SO MANY ?!#@%* Laptops... and Linux?

[@seancasey8707]

I work in IT and I've always wanted to film the work I do as well as the hobbies of collecting older computers and refurbishing them, but I have never had the courage to do so. Your videos really hit home because it seems like the exact kind of set up I would love to do on KZbin. Thanks for making this content for all of our fellow nerds.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you for this comment, I really appreciate it and you for being here! If it is something you want to get into, start small and do it for fun! Everyone has a different perspective on this tech and we all learn something new from each other. Glad to have you on board :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

As a side note, I just checked out your channel and the 5.00 computer you saved! It would be really cool to see a video on it :)

[@zeddik99]

Q4OS is a very lightweight Linux distribution based on the Debian core distribution mostly intended for old laptops that are no longer able to run current operating systems. They have a semi-recent version from November 2023 (5.14) that will receive updates until at least June 2028.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Good to know, thank you!

[@Reziac]

@@TheRetroRecall Trinity desktop is based on KDE 3.5 and retains pretty much all the feature set, plus some cleanup. It is quite mature, still maintained, and uses only about 300mb RAM. It's a good choice for an older system (and I believe it still has a 32bit version available). It is one of the last desktops that lets you set your own colors for everything. I'm not so familiar with it on the Q4OS distro but I have used it atop PCLinuxOS (my personal favorite linux). You'll want to run updates on it before putting it into service.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!!

[@PhirePhlame]

Funny enough, I've got straight Debian running on an old Dell Inspiron from the early 2000s. One-core Pentium M, though I don't know the frequency, 500MB of memory, and it set 500MB of swap (should I adjust that?) when I installed it. I was wise enough to go with MATE and it's decently responsive in basic use.

[@agw5425]

I just got the latest it is v 5.4 as of today.

[@stamasd8500]

I used an elitebook almost identical to that one until about a year ago. Very tough machines, and very upgradable. I ended up with 32GB of RAM and 2 SSDs in it (one in an adapter in the CD bay), running Linux. They come in 2 varieties, one with Intel IGP and one with some low-end Radeon HD graphics (but still better than the IGP). The audio codec on these is very high end, it can do 24-bit 192KHz both in and out . And the microphone jack was very useful for doing data acquisition at that resolution, which was my main use for this laptop. You're very hard pressed in this day and age to find a laptop with such high quality audio codec.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I didn't know that, that's amazing... It's a shame this machine has these challenges. I'm still debating on restoring it or using it for parts.

[@stamasd8500]

@@TheRetroRecall Mine was (is actually, I still have it) a somewhat later model, 8470p; it's ivy bridge-based, and that one over there is Penryn if I'm not mistaken. Not much of a difference really. Those can be found pretty cheap on ebay, if you pay more than $100 for a working one you've paid too much... I always recommend them to anyone who needs a spare laptop, and I've never had complaints. :)

[@OctavioGaitan]

I'm currently looking for an EliteBook myself to use as a Xubuntu machine.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!!!

[@TheRetroRecall]

The elite books are nice.

[@TheSaabClinicUK]

On the Elitebook, the "p" means its built to US DoD specs for dust and water ingress. So suitable to be used in the field. They are not really water proof as such but can be used in light rain.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Wow, I didn't know that - neat! Thank you!

[@dustincarpenter1707]

The keyboard was shared with other HP and Compaq laptops, so you should be able to find one that works, assuming you also get a good display.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the info!

[@airspeedmph]

What differentiate Q4OS from other distribution is that they still use KDE3 as a desktop environment. KDE3 was widely used years ago (on Linux that is) but was replaced by KDE4, and not without resistance from some users. AFAIK, Q4OS is the only distro that still use KDE3. To be exact, is a continuation of KDE3, kept updated for these days and renamed Trinity. I'm not surprised to see it used on older laptops, since is a rather complete desktop environment, robust and not very demanding for older hardware.

[@Reziac]

It's not KDE3, it's Trinity Desktop Environment, which is based on KDE 3.5 (for the reasons you mention). Unlike KDE3, Trinity is still updated and maintained, and has pretty much worked the bugs out. As you note, not very demanding.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the insight.

[@deaditedan424]

LOL, Q4OS was one of landing spots while distro hopping after Linux Mint back in the day. It's so cool to see it again, like a reunion with an old buddy. Again, thanks for the memories!

[@TheRetroRecall]

No problem! First I've seen it haha!

