Laptop on it`s way

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Mon May 24, 2004 5:51 pm

Ok so I`m soon to be acquiring an older laptop a Dell cpi pII 266 with USB port/s and Floppy drive but no CD-ROM! so How do I get an OS from my cache of software to the lappy??

It has a 3-ish GB drive which I`ll be upgrading (only to 10-ish GB) so how do I get the OS from CD or image or network to the lappy in such a way I can install the OS??

Thanx

Al

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon May 24, 2004 5:53 pm

External CD drive

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Mon May 24, 2004 5:56 pm

That`s wot I`m thinking but it`d have to be a Dell one as opposed to a USB one in order to be able to boot from it or see it in DOS won`t it, or am I being really dim????

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon May 24, 2004 6:00 pm

If you are going to upgrade the hard drive, slave it in another pc and copy the OS folder over before you put it in. That way you can install from there and if windows needs files later it will get them from the folder instead of asking for the CD you can't insert.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Mon May 24, 2004 6:03 pm

Ahhhh! so I`d just select the entire contenets of the CDROM and copy it to a folder on the new lappy hard drive, boot up, locate the setup.exe within the folder and away we go, or is it not that simple??

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon May 24, 2004 6:39 pm

caveman wrote:Ahhhh! so I`d just select the entire contenets of the CDROM and copy it to a folder on the new lappy hard drive, boot up, locate the setup.exe within the folder and away we go, or is it not that simple??

Yes, basically correct, all you need from the cd is the win9X folder. I would partition the drive and copy the folder to the second partition D:\. That way if you ever have to reinstall windows you can formate C:\ without erasing the install folder. Since it's a laptop drive you may need one of these if don't already have one. Laptop IDE drive adapter

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon May 24, 2004 6:43 pm

You could always install win 95 from floppies.

I have it around here somewhere, I think its 12 or 13 floppies.

I have windows 4.0 too 25 floppies.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon May 24, 2004 6:49 pm

caveman wrote:That`s wot I`m thinking but it`d have to be a Dell one as opposed to a USB one in order to be able to boot from it or see it in DOS won`t it, or am I being really dim????

Some laptops let you swap out your floppy and put a cd-rom in its place. If you can do that and your cd is bootable you would be all set. If the cd-rom drive is USB it could be a problem. If the laptops bios doesn't support booting from a USB-cdrom then things get tough. You need to find dos drivers for the USB-cd rom, not an easy thing to do.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:15 am

Alrighty then, Now I`m all set, I`ll try and source one of those adapters over here and I`m good to go. You by any chance got any idea wot speed RAM that lappy would take I`m thinkin pc-133?!?! I`m also under the impression it`s only runnin 64MB ATM so an upgrade to 256 is on the cards unless it`ll take 512 which I`m doubtful of due to it`s age

Also which OS would suit that machine best?? I know it`ll REALLY struggle with XP I`ve also got W98SE, WinME and Win2KAdvanced

I`m running an old K6-2-500 with 128MB and it`s horrible!

Cheerz again

Al

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue May 25, 2004 9:53 am

The RAM for a laptop is sodim, it doesn't use dimms like those in a desktop. You should be able to find out what you need (what the lapy will take) on the Dell website. I assumed you would be running win 95

or win 98

.
I wouldn't put XP on it. Personally I like 2k pro, I run it here at home. But running it on that laptop, with those specs,I don't know? My gut tells me no, but I would probably try it just to see. I'm a glutton for punishment some times.

Win 98se should run Ok. ME I don't know, a lot of people say it sucks big time but I have never used it.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:24 pm

I liked ME when I used to run it but had nothing but trouble when I upgraded it to WinXP but after a fresh install of XP all was well.

