1.7Ghz 512mb Laptop with XP super slow IDE HD

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I have a copy of Vista.. am i fighting a losing battle by thinking i might be able to get Vista on there, or should I just trade it in and upgrade? I missed out on the IDE SDD drives a few yrs ago.. didn't know they'd stop making them or they'd become this scarce..

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Ahh, the answer right Here.

will have to install W7 though

 

[NewYorksFinest]

Do what is the question?

 

[VirtualLarry]

BestBuy B&M is letting people trade in their working XP laptops, for a $25 GC and a $75 off coupon for a new computer.

FW thread has more details. Some people were getting the Acer C720 Chromebook, which is currently selling for $200, so $100 off that.

I'm not a huge fan of Chromebooks myself, they seem limiting, but there are guides on how to put Ubuntu on a CB.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Do what is the question?

a slow PATA laptop drive.. cmon, you've never started up your laptop, took a shower, watched a half hour sitcom, then went to your laptop to begin the slow and agonizingly painful normal light duties your laptop struggles to do? Awe

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

BestBuy B&M is letting people trade in their working XP laptops, for a $25 GC and a $75 off coupon for a new computer.

FW thread has more details. Some people were getting the Acer C720 Chromebook, which is currently selling for $200, so $100 off that.

I'm not a huge fan of Chromebooks myself, they seem limiting, but there are guides on how to put Ubuntu on a CB.

I think if I can just upgrade the HDD to an SSD, and add a little more ram I might be able to install w7 on this hunk of metal we use to consider a fast laptop, hehe

 

[NewYorksFinest]

a slow PATA laptop drive.. cmon, you've never started up your laptop, took a shower, watched a half hour sitcom, then went to your laptop to begin the slow and agonizingly painful normal light duties your laptop struggles to do? Awe

First, you need a new laptop. XP service ended and 512MB of RAM is nothing. Second, my Razer blade Pro starts in less than 10 seconds, then type my password and about 20-30 seconds, done!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

First, you need a new laptop. XP service ended and 512MB of RAM is nothing. Second, my Razer blade Pro starts in less than 10 seconds, then type my password and about 20-30 seconds, done!

Well congratufrickinlations, haha No I'm not buying a new laptop, that's why I am considering these upgrades..

 

[postmortemIA]

and what is the CPU on that? no way something with PATA controller has CPU younger than decade.
forget about it, be happy with XP

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

and what is the CPU on that? no way something with PATA controller has CPU younger than decade.
forget about it, be happy with XP

It's not at my house right now but i think it's some dual core celron 1.7Ghz pos.. the eol xp thing is why i'm considering upgrading

 

[NewYorksFinest]

Well congratufrickinlations, haha No I'm not buying a new laptop, that's why I am considering these upgrades..

So you are upgrading :smack:? You are very limited with your options if the laptop is from the XP age. Just buy a $400 with a Haswell core i3 mobile.

http://m.dell.com/mt/www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-3537/pd?oc=fncwc2405s&model_id=inspiron-15-3537&mboxDisable=1&un_jtt_redirect

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

So you are upgrading :smack:? You are very limited with your options if the laptop is from the XP age. Just buy a $400 with a Haswell core i3 mobile.

http://m.dell.com/mt/www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-3537/pd?oc=fncwc2405s&model_id=inspiron-15-3537&mboxDisable=1&un_jtt_redirect

it's basically a sync machine

 

[Ken g6]

it's basically a sync machine

So, what, you use it to sync files from elsewhere to that machine? Or to an external drive plugged into that machine?

I have a machine very much like that. I completely removed its HDD, put Puppy Linux on a 1GB USB drive, plugged in a 3TB HDD, and now it does my TV recording for me.

And it is younger than a decade. It's from 2005.

 

[hhhd1]

in case of light usage, you might find that you do not need to upgrade the ram, a page file on an ssd should be fast enough.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yup. Just a sync machine.. it's still functional except Security essentials doesn't want to start up with the machine. Services says it's automatic but it never starts, i have to manually start it.. I'd like to just have a little more secure machine while booting up and sync'ing stuff.. plus it's deadly slow, uuugh

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

in case of light usage, you might find that you do not need to upgrade the ram, a page file on an ssd should be fast enough.

even when trying to install, or running w7 ?

