MikeSty

Been a while since I posted here.

So a few months ago, my gramps worked at a rummage sale up in NJ. I asked him if he could keep an eye out for computer parts, specifically, laptops. He's been working at the rummage sale for god knows how many years, and he assured me they always had gobs of old comps (*drools*).

He called me up and gave me the specs of the few, and the best was a Digital Hinote Ultra 2000 (Pentium 166, 128mb RAM, 3GB HDD, orig. win95). I told him we'd stop by and visit him and pick it up. I checked it out and it appeared to be in pretty good condition. It was fully stocked, came with two fully funcitonal batteries (hell, one was NIB), all the equipment, a nice carrying case, and six dozen Win95 install floppies

I figure I'll eventually install some iteration of linux on this thing. The disturbing issue I had with the computer is that the BIOS was locked. I was NOT going to send it in to unlock it. I tried different suggetsions for P/W's, but none worked. So I figured.. why not just yank the CMOS battery? Well, I'd never, ever, ever opened up a laptop before, and I secretly hope I never will again. Stupidest thing I ever did. It never did really turn back on :-/

I was totally freaked out. Fortunately, I grabbed one on ebay for like $30 (then a bit more for teh shippz0rz), and I was like I'll just patch this bad boy up. The one on ebay was listed as missing the following:

- HDD
- Battery
- RAM cover
- Page Down key

I, of course, had all of those. I've replaced all of them, being the thrifty kool kid I am. However, I've had THE MOST ANNOYING PROBLEM ON EARTH. The laptop doesn't read the charge in the battery. It's not the traditional "old battery loses charge cap", the laptop was unable to determine how much power the battery had in it. Windows 95, AND the BIOS, reported the charge at 0% ... of course, when I unplugged the brother, it would chug away until the batteries died.

Worse yet, the batteries won't charge through this laptop. They'll only charge when I cram them into the remaining pieces of the old laptop and boot it about six times and kick it twice. So it's not like I can just plug in the AC and take it out when I think it's done. This is very frustrating.

Eventually I decided I was going to use nubby Xandros linux, you know, the real user friendly junk. I really wasn't up to learning hardcore linux yet for teh lappy lap. Of course, I format the HDD, and attempt about fifty billion Xandros installs, none of which work. The install randomly tells me to eject CT and reboot. According to the people at the Xandros forums, this occurs. One guy had the nerve to say, "Well, the minreq of RAM is 128MB, and you only have 98MB" ... seriously, I don't need that extra 30 megs to install 'nix. I've installed WinXP on 50MB of RAM....

I'd gladly up and get that 128MB of RAM, and possibly a bigger HDD, but I won't because of this nagging battery issue. I know someone here must have a clue, because I surely don't, and I know that most of my comp issues that my leet arse can't solve, someone here can.

Link to my xandros thread: http://forums.xandros.com/viewtopic.php?t=17162

Thanks in advance

MikeSty

Love, anyone? I haven't touched the thing in a while...

catback

Does the lappy recognize the battery make/model...If not I'd say you need to get a battery that is compatiable with the new one.

ratbastid

Glad to hear you know better than the experts, based on the fact that you've installed something ELSE with less than their minimum requirements. Hey, I have a project here that requires Oracle, and since you've installed MySQL on a thumb drive, I think you're perfect for the job!

Seriously though, I don't know from Xandros, but if install includes compiling a kernel, you really want more than 98mb ram. That's probably where that min requirement comes from, if I were to guess.

Personally, I've never seen any percentage in getting elbows-deep in a laptop. Fiddly little hardware bits in a laptop that I'd rather not mess with, and "low-config but very usable" laptops can be had for just a few hundred bucks. Of course, if you're trying to get a $30 machine working, I suppose it might be worth getting your hands a little dirty inside it...

MikeSty

The laptop I bought was identical to the first one I got, so I'd have to guess that they're compatible. I haven't seen anything revolving around the battery make or model whatsoever - just the charge (which is a steady 0%)

MikeSty

You mean, better than the expert. Only one of the people actually assured me that I needed that 128MB of RAM. One of the things that Linux promised (me) was the lack of need for juicy hardware to run with decency - shell included.

I understand WHY the minreq is there, and I would be glad to spend a little cash to upgrade the RAM, but that's why the battery issue is my first and foremost issue.

I don't really think there's much I have to mess with, other than popping off the RAM cover and sticking more SO-DIMM in. Unless, of course, you're talking about the battery issue, which ATM is the first and foremost issue. Seriously, I have NO problem getting more RAM and/or a bigger HDD, but if the comp doesn't recognize the batteries, then I'm screwed.

noodle

Wish I could help...... I just had to share that I laughed so hard my water came out my nose when I read your thread title. I have one of those myself. And an evil desktop that's too slow to handle dial-up... but it'll run Linux. Luckily I have a close friend who beats the thing with a stick when it misbehaves. I feel for you!

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cyrnel

You've checked the battery contacts on the laptop? It won't charge if it can't sense condition.

Mike, I'd cut my losses, beat it with a big stick, or use it for a "rooftop technology toss". Pick up something slightly newer. The time you'll spend waiting on that thing would pay for the difference. Old low memory setups are great for low bandwidth firewalls or spoolers but this sounds like masochism.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

MikeSty

I'll check ze battery contacts, maybe open it up to make sure it's still intact. That does make a lot of sense - it won't charge if it doesn't recognize condition properly. It insists it is at zero though, not, "Not available" or anything. Just ..... zero.

The max upgradeable RAM is 144MB ..... if I can get the batteries working, 128MB will be enough to run SOME linux distro, riiiight?

MikeSty

That reminds me last year when my teacher told me to throw out an old HP printer that "got hit by lightning" *cough* doesn't know how to fix it *cough* hehe ... so I took it to the dumpster behind the shop and threw it in there.

I now regret doing that. The shop teacher has some wooden bats he's lathed himself over the years, I'm sure he would have given me one to pull an angry Michael Bolton from Office Space (see Bendsley's avatar ) on the piece of crap.

*runs to watch office space*