Old Junker Laptop-What can i do with it?

[JRockZ]

Ok so someone gave me an old Toshiba laptop that only has an 800Mhz cpu and 256 MB ram,, i wiped it and installed XP pro on it, it ran ok considering for a little bit but then i ran all updates and its just bogged it down to the point where now all i get is low memory errors. Id just like to be able to use it as a back up to do some browsing but its such a slug!! not worth spending money on. I tried to install UbUntU on it but it wont install i guess because its such a whimp. It would work fine if i had an O.S. that doesnt use alot of resources like a stripped down XP or something. I was wondering if maybe Android would work on it since it works fine on my 800Mhz cell phone lol.
Any ideas or tips??

--------------------------
Thanks
JRockZ

 

[spencer1]

I'm just curious, for historical reasons, what year is this Toshiba from?

 

[JRockZ]

I'm just curious, for historical reasons, what year is this Toshiba from?

Around 2000 2001 it had windows mellineum edition on it originally

 

[bassfisher6522]

Is it worth spending the money on to upgrade the hardware? Such a good philosophical question due to age... To upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the question...I'm sure this will strike up some good conversations. Now on the flip side, depending on what the spec sheet says as to what the maximum RAM upgrade is and what type of CPU upgrade you can get and then the cost of the upgrades....It could very well just be a good learning project. Then install some distro of Linux...it might be worth the effort. If nothing else just for personal know how....

 

[JRockZ]

Is it worth spending the money on to upgrade the hardware? Such a good philosophical question due to age... To upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the question...I'm sure this will strike up some good conversations. Now on the flip side, depending on what the spec sheet says as to what the maximum RAM upgrade is and what type of CPU upgrade you can get and then the cost of the upgrades....It could very well just be a good learning project. Then install some distro of Linux...it might be worth the effort. If nothing else just for personal know how....

Well like i said i tried ubuntu on it but it wont even boot it from the usb, let alone install it. it is NOT worth spending money on but it does work perfect for an old computer, if i could just browse the web with it it would be fine but right now its just to slow takes like 2-4 mins for a browser to open up then clicking from page to page is slow going too,, oh well i guess maybe its just not worth messing with.

--------------------------
Thanks
JRockZ

 

[bassfisher6522]

At least check to see what it would cost for a CPU and RAM upgrade....hell I'm curious. It might not be that bad...like you said...it's 10 -12 years old. You could always donate to a charity. They have the staff and resources to pass it on to some deserving soul.

 

[JRockZ]

You could always donate to a charity. They have the staff and resources to pass it on to some deserving soul.

My EXACT plan! but i want it to be useable so i can give it to a friend in need. I dont want to tear it apart,, might do a ram upgrade if i can find some cheap!!

EDIT: hmm i just found a problem,, suddenly my ram is showing as 120mb which is weird because last week it was 256mb,,, I assume now its really 128mb ram and is using 8mb for the graphics,,, but if thats the case then when it was showing 256 before how come it wasnt less because of the integrated graphics? should have shown as 248mb hmmmm odd! oh well

 

[Derek10]

Ubuntu should let to install it as I've installed it on a ancient 450 MHz AMD K6-2 with 192 RAM and 8 GB HD much older than yours without hiccups. why not try linux mint or older version of ubuntu or something

 

[3D Jed]

Damn Small Linux claims it will run on a 486DX and 16 MB ram !

DSL information

Also fun to try on better systems.