[@Flakie02]

Great video! Really enjoyed it

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, I'm glad!

[@JeffBreyer]

I had the Acer Aspire model of that Travelmate. It was not fast but it was relatively thin and compact for the day for an entry level laptop. It was the first laptop I personally ever bought.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes I heard for an entry level system it worked as intended. The fact that it is still working today says something.

[@StirlingBanfield]

Those Armadas, we had a ton of them in the early 2000s at the aerospace company i worked at. Ran NT4 on them, its where i learned those xircom cards used to default to the same IRQ as the mouse!. The docking station for these was not just a port replicator, you had to install a ton of drivers for it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Great info, I didn't know about the resource sharing. As for the docking - I think I read that somewhere.

[@OctavioGaitan]

Those old Compaq Armadas are built like tanks; very reliable during their heyday. Still looking for one myself.

[@TheRetroRecall]

The fact it is still running without an issue says a lot. Seeing as how the newer Toshiba and HP laptops don't work.

[@dustincarpenter1707]

I have a Presario still running 98.

[@kolotxoz]

That 8mb laptop showed the 512mb correctly after a reboot, you can see it on the video at 30:57

[@TheRetroRecall]

I'll have to go back and check - good eye!!! Thank you!

[@damian9303]

28:45 I’m pretty sure that the operating system is Win2000, just like XP it allows you to do a repair install which keeps all documents and settings but does a fresh reinstall on top

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you! That will definitely help. It would be neat to see what is on this system..

[@thetechguy5069]

Excellent video!!! Love the content. I have been into I.t and vintage computing for about 14 years now since I was very young and just absolutely love it. I have a Compaq Armada 1500 series machine circa 1997/1998 that I’m currently working on restoring. However finding a hard drive caddy has proven to be extremely difficult.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes - it's quite unfortunate. I wonder if a 3d printed model could be made?

[@Rangerman9404]

I'm not familiar with Q4 OS, but I say keep it on that laptop and use it. Always good to learn something new

[@TheRetroRecall]

100%. If anything I could do a full installation / clean install.

[@dustincarpenter1707]

I was surprised by the Acer. For what it is they made an attractive corporate laptop.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yeah, that was the one I was expecting NOT to work lol

[@Eyepatchfilms]

i just put your vid on in the background where I took a waterlogged compaq n620c and got her booting again. thanks for the video and keep brining them back to life!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!! Good luck on the restoration - curious how it got waterlogged... A simple cup of water or did it go for a swim haha. Thanks for watching!!

[@cerescop]

The distribution is known for an addon called XPQ4, which adds themes intended to replicate the look and feel of Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Wikipedia

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks!

[@RayannePrijt]

That Acer Travelmate 4300 sparks a nice rush of nostalgia 😊 My parents and my sister both had one with Windows XP. My sister spilled a full cup of Cup-a-soup Chinese Tomato Soup over hers and it kept on running after cleaning it. (Without opening it up). When they upgraded their laptops, I got them both and used them with Linux for several years untill I upgraded them eventually. Good times 😊

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for sharing your memories! Happy to hear that this brought back some nostalgic moments for you.

[@DouglasWalrath]

that q4os version is fairly recent, from 2020, so that laptop was being used recently, in fact that version of q4os is still getting updates

[@TheRetroRecall]

Good to know, thanks for the info!

[@panopolis8051]

I had an Elitebook 8440p, absolutely loved that laptop. The matte screen was one of my favorite features of it. I was quite sad when it randomly stopped turning on, but at that point it had given me many years of service so I can't complain. I replaced it with a newer elitebook, also with a matte screen, and am quite happy with that one too.

[@panopolis8051]

Actually, I still have that Elitebook 8440p, perhaps I could send it to you if you want to use the parts! It's already mostly disassembled, if i remember correctly everything should work on it except the logic board. The LCD bezel is broken and there's some other cosmetic damage i think but the LCD itself is good

[@OverTallman]

@TheRetroRecall gotta see this.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's neat! I agree - as you know in my videos I tend to express my dislike for gloss screens lol.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I JUST saw your email. I'll send you a note back tomorrow :). Thank you!

[@TheRetroRecall]

It would be a great restoration video!

[@randomanalogue]

Always enjoy seeing a bit of history! Also, finding out what; "ohhh that port" is that I've seen in the past, but never knew exactly what it was. 😂

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha! Yes, love all of the old tech.

