From the stoneage, I return (old leptop)

[Zixinus]

I've just got a laptop what one of my siblings picked up in Britain for 10 pounds.

And its pretty much worth ten pounds, as the specs are:

Toshiba T210CT
Microsoft Windows 95
Integrated video chipset, full colour
No sound
Full whopping 8 megabytes of RAM
500 megabyte HDD
I can't figure out the CPU



Connectors:
- I see a standard keyboard connector (I think its called PS/O
-an older style connector for the mouse (it has nine pins)
- standard monitor connector
- I have a printer port (23 pin holes)
- I also have another, similar sized port, can't describe it
- I also have a slot for some kind of card
- a standard 3 1/2 floppy space

The computer still works fine though, and what I want to know is:

- Is there a freeware word processors that is small enough to fit on a floppy and doesn't take much more installed, work on Win95 and can handle all modern word formats?

- Do you think Adobe Acrobat Reader could work on this thing?

- Is there a way to connect this machine up with my WinXP to exchange files?

I'll post pictures later

[General Zod]

You can actually connect to the internet on that thing?

[Soontir C'boath]

I would use FoxitReader for PDFs. It loads better than Adobe.

Your poll options sucks.

[Zixinus]

You can actually connect to the internet on that thing?

The same way as a 52k modem, somehow. I see no USB, LAN, phoneline or any similar type of connector. But I do see some applications that may used some primitive form of internet.

I would use FoxitReader for PDFs. It loads better than Adobe.

Thanks, that's helpful.

Your poll options sucks.

What am I missing?

[General Zod]

You can actually connect to the internet on that thing?

The same way as a 52k modem, somehow. I see no USB, LAN, phoneline or any similar type of connector. But I do see some applications that may used some primitive form of internet.

Isn't a 52k modem a phoneline connection by definition?

(However, I have never heard of 52k. 36.6k, and 56k. But NEVER 52.)

[Executor32]

If all you've got is a floppy drive, and since it's running Win95, pretty much your only option is to find a copy of Office 97 on floppies. OpenOffice.org's Windows port requires at least Windows 98 and 64 megs of ram, and it would take up almost half of that hard drive. I'm not aware of any other freeware utilities for opening Word files and the like.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Your poll options sucks.

What am I missing?

A flair for comedy.

[Executor32]

That, and he's missing a "Castrate Straha" option. No poll is truly complete without it.

[General Zod]

That, and he's missing a "Castrate Straha" option. No poll is truly complete without it.

I suspect he's too much of a nub to know who Straha is.

[InnocentBystander]

That, and he's missing a "Castrate Straha" option. No poll is truly complete without it.

I suspect he's too much of a nub to know who Straha is.

I know that sort of question belongs in Test but what the hell - Whats the joke there?

[General Zod]

That, and he's missing a "Castrate Straha" option. No poll is truly complete without it.

I suspect he's too much of a nub to know who Straha is.

I know that sort of question belongs in Test but what the hell - Whats the joke there?

Straha has the title "Lord of Spam". He used to go around making incredibly spammy polls. As a result people started threatening to castrate him. Naturally such an option started getting included into polls as a joke/abstain option. Similar to "RAR!" that gets used in hypothetical scenarios.

[Zixinus]

That, and he's missing a "Castrate Straha" option. No poll is truly complete without it.

Oh well, there is always pie.

Anyway, what can I do to hook the laptop and my desk PC trough the printer port? I heard that you can do that.

[Drooling Iguana]

If all you've got is a floppy drive, and since it's running Win95, pretty much your only option is to find a copy of Office 97 on floppies. OpenOffice.org's Windows port requires at least Windows 98 and 64 megs of ram, and it would take up almost half of that hard drive. I'm not aware of any other freeware utilities for opening Word files and the like.

AbiWord is much smaller and less resource-intensive than OpenOffice, and can still open Word files, but even it requires at least 16MB of RAM. Really, with 8MB, I think the best option for word processing is just to use a text editor, or possibly to find a copy of WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.

As for connectivity, if that "other printer port" is in fact a serial port, and if you have a port similar to either it or the 9-pin mouse port on your main PC, you might be able to network them by running a serial cable between them. You used to be able to find this type of cable anywhere that sold computer parts but they've become harder to come by lately. You might also need an add-on card to give you a serial port on your main PC, since a lot of newer models don't have them anymore. This might also be possible through the printer ports, but I've never tried it that way.

[Executor32]

Actually, he could always use Wordpad, though I'm not sure of its compatibility with newer Word documents.

[TheMuffinKing]

That, and he's missing a "Castrate Straha" option. No poll is truly complete without it.

Oh well, there is always pie.

Anyway, what can I do to hook the laptop and my desk PC trough the printer port? I heard that you can do that.

I think you need a null-modem cable for tha option to work. You might have a firewire port, look into that.

[Starglider]

The hard drive on my laptop (1.4 GHz mobile Athlon 256mb XP thing) just failed. Fortunately I didn't lose any significant data. This means the budget I was going to spend on a new workstation is going on a new laptop instead; I can manage with older desktops (mainly it just means having to mess about with ssh more during development - though actually a 2gb 2GHz+ dual core laptop would handle a lot of it fine anyway) but I need a laptop for demos/meetings and working while travelling.

My budget is $3000. I need dual core, Vista and at least 2gb of memory, I want a 17" widescreen form factor, everything else is a bonus. I'm very experienced at building desktops, but I don't know much about laptops. Right now I'm looking at a Dell XPS M1710 - though the Acer ones seem to be a bit cheaper for the same basic capabilities, which means I might be able to afford 4gigs of memory. Any suggestions?

