I had similar thoughts to Trevor's. Rather than refurbish, may repurposed? A single purposed computer can last for decades. There's likely many years of use for that old laptop.

Think of things you may not be inclined to purchase but would be very handy if you had it for low cost or free...

Security system
Finance
Word Processor to write your memoirs
home automation
very high end phone system
amateur radio interface - don't laugh at this one, amazzzzzzzzing hobby - especially where you're located on the coast, NASA, Military, Merchant Marine, Air travel, Commerce, Wefax receiver, weather and communications satellites, hurricane hunters, etc
Dedicated SDR receiver - another amazing hobby - similar to amateur radio - but very cheap.
Data storage
Dedicated home recording studio
Photo or video editing with what's now antiquated but still high end software.
Gigapan super high resolution photo editing (gigapan.com) you have to see this to believe it... expensive to buy the gear - but like BIAB, there's nothing like it...


BIAB Ultra Pak+ 2024:RB 2024, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.