[@dustincarpenter1707]

The Armada is from the mid-90's when you were somebody if your work gave you a laptop. The HP is from the pre-cloud corporate drone environment. I'm sure the Satellite is nostalgic for those who used them in college.

[@dustincarpenter1707]

I'm guessing the Satellite had a liquid spill.

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure. The Armada is quite the machine.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I will definitely find out when I get the time to deconstruct it haha.

[@CecilTheDarkKnight234]

oh boy you're gonna busy, hell I've been busy restoring 5 laptops so far "as mentioned before" and some have not been that easy. I've ran into some various issues like you have as well and honestly it can be very time consuming. Still I've been enjoying myself and so far 2 systems are nearly done, leaving with with only 2 more to go. Oh I was also thinking for the Toshiba it could be a dead CMOS battery. I had to replace one in a 15in HP from 2013 and that did the trick, after trying EVERYTHING JUST TO POST!! It just sprung back to life!! As for the HP Elite that's a damn shame but you're better off as you said keeping it for parts over trying to fully restore it, which can be a very costly endeavor. As always great job and keep up the good work man!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, and great suggestion about the CMOS Battery! I never even thought about that! I will try that :). Thank you, I'm glad you are enjoying!

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

Some laptops won't boot without battery...

[@TheRetroRecall]

Others have mentioned the same, I will check that out.

[@richardestes6499]

Q4OS is based on Debian, so if you decide to keep that install, you'll have decent app compatibility.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Appreciate it!!!

[@AJComputerServicesUK]

Hi Squire & another fine Video, I’ve got a similar HP Elitebook here although I’m not a Fan of the AMD CPU that they installed in it & the Battery’s not particularly great if I remember correctly and it’s missing a non essential Key as well I believe, I’ve also got an old Compaq Armada 7400 and the Chassis needs replacing or parts of it anyway but it was my first decent laptop which I obtained in the early 2000’s, It still works but it does need some TLC, I’ve got quite a few of the Toshibas similar to the one you have there and quite a few of those Dell Latitudes & Inspirons with the interchangeable Drive/Battery Modules, Thought those Dells were nice & rugged & well designed, A few of the Batteries are still working and hold a good / reasonable charge too! Anthony - Birmingham/UK 🇬🇧

[@AJComputerServicesUK]

I thought 8Mb sounded low on that Dell Latitude at: 32:10 and wondered if it was referring to VRAM in the BIOS?

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for sharing this, and hello!!

[@TheRetroRecall]

I thought so too, however there are two lines in there 8mb for system and video memory. Both were reading 8mb. I went back after reading similar comments and it did the same thing. Once I get the CMOS Battery replaced, I will try out the ram again as it may be a configuration issue as someone pointed out. Someone also stated they saw the memory had corrected itself, however after a power off it may have been reset back. Either way - isn't this fun??? :)

[@spywarefinder]

Quite an interesting story, when I worked for a computer repair shop, this person came in and said they had a laptop they wanted to sell because it was sold with no operating system which they didn’t know. So I asked if I could see what laptop they had, and it was a HP Elitebook! At the time my jaw dropped because it looked brand new, it was a similar model to yours except it had a serial port and slightly different latch design. I paid £30 for it and I went home after work so happy because I always wanted one, since our school had them back in the day! :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!!! Yeah it would be a shame to let this one go, but with so many issues I'm not sure.

[@geoman1420]

I saved my old laptops by installing Linux on them: Q4OS on a Samsung NC10 (2008), Linux MInt XFCE on a MacBookPro (2008) and a Toshiba Tecra (2012). And i have quite a few old Dell desktops all running fine with latest Linux Mint...

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome, I love hearing these systems being restored and still in use!

[@fredlendzian7082]

I would like to see a video on someone Turing sold laptop into a chromebook

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha I was never a fan of Chromebooks, but I'm sure they had their place. I just found them quite limiting.

[@ElectricoGamez]

The 3rd laptop in this video is very similar to the Toshiba L505 I used. (It had the worst battery life of any laptop I have ever seen. Only 2 HOURS in total. TWO.) It doesn't work anymore. (Because I broke it), but I'm hoping to salvage the thing if I can get to someone who is willing to fix it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I think all of this tech is worth saving. Glad to hear you plan on rescuing it haha.

[@khx73]

You know the laptop is a thick boy when it takes AC directly *and* sports a 3.5" floppy drive :) And I love those Dell external keyboards.. I scored the same one at the local thrift store.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha so true and that's awesome!!!