[General Zod]

The hard drive on my laptop (1.4 GHz mobile Athlon 256mb XP thing) just failed. Fortunately I didn't lose any significant data. This means the budget I was going to spend on a new workstation is going on a new laptop instead; I can manage with older desktops (mainly it just means having to mess about with ssh more during development - though actually a 2gb 2GHz+ dual core laptop would handle a lot of it fine anyway) but I need a laptop for demos/meetings and working while travelling.

My budget is $3000. I need dual core, Vista and at least 2gb of memory, I want a 17" widescreen form factor, everything else is a bonus. I'm very experienced at building desktops, but I don't know much about laptops. Right now I'm looking at a Dell XPS M1710 - though the Acer ones seem to be a bit cheaper for the same basic capabilities, which means I might be able to afford 4gigs of memory. Any suggestions?

Err, wouldn't it be better to make a new thread for this sorta thing? And couldn't you just buy a new hdd instead?

[Coaan]

Toshiba T210CT
Microsoft Windows 95
Integrated video chipset, full colour
No sound
Full whopping 8 megabytes of RAM
500 megabyte HDD
I can't figure out the CPU

That it runs windows at all should be considered a bloody miracle.

I'd find a nice spot somewhere for it as a paperweight

[Starglider]

Err, wouldn't it be better to make a new thread for this sorta thing?

Yeah I probably should've, didn't want to spam the place with another 'I'm buying a new computer' thread, but I suppose that's a better idea than hijacking a thread just because it was about laptops. Maybe a mod will be nice and split it.

[phongn]

Connectors:
- I see a standard keyboard connector (I think its called PS/O

PS/2

-an older style connector for the mouse (it has nine pins)

9-pin serial port connector.

- I also have another, similar sized port, can't describe it

Probably for a docking station.

- I also have a slot for some kind of card

PCMCIA, possibly. If that what it indeed is for, you can probably go eBay a NIC. Make sure it works with Windows 95! (Older 3com ones should)

- Is there a freeware word processors that is small enough to fit on a floppy and doesn't take much more installed, work on Win95 and can handle all modern word formats?

Your requirements are mutually exclusive.

- Do you think Adobe Acrobat Reader could work on this thing?

Older versions, certainly. Maybe Acrobat Reader 5.

- Is there a way to connect this machine up with my WinXP to exchange files?

If you have a PCMCIA slot, get a network card.

[phongn]

My budget is $3000. I need dual core, Vista and at least 2gb of memory, I want a 17" widescreen form factor, everything else is a bonus. I'm very experienced at building desktops, but I don't know much about laptops. Right now I'm looking at a Dell XPS M1710 - though the Acer ones seem to be a bit cheaper for the same basic capabilities, which means I might be able to afford 4gigs of memory. Any suggestions?

Lenovo T61p w/ the WUXGA screen would be better, IMHO, though you don't get the 17" display.

[Howedar]

Phongn, are we really that old? Are there adult-ish people out there who no longer remember PS/2, PCMCIA and serial ports?

[phongn]

Phongn, are we really that old? Are there adult-ish people out there who no longer remember PS/2, PCMCIA and serial ports?

Ah, back in the days when I had to manually set IRQ and DMA ... I really don't miss them

[Netko]

Well, I was going to post something like phong's post, so no, you're not alone (EDIT: ah fond memories of optimising your conventional memory in such ways that the auto-optimiser doesn't want to mess with it because it can only screw it up).

As long as that thing has a working PCMCIA port, you have some options. Checking out the manual for the processor and the amount of RAM it can take (or use CPU-Z). If its at least a 486 processor it is possible, maybe, to get it up to Win98 and with a PCMCIA USB port card you open up a lot of options at that point. However this implies wasting some money on it. I'd personally forget about it, my project computer for a long while was a 366mhz laptop, which is lightyears ahead of what you've got, and even that was very limited in what capabilities could be retrofitted into it (although, in the end before it finally went to silicon heaven it had wireless networking, working WinXP with Office 2k3 and other stuff not even planned yet when it was bought - '98,'99 or so).

The alternative is to turn it into a mobile nostalgia DOS gaming machine. It probably does have some sort of sound card in there, just without set up drivers.

[Zixinus]

As for connectivity, if that "other printer port" is in fact a serial port, and if you have a port similar to either it or the 9-pin mouse port on your main PC, you might be able to network them by running a serial cable between them. You used to be able to find this type of cable anywhere that sold computer parts but they've become harder to come by lately. You might also need an add-on card to give you a serial port on your main PC, since a lot of newer models don't have them anymore. This might also be possible through the printer ports, but I've never tried it that way.

I have a serial-port like looking something on my PC (well, it has nine pins). I might go home and try to scavange for a cable. Is it a problem if both ports are "male"?

I think you need a null-modem cable for tha option to work. You might have a firewire port, look into that.

I have a small hole here that I don't know what to do with, but I'm quite sure that its not firewire.

That it runs windows at all should be considered a bloody miracle.

It runs Win95. Not that surprising.

The alternative is to turn it into a mobile nostalgia DOS gaming machine. It probably does have some sort of sound card in there, just without set up drivers.

Gonna do that too. However, I really just want to use it as a mobile "writing" station. For that reason, it would be grand if I could connect it up to my desk PC to exchange files. Floppies, I do not trust.

Pictures as promised!

Sorry but the shitty quality, but I had to do it with my webcam, as I can't find my digital camera.

The damn thing itself:


Model number:


Back, first part, PS/2, serial port and video port:


The port I can't name:


Final part of the back, power supply and printer port:


Card slot