 

[mfenn]

Yup. Just a sync machine.. it's still functional except Security essentials doesn't want to start up with the machine. Services says it's automatic but it never starts, i have to manually start it.. I'd like to just have a little more secure machine while booting up and sync'ing stuff.. plus it's deadly slow, uuugh

I don't understand what a "sync" machine is. Can you describe what it is you use this laptop for?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I don't understand what a "sync" machine is. Can you describe what it is you use this laptop for?

For example, if you have files on a 'Cloud' server and you want the files on on two separate machines in two locations.. e.g. Verizon contacts, Bookmarks from a browser, etc.

 

[Cerb]

I'm not a huge fan of Chromebooks myself, they seem limiting, but there are guides on how to put Ubuntu on a CB.

I'm already running a BIOS Arch on my C720, and am going to try UEFI w/ my new SSD for it. Google's own search can't seem to do a decent job of finding their own docs, but once I found where the write protect screw was, it all went fine, and Chrome OS was gone before I went to bed after I got it (by which I mean I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, because I wasn't sleeping until I had a DE with fancy effects running ).

I paid more, just a bit before BB's deal (I am prepping XP machines, that were going to be thrown out, for a small stack of gift cards, though ). It's not great, but not bad either. I'm too clumsy to lug around a good modern laptop. Plus, new Thinkpad keyboards have gone to Hell, so I don't even want a recent used one.

The last-gen Acer C710 is much more versatile (upgradable RAM, RJ45, VGA, 2.5" SATA, and PCIe wireless), and has more keys; but the C720, once you tweak power settings a little, gets fantastic battery life, is substantially thinner, has bigger top row keys (with the shapeless chiclets, that's an issue), and no Windows/super/search key between lalt and lctrl.

Whether trying to mess with a Chromebook or not, though, just move on. That machine has had a nice long life...

 

[hhhd1]

even when trying to install, or running w7 ?

I just tried to install and run windows7 on vmware with:
en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_677332.iso
hardware:
a single core of celeron 1.9ghz (ivy bridge 1005m)
512mb ram
14gb hdd
3d accelaration enabled

from starting the setup in the virtual machine, until finishing, and reaching the desktop, it took 14 minutes.
a full restart to desktop takes 50~60 seconds.

It wasn't flying fast, but it felt faster than windows running with 2gb ram on an old mechanical drive.

Your user experience might be different though, .. give it a try before paying to upgrade the ram.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I just tried to install and run windows7 on vmware with:
en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_677332.iso
hardware:
a single core of celeron 1.9ghz (ivy bridge 1005m)
512mb ram
14gb hdd
3d accelaration enabled

from starting the setup in the virtual machine, until finishing, and reaching the desktop, it took 14 minutes.
a full restart to desktop takes 50~60 seconds.

It wasn't flying fast, but it felt faster than windows running with 2gb ram on an old mechanical drive.

Your user experience might be different though, .. give it a try before paying to upgrade the ram.

Yeah, I think this is a good idea. If I can get some money together I will probably buy that PATA SSD from Transcend. It's my only SSD option but anything will be better than that current mechanical drive. It's soo painful

 

[Ken g6]

It's my only SSD option

Your only SSD option? Say, your laptop doesn't happen to have an SD card port like mine, does it? Maybe you could use a fast SD card? Of course, my laptop only supported SD, not SDHC, so it's possible none of those would work. :\

 

[mvbighead]

Let the old hardware die. For reals. You're going to spend $80 on something ANCIENT when you could spend another $20 and get a chromebook if virtual larry is correct.

If given those options, I would jump at the chromebook.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Your only SSD option?

Someone posted a 2.5" IDE to mSATA SSD adaptor once. OP could look for one of those.

 

[mfenn]

For example, if you have files on a 'Cloud' server and you want the files on on two separate machines in two locations.. e.g. Verizon contacts, Bookmarks from a browser, etc.

So why not just sync the contacts and bookmarks to the actual end machines you care about, rather than having an old, slow machine acting as an intermediary?