BKKdreaming Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Hi I bought a couple of these for $15 each to play with them.....the local school got rid of piles of them , they have 160GB hard drives and 2GB memory (that is the MAX it will take) and by todays standards are SLOW Right now it has legal Windows XP on it , I can get Windows 7 put on them without a serial number , Any ideas what interesting things to use them for ? I can watch YouTube and Google Chrome is on it but Chrome is not supported anymore.....but old Chrome still works .....maybe run Opera or firefox ? I am thinking of just having an extra "screen" to watch you tube or other simple things but maybe there are other things I have not thought of , Security system with USB webcams ? Some kind of language learning software ? it is probably too slow for any games ( not a gamer anyway) Put Linux on it (not sure why?) Anyway what do you do with your old netbooks - notebooks ? thanks for your ideas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BKKdreaming Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 Been playing with it a little....XP still lives :) the last Google chrome browser for XP is Chrome 49 and you can find it on the web to download , but not from Google ! also put on Opera browser , updated Skype , added 7zip My $30 Motorola phone has a much better screen , but the Netbook is OK and battery life is 5-6 hours , so good to watch videos, and they can go on the Hard drive or SD card Anyone know a good program to use webcams as security cameras on XP ? or maybe old Android phones ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KneeDeep Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 If you want to update it to genuine Windows 7, it may just be a simple issue updating the BIOS firmware. BIOS update is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?8ckt98pr22j5ecl Do you know how to apply a BIOS update? As an alternative, I can put together a BIOS update that unlocks some locked down options in the BIOS setup, in so that you can enable AHCI for the SD slot. Once the update is applied, you only need to use a standard ASUS re-installation image in order to install genuine Windows 7. It's in your Inbox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KneeDeep Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 I did similar to my Aspire ZG5,. Unlocked the BIOS setup firmware to allow the setting of AHCI and then popped an SSD within. Now the thing is fully usable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary A Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 I have an old HP Mini that is probably eight years old. It now has Windows 10 on it and it does run. Unfortunately it is so slow that it is pretty much useless. If I ever get the ambition I may try one of the very small Linux programs. Google Linus Puppy. As it is, it is pretty much useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KneeDeep Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 4 hours ago, Gary A said: I have an old HP Mini that is probably eight years old. It now has Windows 10 on it and it does run. Unfortunately it is so slow that it is pretty much useless. If I ever get the ambition I may try one of the very small Linux programs. Google Linus Puppy. As it is, it is pretty much useless. Which Mini? Mini 1000? Mini 110? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary A Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 8 hours ago, KneeDeep said: Which Mini? Mini 1000? Mini 110? It's a mini 110. I increased the RAM to 2 GB and that helped but not enough. I replaced the hard drive with an SSD and it helped more but still pretty slow.I have since swapped the SSD with my laptop Acer hard drive. Now the mini is even slower. I think it simply doesn't have a fast enough processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BKKdreaming Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 not sure what you are doing with the Mini , but maybe putting in a "smaller" browser might help , Opera seems to work pretty good and there are a few others that are small basic browsers.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KneeDeep Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 5 hours ago, Gary A said: It's a mini 110. I increased the RAM to 2 GB and that helped but not enough. I replaced the hard drive with an SSD and it helped more but still pretty slow.I have since swapped the SSD with my laptop Acer hard drive. Now the mini is even slower. I think it simply doesn't have a fast enough processor. What's the full model number? You probably installed the SSD in IDE mode. It should be AHCI. It won't be super fast, but it should be usable with an SSD installed in AHCI mode. Usage with a normal HDD would likely be annoying without serious tweaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 ye could always set it out on yer front porch and allow some one to steal it... I bought one of those ASUS netbooks in 2008 and it was pretty nifty, good quality build, but then I was forced to get something with a bigger screen for work (a colleague who was using one then hissed: 'don't do that! then we'll all havta get a bigger one!' he was an idiot as it was unsuitable for work purposes)...and I left it at home for the family to use and then it disappeared... runnin' XP and with 'Open Office'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naboo Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 Digital radio player, hook it up to some speakers. Install Kodibuntu OS, and away you go. Got one in my kitchen/breakfast room, excellent. http://kodi.wiki/view/kodibuntu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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