Any hope to optimize ol XP laptop for autistic child?

KDOG · 11-14-2012, 09:06 AM

I have an old Gateway laptop that is a 1.3ghz/1Gb DDR/Intel i852GM chipset that I want to let my autistic son use for watching his you tube videos. I just want to get it optimized so that its as fast as possible so the hang ups, pauses etc are minimal so as not to upset him. I've of course done all the disk cleanup/defragging and closed all the background programs I can find on it. Is there any hope of upgrading it? Its an XP machine of course. It has a gorgeous screen though and everything works.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on how to get it running at its top ability. Thanks in advance.

Ken g6 · 11-14-2012, 09:18 AM

You might be able to add an SSD, if the drive interface is SATA. What's the exact model number?

KDOG · 11-14-2012, 09:22 AM

MA2 or MX6030, highly doubt it has SATA.

Ken g6 · 11-14-2012, 09:30 AM

Well, you might be able to find some faster used laptop drive. But when you can get a $200 ChromeBook that would work better, I wouldn't bother.

rsutoratosu · 11-14-2012, 09:37 AM

Chrome book would be better, agree

DominionSeraph · 11-14-2012, 10:50 AM

Do a fresh install of XP and short-stroke the hard drive -- when you format the drive, set the c: drive to only be 10GB in size.

Then use an ad-blocker or custom HOSTS file. I use this HOSTS file:
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
It has some quirks like breaking links that go through ad services (like Google's paid search results) and shows a "this webpage is not available" error in place of some ads, but it speeds things up.

Insomniator · 11-14-2012, 12:02 PM

I would try installing Jolicloud OS. Good for Youtube. Unless you have to have XP for some reason?

http://www.jolicloud.com/jolios

Phantomaniac · 11-14-2012, 12:22 PM

A fresh XP install plus this tweaking guide could help a lot: http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm

If you can let go of Windows a minimal Linux distro would perform much better. Lubuntu is pretty lightweight plus you get access to all of the normal Ubuntu software: http://lubuntu.net/

KDOG · 11-14-2012, 01:08 PM

Gonna give that Jolicloud a try....I'm surprised theres not a Android OS you can install on an old PC to give it new life....

KDOG · 11-14-2012, 04:44 PM

Well I can't say if that Jolicloud works or not, cannot get it to connect to my wifi no matter what I do... back to XP...

JackMDS · 11-14-2012, 08:38 PM

The "Speed" of some other components and the OS is not the center issue.

The main problem on these old Laptop is CPU and Graphics hardware Not being suitable to play well Video.

Something like this might serve you better - http://3btech.net/ibmtht6114la.html

mfenn · 11-14-2012, 09:38 PM

Agree with Jack on this one. An old Pentium M doesn't have the processing power to smoothly play back any youtube videos other than the lowest 360P stream. The ancient IGP certainly isn't going to offer an decode acceleration.

crazymonkeyzero · 11-14-2012, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken g6

But when you can get a $200 ChromeBook that would work better, I wouldn't bother.

This

dave_the_nerd · 11-15-2012, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfenn

Agree with Jack on this one. An old Pentium M doesn't have the processing power to smoothly play back any youtube videos other than the lowest 360P stream. The ancient IGP certainly isn't going to offer an decode acceleration.

Who said anything about a Pentium M? With a 1.3 Ghz CPU, it's probably an early Pentium 4-M, or worse yet, a Celeron...

Also seconding the chrome book, but if that isn't in the budget, a lightweight Linux will do the trick. I hear good things about Mint, but am still using an old version of xubuntu on my old beater think pad. (It works...)

mfenn · 11-15-2012, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave_the_nerd

Who said anything about a Pentium M? With a 1.3 Ghz CPU, it's probably an early Pentium 4-M, or worse yet, a Celeron...

Also seconding the chrome book, but if that isn't in the budget, a lightweight Linux will do the trick. I hear good things about Mint, but am still using an old version of xubuntu on my old beater think pad. (It works...)

The i852GM is a Pentium M chipset. Now, the processor could certainly be one of the Pentium M based Celerons (M 320 or M 350) , but it could also be the original Banias 1.3. Both are the same microarchitecture.