[@I_am_Allan]

In 2004/2005 I sold *so many* of those Acer TravelMate laptops. They were well received. Personally, I loved the keyboard.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I knew they were quite popular as they were decently priced at the time and you could get them with relatively decent specs :)

[@erie910]

Had an Acer notebook once, which failed during the warranty period. Acer claimed customer-caused damage. I will never buy anything Acer again. It's junk, in my opinion.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I had quite the opposite experience wotht heir support team when I had issues with customers computers. That said, every situation is different.

[@chrisrudi7162]

Last week I found a Medion Titanium MD41200 and a NEC Versa 550D in the electronic waste on the street. The last one is a real classic with Cyrix 5x86 100. Unfortunately, it doesn't recognize the hard drive. The drive has 500 mb and was even recognized via a USB adapter. I hope the IDE controller isn't defective. I haven't tested the Medion laptop yet because I don't have a suitable power supply.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's amazing! Jealous. Let me know how the second one goes!

[@laurencejohnson4106]

So many fettling projects!👍👍 I have used that Linux distro and it's okay, but for 32 bit computers I now install Linux Mint Debian Edition 6/LMDE 6, I have it installed on two old Dell laptops and they work surprising well with it, it's also available in 64 bit. Recently I obtained a 2008 17 inch MacBook Pro, being an older laptop it just has a 2.4 GHz., core 2 duo CPU., it came with 8 gig of ram., installed and a 120 gig ssd., there was a version of Mac OS., on it, but it was so old and I could do nothing with it, so I installed a 240 gig ssd., and Linux Mint Mate and currently the laptop is working well, Mac WIFI requires a particular driver, but LM., found it and I had to give permission for it to install and after a restart that worked well too.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome! Yes, so many projects haha. A lot of people are suggesting Linux Mint - so I will have to give it a try!

[@laurencejohnson4106]

@@TheRetroRecallLinux Mint Mate is my daily driver, the Cinnamon version is their flagship distro, but Mate uses less resources and is more stable, There is also the XFCE version and the previously mentioned LMDE 6 distros which are currently only available with the Cinnamon desktop. Zorin is also a fine distro. I do have Windows 10 on a spare small PC., and Windows 11 on a laptop just in case I need Windows for some task. PS., it's a pity that your HP., laptop is faulty as it's a solidly built computer.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks again for this info. I will definitely look into those. I am going to do a poll int he community chat and see what everything thinks about the HP :)

[@laurencejohnson4106]

@@TheRetroRecall I have a question, what is the procedure for uploading old software to the internet archive?

[@TheRetroRecall]

I think you need to setup an account first. Once you have that, you will be ready to Upload. You will need to create images from your software to upload

[@kiwichess]

I tried Q4OS 32bit on my old N2600 Atom based Acer Aspire One but finished with LXLE 32bit. The laptops in the video are much older. There are such distros like TinyCore, antiX and ZorinOS all 32bit versions that are worth trying too.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for this!

[@SilverX95]

23:40 suck the Toshiba was not doing anything, i do wonder if it has Radeon HD 3000 or Radeon HD 4000 graphics. i have a gateway NV5214u laptop that has Radeon HD 3000 graphics and a athlon 64 x2 ql-64 witch i swap out to a Turion X2 Ultra Dual-core ZM-84 witch has more Level 2 cache to help with how slow it was.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

Probably just an integrated Radeon like the mobility hd 3200 or something like that.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I'm Going to see what we can do to get it working again. :)

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

I have a compaq cq60 of a similar age where I upgraded the single core sempron to a Turion RM-72. It also has GeForce 8200m g graphics.

[@miraakthuri]

you should try your universal adapter on the third machine even if the light showed up and part of the machine seemed to start, does not mean the power adapter is fully compatible

[@TheRetroRecall]

Good point!!! I will try that and report back. Thank you!

[@Voidsworn]

I salvaged about 17 laptops from my work, all kinds but mostly Core2Duo era (DDR2) but a nice handful of DDR3 and one DDR4 laptop. Still trying to decode what to do with the DDR2 ones as alot of these need SSDs, RAM, chargers. One needs a screen.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It's a fun hobby and feels rewarding when you get them going again!

[@LinuxCity79]

q4os is a linux distro. linux is great for older laptops

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!

