Questions about old laptop

burdette

I'm going to just paste a copy of a note I've been sending to some computer types on local Craig's List. I've yet to get a workable response.

We've been given a Gateway laptop that was new in Jan
2001. We have the original order form from Gateway,
all the papers, system disks, everything.

The people who gave it to us said it has a virus, and
they haven't even fired the thing up for something
like 2-3 years. From the Gateway receipt: It is a
Gateway Solo 5300 CL, Pentium III, 650Mhz, 128MB
'memory module', 10GB hard drive, 10GB non stock,
4x/4x/20x recordable CDRW, integrated V.90 56k modem.

That is what the paper says.

It did turn on, it is loaded with Windows Millenium.
We put a CD in the drive and played a game. It
functions.

What I want to know is whether this thing can be
recreated into a functioning wireless laptop for our
home use, with larger hard drive, more RAM, a DVD
drive. We have a wireless router in our home - I've
successfully connected with my laptop from work.

Is this thing worth putting some money into? The
intended use would be 1) wireless internet connection
for general web surfing, shopping, ebay, You Tube,
etc, 2) working with various applications like
PrintMaster, Greetings Workshop, etc (we home school
and my wife works with children's ministry at church
and she creates a lot of flyers, posters, etc)., and,
if possible 3) we'd play DVDs on it so the kids could
watch movies in a pinch.

I've worked with desktop PCs. I've changed out hard
drives, zip drives, network cards, etc. I have not
worked on a laptop and, frankly, don't really want to.
But I'd like to know if this thing will take a
wireless card, more RAM, an upgraded hard drive, get
it to recognize a USB optical mouse, etc.

I can get a pretty nifty brand new laptop in the $500 range.

So the question is... is this thing worth it?

Thanks.

VR3

With 650mhz,

After you invest all you mentioned - you could probally get a 3.2ghz dual core for the same price

engtaz

I agree

engtaz

TN_Polk_Lover

It's not worth it. Most everything on laptops is too proprietary. It's much more expensive to try and upgrade them than to just buy a newer one (maybe used one or a closeout special from Dell, etc.).

Robert

billbillw

If you want to keep the thing, I'd get rid of windows Millenium. Load Windows 2k, maybe just get a little more ram if you can find it cheap. I'd shoot for 512mb. Wireless adaptors are pretty cheap if you stick to Wireless G technology. Forget the other stuff. The CPU will likely struggle with DVD playback, so I'd forget that stuff. With 2k loaded and if you keep it lean (don't load much garbage), it would be sufficient for general office type apps and email/web surfing.

John in MA

You can upgrade the memory and hard drive very cheaply, as well as get a wireless NIC. Install Win2K and get all the updates. Unless you start using games or high-end graphics apps newer than the laptop you won't notice a speed problem. The upgrades will only cost a few dollars if you buy used--forget about buying new, they screw you with the prices.

You can get a DVD drive for it, but I'm not sure I'd bother. They're cheap on eBay but the CD-RW drive is just a better drive if you can live without movies.

Airplay355

I'd say it's not worth it. Laptops can be had for very cheap these days, you might as well just buy a new one. The price to performance ration would be much better then just upgrading that POS. It would just be frustrating and you'd probably end up getting a new one eventually anyway.

Maybe something like this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146186

It was the cheapest thing I could find on Newegg. I think it would be leaps and bounds ahead of the gateway you are considering. Buying a computer like the gateway just seems kind of pointless to me as you'd barely be able to do anything with it.

petrym

Go with a new one... definately cheaper in the long run.

John in MA

Airplay355 wrote: »

Buying a computer like the gateway just seems kind of pointless to me as you'd barely be able to do anything with it.

How so? Most of the used computers I've set people up with have been in the 600-800 MHz range and I've never gotten a complaint about speed. With 256+MB of RAM they can run 2K or XP comfortably if you're intelligent about not letting lots of crap get installed. The only think they won't do is play Doom 3 or render 3D graphics quickly.

