New (ish) Laptop :s
Posted 03-30-2016 at 04:04 PM by shsmith
So, someone showed up at my house this morning with a laptop they had dug out of the trash (why are they always in the trash?) and asked me if I could use it. It is a Dell (why are they always Dell?) Latitude D620. Missing the power supply (what's new) and is still running windows xp. I used another power supply to get it booted and took a look at it. All personal files had been removed from it. What they left were the annoying browser bars (a lot of them) and viruses(hundreds!!). It has a couple problems, the worst of which is it won't recognize the burner/player that's in the system. Dell says it needs a firmware update, but of course the one they have for that model player doesn't work... Until I get that problem straight, there's not much I can do about replacing xp. I'm ordering the power supply this weekend and I'll keep working on the firmware. Not sure what I'm gonna put on it as far as an OS yet.
Take care and see you next time.
Take care and see you next time.
Total Comments 3
Comments
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Hi...
You know, I wonder how many perfectly good computers get thrown out because they are rendered unusable by malware?
What the specs for that particular system? According to the information I see here, it's upgradeable to 4 GB's of memory, so if it has a dual-core processor, it might run a light distribution, like Lubuntu, pretty well...provided you're able to fix the issue with the burner.
Regards...Posted 03-30-2016 at 09:33 PM by ardvark71 
Updated 03-30-2016 at 09:35 PM by ardvark71 (Correction.) -
Ardvark71, thank you for commenting! I have another Dell laptop that someone dug out of the trash and gave me (Inspiron E1505). I upgraded the RAM to 2GB and put Linux Mint 17.3 XFCE Edition on it. It runs like a champ! So far my total cash outlay on that one is about $1.50 - I had to replace the coin cell battery on the motherboard. I do need to replace the power supply with a Dell one, which I found on New Egg for about $10 and will be ordering this weekend. The new RAM came from a friend who had parted out a broken laptop. Other than that, it is a great little laptop. Unreal that people would just throw something like that away.
The info on that Latitude is:
Intel T2600 @ 2.16GHZ (Device Manager shows it twice, so dual core?)
1GB RAM installed
60GB Hard Drive
At this time, it does not have a wireless NIC installed
CD-RW/DVD ROM which needs a firmware update
It does have a modem and wired nic
4 USB ports
Built in speakers and mic (not happy about the mic)Posted 03-31-2016 at 12:11 PM by shsmith
Updated 03-31-2016 at 12:41 PM by shsmith -
You're welcome.Quote:Originally Posted by shsmith
Intel T2600 @ 2.16GHZ (Device Manager shows it twice, so dual core?)
Yes, this is a good indication that's it's dual core. Another way to verify this is to bring up the "Run" box and type in: dxdiag
Multiple cores should up as multiple CPU's...
You can also install a program called CPU-Z, which should give you more in-depth information.
No problem, a Linux compatible USB wireless adapter will fix that.Quote:Originally Posted by shsmith
At this time, it does not have a wireless NIC installed
Something doesn't sound right here. Older firmware should not prevent a device from working (or being recognized.)Quote:Originally Posted by shsmith
CD-RW/DVD ROM which needs a firmware update
Low quality? Perhaps an external mic would remedy that.Quote:Originally Posted by shsmith
Built in speakers and mic (not happy about the mic)
Regards...Posted 03-31-2016 at 04:07 PM by ardvark71
Updated 03-31-2016 at 04:13 PM by ardvark71 (Added wordage.)