According to information I have managed to gather, the 266XT (mine) takes 2x 128MB SODIMMS which I can get for £24.95 ($45.19 USD or $62.04 CAD) each so Maybe I`ll buy one to start with to run with it`s existing 64MB (assumed) and see how we go in the future

The WinXP minimum specs indicate 300Mhz Processor speed and 128MB RAM so I may give XP a go just to see how pathetic it really is though I`ll probably settle with Win98

Thanx for all input and keep it comin

Al

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:54 pm

There is no harm in trying XP since you already have it. Just turn off the telly tubby graphics. I'll give you a tip that may help since you may have to run the install from the hard drive. You can't run setup.exe from dos, but you can run winnt.exe from the i386 folder to install from a dos prompt. I am of the opinion that the NTFS is the better file system, but in your case I think it would be better to go with FAT 32. With no cd-rom drive and having to install from dos it makes more sense. I don't know if XP does this but when I tried to install ME on my beater PC it wouldn't because it didn't meet the minimum hardware requirements. It's a 486 with a Pentium overdrive processor in it. ME wanted a pentium 150 or better so it wouldn't install.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Tue May 25, 2004 5:59 pm

Oooh lovely, keep all the little tips like that comin

Also, any ideas about wot I do for drivers?? AFAIK it`s not coming with any or an OS!?!?!

The Dude by name, The Dude by Nature eh!?!?!

Thanx again

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue May 25, 2004 6:31 pm

You should be able to download the drivers for it from Dell.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » Tue May 25, 2004 7:07 pm

the mobile components will probably be old enough that xp will have built-in drivers, and also becuase it's an intel-based [well-supported] system.

XP ran pretty decently on a 128MB Celeron 333 desktop i had. if anything, 192MB memory will be OK, and get a quality 5400rpm hard drive (toshiba makes the MK3019GAX and hitachi the 40gnx, and booting xp from a 4200rpm disk is the last thing you want to do). your laptop probably supports at least 32GB disks, with an outer chance of supporting just 8.4.

-Jeremy

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Tue May 25, 2004 10:51 pm

caveman wrote:I liked ME when I used to run it but had nothing but trouble when I upgraded it to WinXP but after a fresh install of XP all was well.

According to information I have managed to gather, the 266XT (mine) takes 2x 128MB SODIMMS which I can get for £24.95 ($45.19 USD or $62.04 CAD) each so Maybe I`ll buy one to start with to run with it`s existing 64MB (assumed) and see how we go in the future

The WinXP minimum specs indicate 300Mhz Processor speed and 128MB RAM so I may give XP a go just to see how pathetic it really is though I`ll probably settle with Win98

Thanx for all input and keep it comin

Al

I had p300 laptop and it ran winxp FINE with 256megs of ram.

only problem is I didnt have proper video drivers, so video playback SUCK3D!!

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Wed May 26, 2004 6:24 am

Righty then, XP it is! I`ll give it a go as soon as it arrives, the HD I`m getting is a seagate 5,400rpm 20GB

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Thu May 27, 2004 4:22 am

Can`t seem to locate drivers on Dells site they seem to want all kinds of numbers before they`ll support me, plus still unsure wherther to use pc100 or pc133?!?

Cheerz

Al

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Thu May 27, 2004 8:43 am

Times have changed, it used to be I could go to the Dell site and just enter one number to get drivers and such for my old beater PC. I don't remember what it was called but that code number was printed on the back of the case and it showed up in the BIOS. At one time I had an account setup, been a while now since I used it. They never spammed me and it made it easy to find the updates I wanted. You could google search for specs.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » Thu May 27, 2004 10:32 am

owning a dell laptop, i have access to all downloads if you need it.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Thu May 27, 2004 11:32 am

Hmmm Sounds like I could be screaming

JEREMY!!!

any time soon then eh??!?!

