Category: Geeks r Us
a little background, so you don't go "why does she have these ancient things?" I'm not a programmer but I'm sort of a computer collector and have everything from an Apple II C and II GS, to Keynote Gold laptops with DOS 6.22, to all different varieties of Windows, to my Macbook running Leopard, which is, by far, my favourite. But I can't do Greek on it, so I was using my HP Pavilion ze5385us
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c00248706
that I've had for several years, until the mother board broke. I want to fix it but it'll cost around $600! I have an XP desktop but need to clean it of viruses and reformat it, hoping that I can do it with an external cd rom drive cause I busted the internal one. There's a somewhat shared computer upstairs but I want something a bit more portable for my lessons.
Recently, Mom's partner Joanie gave me her old laptop from work. It's a Compaq Armada 1750 6333t running Windows 95. Here are the specs.
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10012_div/10012_div.HTML
What I want to know is
1. Can I upgrade to 98 without making it really slow? If so, where do I get the necessary drivers for the laptop (sound, video etc)? Do you think HP will still have them?
2. Can I use NVDA on it if I use 98? Will it work with 95? I know I can use Hal, but only with 98.
3. How difficult is it to do Greek in 95 and 98? I've heard it's built-in like in XP but someone told me it's not as easy to use.
4. Hypothetically, is it possible to upgrade the processor and memory and get XP on it? My bf has a 98 machine, pentium II and put xp on it and it runs like a snail! I really love this laptop, since it has all the ports and media types that I like, not to mention incredible built-in stereo speakers, and would hate to have to throw it away. Thanks.
Hay.
1. Can I upgrade to 98 without making it really slow?
Assuming that the cpu is around the 400 mhz mark then yes, 98 will be absolutely fine - i've run it on much worse. 64 mb would be fine ish, but really, you'll be able to pick up a stick of 128mb for next to nothing and it'll be worth the hassle of getting it installed.
If so, where do I get the necessary drivers for the laptop (sound, video etc)?
Google is your friend here. Obviously make sure that you have all the drivers that you need before you do the format. Try the recovery disks that came with the computer. 95 drivers *should* work on 98.
Do you think HP will still have them?
Probably not, perhaps.
2. Can I use NVDA on it if I use 98? Will it work with 95? I know I can use Hal, but only with 98.
Not sure really, but if your thinking of putting hal on there then make sure you get the extra ram.
3. How difficult is it to do Greek in 95 and 98? I've heard it's built-in like in XP but someone told me it's not as easy to use.
4. Hypothetically, is it possible to upgrade the processor and memory and get XP on it? My bf has a 98 machine, pentium II and put xp on it and it runs like a snail! I really love this laptop, since it has all the ports and media types that I like, not to mention incredible built-in stereo speakers, and would hate to have to throw it away. Thanks
Upgrading ram is easy, processer for a laptop is a bugger and probably not worth it.
By default, the laptop comes with 64mb which xp would work on so long as you allowed about 15 minutes to reach the desktop, upping this to 192 would probably make it semmy useable in fact i've run xp on a 400 with 128 and its been bareable in conjunction with hal 6.53.
I really wouldn't do xp if I were ou, + all the above assumes that the cpu's at 400 mhz.
In conclusion, up the ram to 192 and put 98 on it. Pm / post / msn if you have any questions.