[@Reziac]

SOME linux distros are great for older laptops. Mageia 9 chugs on my Xeon 3.7GHz with 64GB RAM.

[@EdBenwell]

9 mins into this video so far and not checked to see if anyone else has made the same observation, but on these HP Elitedesk models and the Dells that you have a PSU for and attempted to use, they have proprietary power plugs which have three wires inside as opposed to just +ve & -ve. The outside of the barrel is negative (from memory) and the inside of the outer barrel is positive. The central pin carries a control voltage which I think is around 3 - 5V, but is variable - the laptop sends a voltage down the central pin to the PSU, telling it how much the battery is charged. The Dell and HP central pins use different voltages for this signal so are not interchangeable despite appearing like the same plug. Your universal power supply will only have +ve and -ve which the laptop may complain about. Worth picking up an HP PSU @90w or something from a boot sale or something to work on these HP machines. They're great though, I have a bunch of HP and Dell enterprise laptops just for the build quality.

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure, keep watching :) not sure what we will do with he HP yet.

[@EdBenwell]

@@TheRetroRecall still watching ofc, thanks for the content! love the channel

[@TheRetroRecall]

Glad you are enjoying and happy to have you along!!!!

[@Reziac]

Interesting. I have an old Panasonic charger that works with a lot of random laptops, yet I think it came from a printer originally. Some are a lot fussier than others! Conversely, the Lenovo laptop complains if it get some different Lenovo charger, even tho the specs are the same. Bitches loudly at an adapter. (Still works, but gripes.)

[@PaulForestiero]

Wow that's awesome vintage laptops and some need repair job have fun

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!

[@PaulForestiero]

@@TheRetroRecall Your very welcome mate anytime :)

[@SinaFarhat]

Nice! :) Thanks for the video

[@TheRetroRecall]

No problem, thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed!

[@gentuxable]

BIOS and CMOS are confusingly used terms, BIOS Setup, CMOS Setup, System config tool, or something like this would be a clear term. Because BIOS also means the thing that checks RAM and passes keyboard commands, that still has to be in ROM. While CMOS alone refers to a memory chip that can retain data with low power like a coin cell battery, and there you store the values, and Compaq uses that as well.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Appreciate it, yeah, when recording I sometimes use it interchangeably and it's not intended lol

[@TheDuumiMuumi]

I'd bet some bad solder joints on GPU in that Toshiba, as I saw the AMD/ATI stickers on it. :) A lot of laptops from that era had poor solder joints, especially HP but others too and because AMD stuff loves to produce pretty much of heat, this is what happens. It might wake up if you cook the bare motherboard in the oven for 200C and 10 minutes, oven trick is the name for that.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I've never heard of the oven trick - kind of scares me lol. I would definitely inspect the Baird for bad solder joints to start which I think is a great suggestion!

[@bregalad7853]

I think, the vertikal stripe is a connection problem inside the screen enclosure. Pressing the border with thumb and index makes it disappear for a moment. Unfixable, i think

[@maxtornogood]

I recall someone had asked me to look at a Toshiba and it had that same modern logo on the back. It turned out to be a bad hard drive and he never actually came back for it. I still have an Acer Aspire which looks similar to that Travelmate but no curved keyboard. I used the Aspire as a daily driver much earlier on & was even able to swap the processor out for a Core 2 Duo so it could do 64-bit OS's. 32-bit support even on Linux is disappearing.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Someone else had suggested a dead CMOS Battery could be causing the issue on the Toshiba, so It should be interesting.

[@maxtornogood]

@@TheRetroRecall While not a common cause people should always do the CMOS battery swap first to rule it out. Ancient machines with the old "Dallas" chips would sometimes fail to work properly when the battery died 🙂

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, I actually had that happen on one of my Socket 7 boards.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

The c600 can’t boot from usb, you’ll need something like plop boot manager on a floppy disk. They are really nice machines, and are pretty capable for what they are. They can comfortably run anything from windows 98 to windows XP.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I was lucky - I showed that the modular optical worked just fine :)

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

@@TheRetroRecallI didn’t have one when I got it from my dad originally. The modules were also a lot more back then, but now I have all sorts of modules. Also with the CMOS battery, the replacement will either have to be rechargeable, or have a diode inline to prevent charging.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's good to know - I was wondering that and would have tested with a multimeter. These older systems you never know what you are going to get into haha.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

@@TheRetroRecallthus was one of the first old computers I had, so I kinda had to figure things out as I went along. There was much less info available about these back then. Guess they were still in the awkward middle ground of being old, but not old enough to be “cool” I just recently maxed the ram and put an Ethernet card into it, which I had planned to do a while ago. Still need to replace the speakers, as they break often apparently.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I love when these experiences are shared. When people share this knowledge everyone benefits :)

[@kjur18]

I vaguely remember there were some issues with ATI gpus in older laptops, something about failing solder joints between gpu die and carrier pcb that is soldered down to motherboard. This toshiba laptop might suffer from this.

