Right OS for old Laptop

[Closed account]

Hello!
I have an old laptop that has pretty bad specs:

Dell Latitude D600
Pentium M @ 1.6 GHz
1GB RAM
20 GB Hard Drive
32MB Graphics Card

and I would like to know what version of Windows, or even any OS, that would work well on it. It is planned to just be used for basic online shopping. No games or anything like that. Here are some OSes that I believe will fit my needs:

Windows 2000 SP4 - Not tried, but seems favorable due to small size.
Windows XP SP3 - Runs a bit slow with only a few programs.
Windows Vista RTM - Runs at the same speed as Windows XP SP3 but is very slow at opening Windows apps like Control Panel or Windows Explorer.
Windows Vista SP1 - Runs extremely slow with no programs at all.
Windows 7 - Runs fair, but not that fast.
Windows 8 - Does not even load due to no PAE/NX Support.
Windows 8.1 - Does not even load due to no PAE/NX Support.
Ubuntu - Does not load due to no PAE/NX Support.
Most Linux versions - Does not load due to no PAE/NX Support.

The only requirement is that it should boot up fast and should be able to have a recent secure browser (Chrome 32 / Firefox) be able to run on it. For Windows 2k, I heard about some workarounds, so I'm keeping that in the pool. (Unofficial Service Pack 5 for MS Windows 2000)

Thanks for your help,
Matthew (LCT01a)

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Matthew do you have the means to up the ante on the RAM and the hard driveespecially as that drive is VERY small for 7 which is also the pick of what youhave posted.


If it is possible you need at least 2GB RAM and themotherboard will support only that amount anyway it and a minimum of say an 80GB drive because I amguessing here it is one of the older PATA drives already in the machine so itis pointless suggesting anything like an SSD.

The memory by the way is the very old now - DDR1 and is sometimes hard to come by in large capacity sticks and can be quite expensive.

Personally if your budget could run to a machine that runs slightly higher specs you would be better off doing that because you are looking at throwing good money after bad given the age of that machine - sorry mate for the brutal truth.

 

[bigmck]

I have that laptop. I bought it refurbished for about $100. It came with Win XP. It was pretty slow then. I tried Win 7 on it and was about the same, slow. I used it for a while but gave up on it. It is sitting in my closet now and will probably never be used again. I don't think there is an OS that will run on it to please you. It is just slow.

 

[andrew129260]

Try zorin or mint linix on it. Or dsl

 

[imjeffd]

find yourself a used laptop on craigs or e bay part that one off

 

[ICIT2LOL]

find yourself a used laptop on craigs or e bay part that one off

The other one that I personally like is Ubuntu but whatever you use it is going to be VERY slow

 

[Britton30]

Other than the very aged CPU, the hard drive is probably a 5400RPM and they just crawl with anything installed. You can get a 64GB SSD in the $50-$60 range, if the laptop would support it, it may have only IDE connector.

 

[Closed account]

Try zorin or mint linix on it. Or dsl

Any Linux distributions based off of Ubuntu are not compatible with the computer. DSL might work, but it need a bit more powerful of an OS.

find yourself a used laptop on craigs or e bay part that one off

This computer is a very old secondary computer for basic tasks. As I said, buying items and probably looking stuff up on the dictionary.

find yourself a used laptop on craigs or e bay part that one off

The other one that I personally like is Ubuntu but whatever you use it is going to be VERY slow

Ubuntu doesn't load due to PAE support.

I have that laptop. I bought it refurbished for about $100. It came with Win XP. It was pretty slow then. I tried Win 7 on it and was about the same, slow. I used it for a while but gave up on it. It is sitting in my closet now and will probably never be used again. I don't think there is an OS that will run on it to please you. It is just slow.

That makes perfect sense to do that. It's a very slow machine even with XP.

Matthew do you have the means to up the ante on the RAM and the hard driveespecially as that drive is VERY small for 7 which is also the pick of what youhave posted.


If it is possible you need at least 2GB RAM and themotherboard will support only that amount anyway it and a minimum of say an 80GB drive because I amguessing here it is one of the older PATA drives already in the machine so itis pointless suggesting anything like an SSD.

The memory by the way is the very old now - DDR1 and is sometimes hard to come by in large capacity sticks and can be quite expensive.

Personally if your budget could run to a machine that runs slightly higher specs you would be better off doing that because you are looking at throwing good money after bad given the age of that machine - sorry mate for the brutal truth.

Yes, I see that it is very old. I don't feel like upgrading anything because it's just going to be used for 10 minute tasks when other computers are not available.

Other than the very aged CPU, the hard drive is probably a 5400RPM and they just crawl with anything installed. You can get a 64GB SSD in the $50-$60 range, if the laptop would support it, it may have only IDE connector.

Yeah, an old IDE PATA.
For what I see here, Windows 2000 seems to be the only choice remaining.

 

[Closed account]

I found out that the hard drive is a 4200 RPM drive, which is even worse. Could buying a new 7200 RPM IDE HDD be good?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Other than the very aged CPU, the hard drive is probably a 5400RPM and they just crawl with anything installed. You can get a 64GB SSD in the $50-$60 range, if the laptop would support it, it may have only IDE connector.

Yep mate I have just gone through the official Dell manual and this is what I found the other specs are really very sad. See this review from the time of probably it's release.
Dell Latitude D600 Specs - CNET

You can access the manual here ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...laptop/latitude-d600_service manual_en-us.pdf

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I found out that the hard drive is a 4200 RPM drive, which is even worse. Could buying a new 7200 RPM IDE HDD be good?

Personally ICT mate this is stepping into the realms of whether there is such a beast - I have yet to see one but I guess there might be one around but you are still going to be restricted very heavily by the CPU and especially the RAM which if you run any OS other than the older types is going to fill VERY quickly

 

[Britton30]

I found out that the hard drive is a 4200 RPM drive, which is even worse. Could buying a new 7200 RPM IDE HDD be good?

