I was wondering if anyone was willing to part with an old laptop, pro bono. I'll pay the shipping.
Here are the system requirements I'm looking for:
133+ MHz
Windows 98
32+ MB RAM
300+ MB HDD
CD-ROM drive (any speed)
Portable enough to carry
Actually has to work!
Basically, if it's an outdated piece of crap and you're tempted to throw it off an overpass into traffic just for the hell of it, I have a less dangerous recycling alternative. ;-)
The reasoning behind this is that I'd like to get a cheap laptop that I can just take on the road with me and play around with for my design notes. I don't want it for compiling, graphic design, playing games (except maybe my older DOS games), or anything else -- just running a text editor and listening to music.
I should mention again that I have no intention of paying anything more than shipping. In other words, I'll get rid of an old laptop for you. I won't pay you for the privilege. I say this because I only have C$1500 to my name right now, and while this isn't anything to sneeze at, it'll decline down to zero as soon as I head on into the Criminology program at the college I'm planning on going to.
I actually have one that matches your specs EXACTLY, Jt... but I'm kind of fond of it. I use it to play Doom II and Rayman... sorry. :( Mine also has a DVD drive- snazzy. ;)
| |
@Lord of light:
All recent details about Newtopia have always been nestled in the Developer Log. =) @Elation: I had considered maybe cranking in my old copy of X-COM into such a laptop. It'd actually run at a reasonable speed instead of like a swallow. (African, not European.) | |
I was lucky enough to receive a free laptop of my own from a friend recently. Good luck!
By the way... criminology is interesting. What do you like about it? Do you know what you want to do? | |
I've got a laptop here but it's my sisters. A hunk of crap with a dead battery running Windows ME. The problem is she's not a very charitable person so she would expect money for it.
If you were to re-format it, clean it up, you might be able to upgrade it's condition from crap to poor. It would also require a replacement power-cord (unless somehow Canada and Australia have the same sockets). So even if you're just paying for shipping you'll probably find a better alternative. I'll keep an eye on it for you on the off chance she wants to get rid of it and you still need one. Too bad you didn't ask a month ago, she didn't even remember she owned it until I (foolishly) reminded her. If it's any use to you a battery life of under five seconds, and if you haven't found something a few weeks from now, get in contact with me and I'll see if I can afford to buy it for you off her. It's an interesting idea, giving away your out of date hardware for the price of shipping. I'm actually sending Kajika a PS2 because he's got better things to buy (Wii and DS games!) and I've got a spare. It's just too bad that if you were to start up a network of some sort it'd end up populated with people who take more than what they need (ie, they'd have three laptops and take a forth). | |
Zilal wrote:
I was lucky enough to receive a free laptop of my own from a friend recently. Good luck! Law enforcement all the way. I'm shooting for a two-year associate's, and while I'm doing that degree I'll be working volunteer (or at least trying to get into volunteer work) at the local "community police station". The closest analogue in a U.S. policing system would be a "precinct", but it's not quite so glorified or jurisdictional as that -- it's more of a "post" where the police handle administrative tasks and crime reports, and I don't believe it has even one cell. | |
I used to have one:
* 133 MHz processor * 32 MB RAM * Windows 98 * CD drive * Diskette drive * Broken PCMCIA slots * 2 GB harddrive Except I tore it apart. The CD drive broke and I wanted to know "how it looked on the inside". I never managed to open the thing. Then I shrugged & went back to my PC to find this. Thanks, internet. | |
I'm starting to consider the possibility of going on eBay and paying up to C$50 for one (not including shipping), but I'd prefer not to do that unless I absolutely had to. I trust folks on BYOND a bit more than I trust the intarweb at large.
| |
Um. I have a REALLY crappy one... Windows XP, newer than what you're specifying... but there are several keys in the lower right or left quadrant that just don't work, that I've had to remap. Somebody who looks a lot like me accidentally spilled strawberry flavored water on it at one point. (I wasn't even that near the thing when it happens... I'm prone to fairly violent involuntary muscle twitches.) There's also some minor damage to the casing, caused by the fact that I stopped caring much about its condition. And I'd have to get all the media files off of it. But I doubt you'd want it for typing notes, anyway, with the keyboard messed up.
| |
Yeah, I just tossed a keyboard because its QWERTASDF keys failed, so having a keyboard that doesn't fully work would grate on me like cheese.
My brother had bought an old Windows 3.1 laptop some several-dozens of moons ago, but I have no idea what happened to it. In any case, it was about as much a laptop as an elephant is a household pet. | |
I DO have a Win95 laptop sitting here, but no CD player and obviously marginal media capabilities...
| |
Hm. I have a legit copy of Windows 98 (standard) which used to be installed on my computer before my upgrade, so if it had a CD-ROM I'd be able to reformat the hard disc and replace it with Windows 98. The media capabilities really aren't so important -- all of the music I own is in OGG, MP3, and MOD format, so a working CD-ROM isn't a big factor -- but without a CD-ROM at all I'd have to use some creative networking to get the laptop loaded and unloaded with all of the data I wanted.
| |
But how about something in your upcoming game? You know something to give me a boost on the rest >,<