[@TheRetroRecall]

When I disassemble I'll check that out. I was also told the CMOS Battery could also cause similar issues. Either way, we will see what we can do!

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

It’s a little older than those. That was the HD 6000m series, mostly in the MacBook Pros from 2011.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

@@TheRetroRecallcould even be bad ram, there’s a lot of things that can cause a black screen.

[@EmberBlitz]

Also, just letting you know, the Dell Pentium 3 laptop has 8MB of *video* memory, not system memory.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It was labelled as system memory in the BIOS unless it was indicating it was using 8mb of system memory!

[@crasht3424]

@@TheRetroRecall 30:50 the ram fixed itself it said system memory 512mb

[@kjur18]

@@crasht3424 Yeah, on second boot there was no mem error probably. Either way, memory like this is not reliable at all.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I'm totally curious now, I will go back and look, thank you!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed, definitely in need of some Replacement memory. I'll go back and see if the error is there :)

[@Rangerman9404]

I have the same Elitebook, I found mine in the trash. Based on my experience, you do need the battery in place, even when running off AC power. I rarely use mine except when I'm staying at my brother's house for a few days, and when I do, I usually have to let it sit, plugged in and powered off for a while until the battery charges, or it will boot up and shut down in very short order because of the battery.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Appreciate the info. Not exactly sure what I am going to do with the HP... I may do a poll.

[@Reziac]

@@TheRetroRecall Quite a few older laptops need the battery in place to power on plugged in, even if the battery is dead as a rock. May take them a while to start passing power through it, tho. (Couple minutes or more.) Also if the BIOS has a "calibrate battery" function, that will sometimes bring the battery back to life.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the info, I will try!

[@Rangerman9404]

@@TheRetroRecall I'd say you debunked my claim, yours did start with the battery out. It had some issues, but it did post

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, however it is good to have one in there nonetheless.

[@AlejandroRodolfoMendez]

Q4os is great Linux distro for reviving old computers I had a Athlon x2 at the 1.6 and I can use it for modern browsing, it was made for getting pc stuck with xp another chance. Keep it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!!! Yes I will have to experiment with it some more and get to know it.

[@winnnzlowx1]

ah yes that is the TDE Trinity desktop version of q4os which is built on Debian and works very good on old hardware being a continuation of the kde 3 series of desktop that was around in the 2000 to 2008 era and was made to be familiar to users of win 2000 and xp desktop ui era.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you! Yes, a lot of similarity to Winxp. It was quite fast, I'll say that.

[@krasimirrangelov1767]

You forgot to mention the smart card reader which is on top of the DVD R-W on the HP EliteBook. The thing you've called a "smart card reader" which is located at the top of the headphone and microphone jacks is actually an ExpressCard/54 slot.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the clarity.

[@infiniteduality7712]

LOL-- I have the same HP Elitebook as my daily driver; I topped off the RAM, upgraded both GPU card and CPU, slapped on Windows 10, and away I go! Not perfect, but fun to upgrade and for my laptop use-- works great!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice! I see a lot of potential with this machine... Just hard to jusify the cost of screen, keyboard and possibly a batt :)

[@EmberBlitz]

Sadly, my Armada E500's power connector has recently kicked the bucket. I hope there's a way to resolder it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Oh, there's always a way - as long as there's something to solder to :). Good luck!

[@EmberBlitz]

@@TheRetroRecall Might ask the technology teacher about it on Monday after I'm done with my English exam, I learned soldering once some time in the first few years of high school.

[@TheRetroRecall]

KZbin also has a lot of tutorials.

[@EmberBlitz]

@@TheRetroRecall You think a blob of solder connecting all 3 parts would short anything out? I'm thinking part of it snapped so I'd want to connect everything together in case

[@TheRetroRecall]

It would if they are all different connections. You will need to use a multimeter in continuity mode to see where the three connections go, however its more likely you will need to solder them separately.

