Resurrecting an Old Laptop
Soul of an Old Machine
by Roger Bailey
recently inherited an old laptop computer. When I brought it home, my wife's comments were: "Why do you keep bringing home junk? What do you want that old thing for? It is useless! It smells moldy. Get rid of it and buy a new one if you want a laptop." She is right of course. Logically it is useless: old and musty, offering nothing but frustration and expense. But she doesn't understand. This computer has a long neglected life force, a soul that needs to be re-energized. It just needs a little attention, and I enjoy an interesting project.
The computer is a Toshiba Satellite CS laptop with a 100 MHz Pentium processor, 24 MB RAM, 775 MB HDD, 3.5' FDD, PCMCIA 28.8 kHz modem, Widows 95 and Office 97. Ten years ago these were good specifications for was a standard model laptop retailing for over $1000. Now similar machines are on eBay for less than $20. But it may be fully capable of doing what it was designed for: email, internet, word processing, spreadsheets, personal organizer, etc. Let's have a look at it.
There was no response when the "on" button was pressed. The batteries were flat. When plugged in, some lights came on and startup sound checks heard but it failed to boot.
...Bad RTC battery ...
...Bad Checksum (CMOS)...
Check System, then press [F1] key" were the error messages. F1 got me to the setup screen. Pressing "end" to save and exit re flashed the CMOS and rebooted the machine. It came back to life, first time energized this century. I felt the same pleasure as Dr. Frankenstein when he provided the vital spark to the soul of the monster that he had created. Of course it crashed a few minutes later. Dead batteries were the most apparent problem.
I needed to do a little research. Next step, Google "Toshiba Satellite CS 110 Laptop." The user manual and specs were available at the Toshiba website. The full maintenance manual download Google found here. EBay had many offerings for this computer, spare parts, batteries, accessories etc. Information was available. There are opportunities here but at what cost and for what purpose? What are my objectives beyond the project of redeeming the computer's soul (and enjoying a good nerd project).
Objectives
Musts:
Send and receive email, browse Internet away from home.
Wants:
Work on text, spreadsheets, and presentations away from home,
Work as an unplugged portable
Show photos and presentations through external monitor or projector
Connect to my home network router and high speed internet
Add a better mouse
Connect to external CD RW, larger HD.
Faint Hopes:
Switch 3,5 HDD for CD R or RW
Upgrade to better operating system
Connect to camera and download pictures
Minimize expenditure of good money after bad.
There are major limitations. Windows 95 no longer supported; software available is limited but so is storage.
I have no original software discs. The memory is very limited: 24 MB RAM, 775 MB ROM, only 350 MB available. There is only a 3.5" FD drive, no CD, no USB, no Network Interface Card (NIC). The screen is only 11.3", 640 x 480 pixels, fairly faded and difficult to read. An external or projector is supported but only 800 x 600 SVGA.
Can these objectives be satisfied? Back to testing. When plugged in and restarted on AC, this is what worked: Win 95, Internet Explorer, Office 97 (Outlook Express, Word, Excel, Scheduler), View 32, no anti virus, dial up PCMCIA modem. The must objective is met. This computer is a keeper. I began to personalize the machine changing names, accounts, log on, favourites, cookies etc. Now what about my wants list?
All three batteries remain dead after extensive recharge period: main, backup and CMOS. Replacing all three batteries will run about $150. This is too much at this time so the laptop portability is lost but it runs when plugged in. The CMOS re-flash is a minor delay at startup.
I downloaded and ran Belarc Advisor. This was useful as an overview. I then downloaded PowerPoint 97 viewer so at least I can show presentations. I have 5 hours per month of dialup roaming with my Telus high speed account but dial up downloads are very slow via Telus, even just 2.8 MB. At a busy time the PPT 97 2.8 MB failed to download after 40 minutes at reduced speeds. Later this took over nine minutes, much too slow. The Telus dial up priority system sucks. To do much more I need to connect to my home network with high speed ADSL capability.
I called my friend Lykel Hoekstra to see if he could help. Did he have a W 95 disc for direct computer or network connections? It turns out that he didn't have the W 95 disc but he did have a PCMCIA NIC that he could loan me. George Bowden lent me a W-95 disc. This opened the best option, home network connection to make use of the high speed Internet, CD RW and ROM storage that the laptop lacked. The saga continues.
At the Topical SIG workshop, we installed George's network card, hardware and software. This allowed connection to the club network and we were able to ping addresses and browse the internet. In further tests back home, connecting to my home network router and pinging were easy. The internet connection was a little more difficult but sharing with the other computers was a challenge with the old card and Windows 95 software. Re-installation the NIC software and Windows network setup was necessary several times before establishing a useful network and file-sharing system. The old laptop can now access drives and files on my other computers as well as the printer, email accounts and the internet. I had to make extensive use of the Windows 95 installation disc, finding files required for the network and transferring them by floppy to the laptop. This setup is much easier with the Wizards in more modern operating systems. The W95 system depended on the user knowing what they were doing. I didn't but the exercise was a great learning experience. The NIC bought on eBay card failed. The dongle connection was defective. The seller provided another card and dongle but there are still some testing to be done.
In summary, the project has been a success. There is a good message here for seniors as there was a soul in the old machine, just waiting to be brought back to life with a little TLC. The old machine can now do all the things that it was original designed and programmed to do. My thanks to fellow BB&C members that contributed to this project, Lykel Hoekstra and George Bowden.
