Thread: Old laptop

I was giving a old laptop with windowsME lol and i want to try and update and make a little project of it and i could use some help from my friends here at ti
first i want to install win7 or at least XP because i cant even install utorrent to this out to date operating system and until i do this i think i cant install any program i use and i really never changed operating systems ever so i dont know what im doing

also if there are any cool programs out there incase i dont know about them please feel free and recommend them for me

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!

First, what are your specs on the old laptop? RAM, processor, diskspace, etc..? Does the laptop have a CD/DVD drive? I highly doubt u will be able to install Windows 7 on an old laptop like that so i would try and see if u would pass the requirements first. If not u can always go with XP or better yet any Linux distro would be your greatest option.

Anyway, before u do all that just post the specs and we will take it from there. If u have any other questions please ask and i will answer them.

Hey MikeD always happy to see ya post first in my threads as for the specs is there a easy way to find out this? it does have a cd drive and to my surprise it has 2.42 gb of space and if XP would be easier than that would do also maybe later down the road when i change some things in the inside than i come and ask about win7 and other modern stuff?

If u have windowsME on u r laptop nd if u want to upgrade it to XP or Win7 nd if u don't have a cd/dvd drive install windows 97 first
then after installling it download the drivers for usb (for win 97)
by default they are loaded if not then do as above
then copy the win xp or win7 image into u r pendrive and boot u r laptop from pendrive (image)
you have u r setup started
it will only take a little longer than normal installation
hope this works for u

Sure u can open up system info by going here > start > run > then type msinfo32.exe and press enter. The system info tool will then open. Actually a better way would be to > right click my computer > click properties > then general tab. This way will show u the specs on the general tab. After u get them post them here and i will tell u your best bet. Also give me your make and model of your PC as well as we will need that for future use.

To install XP all u have to do is find a copy somewhere on the net or if u have a XP CD laying around then that would be great and u could skip the burn step below. If u dont have 1 just get 1 from one of your trackers and download it then follow these steps.

STEP 1: Burn it to a CD/DVD with the program "imgburn".
STEP 2: After u burn the CD restart the PC.
STEP 3: Next u want to get into the BIOS so u can boot from your DVD drive. U can get to the BIOS like this > While the PC is restarting u will see the first screen come on before the Windows loading screen. It usually tells u, u can hit F10 or ESC or it can be another key. Whatever the key is make sure u hit it before the Windows loading screen comes on.
STEP 4: Now that u are in the BIOS go to the boot options and change the boot order to have your CD drive boot before your hard drive. Then save changes and exit.
STEP 5: Put the XP CD into the drive and your PC will boot from it. It will then ask u to install windows, etc.. Just follow the prompts and u will be fine.

After u install XP u will need to get all the drivers. I suggest researching this first before installing XP and this is why i need some spec info cause i will help u find them. Anyway, after u install all the drivers u will be good to go. Sorry this is so long and if u need any help doing any of this i will help u out.

OK i this is what i got
gateway solo 1150
system:microsoft windows me 4.90.3000
genuineIntel
Intel(r) celeron(tm) processor
64.0 mb ram

hope this is what u need and i cant seem to install utorrent to get a copy of xp with this out of date winME op sys? is there something else i can use besides utorrent for now?

Im not exactly sure what torrent client would work, but an old version of uTorrent should do the trick. Try uTorrent version 1.6.1, Bittorrent client or maybe something like BitComet. The problem is not many of these clients will be allowed at your trackers so make sure u find out what client is still whitelisted.

Anyway, from the specs u posted above u in no way would be able to install Windows 7 until u upgrade some hardware. Actually even Windows XP would not be stable and run slow on that laptop as well. Imo, the best thing to do would be to install a Linux distro like Ubuntu, Linux Mint or Puppy Linux if u want to get the best performance. U dont have to but i suggest it. Another thing to do is to just keep ME or try XP if u want. Let me know what u think or how it goes and we'll see what we can come up with.

I think you should stay away from XP with those specs. I think Windows 2000 Pro Service pack 4 would be a much better choice. Windows ME is based on the NT 4.0 kernel and Windows 2000 is based on NT v5.0 (XP is 5.1, Vista is 6.0, and Windows 7 is 6.1)
This is why most of the programs compatible with windows XP are compatible with 2000. Windows 2000 has a few less features, and doesn't look as pretty as XP. They still realease patches for it to this day so you can keep it up to date. (though over the summer they are going to stop doing that).

Even though its a newer operating system I guarentee it will run more stable than Windows ME. Put XP on there though and you will probably experience lag and some issues. Not really worth it especially since its a fun project and not your main computer.

Edit: Windows 2000 supports the latest uTorrent client

Edit 2: One other thing. Windows XP has activation and what not. Windows 2000 doesn't have that issue. Just get a key thats valid with the CD (probably included in a torrent), and you should be good to go. (At least it didn't the last time I installed it a couple months ago on an old machine. I dont know of any updates about this)

I wouldn't mind windowsMe as is but it wont let me install any programs like utorrent or yahoo messenger it gives me a error message saying something like system not compatible and needs to be at least 5.0 i believe and i dont know how to update it to where it needs to be i tried microsoft site but couldn't find maybe i was looking in the wrong place or something but idk is this possible