[@diacetylmorphines]

When you booted the Dell after swapping in the CD ROM drive, it showed that it had a system memory of 512 MB.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, good catch, I didn't see that. That said it is still reporting a memory error so I will swap it out and see if it gets rid of it. Thanks again!

[@sergiobisonte]

I was going to say the same thing

[@jasmijndekkers]

Steven have owned a Compaq Armada 1750 for his system administration work for a insurance company. He used it everyday at that time. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands

[@TheRetroRecall]

These Armadas are soooo cool!

[@andrewchristiansen8311]

I had a compaq armada 4120t 120mhz pentium when I was 10 in 2000.... Was the only ten year old back then carrying a laptop bag lol.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahah I remember those days, however years before with a much older system. Check out the Zenith MinisPORT video :)

[@s8wc3]

I had an acer 2300, the previous model, in the late 00s. The CPU was fine, it was the graphics that were the limiter. I ran the win7 beta on it when that was current as well as contemporary ubuntu with no issues. I mostly used it for web browsing, KZbin and all the flash games of the time worked perfectly even on win7, you just couldn't do aero or any of the compiz effects on linux. I didn't have any Windows games then but I was into N64 emulation which worked fine. If I remember right, the plastic around the VGA connector came off and revealed the fan so you could easily clean it out!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for sharing this - I will definitely check that out. I agree that even with a lower end of machine, you can always find some sort of retro use for it :)

[@agw5425]

I decided to try the Q4OS linux, it looked way easier than many others from what I saw in your video, hope i´m right. Thanks for a interesting video.

[@TheRetroRecall]

No problem! How did it go so far?? It was the first time I have ever seen it!

[@agw5425]

@@TheRetroRecall I picked one of my older laptops a Samsung x125 with a 1.7Ghz cpu and a ssd. I installed v5.4 the latest from Q4´s web page and it seams to be working just fine. Now I just have to decide what to do with it as I am a linux noob proberbly not much in the near future but I hope it will help me learn Linux good enough to avoid having to switch to win 11 when 10 is end of life in a couple of years.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yeah, I think with Microsofts latest fiascos more and more people will be switching to Linux.

[@r3n846]

I have a similar looking Toshiba Satellite (S505D-S5983) and it has the same issue where there's no display or POST. However I found that if I kept powering it on and off, eventually I would get a successful power on, boot, and have everything just work. However it started taking more and more attempts to power on, and I think it's basically dead now. Still have no idea what causes the issue.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It sounds like it could have possibly been a Capacitor issue. It will be neat to see what is wrong with mine.

[@hypocriticalharambe8274]

The hp elite book most likely just hates the dell charger there not to expensive to fix and the rest are ones i have not messed with also that elitebook battery still likely holds at least 25% charge as they don't get to hot and degrade on business laptops from that time. much love from a W520 32gb of ram i7-2720qm nvidia dgpu and linux user

[@TheRetroRecall]

Very possible! I did get it going with the universal power adapter. The screen is also another issue and of course there is the keyboard.

[@Nikkerston]

i would like to see you put the batteries in and test them just in case since some of these older batteries do still work somehow

[@TheRetroRecall]

The HP did hold a slight charge. I think however at this stage the best practice (if we were going to refurbish then) would be to replace the battery :)

[@Nikkerston]

@@TheRetroRecall true

[@maniatore2006]

i've been shout at the screen :D the DELL notebook Shows after you installed the CD Drive the 512 MB RAM not just 8MB :D Thank you for the Video.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha others have shouted as well, I didn't see it lol! Thank you!

[@michaelwood9866]

now i am not sure about this, but try putting the battery back in the toshiba with it plugged in....may work.....i'm honestly not sure...i have one of these with a broken screen but can't remember

[@TheRetroRecall]

Good suggestion. I did try that and unfortunately it didn't work. I also connected it to an external monitor and nothing. I think something is making it hang. I'll know more when I dissect it haha.

[@michaelwood9866]

@@TheRetroRecall yep time to dig deeper into that one

[@lukedavis436]

I have a smaller version of the Elitebook a 2540P, I also have a strange attachment to the latitude C Series myself owning a CP, CPi, CSx, C600 and C610. The Toshiba could have one of two issues, an NEC Tokin capacitor above the CPU has gone bad, or the AMD Chipset has failed (if its an RS880 or 780)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks, I'll check it out. Awesome. That you have those systems!

