Comments on: Spotted at 39th and 7th: $99 Laptop http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop News and views on today's hottest laptops, cell phones, and other mobile devices. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:12:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: jason http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-15299 jason Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:53:57 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-15299 A little late but maby some help, I have that very same notebook. First thing first, it will max out at 72 mb ram. some say less but I have proven that at least 72mb will work. the bios can only handle a little over 8gig hard drive. there are ways around that but...... the processor is a p133. Now that you know its potential you know that win 2000 CAN run on it but 98se or better yet 95 is better. no usb, no Ethernet. Ohh and it will not boot from the cd. try and get the floppy drive that interchanges with the cd drive. If not no big deal cause they are on ebay all day long for less than 20$. I paid 20$ for my laptop and its like new. got 64 mb ram 15.98 with shipping. It has 8mb on board for the 72mb. I have no had fun getting high speed on this machine so far. 16 bit cardbus :( . any way, send me an email if you need to know more or if you have figured anything I dont know. jldwolfe@yahoo.com A little late but maby some help, I have that very same notebook. First thing first, it will max out at 72 mb ram. some say less but I have proven that at least 72mb will work. the bios can only handle a little over 8gig hard drive. there are ways around that but…… the processor is a p133. Now that you know its potential you know that win 2000 CAN run on it but 98se or better yet 95 is better. no usb, no Ethernet. Ohh and it will not boot from the cd. try and get the floppy drive that interchanges with the cd drive. If not no big deal cause they are on ebay all day long for less than 20$. I paid 20$ for my laptop and its like new. got 64 mb ram 15.98 with shipping. It has 8mb on board for the 72mb. I have no had fun getting high speed on this machine so far. 16 bit cardbus :( . any way, send me an email if you need to know more or if you have figured anything I dont know. jldwolfe@yahoo.com

]]> By: Anonymous http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-11424 Anonymous Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:30:23 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-11424 use it in the bathroom or kitchen use it in the bathroom or kitchen

]]> By: Mark Regan http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-11263 Mark Regan Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:32:14 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-11263 I did even better than that. I bought a Dell Latitude CP for $50 from the original owner! The cursor was locked up because she had NEVER defraged it. I did a defrag, which unlocked the cursor, checked the 2 gig hard drive and found the computer had been sold with Windows 95, she had installed Windows 98, then Windows 2000 and then XP home on it. It also had a full load of Microsoft 2000 suite programs, and a recent Quick Books version. I added Windows XP Pro, which used up the balance of the free space, slimmed it down by deleting files not used by me, defragged it again, then replaced the drive with a four gig used drive obtained from a friend for $10, cloned everything onto the 4 gig drive, then spent about $40 on 4 gigs of USB memory sticks on which I loaded all my videos and word processing and photos. So for less than a hundred bucks, I've got a laptop with a good battery with XP pro and pretty recent yet reliable software that has had all the bugs worked out of it. Eventually I got rid of most of the Microsoft products except the XP Pro and replaced them with Sun Microsystems and Google and Mozilla and VLC Media Player, which offer comparable programs taking up half the space of the MS dinosaurs which either have to be constantly upgraded or become unsupported. Sometimes my laptop outperforms new computers with all the modern space and time consuming programs. Lesson: nearly any old computer can be speeded up by deleting unncessary and cumbersome MS files, and by replacing bulky MS programs with faster, smaller free programs which are usually better. USB flash memories and online storage eliminate problems relating to small hard drives. Unless you are into gaming, the older computers work fine for most word processing and internet research activities. I did even better than that. I bought a Dell Latitude CP for $50 from the original owner! The cursor was locked up because she had NEVER defraged it. I did a defrag, which unlocked the cursor, checked the 2 gig hard drive and found the computer had been sold with Windows 95, she had installed Windows 98, then Windows 2000 and then XP home on it. It also had a full load of Microsoft 2000 suite programs, and a recent Quick Books version.

I added Windows XP Pro, which used up the balance of the free space, slimmed it down by deleting files not used by me, defragged it again, then replaced the drive with a four gig used drive obtained from a friend for $10, cloned everything onto the 4 gig drive, then spent about $40 on 4 gigs of USB memory sticks on which I loaded all my videos and word processing and photos. So for less than a hundred bucks, I’ve got a laptop with a good battery with XP pro and pretty recent yet reliable software that has had all the bugs worked out of it.

Eventually I got rid of most of the Microsoft products except the XP Pro and replaced them with Sun Microsystems and Google and Mozilla and VLC Media Player, which offer comparable programs taking up half the space of the MS dinosaurs which either have to be constantly upgraded or become unsupported. Sometimes my laptop outperforms new computers with all the modern space and time consuming programs.

Lesson: nearly any old computer can be speeded up by deleting unncessary and cumbersome MS files, and by replacing bulky MS programs with faster, smaller free programs which are usually better. USB flash memories and online storage eliminate problems relating to small hard drives. Unless you are into gaming, the older computers work fine for most word processing and internet research activities.

]]> By: Mike Cane http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-10846 Mike Cane Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:40:42 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-10846 Joanna Stern The Brave! You didn't shake hands with Sketch, did you? Check if you still have all your fingers! Joanna Stern The Brave! You didn’t shake hands with Sketch, did you? Check if you still have all your fingers!

]]> By: Andrew http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-10827 Andrew Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:54:51 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-10827 I love old dell laptops. I got an old Latitude c800 at home. I have given it a hard run but it still works. I now use it with a usb wifi adapter and turned it into a wireless print server. I love old dell laptops. I got an old Latitude c800 at home. I have given it a hard run but it still works. I now use it with a usb wifi adapter and turned it into a wireless print server.

]]> By: Laptop guy http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-10783 Laptop guy Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:24:17 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-10783 yep i agree with you, Jon... this is what i meant.. yep i agree with you, Jon… this is what i meant..

]]> By: Jon Gl http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-10758 Jon Gl Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:46:17 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-10758 That's what I did a few weeks ago. Actually, I bought an even _older_ Dell--the Latitude CPi, dating from the last years of the last century (1999 or 2000). I know it must be older than my main computer, a 2000 model Apple Powerbook (PIsmo), which is still going strong. In any case, this Dell of mine has a 366mhz processor, and 160 meg of ram. I threw my own hard drive in it (30 gig) and have installed both Puppy Linux and Xubuntu running either icewm or LXDE (depending on my mood). What do I use this guy for? It's my beater laptop. I don't want to carry all my valuable data on my bike, so when I ride my bike, I use this laptop. It's also great for experimenting with, oh, and its battery is still good for about 45min-1hr, so I use it in the living room, back yard, etc. Wireless works great with a PC card. Is it slow? Yup--depending on whether I overload the processor or not. If I'm running Puppy, it screams. Xubuntu in the above-mentioned windows managers also is quite fast--you don't notice its age most of the time. Just don't overload it. If you want a computer you can experiment with and just bang around, then this beats a Wind any day! :-) -Jon That’s what I did a few weeks ago. Actually, I bought an even _older_ Dell–the Latitude CPi, dating from the last years of the last century (1999 or 2000). I know it must be older than my main computer, a 2000 model Apple Powerbook (PIsmo), which is still going strong. In any case, this Dell of mine has a 366mhz processor, and 160 meg of ram. I threw my own hard drive in it (30 gig) and have installed both Puppy Linux and Xubuntu running either icewm or LXDE (depending on my mood).

What do I use this guy for? It’s my beater laptop. I don’t want to carry all my valuable data on my bike, so when I ride my bike, I use this laptop. It’s also great for experimenting with, oh, and its battery is still good for about 45min-1hr, so I use it in the living room, back yard, etc. Wireless works great with a PC card.

Is it slow? Yup–depending on whether I overload the processor or not. If I’m running Puppy, it screams. Xubuntu in the above-mentioned windows managers also is quite fast–you don’t notice its age most of the time. Just don’t overload it.

If you want a computer you can experiment with and just bang around, then this beats a Wind any day! :-)

-Jon

]]> By: LAptop guy http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-10745 LAptop guy Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:10:27 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-10745 I think you should buy it, if it sucks, than you can easily upgrade it, i always say "even if this laptop is bad compared to somebody that doesn't even have a laptop, go buy it, and please tell us how it goes, thanks and good luck... I think you should buy it, if it sucks, than you can easily upgrade it, i always say “even if this laptop is bad compared to somebody that doesn’t even have a laptop, go buy it, and please tell us how it goes, thanks and good luck…

]]> By: Nova http://blog.laptopmag.com/spotted-at-39th-and-7th-99-laptop/comment-page-1#comment-10725 Nova Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:46:45 +0000 http://blog.laptopmag.com/?p=2315#comment-10725 It's selling for $99 because nobody wants it. If it was such a great deal, it would've sold long ago. Looks ugly, big and heavy, and is horribly outdated - even compared to a netbook. The Wind is worth the extra $400 compared to that. The one big advantage of that ancient $99 Dell is that you can actually buy it right now, unlike the Wind or most other new netbooks that were supposed to be available by now. It’s selling for $99 because nobody wants it.

If it was such a great deal, it would’ve sold long ago.

Looks ugly, big and heavy, and is horribly outdated – even compared to a netbook. The Wind is worth the extra $400 compared to that. The one big advantage of that ancient $99 Dell is that you can actually buy it right now, unlike the Wind or most other new netbooks that were supposed to be available by now.

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