New Laptop

Ello all.

Yesterday i visited my grandparents. My grandfather had a laptop that he didn't really need because he broke it somehow. He then tried to fix it by taking it apart, not a bright idea. Any way he said "If you can fix it and get it running you can have it". So, it took me about 20 minutes to put back together and i got it running. Now there are just some quick questions about upgrading it.

It is a very old laptop. It is running Windows 98. The model is a Toshiba Satellite 4080XCDT. Right now im on dial up cause it doesnt have an ethernet port for broadband. Is there some way I can get boradband on here, and can someone get some links on what to buy and where. Also, it only has a 6gb hard drive, and 128mb of ram, what would you guys suggest for the best external hard drive and best laptop ram that would work in this.

Windows 98 is officially running Windows 98.

PS
I feel like Orph, it takes forever to load stuff.

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Nickelplate is my dad

1) You can buy a PCMCIA Ethernet card, wireless if you want (you need a wireless router for it to work at your home though)

2) You can buy a normal (laptop) hard drive and just replace it internally, there are plenty of programs (such as C-Media) which allow you to transfer your data to a larger HDD and extend the partition, or you could just install something else. Check the manual to see what speeds are supported.

3) Ram, depends on the laptop, chances are if it's about 6 to 8 years old, you wont find ram to use. And there are probably only, at most, two expansion slot for ram, then some internal stuff. (That's usually like 8 or 32 MB at the most) In any case, again, check the manual to see what speed it takes.

However, before you do any of this, I strongly suggest you find out if the thing can actually boot from the CD/DVD drive. A friend of mine bought an older laptop, asked me to mess with it, while all the documentation in the world said it would boot from the cd drive ... it didn't.

You should find that out, before even contemplating a new HDD.

Take a look in the user manual It will give you most all information you want to know.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Windows 98 said:
PS
I feel like Orph, it takes forever to load stuff.

Do I detect a bit O'sympathy?

Perhaps, I look a bit less of the ass to thine eyes.

I'd like to get an El'cheapo laptop for DVD viewing while I travel. Parked for the night to be sure. :smile:

It would be nice to watch a movie before bed time. AND, yes, I sleep either on the bus, or in my truck so there is no TV available.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Mr. T.:

a way to stop having problems with your new laptop:

you can throw it away!

Well, my friend forun this. http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=346

All i would need to do is hook that onto my USB port and then buy a wireless router correct? Also, i was thinking of buying a external hard drive and then just having it connect into the usb port and have it taped on the the back of the screen with double sided tape so i alwqays have it attached. is there anything that plugs into 1 usb port and then has 2 coming off it, kinda liek a headphone Y splitter but for USB. Cause i think i only hasve 1 usb.

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 2 minutes after original post:</b></div>
Well Vader, I happen to just have Mr.T as my avatar, im Windows 98 :smile: . Also your avatar is Number 3 frum the KND, but your thing says I love Number 4, which i assume you mean to say 3.

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Nickelplate is my dad

hahah

numbuh 3 says 'i love numbuh 4'. it's her, not me.

i know you're windows 98. you're a talking win98 cd.

You need something like this:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=476

There are slots on the laptop for it. (More on That model's PCMCIA abilities.)

Specs
Other tools/guides

I don't suggest getting an external hard drive, the thing is slow enough as it is, That would also, even if you taped it to the screen ... which you should realize hitting the back of can break it ... it would limit the portability.

When it comes to HDD, that can support, ATA-4 (PIO Mode 4 | 16.7MB/s) and ATA-3 (Ultra DMA Mode 2 | 33.3MB/s), and most everything out there is as low as ATA-6 (100MB/s), while that will still work in the ATA-3 or 4 modes, you'll still be paying at least $50 to use less than half of the drives speed. In any case, it'll still work! You need to make sure the drive supports ATA-3 and is 2.5" form factor. (Otherwise it wont physically fit) Swapping out HDDs in Toshiba laptops is generally easy. It's usually under the PCMCIA slots, and only requires one screw to be removed. That's for Toshiba stuff. It might be somewhere else, but I doubt you'll need something drastic like removing the keyboard or something. In any case, that's faster than a USB drive. But, you can't take the drive and hook it up to another machine. Depends on if you want it permanent or not.

Another thing: forget about upgrading the ram, the machine can only take a maximum of 192MB, so you're almost there, there's only 1 slot for upgradability in any case.

Anyway, that's it. There's links to everything you'd want to know about that machine. Have fun.

Note*: All the links besides the first one are specific to the 4080XCDT

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah I was browsing around in my control panel and saw something called PC CARD (PCMCIA), so i clicked it and it said i had 2 slots. I am assuming it is the thing on the left of the comp which i thought was a floppy drive. I looked a little more carefully and saw it couldnt possibly be for a floppy it is way to thick. I am assuming the PCMCIA card goes there. So if i buy a PCMCIA Wireless card, then get a wireless router im good to go?

Also why do you not suggest a external hard drive and velcroing it to the back of screen thing that clips up?

