Older PC laptop to possibly keep

[quinterro]

Today I got an Acer TravelMate512T with a Celeron 366.

It had a bad hard disk, no memory and a tendency to lock up at random intervals. Oh yes a bad clock battery too and a damaged USB port.

I added 256MB RAM, a 6GB hard disk from my failing HP Pavilion N3402 laptop and am installing Xubuntu 8.10. Works quite well so far.

 

[Strimkind]

Sounds like you rescued a beaten laptop from certain death. Keep it up.

 

[quinterro]

Xubuntu took quite a while to install and when it finally finished and rebooted it decided not to get past GRUB. Part of this is most likely due to the CMOS battery needing replacement. Each time the machine is rebooted it sets the date to 1/1/2099 and the time to 12:00PM. I was surprised that the LiveCD detected and used my generic TrendNet wireless card.

For now I'll put Windows 2000 on it until I get around to replacing the battery.

One good thing compared to the HP Pavilion laptop is that it appears to have an active matrix LCD panel.

 

[quinterro]

I got a new CMOS battery for the laptop for $6 at the mall down the street from work.

When I got back to the office the car decided that it no longer wanted to keep the coolant I added a few weeks ago and spewed it all over the ground.

When it rains, it pours.

 

[Christopher]

That's Mortin salt....

 

[quinterro]

It works a LOT better with a good CMOS battery. Before the fan was running all of the time and I had to press F1 after each POST.

Time to try Xubuntu again now that the clock issue has been fixed.

EDIT: I have noticed that the lid of the laptop has the same issue as more recent Acer laptops. Cracks will develop near the screen hinges because Acer in their infinite wisdom chose to mount the hinges to the plastic back of the lid instead of a frame inside of said lid. Grrrrr....