uo grading old comp

ive just been given a new condition perfectly working ibm think pad from around the turn of the century, well its got windows 98 on it ?

i want to use it as a hack computer , probably to load linux on, but def for just messing about on the internet, no video editing etc

its spect at 256 ram and 5 gig HD

what id like to know is, is it possible( easy) to up grade the spec a bit

I had a half meg ram 20 gig HP lap top( Xp) which i used for this purpose previously and was quite happy with (till it died )

would it be possible to swap the RAM and the HD over from the HP to the IBM

if so,,, I have an image of XP off the HP( in fact its got XP on the disk) can this be loaded or is it machine specific ?

other wise if i have to reload 98, how can i copy it to disc first,, i have a separate dvd rewriter but no software to do it ?


sorry if all this sounds daft and you think i should just bin it, but any help much appreciated

 

Greetings, jobojobo...

I'd suggest going to Crucial.com, plug in your specs, and it'll tell you the RAM types and capacities for that machine - you might even be able to plug in the HP's specs, see if the sticks are compatible...

You'll probably run into some headaches if you try to load the XP image, most likely from driver-related code (I like the Linux route, myself!)...as far as the HD is concerned: if the footprint and the connections are the same, it should swap...

Good luck, and keep us posted...

 

Serial and or Product No.s will go along way to finding the info. Is there a sticker anywhere or embossed/printed numbers?

 

If the 20GB hard drive from the HP is working condition and is the same type (IDE vs. SATA) of hard drive in the Thinkpad, that would be a nice upgade for it. And, your idea of installing a Linux OS makes good sense.

 

Nice thing about running XP from a disc, is that you can perform a "repair", instead of a re-install. It's not quite as efficient as a full re-format, but it leaves your data intact on the HDD, and will sort out any hardware/driver issues rolling drives from PC, to PC.

If we had a model number for the Thinkpad, it would be nice, and it would be nice to know if it has a late model PIII (most likely), or an early P4.

If it is a PIII, it's pretty likely you are maxed out on the RAM, or at a maximum you could install 512MB. I've even seen cases where 512MB were installed by someone, and it only recognized about 392MB of it.

I also like the Linux idea, as XP would be rather cumbersome for this poor little ThinkPad to boot up. It would take at least 5 minutes to boot the desktop, but if you activated caching on a USB flash drive, you could use it for additional Virtual Memory, and that would help to speed browsing along.

 

thanks all,,,

yes the number on it is 6268 which the memory site tells me makes it a,, a29m series and a serial number of dxg,,,,5511tf5 103 ? if that lot means anything to any one and its running 98 v2 and has a p 3 processor


so far the linked site tells me that it will take half a gig of ram so its possible to do that, but havent so far found out what type of ram is in the HP and if this can be swapped of il have to buy some

im really keen on running linux but my attempts so far have failed miserably at getting either wifi or a moby dongle to work with it and as the prime reason for having a low value lapy is that i can carry it out and about with me with out too much concern, i dont have a hardwire option, but il start another thread on that when i get it up graded


yes the HD is the same type, but that leaves me with having to copy the operating system of the original disc, how do i do this, is there an application
to help me copy it to dvd

or installing XP

ive found a oem version of xp for down load,,, but will the p3 run this properly and is xp significantly better than 98 to make it worth while

edit just read the thread below, looks like xp isnt a good idea then ?

 

As I recall, it should be PC2100 SODIMM in the ThinkPad. You may be able to get away with PC2300, and it runs slightly faster at 133MHz, vs. 100MHz.

Look up the HP's specs on the web by it's model number, and you should find something on it.

e.g.: HP ***** specifications

Then hit "Search".

Once you get XP desktop loaded, it should run OK, but very, possibly, frustratingly slow. If you can get a PATA SSD (solid state, no platters) drive, that would "wake it up", but it's a pricey upgrade.

 

http://www.compuvest.com/Search.jsp?Search=FHM16GF25H&advsite=bing&dtm=20100906&sku=602000691-00