Well never seemed to be living from day 1 really. Tried all the tricks in the book and it’s always been slow and clunky from day 1. Kids have moved onto new computers now and though it’s frustratingly slow…unusably so, it’s fully functioning so seems a shame to chuck. So I was considering boosting the RAM and sticking in an SSD so see if I can get it to a usable state, but not sure the vintage of the processor and if it’s worth it.

The spec is Intel Pentium 2.3GHz processor. Windows 10. Use will be just basic internet browsing, maybe pressed onto Zwift duties and the daughter has some fairly basic games on it she’ll still like to play (mainly Sims).

Worth chucking a £100 or so at it or just chuck it?

Ta.

Surely it’s better to just chuck a £100 at an ipad 3/4/Air?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if the hard drive is easily replacable,

Get rid of the 5200 RPM record player and fit a smaller capacity ssd drive.

You might want to clone your existing drive, but I’d suggest starting afresh.

https://www.cclonline.com/product/232902/SA400S37/240G/Solid-State-Drives-SSDs-/Kingston-SSDNow-A400-240GB-SATA-3-2-5-inch-Solid-State-Drive/SSD0631/

£30 and a bit of faffifng, Job jobbed.

*EDIT I wouldn’t bother doing more than that. Worst case scenario you’ve got a new SSD drive.

honestly?

https://www.neverware.com/freedownload#intro-text

what have you got to lose?

petec
Free Member

honestly?

https://www.neverware.com/freedownload#intro-text

what have you got to lose?

oh sweet jeesus. 🙁

It’s a surplus machine so don’t want to wast too much money on it. Just seems wasteful to chuck a perfectly serviceable machine if it can be made to work well enough. If I can get ram and SSD for as little as £30 then it’s a no-brainer to give it a go – thought that lot would cost closer to £100. But you can give that Neverware a trail so might just do that and see how that goes. If it runs fine then that might be all I need.

PRO TIP – an external backup device, whether that be a local physical disk or cloud storage, will not make your computer faster.

cloud storage

but who’s mentioned cloud storage, or indeed any external storage?

Cloudready just puts ChromeOS onto the machine, replacing Windows

ffs gtfo

charming

so, you’re saying an equivalent machine, running chrome os vs one running windows 10, will be the same speed? Again, bearing in mind no one has mentioned storage, and all that is happening is accessing the internet – like STW for instance.

okay, entitled to your opinion. But could you point out – in layman’s terms, as I’m obviously so ignorant – why?

Running ChromeOS or a Linux distro such as Mint is a great way to get usage out of an old laptop although your daughter may need to find some different games to play. SSD will help loads too.

PRO TIP – an external backup device, whether that be a local physical disk or cloud storage, will not make your computer faster.

Nobody on this thread has suggested this. You’re clearly not a pro reader.

I apologise, Chill, friends. It’s all good.

Tell the OP to get a chromebook, and he’ll be pissed off again, I’m just trying to be pragmatic.

Steady on, I didn’t mean to kick off an argument. Just trying to see if there is any chance of life from an old laptop before investing any time, cash or effort.

Set up Cloudready on a bootable USB drive and it does run alot slicker (typing this from the laptop now). Maybe because its running off a USB drive rather than a mechanical HDD or not – I don’t know, not sure how these how these OS’s work, but its potentially a workable solution. Just need to establish if other apps can run on it like Zwift and my daughters games. If not i’ll just stick an SSD in it and give it a whirl. But booting from a USB drive is hardly a hardship if it means we can make use of the laptop.

Excellent

You can of course replace the laptop’s HDD, and don’t need the USB drive. But the USB is good for the interim until you decide whether you can run what you need

I put in an old HDD when I did ours, replacing the SSD that was in there (so I can switch between the two if necessary). Even with a [10 year old?] HDD it’s ridiculously fast; it’s not really using anything on the disk, especially with a decent amount of RAM in there.

New SSD and fresh windows install. This must be the fifth thread in the last week.

More information needed. Intel has been rolling out the “Pentium” brand for like 20 years.

What is it, what chip is it, how much RAM is already there?

