LLOYDV
asked on
No Frills Laptop
Wife is a writer and looking for a simple Laptop with a Word PerfectProgram
and an A-drive. When camping she can write and put on disk and use that disk on the home computer. No Internet access. Just writing to a floppy disk. Able to hook up to a Marine battery for extended use. Does such a thing exist? Lloyd
and an A-drive. When camping she can write and put on disk and use that disk on the home computer. No Internet access. Just writing to a floppy disk. Able to hook up to a Marine battery for extended use. Does such a thing exist? Lloyd
Any second-hand laptop should suit your needs. Until the screen went on the fritz I had a Compaq 486/33 laptop: 250Mb HDD, 20Mb RAM, monochrome 640x480 display. This was more than adequate for simple wordprocessing, and you should be able to pick up a machine of this spec second-hand for maybe £300 ($500?).
if you take pjknibbs advice and want to get the second hand laptop you get one for as little as $200 from www.truedataproducts.com (though if you're not in the US, I don't know if they'll ship it to you...)
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Oh, 486 laptops will be hard to find with a CD drive, so you may need an external one to install recent software, Win 95 is almost impossible to obtain on floppy any more. If you have desktop with a CD rom this will not be a problem if you get a system with win95 pre-installed, then you can get a "laplink" cable and use the direct cable connection facility in win 95 to install software from the CD drive on the desktop.
Roadwarrior: I just used LapLink to copy the entire contents of the Win9x installation CD onto the internal hard drive in my laptop--if I could manage that on a 250Mb drive, it should be easy on 810Mb!
LLOYDV:
Maybe you can contact this EE user, she appears to have what you are looking for, and I am sure you can both come to an arrangement.
This question is in the PAQ list of this topic area if you wanted to read it. But, basically, the info on the laptop is below, and me thinks that she would be happy to sell it.
Just a thought.
nfroio
==========================
From: duchess1
Title: "Storage of PC"
Date: Thursday, April 20 2000 - 11:16AM PDT
i have a 4 year old Compaq Laptop P133 48MB RAM with 1.1 GIG HD. built in modem CD-ROM and Floppy drive, dual scan. i turn it on maybe every month or two to see if it still works. it is not in regular use, just a back-up ? what is the groups opinion on this, is it harmful. also should i sell it now and take what i can get. it is good for WP and ISP but not much else because of tiny HD. need opinions
Maybe you can contact this EE user, she appears to have what you are looking for, and I am sure you can both come to an arrangement.
This question is in the PAQ list of this topic area if you wanted to read it. But, basically, the info on the laptop is below, and me thinks that she would be happy to sell it.
Just a thought.
nfroio
==========================
From: duchess1
Title: "Storage of PC"
Date: Thursday, April 20 2000 - 11:16AM PDT
i have a 4 year old Compaq Laptop P133 48MB RAM with 1.1 GIG HD. built in modem CD-ROM and Floppy drive, dual scan. i turn it on maybe every month or two to see if it still works. it is not in regular use, just a back-up ? what is the groups opinion on this, is it harmful. also should i sell it now and take what i can get. it is good for WP and ISP but not much else because of tiny HD. need opinions
Another place to check for low cost laptops is:
http://commerce-03.www.ibm.com/
Which is where IBM sells their equipment that has previously been leased. The least expensive one listed today is $535, which may be a bit more than you had in mind but it has a nice 12 inch active display, probably much better than anything you'll find on a 486 based laptop. IBM also warrantys them for various amounts, usually 90 days.
I've seen laptops there for as little as $250, but it depends on what lease is up and they happen to have in stock. Inventory changes from week to week...
You'd have to get an adapter to use your marine battery, but IBM makes just about every accessory you can imagine.
http://commerce-03.www.ibm.com/
Which is where IBM sells their equipment that has previously been leased. The least expensive one listed today is $535, which may be a bit more than you had in mind but it has a nice 12 inch active display, probably much better than anything you'll find on a 486 based laptop. IBM also warrantys them for various amounts, usually 90 days.
I've seen laptops there for as little as $250, but it depends on what lease is up and they happen to have in stock. Inventory changes from week to week...
You'd have to get an adapter to use your marine battery, but IBM makes just about every accessory you can imagine.
ASKER
Appreciate the advise and it was very informative and complete. Must tell ya when we camp--that is what we do- no frills on that either. No TV,-No Microwave, just fishing and observing what the out-of-doors has to offer. So the battery would be just for the Laptop. Thanks again. Lloyd PHC USN(ret)