BleepingComputer.com: Is this laptop good enough to keep?

I just got given a laptop that has Windows XP installed - it's about 5 years old but wasn't used very much.

I've just tried using it and there's nothing installed on it so I can't "play around" but I saw a problem straight away when I tried accessing the "Help" menu .... nothing comes up.

The system specs are these

CPQ T1350 @ 1.85GHz
1.85GHz 1.49GB ram Windows WP

C;\ 25GB
D:\ 25GB

With the exception of the hard drives I know nothing about what these specs mean - absolutely nothing. I just compared them with my desktop and they are smaller but that's all I know.

I'm interested in the laptop for basic internet only - so no need to access Windows programs like Word etc or even emails.

So just Firefox, YouTube, playing music etc.

Oh - I would probably link it up to the home network too.

Anyway, are these specs good enough to keep the laptop?

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

This post has been edited by hamluis: 29 December 2011 - 11:03 AM
Reason for edit: Moved from Buying New Computer to Internal Hardware.

The laptop should be fine for those tasks you mentioned about.

Whether a computer is worth keeping or not is dependent on whether or not it will do what you need it to or not. If all your using it for basically is for browsing the internet and whatnot then I would say yes thst computer will do what you need it to and would be worth keeping.

the_patriot11, on 04 December 2011 - 04:52 PM, said:

Thanks - but what other reasons would govern whether I keep it or not besides things like size, appearance etc??

like I said, a lot of it is up to the user whether they like it, and whether it does what they need it to. quality is always something to look for, but you said it was given to you so the price was right-even if it only lasts you two months your not really out anything. Something that old usually doesnt have much room to upgrade, and if there is its usually not worth doing so. I would say if you like it, and it suits your needs keep it. If you dont like it, or its to slow (it is outdated and wont run a lot of modern programs such as games) then look for another.

I've installed Windows XP, Norton etc onto the laptop and now trying it out .......

... but it's so slow.

eg. the internet was slow and unreliable, despite sitting about 3 metres (9 feet) away & using the 2XR Wireless 108G mimo card

So tonight I decided to take the laptop to the modem and connect them with an ethernet cable ..... so there'd be nothing wrong with the "connection"....

It was working - but very slowly - googling was slow, but when I clicked on a search result that should have taken me to Wikipedia, after 40 seconds it still wasn't getting to the Wiki page.

Could it be a problem with the PC card? Could it be damaged? But it lights up - has green blinks going each second ..... so I'm presuming that it's OK.

Is there anything wrong with my idea to link up the modem and the laptop with the ethernet chord? Did it help at all? The modem is working as it's lighting up on the new line that I connected to. And the modem is pretty quick on my desktop


Could it be a slow laptop? Could the hardward be pretty ancient that it's not working too well?


ANY help would be really welcome.

What kind of internet connection do you have? Also you shouldn't use Norton on that laptop since that uses a lot of system memory.

Norton is a bit of a memory hog-youd be better off on a older system using something similar to Comodo or Avast, and set it to light security levels (light firewall) might help boost things up a bit. Couldnt hurt to defragment the hard drive either.

Another free antivirus could be Microsoft Security Essentials, it is light weight.

Thanks guys for the feedback. I've got cable internet.

One thing I forgot to post was the fact that everything is really slow - not just the internet. After clicking on a program shortcut it takes a long time for the program to open - even if it's Windows Explorer or Firefox.

(I thought Firefox took a while - over 30 seconds - but on 2nd thoughts maybe I was trying to open it before the laptop had finished starting up..... i was too eager to test out how long etc .......)

Windwos Explorer took 8 seconds the first time ....... the 2nd time it only took about 1 second (I'm assuming it's because it's in cache somehow?)

About Norton - is it bad for even modern and good laptops? Or is it for this old one that it's not good for?

McAfee is a free antivirus - is it better for this situation?

And would Windows firewall be enough?


Can Nortons I.S. be used on tablets? Or too "hungry" to make them work efficiently?

Possible specs, http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00791073&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&lc=en&product=3245636

If the system only has 512MB of RAM installed...that certainly can be improved.

http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/HP+-+Compaq-memory/Presario+C300+Series/Presario+C307NR-upgrades.html

A clean install would be my preferred path for any system belonging to anyone before I happened to come into possession of it.

Louis