Help the Aged (laptop)

sundin13

Hi,

I'm spring cleaning away merrily today, and I found my brothers old laptop. It was actually his work laptop, but it hasn't been used since 2003, and its been written off.

He's told me to chuck it in the tip - but I'm wondering if its salveagable - even just for really basic functions. I have two problems though:

1. Though it is running Windows NT, its got administrator passwords and stuff for his old company (so is there a way I can reinstall an O.S?) so I can't get in.

2. It doesn't have any USB ports. It has these card things - one of which is a 56k modem - but I can't even connect it to my printer without a USB

Thanks, in advance

S13

greyteam1959

He was right chuck it in the ( recycle !! ) bin
Its so far out of date that it is completely useless today
Sorry

rockabilly_spike

bit harsh!
depends on what you wanna use it for.
its probably closest to a glorified word processor by todays standards, but it depends, like I say, what you want out of it.
you can pick up a PCMCIA usb card for around £15 which would mean that you'd have to swop between the cards if you wanted to use dial up internet
if you have a Windows NT license no, you might be able to get a PC shop to reinstall the lot and wipe the drive clean.
failing that, see if anyone has an old copy of windows 98 lying about for you to use on it.
Or donate it via freecycle for spares/repairs.

ormus

oxfam etc will take laptops, but not a desktop pc.

Browntoa

I've breathed life into an old PC with Puppy linux

http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=3

Phil51

If it has a CD drive then it will take XP and then you could replace the modem card with a USB card

sundin13

Yes...its got a CD.

To be honest, the reason I'd like to have it is as a glorified WP so that my son can do his homework on without the distraction of MSN messenger etc. :-)

Zagu

I wouldnt bin it, even broken laptops get good money off Ebay.

Have a look here.

"Windows Password recovery - Can retrieve forgotten admin and users' passwords in minutes. Safest possible option, does not write anything to hard drive.

Petter Nordahl-Hagen's Offline NT Password & Registry Editor - A great boot CD/Floppy that can reset the local administrator's password.

Openwall's John the Ripper - Good boot floppy with cracking capabilities.

EBCD – Emergency Boot CD - Bootable CD, intended for system recovery in the case of software or hardware faults."

Phil51

Then I would install XP and buy the PCMCIA usb card (Between £10 and £15 from most PC Suppliers)

rockabilly_spike

XP needs 128mb ram minimum to run smoothly. you'd get an OEM copy of XP home pretty cheaply now too
Check whats its got in right click my computer/properties.
XP might run well, install OpenOffice suite on it and yer away.

TheFaqqer

I'm not sure that I would reinstall XP on an old laptop - it might be a bit much for the machine to handle.

Install either an earlier version of Windows or a free version of Linux. If you aren't going to connect the machine to the internet, then something like Windows 98 (which is unsupported by Microsoft now) would still be OK - since you have no connection to the internet then the chances of you getting any viruses / malware is much reduced.

If it were me, I'd get a copy of Linux - magazines give it away, or you can download it, and use it that way. Free software like OpenOffice does everything that MS Office does, without the licence fee.

HTH,

Faqqer