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 8 minutes after original post:</b></div>
Also, i thought i saw that a PCMCIA card or something that was an extra 128mb of ram when you hook it in. Also in my control panel i clicked the pc card option and it says there are 2 empty slots i my comp. So could i put a wireless card and the card that may possibly exist that would boost my ram.

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Nickelplate is my dad

Well, if you're not going to move the HDD around ... like ever ... just get an internal one. It's less risk to the actual HDD, and less risk to the screen that you plan to attach it to.

If sometime in the future, you want to take the laptop somwhere, or you get a bag for it, or something like that, there's a chance that HDD could break the screen.

In addition to all that, if you put in a new HDD that isn't on the USB bus, you can install an OS to it ... and get rid of 98. For those specs I'd suggest 2000, if you want to use Windows at all. Stay away from XP, since it'll just slow the thing down too a crawl (because of the higher video requirements)

It also depends on what you want to do with the laptop. Are you going to use it for music? School? Movies? Games? Everything? Because you should be aware, the video card drastically limits the machines ability to play Movies or Games. DVDs will run terribly. (If you have DVD drive, I don't know, of course)

In any case, it doesn't make sense to have an external Hard drive for the thing unless you're using it to take the data from one place to another. Otherwise, just replace the one inside.

As for network access, you don't have to have wireless, there are wired ethernet PCMCIA cards. I'd probably suggest owning both, especially if you plan on taking the thing with you. Like, in schools, chances are you can't always get a connection wirelessly.

Also, now, if you DO get a wireless card, you might want to look into G180 (or 180G ... something like that) it's the G bandwidth, but runs at 108 Mbps as opposed to 54 Mbps. Much faster. However, you have to buy a router accordingly (there's a DLink router that's being used on FiberOptic connections that has this support, so if you're getting that they usually give you that router for free ... while you have the service)

Those are my suggestions, based on working with old ass laptops quite often. Also, I'd suggest, once you have the ethernet card that you disable the modem completly in BIOS. And if you can't boot off the CD, there are some boot discs out there (floppy) that will load generic cd drivers, there are also instructions out there to get 2000 or XP loaded in that situation.

And, honestly, 2000 would run pretty smooth. A friend of mine bought a very old Toshiba laptop (~1998) and we put 2000 on it and it ran pretty well. (Yours is from ~2001)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Well i plan more or less to do everything. The external hard drive could be very useful for me because i download a great deal of music (like 30gb as of now) and then have a lot more planned but am to lazy to do it. And i liek transfering data from my comp to my friends often, we mostly do it through email. Stuff liek music or maps we are working on. I dont particularly want to open the laptop again, after putting it back together with mismatched screws that probably arent in the right place i dont feel like making everything connect again. I've already had it open and i saw that the hard drive has a metal casing over it to keep you from f**king with it. Id have to tale that off if i wanted to put a new internal in. I just thought the external was a good idea so i didnt haveto open the thing again.Also i could just buy a usb spliter for a mouse and the hard drive, and maybe my ipod. The external would also be good for if i want to bring all my crap to someones house or something. That way i cant forget anything if im trying to do work on someone elses machine.

How could it do damage to the screen? I am goign to put velcro on both so its velcroed and i can take it off f needed.

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Nickelplate is my dad

tbh, if it only took you 20 mins to get it working, you should have given in back to your grandad. 'he didn't need it because he broke it', is a lot different from 'he broke it because he didn't need it'.

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You can damage the screen because the Hard drive is applying pressure to one area, hitting the drive can break the screen in that place. Ever seen what LCDs look like when the liquid spills out? And as you can imagine replacing a laptop screen is not only a pain in the ass, but, good luck finding a replacement part! Even if you do, it wont be cheap (unless you know someone who can get spare parts for you)

The laptop shouldn't have to be taken apart. Yes, I'm sure you could see the harddrive, and yes it has a metal case around it. However, be aware that there is an easy access spot for it, where the drive slides out and there are two screws holding the casing onto the actual drive. This is a form factor issue, it takes no longer than a minute to do this. But, if you want to use it to swap data, okay. But, I don't suggest attaching it to the laptop.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

what if i attached it on anotehr place then? Like in the middle of the bottom with velcro, because id say about 90% of the time im going to be using this its gunna be on my lap, and if i need to use it on a desk i can just take the hdd of cause its velcrowed. If its in the middle of the underside itll be between my legs as im using it.

So theres a place where i can just slide out my current hdd and put in a new one?

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Nickelplate is my dad

fishy said:
tbh, if it only took you 20 mins to get it working, you should have given in back to your grandad. 'he didn't need it because he broke it', is a lot different from 'he broke it because he didn't need it'.

Quoted for truth.

Well said.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Sorry, i was a little unclear why I said that. I ment that "He didnt need it because he broke it" as "He didnt need it because he broke it and baught a new one instead and then this one was useless to him, and broken.:. I just thought itd be easier to say he didnt need and, and he broke it. He had broke it and then needed to go to Florida for a while and dint have time to repair it so he used his secret "old people" money that all old people just seem to pull out of their ass and bought a new one. Thats why he just let me have this.

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Nickelplate is my dad