PB145B’s finds

[Unknown_K]

DDR1 1GB SDIMMs are cheap on ebay, something like $6.50 for a new pair shipped from China. DDR2 SODIMMs are $8 shipped for 2x2GB PC2-6400. SDRAM PC100 256MB and PC133 512MB SODIMMs are also dirt cheap new. Just saying if you need to mac out an old laptops RAM now is a good time before they go away.

I do not recommend Vista or Windows 7 on any single core laptops machine, especially Pentium 4M's.

 

[PB145B]

DDR1 1GB SDIMMs are cheap on ebay, something like $6.50 for a new pair shipped from China. DDR2 SODIMMs are $8 shipped for 2x2GB PC2-6400. SDRAM PC100 256MB and PC133 512MB SODIMMs are also dirt cheap new. Just saying if you need to mac out an old laptops RAM now is a good time before they go away.

I do not recommend Vista or Windows 7 on any single core laptops machine, especially Pentium 4M's.

Yeah, I plan on ordering some RAM in the next few days.

I wouldn’t either, I just want to try it because I would get a kick out of seeing this machine running Vista or Windows 7  

 

[Unknown_K]

That laptop is a great XP machine.

 

[PB145B]

That laptop is a great XP machine.

Yes it is! I’ve just got done installing XP on the new hard drive and it’s really fast now! This 80GB Western Digital is way faster than that crummy old Fujitsu 30GB drive. Those Fujitsu drives run painfully hot too. I think that’s why they have such a high failure rate (at least in my experience). 

 

[EvilCapitalist]

I have an 8000 in my room and another one forget the model in the basement. The 15" screens are nice. If you like large screen vintage laptops try and get a Gateway 2000 solo 9500 series with the 15.7" 1280x1024 screens.

I used to own that exact machine!  Solo 9550, P3 @ 1.13GHz, 512MB RAM (max for the machine I want to say, ), 20GB HD, Combo drive (DVD/CD-RW), 3.5" floppy drive, GeForce 2 Go with 32MB RAM, and composite video output.  I remember being a bit disappointed when I switched from 1280x1024 on the 15.7" screen it had to 1440x900 on the 17" widescreen my shiny brand new HP dv9030us had.  Like you said, for games from that period it works quite nicely. 

 

[PB145B]

[No message]

 

[PB145B]

Here’s my latest purchase, a Panasonic CF-27 ToughBook! This is an excellent Pentium III laptop. Not the fastest PIII in the world, but it’s incredibly rugged!





Pretty sweet, huh?

Here’s my thread about it on the Vintage Computer Forum;

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?68515-Panasonic-CF-27-ToughBook-Finally-laptop-without-that-pesky-brittle-plastic!

I also just posted a thread about it on “VOGONS”, which is a forum I’m brand new to, but I basically covered all of the same stuff there, so I figured it’d be kinda redundant to link them both.

 

[PB145B]

I was very excited awaiting the arrival of this! It’s an original Pilot 1000 from 1996! This was the beginning of what eventually became Palm. They weren’t originally called “Palm” at all. It was simply “Pilot”. Palms are my most favorite PDAs, so this means a lot to me.











This is one has the original box and all of the paper work! Got it for $20 shipped. Never seen this Franklin Day Planner version before. Usually these just had the standard Pilot Desktop software with them. Also, at the bottom right, that actually isn’t an original part of this; that is a newer Palm Pilot brochure. Still very cool as I’ve never seen another one.

I actually got two Pilots with this purchase. The 1st one had a cracked digitizer and the second one had a perfect digitizer (second one was likely a replacement for the first one when it was broken). However the one with the good screen wasn’t in very good cosmetic condition, so I took the good screen and put it in the other one to make one, really nice Pilot!

Another pleasant surprise I found is that one of them has been upgraded to a Pilot 5000! The 1000 originally had 128KB of storage, but this one has been upgraded to 512KB! The memory is under a door on the back and very easy to upgrade on these.

The Pilot 1000 and 5000 were out at the same time. Neither came first. If anything, the 5000 was probably designed first. 128KB is incredibly anemic storage on one of these, even at the time. 512KB is way more usable. It’s kind of like the original PowerBook lineup; a lot of people think the 100 was the first PowerBook, but that’s not true at all. I believe the 170 is actually the oldest design of the three, and the 100 came last.

I believe the 1000 was $249 and the 5000 was $299 originally. Palms were never crazy expensive. A lot of Palm enthusiasts would actually have more than one Palm back then.