Might make a good retro games machine. Might be worth throwing Linux at it. Might be good money after bad.

I had more or less the same thing.
Stuck an SSD, in it, fresh installation of windows 10. Boots up in a flash, runs all the boring internetty things just fine, can’t complain honestly.

You probably have a local FB group for refugees or similar people in need – they are often asking for computers. Or just offer it for free on your FB community group.

Great to see that you got Neverware up and running. Was thinking of doing that on an old laptop of mine, mainly to run Zwift…

Which was the fly in the ointment for me as Zwift didn’t have a ChromeOS app / web browser version.

If Neverware can run the Android app, then I’ll get cracking on the Chromebook conversion.

How much RAM does it have? How old is the laptop? If you can get it to 8GB and an SSD for £50 then I guess it makes sense to try but it’s still going to be fairly slow and if it’s 10 years old you might find you get component failures sooner or later

I’ve got various SODIMM memory modules on a shelf that will never get used here. If you can work out what kind it needs (or post a model and I’m sure someone can work it out) and it’s a match, I’m happy to send them for the cost of postage.

That’s newer and faster than the laptop my employer has deemed as acceptable. 👍🏻

How do you know? Do you have a 486?

There are some charities that will take old laptops and upcycle them for school kids who can’t afford their own.

If your happy it works for you, a SSD will probably give you the speed boost to keep it going for a while, for not a lot of cash (remove and re-use when the laptop does die). Your issue with ram is not acquiring it, it’s more likely will your laptop accept any more memory. Crucial website has scanning tool, should be able to tell you what type and the BIOS limitation.

Whats the best software to clobe your HDD onto an SSD?

I have an SSD waiting to go into Mrs B’s laptop.

Can anyone recommend something?

Thanks

Ian

New SSD and fresh windows install. This must be the fifth thread in the last week.

Appreciate this, but this wasn’t my original question.

The laptop currently has 4GB RAM and was bought about 3 years ago, but appreciate that doesn’t date the vintage of the processor but it appears to be an Intel Pentium 4415U 64bit. Its an HP Pavilion. Don’t mind splashing some cash on it to upgrade HDD and RAM but if its only going to buy me a year or so’s usefulness then I wouldn’t bother.

To be fair I’ve just uninstalled the anti-virus software and that has brightened it up a bit running Windows. Hope Windows 10 native firewall and anti virus protection is good enough. Still a bit sluggish but fine for my daughter to play Sims on once the game loads up. Think I’ll just use the Neverware for internet stuff.

However Zwift doesn’t work with Neverware, unless there is an unofficial workaround.

Yes to ram and ssd upgrade then, and you absolutely don’t need third party AV with Windows 10.

That 4Gb may be soldered onto the board as per my Lenovo, I just added an 8Gb stick as it worked out about the same price. That was an i3, also added a Crucial BX100 ssd.

Can anyone recommend something?

Don’t? Clean install is almost always the better option.

Hope Windows 10 native firewall and anti virus protection is good enough.

It is.

Appreciate this, but this wasn’t my original question.
The laptop currently has 4GB RAM and was bought about 3 years ago

3 years old, practically new, SSD and fresh windows install. My lads 4 month old HP was unusable due to the packaged bloatware and AV, clean install sorted it all out. Should get another 5 years out of it for general use.

My laptop is over 10 years old, Vista vintage, new SSD and fresh windows install and guess what, suddenly back to being a very capable laptop for internet and office.

Stick in a 120 GB drive and what have you got to lose. A free fresh install of Windows will be even cheaper and probably give better results, put them together and you’re a winner. If it all goes horribly wrong you’ve borked a dead (to you) laptop and still got an SSD you can use for something else.

My laptop is over 10 years old, Vista vintage, new SSD and fresh windows install and guess what, suddenly back to being a very capable laptop for internet and office.

Ditto.

New SSD and fresh windows install. This must be the fifth thread in the last week.

Yep.

Or get a Chromebook.

Jokes.

(not actually joking)

Oh, when I posted you may struggle to fit memory & due to machine limitations, I was assuming a 10+ year old laptop.