freebe laptop

T

Turnip

New Member
Hi all
I've never really been able to justify to myself the expense of a laptop. Money is tight as I'm a student so I can always think of other stuff to spend £400 on. However I've just been given a laptop for free. As you might imagine it is fairly old and one of the hinges has cracked but nothing that some good epoxy glue won't fix :)
Anyway now I have it I want to make the most of it so was considering a few upgrades. Current spec is:
model: Acer Extensa 710T
processor: Pentium II 233MHz processor
RAM: 32 MB
HD: 3 GB
OS: Windows 95

The manual says I can upgrade to 128MB ram, but laptopshop.co.uk says I can go up to 256, does anybody know how I can tell which is right?
I was also thinking of adding a new hard disk, but I'm not sure how I can do this. I've never replaced a hard disk before and obviously the OS will be removed when I replace it so don't really know where to start. Any idea for where I can find resources to teach myself how to do this?
Lastly I wanted to upgrade the OS. I was thinking Millenium Edition, because from memory it has plug and play functionality, but is this going to be too much? Would I be better with 98SE?

I want to use the laptop mostly for web browsing but also to run a web cam. I then need to transfer images from the laptop to my desktop on usb stick, which is why I am thinking plug and play would be good. Also it would be nice to be able to network it with my desktop (wired or wireless) to share broadband connection.

Any input would be very gratefully received.
Cheers
 
well i think that 256 would not be worth it anyway, 128 would be plenty for that system.

for wireless, that would be tricky, you would need a wireless card, and i think that it may not be compatible.

lol i thought this was spam for a minute.

anyways wait for someone with a bit more knowledge
 
Cheers for the reply spamdos
The laptop has two CardBus Slots which according to the manual can take two type I/II or one type III PC card(s), although I'm not sure how this relates to requirements for wireless network cards. However I guess that in general wireless network cards require at least win98.
Anyway if I can't do wireless then a regular wired network would be fine too.
 
i would upgrade the ram to 128mb and at least put in a 10gb hard disk.
and if you can try and get a win 98 second edition. That runs alot more programs than win 95.

if you really want my opinion about this... uhm... well... piece of antique just throw it out the window :P
 
meh well im not a big fan of win 2000 (i think pretty much everything between 98 and xp is total crap, win xp is total crap) and i dont know for sure if he can take it.
 
Vipernitrox said:
meh well im not a big fan of win 2000 (i think pretty much everything between 98 and xp is total crap, win xp is total crap) and i dont know for sure if he can take it.
Click to expand...

he can take 2000, but at least i think that 98 would be the go. im not sure about the wireless, look into a card, but i suggest that you think about how much it will cost to upgrade.

and also i dont know about the HDD, it mught be hard to find a HDD that is good for a computer that old. hmmm sorry i cant be that much help, if you are still stranded, then perhaps you should ask about the wireless card in that section.
 
Cheers for all the advice.
I see what you mean about binning it, I know it's pretty poor spec. However I don't need it to do much. Mostly I want it to run a webcam. I'm actually an astronomy student and my girlfriend got me a telescope for my birthday. Essentially I want to rig up a webcam to use it to take images with the telescope. If I can get the laptop to do that and nothing else then that's fine. I suppose getting it to share our broadband connection would be a bonus.

I'll grab a copy of Windows 2000 and the RAM.
If I replace the HD (assuming I can find one) is it simply a case of swapping the HD, sticking in the windows disk and turning on? Should the cd autorun and install the OS?

Thanks very much for all your help

Cheers
 
Turnip said:
Should the cd autorun and install the OS?
Click to expand...
As long as the bios is set to boot from cd as first priority.. Press "Del" key as the system starts and goto boot options, now set to boot from cd as first pri if not already done.

I would get 128mb ram (i would trust the owners manuel over the site u looked at.. sometimes there are slightly different versions of laptops that can handle more memory bigger hard drives ect.) , win98se (win 2000 is junk i.m.o) and a 10GB hd should be fine. Goodluck
 
Cheers for all the help guys
One last question re RAM. In an effort to keep costs low I've been checking out RAM on ebay.
After doing my research I know I want PC66 SDRAM 144 pin SODIMMs (phew!), but does it matter where it comes from? I mean if it was originally for an IBM thinkpad does that matter? How compatable are the SODIMMs accross makes and models?

Cheers again
 
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