Technical Site
Home
NT4 Dual-Monitor Hydra
Top Rated Links
About Wireball

Active Worlds
Planet Sirocco
Wireball City
1500n 1494e
3D Object Texturing

Legacy Support
Support Main
Drivers
FAQ's

Hardware
Ars Technica
HardOCP
The Tech Report
User Supplied PC Hardware Reviews
Sharky Extreme
SystemLogic.net

System Shock
Free Radical online book

Webcomics
Zebra Girl
Sluggy Freelance
Schlock Mercenary
Life on Forbez
Ozy and Millie
Superosity
Bruno the Bandit
Sinfest


Search
Google Newsgroups
Metacrawler
Altavista

  

Optimizing performance on old laptops
Last updated 19 May 2005

A Future-Looking Approach for Old Laptop Use

Even today, Wi-Fi Internet access is available at a wide range of airports, coffee shops, bookstores, and even fastfood joints (such as McDonald's), for a small fee. In a few more years, Wi-Fi is likely to be a free service at most stores, as an added incentive to customers, so you'll be able to get online for free in a variety of areas. Now, there's a free tool called Virtual Network Computing (VNC) that lets you connect to a computer over the Internet, see its desktop, and control it as if you were sitting at it. Consider the following possibility:

You have an older laptop, equipped with Wi-Fi, that's fast enough to run VNC. You use VNC to connect to your fast desktop home computer over the Internet, from wherever you have an Internet connection, and use your desktop software as if you were sitting at it, via an encrypted VNC connection. The laptop would just act as your interface to your computer at home - you get the benefits of portability, with the speed and installed software base of your desktop computer.

The only limits would be the speed of your Internet connection, and the interface (display, input devices) of your laptop. VNC is also cross-platform; e.g. you could connect to a Windows system from a MacOS notebook using VNC.

 

Steps for Enhancing Performance

Defragmentation: If you do get an old laptop, the hard drive is typically pretty slow. If it gets fragmented, it can take ages for it to boot, or for programs to load up. Run disk defragmenter occasionally; at least once a month, or more often if necessary.

Lighter Operating System: Windows 98, though older, is nice if you only have 64MB of RAM. Linux is powerful and can be lean, but you have to know how to use it, and a few laptops may not be fully supported. If in doubt, search newsgroups for people running the model of laptop you're considering under Linux, and see if they're commenting on anything not working.

RAM: Upgrading the RAM, especially if you have under 192MB, can help a lot with modern operating systems and programs that have large memory demands. Windows 2000 needs at least 192MB to work reasonably; XP needs 256MB. If you can, double those values for maximum performance.

Hard Disk: Laptops hard disks have two primary types of connectors. Depending on the connector and the laptop's hardware support, you may be able to replace the hard disk with a larger, faster hard disk, letting the OS boot faster and programs load faster.

 

Inexpensive Portable Computing

I have a 5-year old laptop, a PII-366MHz with 192MB of RAM. These days, such a laptop can be obtained used for around $100-$200, and although slow, can do basic word processing, e-mail, and other non-intensive tasks. Bear in mind that an old, used laptop will have some drawbacks:

  1. Warranty long-expired, so if anything breaks you have to fix it yourself (if possible), pay someone to fix it, or replace the laptop.
  2. Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery packs common in laptops cost around $100 new, and degrade over time until they have very little runtime, dependent on how much the battery is used.
  3. Likely not as capable of running modern software and operating systems (unless you upgrade the memory).

 

Tips for Purchasing a Good Used Laptop

  1. Look for a good keyboard layout, and size. Almost all laptop keyboards are smaller and harder to type on than desktop keyboards, but some are better than others. Think about how you're going to reach function keys you use frequently, such as CTRL, ALT, Shift, /, \, Backspace, Enter, and the arrow keys. Wrist support is nice too - it isn't much fun having your wrists hanging out over empty air while typing.
  2. Pick a pointing device you prefer. Everyone has their own preferences; try the different pointing devices out for yourself, if possible. A bad pointing device on an otherwise good laptop may not be a show-stopper; you can consider using an external pointing device such as a PS/2 or USB optical mouse.
    1. Trackballs are the easiest to use and most precise, but get dirty and have to be cleaned extremely frequently, and so have fallen out of favor.
    2. Touchpads are the most common, but some people hate them, and even I have some difficulty controlling the pointer accurately with a touchpad.
    3. "Rubber eraser" trackpoint style pointing devices, that you push on in the direction you want the mouse arrow to go, can be pretty accurate, and may be nice once you get used to them.
  3. Get a TFT active-matrix LCD screen. Resolution should be no lower than 1024x768; any less will give you very little working space. If your eyes are older, you may want to look for a larger screen; the laptop I'm typing this on has a 14.1" (actual viewable size, like all LCDs) screen, which is pretty good.
  4. Avoid laptops with desktop processors - look for a processor marked as a "Mobile" processor, as they tend to run cooler (less hardware failure) and contribute to longer battery runtime.
  5. Try to get USB2.0 ports, if possible - older USB1.1 ports can limit your expandability (too slow for external HDDs, CD-burners, DVD-ROMs, etc).
  6. Built-in Ethernet and 56K modem are convenient. Built-in 802.11b Wi-Fi is nice if you can get it, but PCMCIA Wi-Fi cards are readily available if you don't mind having an extra piece of equipment.
  7. Lighter weight is not only a matter of avoiding fatigue; a heavy laptop can be quite hard on your feet if you're lugging it around all day.

 

Good Laptop Brands

  1. Dell laptops, particularly Latitudes, are generally pretty sturdy, both in my experience and that of others. Readily available refurbished.
  2. I've read that IBM Thinkpads are particularly well-liked and sturdy.
  3. Compaq Armada laptops have several good aspects, though as you may notice from my Armada repair articles, some models from a certain period of time have connector problems (easily remedied if you're willing to take them apart and clean the connectors)
  4. Toshibas may also be pretty tough (bear in mind I haven't had much personal experience with them, and I found pre-1995 models difficult to reassemble). A reviewer seemed quite happy with the recent Toshiba Portege M200 laptop/tablet combo, though it isn't exactly what you would call affordable yet (~$1000-$1300 on eBay).
  5. Note: avoid desktop processors, whatever you do - they need much more ventilation than most laptops are equipped to deliver.

 

This link is for contact harvesting spambots For interested humans, click the button for more information:

This page is copyright ©2005 David N. MacCarter. All rights reserved.
The Wireball logo is a trademark of Wireball. Not to be reused without permission.
All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
E-mail the Webmaster

Please note - by company policy, spam* is deleted without being read. Thank you for your understanding.
* - Unsolicited mass e-mailings

Hits since June 3rd, 2005:


FastCounter by bCentral