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » Thu May 27, 2004 8:36 pm

yeah...np if you need it. just gimme the OS. however, after looking thru the available option for the latitude cpi, it says that all drivers are built into windows 2000/later, except maybe teh touchpad. i can get drivers for bios updates, modem/ehternet pc cards, the touchpad, the ide controller, cd firmware, and diagnostics.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Fri May 28, 2004 4:22 pm

OK, Going with WinXP (should be fun) however I`ve got as far as formatting FAT32 and copying the contents of the WinXP disk to a folder (Windoze) and got the install to start from there but it`s now asking me to start "SmartDrive" which will "greatly improve the performance of this phase of Windows setup"

Do I need this SmartDrive and how do I do it??

I Fact Scratch this reply I`ve sorted it -->> http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;203128

Thanx

Al

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » Fri May 28, 2004 5:16 pm

smartdrv...enables drive caching. huge performance difference.

if you're booting from DOS, most boot disks have a program called smartdrv.exe whichyou simply run at the dos prompt before running setup. it's on all win9x cds and probably online too.

-Jeremy

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Fri May 28, 2004 6:20 pm

Well that certainly added a bit of a boost to the copying/install process!!

Been sittin there doin not much for around 2+1/2 hours decided to reboot and do as you said and it`s almost bloody done now (10-ish minutes) the file copying process that is!!

Thanx Jeremy

Al

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Sat May 29, 2004 8:18 am

Righty then, it`s all done it`s running WinXP Pro and surprisingly well at that for a 266Mhz.

Anyway, am I right in thinking that the amount of system RAM shown in the properties of my computer under the general tab is wot is actually in there?? The reason I ask is that there are no meaningful labels on the ram SODIMMS and it says in properties 128MB so it looks like it`s been upgraded at some point but a further upgrade to 256 is certainly on the cards!

Cheerz

Al

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sat May 29, 2004 8:52 am

Well if windows sees 128 then I would say thats what ya got. Damn ram prices tho, i'd try to hold off a bit if ya can.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Sat May 29, 2004 9:23 am

Well as I said, it seems to be running quite well considering so I may well hold out a bit.

Another thing is tho, I can only have 16 bit colour at 1024x768 if I up the coulor to 24 bit the res drops to 800x600, possibly a driver update?

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sat May 29, 2004 10:27 am

caveman wrote:Well as I said, it seems to be running quite well considering so I may well hold out a bit.

Another thing is tho, I can only have 16 bit color at 1024x768 if I up the color to 24 bit the res drops to 800x600, possibly a driver update?

Could be the driver, that might be all you can get with the video ram that's onboard too. I'm not up to speed with laptops and LCD's though. On my desktop PC I have to load the vid drivers and the inf file for the monitor to get all the supported modes.

EDIT: To see if the 128 megs of reported ram is correct.
Next time you boot it up watch the bios screen, it should do a ram check and display how much it detects. Windows value "should" be correct but it doesn't hurt to double check so your not always wondering if it's correct. Glad you got it up and running.

One of the first things I would download and save for future use is the blaster patch. I would keep it in a folder with sp2.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » Sat May 29, 2004 10:49 am

you have 2MB video memory. right click desktop, properties, settings, advanced, adapter.

800x600x3 bytes=1.5MB
1024x768x2 bytes=1.5MB
1024x768x3 bytes=2.2MB

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Sat May 29, 2004 6:33 pm

The Dude: The Blaster patch was one of the first things installed after the OS but that don`t matter anyway as when the new 20GB HD comes on wednesday The proper install will be going on that, this was just a 'dry run'. Thanx for all your input BTW

Jeremy, Yeah I noticed in a spec sheet I found online that there`s 2MB video RAM, not too bothered about that tho as it`s not exactly a Quake3 machine or really anything else more demanding than MS Word!

but it will be fine for what I want/need it for.

Anyone got any ideas what ram to buy for this, the max stick size is 128MB so I can have two of those (256MB) I have two 64MB`s in there now so I`ll rip them and replace with 2 128`s.

