old laptop , XP , or 98

[pestilence]

i just picked up an old compaq laptop with a P3 600 and 64 megs of ram .. i installed XP on it now and damn is it slow .. i was just wondering if installing 98 would make that much of a diffrence .. the most i am going to be using it for is DVD's and uploading some pic's from the digital cam ..

I would hate to go back to win 98 but with only 64 megs of pc133 ram it might be the logical choice .. I got it just because i am moving and needed something for a few months to get me by while the big puter and TV is in transit ..

what do you all think ? Any one know what OS has better battery life for a laptop ? I know its kinda a stupid post but its been dead to the world in here . I thought you all might not mind ..

[Blueyes]

you dont have an option to get more ram? thats all you'd need

[DigitalDD]

there should be one free SODIMM slot in that thing. just buy some RAM and you'll be set. you can pickup 256MB of PC133 laptop RAM for like $40-80..

[kane2g]

if you go with 98, you will be cursing it for the drivers. So got with W2K or XP and just trim the crap.
follow the tweak guides and you should improve performance.
BUT 64MB is the mininmum requirement for XP, so even tweaked it wont be fast.
Spend some cash on ram. :thumb:

[minibubba]

if it's only going to be for general use (no gaming) you may want to consider an easy to use Linux distro, which runs very well on older hardware... unlike winXP

[asklepios]

i would not recommend a Linux distro on his hardware. any n00b friendly Linux distro (like mandrake or redhat) with something like KDE would run really slow on a 64MB PC. the only way around would be using a window manager like fluxbox or something like that which in itself might not be a very easy experience to have.
go with Win 98 just my :2cents:

[Mr. C]

don't really understand the "drivers challenge"?

I think 98 will run quite effectively for you.
trouble with drivers does occur, give a holler and we'll see what we can come up with

[pestilence]

thanks for the quick replies .. i forgot about the tweak guides for XP .. i used them on my desktop and havent looked at them since .. after i got threw with them it is running alot better .. I will keep XP on it now .. i was dreading going back to 98 .

so its SODIMM PC 133 ram this thing takes ? I didnt even know if they still sold ram for it or what kind it took , that is why i didnt get a stick yet .. does anyone know if there is a ram limit for laptops , i cant find anything on the compaq site .. If there is no limit i will just get a stick of 512 and be done with it ..

thanks for all the help. i have built about 20 desktops but this is the frist lap i have delt with .. i feel like a noob ..

[kane2g]

Well, there are websites that will tell you how much memory you can put in a system.
I think PNY and crucial.com have Memory configurator.
So that would be the best place to start.
But i highly doubt that it will support 512mb module. If it does, u a lucky man! :)

[pestilence]

awsome , thanks for the sites. looks like it takes pc-100 and supports up to 512 .. so i will just get a stick of 256 to start .. :thumb: