Breathing new life into old laptop..

Lol

In an attempt to be resourceful (and considerate of the environment), I'd like to update an old laptop rather than buy new. But I'm not all that technically minded. If I clear it and start again, can anyone give me any sound points for upgrading it and bringing it into this century and would this be straight forward enough? It is running windows98 is a Fujitsu Siemens Intel celeron processor C series Lifebook..

vyseyboy

The most performance enhancing and cheap upgrade you can perform is usually a RAM upgrade. If it's currently running fine and can get an internet connection, go to crucial.co.uk and run their system scanner, which should show you what RAM is currently installed and what the maximum capacity of the motherboard is. Then you can shop around, or just buy from crucial, if you choose.

Win XP / a variant of linux usually runs fine on older systems, so long as the RAM is plentiful.

You don't say what the intended uses are. That would be helpful in deciding how much it's worth spending upgrading this machine.

Also, what's the model number?

Another easy cheap upgrade would be a wireless PCMCIA card, about £10-£15, for wifi access.

But is it worth all the hassle if the battery is on it's way out and can't be replaced?! Need more details.

Lakshmi7

You can get some really powerful laptops now for a couple of hundred quid. It might be cheaper just to get a new one.

dedward67

To be honest, depends on the speed and hdd of the laptop you have and whether it has wifi etc built in. If you want to put on XP, you need a minimum of 256mb mem (512mb recommended) and at least a 20gb hard disk to allow for XP + Office and other apps. You'll also need a wireless card if you want wireless internet + a copy of XP. Add up those costs and you'll find you're not too far of the price of a budget new laptop!!

Lol

sorry..model no is FPC04026B. No wifi. (it's pretty ancient!) Intended use as a 2nd computer, just surfing web/documents.

So cost wise when I factor in I'm looking at ram/wifi enablement/hd/and quite poss a new battery...Better do some sums and see if worth it..and I'm guessing I'd have to pay for XP(?)


At the competitive prices they're at now it is a bit of a to buy or not to buy situation, but more importantly to me is to use it if it can be used really.

S0litaire

If it's just for surfing and typing.

Check out Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/)
it's FREE! and will run on your laptop.

Also a wireless USB dongle is a must

Battery will probably be the expensive part though!!

Donnie

It's a Lifebook C6555.

Forget about purchasing a new battery and HDD. Use it with mains electricity. You can also fit up to 256MB PC 133 SD RAM (2 x 128MB 144 PIN SO DIMM) I'm confused as to whether the RAM currently on-board is removable.
If it is not, then you are limited to a single 128MB of RAM. Example here. Giving you a total of 160 to 192 of RAM, dependent on how much is currently installed.
Take a look for yourself to see how many slots are available.

Then maybe a wireless card, if Windows 98 is compatible. FORGET about running XP.
If you did want to consider Ubuntu , you would need At least 256 MB of RAM is required to run the alternate install CD. Install requires at least 4 GB of disk space.

If that is too much for your system, you can consider Xubuntu.

You will find your manual here. Identification number:YBLP019712

It's the second LIFEBOOK C Series EasyGuide on the list.

Drivers & Downloads/Manuals etc

That should be enough to get you started.

culpepper

Try teen puppy linux.
I have this running on a 1 MB mp3 player and boot it from the usb port.
My laptop was rescued from the rubbish,and had no hard drive. I put teen puppy linux live cd in and ran it from the CD which lets me surf the web, watch videos,listen to music etc.
I did buy a small used harddrive so I could have XP on it and that runs fine too.
You can get used batteries from ebay if you look for sellers who dismantle laptops and sell the bits as spares.
heres where I got puppy....
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/TeenPup-31563.shtml

Lol

Great, cheers for those links Donnie..