What I need to know is is it pc100 or pc133?? any input on this would be greatly appreciated

Thax again to all who inputted

Al

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sat May 29, 2004 7:06 pm

A good place to start would be to see how fast the ram that's in it is. Everest Home can read the SPD file of the ram and tell you if it's pc 100 or 133. If it's 133 you have your answer, if it's PC 100 then you may have more digging to do.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Sun May 30, 2004 5:44 am

Thanx Dude, done that but it says I have 1024MB SPD and the other memory option only tells me my physical memory usage, there doesn`t seem to be anything on the speed of the physical memory

Oh it also syas memory bus properties, width - 64 bit, real clock - 66Mhz, effective clock - 66Mhz, bandwidth - 532MB/sec

Thanx

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Sun May 30, 2004 6:48 am

it`s alright, got it sorted, installed sisoft sandra and it tells me that the max FSB speed is 1 x 100Mhz and the max memory speed is 1 x 100Mhz I`m pretty sure this is right but someone correct me if I`m not

Cheez

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sun May 30, 2004 7:34 am

caveman wrote:it`s alright, got it sorted, installed sisoft sandra and it tells me that the max FSB speed is 1 x 100Mhz and the max memory speed is 1 x 100Mhz I`m pretty sure this is right but someone correct me if I`m not

Cheez

I have never used sisoft sandra, but it sounds like your ram is PC 100. With a front side bus of 100 mhz that's the best it can do. My PC has a 100 mhz host clock, 200 mhz front side bus and can run PC100 or PC 133 ram.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sun May 30, 2004 10:17 am

I saw this posted on another forum, have a look and see what you think. Autopatcher.com. From what I see you can download it and run it to apply all the sp's and patches for XP. If it does them all in one go it could save a lot of time. I haven't used it yet. I think I will start another thread to see if anybody has used it. It would be great for anybody on dial-up, download it once and save it.

Andrzej · Post by **Andrzej** » Sun May 30, 2004 11:24 am

sorry to say but I cannot read yours thread ealier.

1.>> my experirnce in old laptop was honored with 'mule award 2003'
details can be find http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=1131022#post1131022
YeOldeStonecat's ...You get my "patience of the year" award ...
for succesful install w2k on 486cpu133MHz ram32MB Laptop. Thank you - Andrzej

2.>> more about yours Dell's laptop hdw upg you can find
in link http://www.hantz.com/asp/P_10_ListSysteme/frm_systemeList.asp?l=1&idOEM=44
SYSTEM-LISTE für: Dell Anzahl System-Bezeichnung

3.>> anvices to run much biger & moden HDD on old laptops
8Gig Drive won't work on LTE5400
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=588931
author Rick Nowell subject: 8Gig Drive won't work on LTE5400 May 12, 2004 21:52:49 GMT

4.>> for 'Computer Profile Summary' use
Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit (version 6.1) http://www.belarc.com/Programs/advisor.exe dwl
summary is seved C:\Program Files\Belarc\Advisor\System\tmp\('pcName').html

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 6:51 am

Sorry to resurrect this from the dead but I have a small problem.

I bought a 128MB SoDIMM and tried to fit it, however, the strip I bought seems to be a different size to the ones I need, the two in there (2 x 64MB) are sitting there happily but if I remove them and fit the new strip I bought the pins on the edge connector fit in OK but when I try to click it home, the other SoDIMM slot fouls the new strip of RAM so it wont go home AND I won`t be able to fit a second 128MB (256MB total)

Any Ideas people??

Maybe it`s a special form factor for Dells?? I dunno!?!?!

it`s a Latitude CPi D266XT

Thanx

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 10:59 am

I have seen different simms listed for different laptops on sites like Tiger Direct. I would say you will have to return it for something that states it is compatible with your model laptop.

caveman · Post by **caveman** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 11:07 am

Yeah, thanx Dude I`ve alredy returned it and asked then to trace some to fit and they quoted me £512+VAT for 128MB.....I nearly died

I`ll keep an eye out on Ebay I think