 

[bibilit]

A lot of Palm enthusiasts would actually have more than one Palm back then.

I have many of them actually.
 

 

[PB145B]

I have many of them actually.
 

I do to! I need to lay them all out and get a family photo! Most of mine are fairly common models, but I do have a couple of rare ones. 

 

[EvieSigma]

I just have the one Palm III, but I still haven't found a use for it.

 

[PB145B]

I just have the one Palm III, but I still haven't found a use for it.

They made tons of software for these things that can all still be downloaded for free. Just keep in mind if your III still has the original Palm OS 3.0, there will be some newer apps that won’t work. 

Won’t be anything like the absolute hell it’s been finding software that works with this original Pilot though! Seriously, almost everything I have tried says “this application requires OS 2.0 or higher”. This Pilot is running is 1.0. It could be updated to 2.0, but I already have a newer Palm Pilot that runs OS 2.0, and having OS 1.0 is one of the main reasons I wanted this, so I’m not going to update it.

 

[EvieSigma]

They made tons of software for these things that can all still be downloaded for free. Just keep in mind if your III still has the original Palm OS 3.0, there will be some newer apps that won’t work. 

Won’t be anything like the absolute hell it’s been finding software that works with this original Pilot though! Seriously, almost everything I have tried says “this application requires OS 2.0 or higher”. This Pilot is running is 1.0. It could be updated to 2.0, but I already have a newer Palm Pilot that runs OS 2.0, and having OS 1.0 is one of the main reasons I wanted this, so I’m not going to update it.

How do I find out the OS version? And how do I load a new OS? This thing doesn't have an obvious hatches for ROM upgrades...

 

[PB145B]

How do I find out the OS version? And how do I load a new OS? This thing doesn't have an obvious hatches for ROM upgrades...

There are 4 silkscreened buttons at the bottom of the screen; on the main apps screen, tap on the bottom left “menu” button, a drop down menu will come down, click on “info”, a window will appear, and then click on “version” at the bottom and that should show you.

The original Palm III can run up to OS 4.1, but I’m not sure how well that runs on an original III, so I wouldn’t exactly recommend doing that upgrade.

3.1 or 3.3 would be a better fit, but I have never found the updaters for those versions. I only have the one for 4.1.

 

[EvieSigma]

Yep, looks like I have Palm OS 3.0. Given the fact this thing came complete in box from a thrift store of all places I imagine it wasn't used much.

 

[PB145B]

Yep, looks like I have Palm OS 3.0. Given the fact this thing came complete in box from a thrift store of all places I imagine it wasn't used much.

Most of them were never updated. I’ve only ever seen a handful of IIIs that were.

I have two original IIIs and I like them a lot. Both still have OS 3.0. They’ll run most of my favorite programs just fine. 

If you want to run much newer software, I’d just get something newer. Palms are super cheap on eBay.

 

[PB145B]

Snapped this pic. The first and the last; USRobotics Pilot and Palm TX.



Definitly my favorite mobile OS of all time (yes, even compared to all modern ones). It’s funny how not-obsolete Palm OS 5 still feels. I’d love to see a modern incarnation of it. IMO the layout wouldn’t even need any changes. It’s a very good looking, easy to navigate OS.

Edit: *Technically* there are the Palm Pre and Pixi, but those are webOS devices. The TX was the last of the true Palms.

 

[EvieSigma]

Most of them were never updated. I’ve only ever seen a handful of IIIs that were.

I have two original IIIs and I like them a lot. Both still have OS 3.0. They’ll run most of my favorite programs just fine. 

If you want to run much newer software, I’d just get something newer. Palms are super cheap on eBay.

Would be nice to have one that was, you know, in color. And the PDA itself having a color shell would be neat too.

 

[bibilit]

but I still haven't found a use for it.

Found yourself Galaxian or any game, Palm had literally thousand of applications available.

I should have almost 20 units around, from the first Pilot to the Tungsten (IIRC) some even had cameras included.

The best looking, in my opinion, are the V and Vx range.

 

[PB145B]

Found yourself Galaxian or any game, Palm had literally thousand of applications available.

I should have almost 20 units around, from the first Pilot to the Tungsten (IIRC) some even had cameras included.

The best looking, in my opinion, are the V and Vx range.

Yep, tons of software to choose from on these.

I just checked and I have around 42 Palms. All kinds of different ones.

As far as looks goes, I don’t have one favorite, there’s a lot of them that I really like. The V/Vxes are good looking though.