I found an older laptop and want to update it. How much can be done?

Question

I month ago I literally found my first laptop. It was in a box in my attic. Anyway I have been using it to surf the net, email etc., but my nephew wants it and I want to "spruce" it up. How much can be done?

Here are the specs: OS Name Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Version 5.0.2195 Service Pack 4 Build 2195
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model Latitude CPi A366ST
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 6 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel ~363 Mhz
BIOS Version Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A13

It has one USB 1.0 port and two of those card slots (I already put a wireless card in one), there is no Ethernet slot and the hard drive I am sorry to say is only 4GB (almost full). I think it is a Pentium II right now. Thanks for any help. Oh by the way I wont be doing any of these "upgrades" I have a geek squad near my house.

Answer 1

Well, you're rather limited here. Not a very quick processor. You can increase the memory to its maximum. From what I can tell, it can only handle a total of 256Mb RAM. You should be able to easily change the HD to one with more space. Laptop HD's in the 20MB range are pretty cheap on Ebay. You MAY be able to upgrade the processor to something a bit quicker, but I can't find any specs on that MB indicating what it will support.

You're pretty much stuck with one USB port, but it's fairly simply to get a plug in converter which will allow access to more than one USB. As far as Ethernet goes, you can probable get a PCMCIA ethernet card somewhere for not a lot of bucks, but you're already wireless, so that would seem to be a waste.

Frankly, I'd recommend just dumping as much RAM into it as it will handle, upgrade that HD to something more spacious, and then use external peripherals to add the other features it lacks.

Answer 2

Dell no longer offers parts or support for the CPi series. Haven't for about 4 years. The parts (memory, hard drive, etc) were unique to that model, so you can not swap in parts from current laptops.

Odds are that if you could find parts to upgrade it, they would only be a tiny upgrade (like from a 4 to a 6 gig hard drive). Plus the parts would be several years olds, and have no guarantee that they would work/last.

By the time you price a new drive and memory (the only upgraded parts on a Cpi) you would probably be spending 1/2 to 2/3 of the price of a new laptop. And not be getting enough boost for your money to be worth it.

If it was me, I would not put any money into upgrading that laptop.

Answer 3

Hardware: Memory might be tricky. Often laptops use a different design and it's unlikely you can still buy it. How much memory does it have now?
Harddrive: It will probably take a bigger drive as the drives are standard.
CPU: You're most likely stuck with the CPU.

Why don't you change the software?
Download and install Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Free Linux operating system, lots of free software available, and very important, it runs on pretty light (older) hardware.
You might get more performance if you use that instead of windows.

Answer 4

Laptops are more difficult than desktops. The Hard drive can be changed obviously and a DVD RW - ask the Geek squad about a faster CPU and USB 2. Check the memory too - laptops nearly always need a particular type of memory - and especially the older ones. You could turn it in to a digital picture frame and buy a new one! LOL

Answer 5

Hi,

Unfortunately no much can be done, with this kind of PC nowadays, the least you can do is try to upgrade your memory and harddrive but, there will be nothing more that you can do. And try to find a windows 98 CD :) this could do the work, since it will be ligher than Windows 2000.

Hope that is helps

Answer 6

You can get upgrade items for it...you may have to look at ebay mostly. but you can surely run at least a 40G hard disk in it as I have done it with 3 of those models. also I found 4 diff video cards for them as well on ebay. the CPU if i remember correctly is integrated into those and CAN be upgraded/replaced for a price.

Answer 7

If you have the Windows 2000 CD, BackUp your data to CD or have the Geek Squad do it.

Then, add RAM to 256MB (yes, it's W2K) and a larger hard drive (40GB+).

Then, do all Windows updates.

Then, you need to install: ONE Anti-virus (I use AVG free), ONE Firewall (Zone Alarm free), and these Anti-spyware tools: Windows Defender, Spybot, Ad-Aware, Spyware Blaster and cCleaner (free, I use all 5 regularly).

Google for them, install them and learn how to use them (use the Help TAB).

No W2K CD, don't bother!

Answer 8

to upgrade this laptop to make it able to support windows xp.
don't. it will cost you more to do the upgrade than to just go and buy him a $400.00 laptop from e-bay

Answer 9

Here's what you do, Holmes....go on the internet and research it. The best you can do on upgrage is XP, so reasearch XP to see if the specs you typed above will work with XP.

Answer 10

sell your laptop and get a new one