Airplay355

I have a vaio with a 1.7ghz p4 with 256 mb of RAM and surfing the web becomes a problem sometimes. Web pages load slower then I'd like, especially if I have any other applications like Word running. It came with photoshop on it but forget that, I can barely do that and only with small files using small brushes. I can't play doom 3 either. I have 32 mb of dedicated video ram.

So this laptop is considerably slower then the desktop I'm using and I think if I'm having problems, I can't imagine the problems he'd have, especially as things get more sophisticated.

Buying old computer technology doesn't make sense to me when new or newer computers are so cheap.

Maybe you've never gotten a complaint about speed because they have never had a faster machine to compare it to? I've used faster machines so I know what I'm missing.

I guess I should just buy an HTIB too, because it plays music even if by paying a little more I could get something that substancially surpasses it in quality.

Plus you have to find old technology that will be compatible with it, like an old network card, old laptop ram, and a DVD player to work with it (if it can even handle playing DVD's or running a DVD playing application).

POLKOHOLIC

not sure if you are at all computer savvy but you might want to try going linux. either SUSE 10.2 or Fedora 6 are good. you can download it for free (~5 CDR's). get a wireless card for around 30 bucks online and ur set.

this should be good and you will learn lots of new stuff while installing linux.

im not going to lie - installing linux can be a pain but it is a very nice learning experiance.

loading linux into your computer is like getting intimate with your computer.

ben62670

John in MA wrote: »

You can upgrade the memory and hard drive very cheaply, as well as get a wireless NIC. Install Win2K and get all the updates. Unless you start using games or high-end graphics apps newer than the laptop you won't notice a speed problem. The upgrades will only cost a few dollars if you buy used--forget about buying new, they screw you with the prices.

You can get a DVD drive for it, but I'm not sure I'd bother. They're cheap on eBay but the CD-RW drive is just a better drive if you can live without movies.

+1
I would install XP on it, and get a 256meg stick of ram for it. I own a computer repair company, and my laptop is a PIII 850 with 256 megs. It works fine for most typical surfing printing needs. I don't know if I would bother getting a new hard drive for it. If you aren't downloading movies and or music you really don't need it from what I can see.

John in MA

Your Vaio must be overloaded with crap, I can see how with 256MB of RAM you'd encounter problems if the software was all screwed up. Vaios are sometimes a little touchy, too. A clean Pentium III/500 will snap open IE and Word instantly after first use for the day.

This Gateway doesn't use any obscure old technology. SDRAM DIMMs, 2.5" hard drives, and PCMIA WiFi are practically available by the pound. The DVD drive would have to be a module made for this model, but they're cheap enough on eBay. I just wouldn't bother with it since I don't like watching DVDs on a computer, but that's just me. 10GB is also a lot of drive space unless you're doing video or heavy photo stuff. I'd probably upgrade the RAM to 512MB and rock out.

My main PC is an Athlon 1.6GHz with 512MB and a very cheap old video card that I started using when I got a DVI monitor. I usually have 10+ browser windows open, usually with Media Player, Word, and Excel also running. Plus NAV, HP printer software, etc. No slowdowns, everything loads as fast as I could ever want. I'd probably shave 10ths of a second off of some things with a faster CPU, but there's no reason to change.

ben62670

Absolutely agree with John again. Now that Vista is out. You have to buy a very fast machine just to operate the crappy OS. I just did some work for a friend of a friend on a laptop with win98 on it with 96 megs of ram, and the thing runs better than a lot of new machines out there. Hard drives, and ram are still the limiting factor when it comes to loading programs.

Airplay355

I guess I didn't know as much about computers as I thought then. I was going to upgrade my vaio but when I looked for older ram (PC3200) it was hard to find and more expensive then the newer stuff and that was a while ago.

Maybe getting an older laptop will work for him, I just wouldn't do it because I'd most likely end up bogging it down with crap software and .mp3s.

I don't want to hijack this thread so I'll start my own on laptops.