old laptop needs OS upgrade

[VirtualLarry]

I just bought an old laptop off of Craigslist for $30. It has WinME on it, it's a Compaq with a Celeron 700, 60MB of RAM (according to system properties, I assume that 4MB is used by shared video).

Can I install W2K or XP onto this old beast? What are the min RAM requirements that the W2K and XP installer check for?

Edit: Sorry for asking, I'm so lazy. Here's the answers:

Windows 2000 minimum requirements
Windows XP minimum requirements

Under the XP minimum requirements, it lists 64MB. The laptop has 64MB, only 4MB is used for shared video. Does anyone know if the installer actually checks for 64MB of RAM? It is interesting that the absolute minimum for W2K is only 32MB of RAM.

Edit: I found out that the 64MB is soldered onto the mobo, and there is a free memory slot. It's going to cost me $65 for a "guaranteed compatible" 256MB PC100 SO-DIMM. (SO-SIMM?) So I'm going to go that route.

 

[Sylvanas]

I would think that both W2k and XP probably would install and function fine, but using the OS itself would be terribly clunky. You'd be better off installing a flavour of Linux on it and you would no doubt get better performance.

 

[MadRat]

You will suffer no matter which one (XP/2k) you decide to use on a 700MHz mobile celeron and a mere 320MB memory. Why not stay with ME or move to a non-windows install at the least. Seriously, the best performing OS is going to be neither choice you mentioned. XP pre-SP's runs on 128MB, but begin to add service packs - any of them - and using less than half a gig is terrible.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: MadRat
Why not stay with ME...?

I do this 'doorstop computer' stuff a LOT - and that would be my recommendation as well!

You aren't gonna be able to install jack with "60MB of RAM"!

You can't even install the latest Linux distros, unless you want to run in text mode!

Sure, DSL, Puppy, et cetera will boot up, but OMG!!! You talk about s-l-o-w...

ME will run like 'the wind' on ancient hardware. Stick with it!

Either that or 'upgrade' to 256 MB of RAM, or whatever your lappy will tolerate.

 

[redbeard1]

Either that or 'upgrade' to 256 MB of RAM, or whatever your lappy will tolerate

Max the ram out and 2000 would run well. XP likes 512mb and real cpu's, which I don't call a celeron a real cpu.

 

[VinDSL]

We got a 550MHz Celeron lappy laying around with 64MB RAM, sooo...

I'm installing Puppy Linux 4.2 right now - partitioning the 10GB actually. LoL! 9.3GB ext3 and 63MB swap.

I'll let you know how it works out...

EDIT: I ended up partitioning ext3 to 9.29GB, a 70MB swap (rounded to the cylinders), and 7.6GB available after a full install with the added software.

Gotta love Linux!

 

[thedarkwolf]

Tinyme linux isn't bad. I had it on a celeron 333 with 128mb and it was fairly zippy.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
Sure, DSL, Puppy, et cetera will boot up, but OMG!!! You talk about s-l-o-w...

Well... this is where I eat my own words!

Our doorstop 550MHz Celeron / 64MB RAM / 10GB HD lappy is now retardedly fast with Puppy Linux 4.2!

I'd post a screenie, but this is exactly what it looks like (minus the weather) so why bother, you know?

http://www.puppylinux.org/down...-linux-42-deep-thought (screenshot of Puppy Linux 4.2)

What a shocker?!?!?! :Q

WinME was okay (that's what it came with) but... Slax, VectorLinux and W2K Pro sucked in this thing!

Heh! I'm gonna go read up on Puppy and try to figure out how they did this...

Amazing!!! :thumbsup:

 

[Colt45]

NT4?

 

[MadRat]

Originally posted by: Colt45
NT4?

Once you go SP6a the 64MB is awfully small. I loved NT4, but it needs twice that - 128MB memory - just to run a web browser on non-graphical websites half way decent.

 

[VinDSL]

Heh! I used to run NT4. The thing I remember most about it was, there was almost no hardware support.

