with a broken screen and VNC into it as needed. I had an old Walmart POS that ended up with a dead screen, I plugged a couple of big USB drives into it and stuck it under my router, hardwired in as a file server...worked charmingly for five years!

...use remote desktop.

I know Apple Remote Desktop is; I use Chicken to twiddle with my dad's Mini at least weekly.

Runs on port 3389. All versions have the client but only pro & server have the server side.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/remote-desktop-connection