I just came across an article on Lifehacker which mentions ways that you can salvage your old laptop. Often times people purchase a new laptop or desktop machine, and the old laptop gets boxed up or given away. Suggestions from the article include: create a no-monitor low-power spare system, convert it to a home server, make a better digital photo frame, make it fly again with lightweight Linux, convert its LCD into a Stand-Alone Monitor, salvage an external back up drive from it, extend your wireless coverage.

From the suggestions mentioned above, I find the installation of a lightweight Linux the most useful. You could try any of the following lightweight Linux OS’s:

• Puppy Linux: Very slim (97 MB) distribution, but retains a basically smooth and polished interface, with apps to cover common computer uses.
• Damn Small Linux: For really, really fast and light performance with a straight-up interface. A system smaller than 50 MB that can run on a machine with a minimum of 16 MB memory (assuming you can boot/load it on there).
• Xubuntu: Puts the Ubuntu methodology and software support into a lighter, XFCE-based desktop (check out its look and newest features here). For an even lighter kind of “Damn Small Ubuntu,” try Fluxbuntu.
• gOS: For those who live inside their browser, gOS isn’t so much a gimmicky “Wal-Mart OS” as a webapp-focused version of Ubuntu, with a lightweight window manager (Enlightenment) and an OS X-like bottom dock containing most of what you need

If I were going to install any of the above, I would probably try gOS first.

Better yet, you could turn your old laptop into a media center to connect to your TV. There are good alternatives to traditional cable, including Joost, Hulu, and Miro. One of my favorite websites, Makeuseof.com has a great article titled “Ditch Your Cable Company With Free, Legal Alternatives” which details a few P2P solutions including Joost, Hulu, and Miro.

You’ll have a lot of control if you can setup your laptop, for example you can auto boot at some predetermined time (3:00AM everyday) download all your TV shows and then set-up advanced power options to turn off the laptop when there isn’t any drive activity. If you need to connect to your laptop from a remote location, you could use VNC and the Wake On LAN connections feature.  There are a lot of possibilities.

While all of these suggestions are good ways to save an old laptop my favorite is using it as a media center.