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Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 12:17 am
by omitchell
Have recently come into the acquisition of a laptop (Free of charge) and have been trying to make it usable. It came with Windows XP (No longer supported and no updates) So I parked Vista on it. I said Vista. Why not 7 or 8? It has an AMD Sempron 1.2Ghz processor, 480Mb of RAM, yes I said Mb, a massive 128Mb NVidia card in it and a 50Gb HDD (Oh yeah and the battery doesn't charge)...

It's taken me 3 days to get the updates from Windows update, and 12 hours to get NVidia Experience to run only to be told it can't find drivers for this thing. I don't even know if this thing can be upgraded. Why am I still working on this thing???

Funny thing is tho, the outer case and everything is in mint condition...

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 12:47 am
by dbcunnz
What is the brand and model #

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 12:51 am
by omitchell
dbcunnz wrote:What is the brand and model #


Compaq Presario V6000 (Circa 2006)

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 1:24 am
by dbcunnz

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 1:37 am
by omitchell
Yeah know that site Doug, and thats (believe it or not) another 3 days of downloading on this laptop.

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 1:58 am
by dbcunnz
Download them on your other PC to a usb stick and use that to install them on the laptop.

My mate dropped his old Dell laptop off the other day either the screen would go all lines or the thing would lock up after going for approx 5 minutes
I found that the cooling fan had stopped working and it was over heating did a search for a fan for it and found the only place they were available was from HongKong about NZ$12 so one on its way hope that will fix the problem as it seemed to boot up OK from cold but got hot fairly quick

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 2:00 am
by omitchell
dbcunnz wrote:Download them on your other PC to a usb stick and use that to install them on the laptop.

My mate dropped his old Dell laptop off the other day either the screen would go all lines or the thing would lock up after going for approx 5 minutes
I found that the cooling fan had stopped working and it was over heating did a search for a fan for it and found the only place they were available was from HongKong about NZ$12 so one on its way hope that will fix the problem as it seemed to boot up OK from cold but got hot fairly quick


Trouble is Doug, with a 1.2G processor and 480Mb of RAM, all the software updates in the world won't help. I need to know if the hardware on this can be upgraded or if it's one of those ones that can't, that's the real problem..

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 2:21 am
by dbcunnz
Have a look at this it might tell you what can and what can't be upgraded

http://www.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01035886.pdf

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 2:29 am
by omitchell
Last revision is only a year younger than the computer> I suspect it's a losing battle...

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 5:17 am
by Fozzer
I love the combination of the descriptions: "Compaq Presario V6000 Laptop (Circa 2006)", and, "Masochist".

They go together very well!

Paul..... :lol: ...!

...actually..... just to watch the USA Motor Bike touring videos on my 7" Android Tablet, via You-Tube, in bed, on a decent sized screen, I would have been better off with a cheap(ish) Laptop!.... :D ....!

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 8:44 am
by Ian Warren
This machine is still XP simply still have hardware that won't work on anything else.

Funny, the other day I told about a chap who scored a brand new Commodore still in its wrapping, I don't think you would even get software for it anymore but no I checked and you can d/load the programs.

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 10:00 am
by gojozoom
With those specs you might be better off with installing Android :)

Just kidding - I have a similar laptop and it serves as a media server with a so called thin-layer OS (like OS "light"). I don't think it could run even XP...

Re: Technological Masochist...

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 10:01 am
by Fozzer
Ian Warren wrote:This machine is still XP simply still have hardware that won't work on anything else.

Funny, the other day I told about a chap who scored a brand new Commodore still in its wrapping, I don't think you would even get software for it any more but no I checked and you can d/load the programs.


I've still got all my old 8-bit hardware and software for my Sinclair Spectrum 48K, Commodore C64, and Amstrad CPC 464 computers, with loads of their games, etc...

And the lovely old Spectrum 48 and all its games can still be played courtesy of ...>>> http://www.spectaculator.com/
I have the registered version, to save me from loading up all my zillions of 1/4 inch cassette games!

Paul.....aka; Jet Set Willie....1980's bedroom 8-bit programmer.!... :D ...!