For instance, I had to use an ancient single-speed CD-ROM reader, because that's the only drive (I owned) that NT4 supported. Hell, I was running quad-speed changers on Win9x...

My sister-in-law works at the Intel (Chandler Campus). She told me (at the time) that while Intel updated their computers regularly, they refused to move to Win2K because of licensing costs for all their zillions of machines. With the new hardware, NT4 was practically unusable, so the employees were buying Win2K and installing it on their workstations - but they had to do it on the sly, because Intel didn't want them installing rouge software.

 

[MadRat]

You could force atapi compatible cdroms to run in a dma mode. I used to run 52x cdroms on nt4 with no issues.

NT4 with an updated multicore and multithread support would have been interesting. Perhaps ReactOS will bridge this gap in the future. Quite frankly if foss is ever going to rule the near future world its going to be built off the Windows legacy.

 

[taltamir]

i gotta ask, what do you expect to even do on this? you cant use it as a word processor because modern printers don't have drivers that ancient and usb drives dont work on such old oses (to trasnfer the documents).
And i don't imagne it will be able to load a modern web page so internet surfing is out...
so what is left?

 

[Excelsior]

I have an old Toshiba 700Mhz celeron laptop with 192MB of ram (maxed out). It initally came with ME, then I put 2K on it, then XP. XP was too slow and I tried various Linux distros on it but wasn't happy with any of them. I've since put Windows 2000 SP4 on it and I am relatively impressed with how it runs.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Excelsior
I have an old Toshiba 700Mhz celeron laptop with 192MB of ram (maxed out). It initally came with ME, then I put 2K on it, then XP. XP was too slow and I tried various Linux distros on it but wasn't happy with any of them. I've since put Windows 2000 SP4 on it and I am relatively impressed with how it runs.

Heh!

Sounds like our Fujitsu Lifebook - except our doorstop is older and weaker than yours...

I did all those things, but continued down the road...

Next stop was Vector Linux, which didn't run any faster than Win2K Pro SP4, and finally Linux Puppy 4.2 - which we're now running.

Puppy is quite fast, all considering. I'll bet you would you would cream yourself - considering you have a faster CPU and 3x the memory!

Just saying...

 

[wiin]

Install Windows NT instead. I inherited a Toshiba lappy - came with 95 or 98, don't remember which anymore,266 mhz cpu, 32mb ram and 4 gig h/d - and I am happy with it. I did install Win2K on it but it was lagging so I tried installing DSL but it was a no go. With NT, the only problem I had was having to manually install the driver for the PC card.

 

[lxskllr]

I F'n hate NT. I'd use the laptop as a paperweight before I put NT on it. I like Puppy. I've put it on some ancient machines, and I've never had one I considered unusable with Puppy on it.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Excelsior
I have an old Toshiba 700Mhz celeron laptop with 192MB of ram (maxed out). It initally came with ME, then I put 2K on it, then XP. XP was too slow and I tried various Linux distros on it but wasn't happy with any of them. I've since put Windows 2000 SP4 on it and I am relatively impressed with how it runs.

Heh!

Sounds like our Fujitsu Lifebook - except our doorstop is older and weaker than yours...

I did all those things, but continued down the road...

Next stop was Vector Linux, which didn't run any faster than Win2K Pro SP4, and finally Linux Puppy 4.2 - which we're now running.

Puppy is quite fast, all considering. I'll bet you would you would cream yourself - considering you have a faster CPU and 3x the memory!

Just saying...

Vector was one of the distros I tried. Also tried DSL and other larger distros utilizing Xfce.

Maybe I'll try puppy linux though.

 

[JEFF68005]

The big problem with sticking with Win98 or WinMe is the lack of update / patch support.

I'm about to get the XP SP CDs so that I can delay being forced into Win XP and around the corner Windows 7 or whatever it finally gets called.

Does anybody know if MS made a final patch/update CD for either Win ME or Win 98.
A friend has a P3 machine that needs to be wiped and reinstalled. She now has WinME and I have a Win98 CD and license collecting dust.

I would like to hunt for some of the patch CDs. This would be a good answer for the OP if available too.