It could help it a lot, but Newegg shows only one expensive one.
Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Hard Drives, Internal Hard Drives, All Laptop Hard Drives, 7200 RPM, IDE Ultra

EDIT: Amazon has several more choices.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p...Drives&ie=UTF8&qid=1400117672&rnid=3598629011

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I found out that the hard drive is a 4200 RPM drive, which is even worse. Could buying a new 7200 RPM IDE HDD be good?

It could help it a lot, but Newegg shows only one expensive one.
Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Hard Drives, Internal Hard Drives, All Laptop Hard Drives, 7200 RPM, IDE Ultra

EDIT: Amazon has several more choices.
Amazon.com: Laptop Hard Drives - PATA (IDE) / 2.5 Inch / 7200 RPM / Internal Hard Drives / Data Storage: Electronics

Holy cow I reckon if one were prepared to shell out that for a drive then a used machine of newer vintage would be far better - something refurbished for example.

 

[hjwhitaker]

I have a Dell Latitude D560 , Refurbished with Windows 7 Professional 32 bit and if you do a lot of on line shopping consider a great Internet security suite available at Free Antivirus | Free SSL | Internet Security and SSL Certificate from COMODO and install it , plus it is free and is the best around.

 

[andrew129260]

Windows 98 second edition might be a good choice. There is a dedicated fan base that makes updated software work with it. There have even been unofficial service packs for it that work quite well. I cannot find the link to it, but it was on this forum. Searching did not reveal it though. Anyway, I have the unofficial service pack 3 for windows 98 second edition and it is working well in my VM with no issues.


EDIT:

Found it:

http://www.foolsdesign.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=65

You will then also be interested in winworld, which will allow you to download old programs and such that are no longer available.

http://winworldpc.com/

 

[Computer0304]

Hello!
I have an old laptop that has pretty bad specs:

Dell Latitude D600
Pentium M @ 1.6 GHz
1GB RAM
20 GB Hard Drive
32MB Graphics Card

and I would like to know what version of Windows, or even any OS, that would work well on it. It is planned to just be used for basic online shopping. No games or anything like that. Here are some OSes that I believe will fit my needs:

Windows 2000 SP4 - Not tried, but seems favorable due to small size.
Windows XP SP3 - Runs a bit slow with only a few programs.
Windows Vista RTM - Runs at the same speed as Windows XP SP3 but is very slow at opening Windows apps like Control Panel or Windows Explorer.
Windows Vista SP1 - Runs extremely slow with no programs at all.
Windows 7 - Runs fair, but not that fast.
Windows 8 - Does not even load due to no PAE/NX Support.
Windows 8.1 - Does not even load due to no PAE/NX Support.
Ubuntu - Does not load due to no PAE/NX Support.
Most Linux versions - Does not load due to no PAE/NX Support.

The only requirement is that it should boot up fast and should be able to have a recent secure browser (Chrome 32 / Firefox) be able to run on it. For Windows 2k, I heard about some workarounds, so I'm keeping that in the pool. (Unofficial Service Pack 5 for MS Windows 2000)

Thanks for your help,
Matthew (LCT01a)

Try zorin or mint linix on it. Or dsl

Any Linux distributions based off of Ubuntu are not compatible with the computer. DSL might work, but it need a bit more powerful of an OS.

find yourself a used laptop on craigs or e bay part that one off

This computer is a very old secondary computer for basic tasks. As I said, buying items and probably looking stuff up on the dictionary.


Ubuntu doesn't load due to PAE support.


That makes perfect sense to do that. It's a very slow machine even with XP.

Matthew do you have the means to up the ante on the RAM and the hard driveespecially as that drive is VERY small for 7 which is also the pick of what youhave posted.


If it is possible you need at least 2GB RAM and themotherboard will support only that amount anyway it and a minimum of say an 80GB drive because I amguessing here it is one of the older PATA drives already in the machine so itis pointless suggesting anything like an SSD.

The memory by the way is the very old now - DDR1 and is sometimes hard to come by in large capacity sticks and can be quite expensive.

Personally if your budget could run to a machine that runs slightly higher specs you would be better off doing that because you are looking at throwing good money after bad given the age of that machine - sorry mate for the brutal truth.

Yes, I see that it is very old. I don't feel like upgrading anything because it's just going to be used for 10 minute tasks when other computers are not available.

Other than the very aged CPU, the hard drive is probably a 5400RPM and they just crawl with anything installed. You can get a 64GB SSD in the $50-$60 range, if the laptop would support it, it may have only IDE connector.

Yeah, an old IDE PATA.
For what I see here, Windows 2000 seems to be the only choice remaining.

There is a Linux Mint Debian edition that may work. According to the system requirements of Debian, all Pentium processors work. http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

 

[bigmck]

Andrew129260 or anyone else -- I think I might try putting Win 98 on my Dell Lattitude D600. I even have the Original Win 98 disk. It will give me something to do. Do you think I would have a problem getting the Internet to work? What about drivers?

 

[andrew129260]

@bigmck

I had no problems with internet or drivers on the vm. Old versions of firefox and opera work well on it.

 

[bigmck]

Thanks,

 

[Closed account]

I can't believe I'm saying this but...

Windows Vista is the best of the bunch. So, I took a Vista RTM DVD and used vLite to remove some stuff from the install and burned it onto a DVD. I installed it and was surprised of how fast it was! It booted in less than one minute. Unfortunately, I don't have a Vista license, so I'll be stuck with XP, 98SE, 2000 as my options. But, here is a picture of it running Vista well.

I wonder if I could lighten up Windows XP as well?