Operating System choice for laptop with low RAM

1982

I have got my hands on a dell CPX laptop which has XP installed on it but it runs really slow and will not play any movies/AVI's (system just crashes) . I think the problem is the lack of available RAM.

The system specs are

PIII 500Mhz
384 MB RAM
Windows XP
built in GFX & Sound.

I got it for nothing but would still like to be able to use it for watching movies and using wireless.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to which OS i could downgrade to in order to use this machine effectivly. I would still wish to use the wireless networking so i am unsure if windows 98 had this feature.

Cheers

sra

I have a PIII 500Mhz with only 192 of ram running Windows 2000

Can watch almost all movies - the only thing it has a problem with is .mov and other quicktimes.

You just have to be very careful with what you install and what runs at startup.

If I try to run it from the battery without the mains it drops from 500Mhz to 130 Mhz and it just dies under the weight of a modern Anti-Virus etc

nickmack

It could be some faulty RAM that's causing a problem, try downloading Memtest to see if it returns any errors.

However, the problem is more likely to do with the processor than the RAM.

384Mb RAM should be sufficient for general tasks. It is the processor however that has decode the video stream and it could strugle only being a P3-500.

As for Operating Systems, Linux runs faster on older spec machines than Windows in nearly all cases.

albertross_2

That should be ok 512 would be a bit better, but what you have should work. Have you checked for malware, and patched it with windows update.

98 does support wireless with wep encryption, but not wpa natively.

1982

yeah i have fully scanned the system and it shows no virus/malware. have run scandisk/defrag tools nothing seems to help.

I am running symantec antivirus but system at idle still shows 220MB free ram and approx 75% free cpu.

have cleared out basically everything bar symantec and it still aint working properly.

I have often thought of linux as on OS. Are there any users here? kinda put off by the professional fan base it seems to have.

albertross_2

Try a live CD ..

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

puppy is quite light.

But the wireless encryption is probably going to be fiddly with linux as well

1982

that sounds like a decent idea but what kinda things do you get with the live cd? I mean when you boot it up will it be able to recognise external USB drives? and does it have facilities for movie/avi playback?

Im away on a course next week and would like to take the laptop with me just as a means to watch DVD's on do you think that the live CD would be suitable for this?

albertross_2

Puppy included Gxine which plays some formats, not sure if it will work with you usb DVD player, you'll have to try it. The smallest version is about 65MB, so won't take long to download using broadband. Just burn the iso to a CD and boot from it. You can use this to burn the iso to a CD http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/burncdcc.zip

Linux isn't anywhere near as easy as Windows. I'd try and get XP or 98 working if you can.

1982

thanks mate gonna give it a try for the short term... if it works ill be well impressed;)

I will prob end up just reformatting it and reinstalling 2000 or ME but i wanna give this a try as i dont have much time before i go and cant get hold of a disk before then.

Kilty_2

DO NOT install ME, worst version of windows ever.

2000 is solid for older machines and is what I'd install 9 times out of 10, although if you like Linux then I'd reccomend that you download a full install distro, runs far better from that than from a LiveCD, for obvious reasons.

esuhl

I'd definitely not recommend ME either - until 6 months ago my main PC was a 650MHz PIII with 128MB ram, and Windows 98 worked a treat.

Check out 98lite (http://www.litepc.com/98lite.html), which strips unnecessary features out of Windows 98 for better performance. Liteshell is a simplified shell for Windows 98 and can also improve performance (http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~mosses/rob/index.php?page=liteshell).

I managed to turn a 90MHz P1 with 80MB ram into a (just-about) useable laptop using 98lite and Liteshell. I mostly use it as a wireless radio so I can take it into the garden to listen to Internet radio or hook it up to my hi-fi when I'm in the house.

Surfing is at the speed of dialup, and I'm not even going to think about installing Office (not that it would fit onto a 1.2GB hard drive)... but your 500MHz machine should be fine - particularly with 384MB of ram!