[@lukedavis436]

@@TheRetroRecall be warned the CPi is getting to that stage where it's quite brittle,

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, I find the same with a few of my older laptops, the plastics and various finishes are definitely not the same and should be treated gently.

[@RodrigoVolta]

Eu tive um Acer Aspire 3000 que possuía exatamente o mesmo design desse. Porem o meu tinha processador AMD Sempron e placa-mãe SiS e o teclado não era anatômico como esse. Coloquei 1GB de RAM e HDD de 160GB (que para a BIOS entender toda a capacidade dele, tinha que instalar o famoso Ontrack Disk Manager). Usei muito ele, era um bom laptop, porem, devido a falta de drivers e suporte, ele só funcionava com Windows XP 32-bit. Nenhuma versão do Linux e nem o Windows 7 dava certo nele devido aos péssimos drivers da SiS.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome - I liked the Acer laptops from back in the day. Yes, it's common on the lower end models that driver support was minimal.

[@jjohnson71958]

nice hp elitebook may need memory diagnose it

[@TheRetroRecall]

Between the screen and keyboard - those would be the first replacements.

[@EastAngliaUK]

I had a acer laptop like this but it was a 16 / 10 one. there is a poor quality video was before I had HD lol it was my first ever laptop

[@TheRetroRecall]

Great starter system!

[@erie910]

Think about opening the bottoms of these to check for the presence of RAM & hard drives.

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure. I did for a couple of them. When indecide to do full restorations I will do a thorough inspection of each one.

[@retroftw]

The HP Elitebook is probably one of the easier laptops to repair and find parts for. I replaced the screen hinges on an e-waste one I found. Otherwise it could become a halftop (©️ vwestlife 😜) or a "stationary pc" with screen, keyboard and mouse connected. I use these types of PCs also for retro LAN parties with Windows XP installed. A lot of performance, but with the stability and "just works" network wise that XP offers to just get the gaming going.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha that sounds awesome! If the parts can be easily sourced, that may be an option :). Ps - vwestlife is great!

[@ToxicwasteProductions]

That flashing means you need a hp power supply. They use a 3pin charger.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I was able to get it going with the universal.

[@i80386sx]

For the Dell, I’d be interested in trying to rebuild that CMOS battery. If the fully assembled ones aren’t available, the cells likely are. I would love to add that one to my eBay store if they aren’t available. The 1750 deserves nothing by the best.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I see you sent me a msg, try emailing [e-mail] and we chat there :)

[@pierreinthavong181]

Very nice video as well!😁

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed!

[@PhaQ2]

I modified one of the CD rom caddies to fit a DVD rom in a Dell C series machine .

[@TheRetroRecall]

Really, that's cool! Was it difficult to modify?

[@PhaQ2]

@@TheRetroRecall Not at all. It's a standard cd rom input inside the caddy. The DVD rom was from another laptop and sits proud of the original cd rom. But is completely functional.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome!!

[@michaelwood9866]

looks like my acer extensa, but mine is gun metal gray and amd/ati....amd turion x2

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes I believe they made a lot of different models :)

[@georgemaragos2378]

Hi, if you go the linux way, i use puppy on these low end machine, also you may need to pay attention to PAE and none PAE versions As i am sure you would know a multi boot usb stick / drive similar to Ventoy is your best friend Oh BTW i often user Linux puppy 5 on cd on these old machines, for a simple bot test and diagnostic and researching internal components

[@TheRetroRecall]

I appreciate that! I've used Knoppix generally for that live boot testing. It seems to work well.

[@Reziac]

@@TheRetroRecall I also like Puppy as a quick and dirty test OS. (In fact I use one that's really old for this, Wary Puppy probably 15 years old now). For multiboot testing and installs try Easy2Boot.

[@michaelwood9866]

that chunky boy compaq looks similar to my armada 1530DM....edo ram in mine i believe

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice machine! They are so nice.

[@MrJ0mmy]

i had that same acer laptop i miss it

[@TheRetroRecall]

I loved Acer equipment back in the day. I never had this particular machine, however I knew others who did. I never really had laptops - mostly custom desktops with Acer /Aopen components.

[@chandlerbing7570]

My Dad and Grandad had an Acer Travelmate back in the day. Not this model, but lower end. Awesome machine and my Grandad managed to keep his kicking up to 2013 before the screen gave out. good times brought back a lot of memories

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome, I'm glad that it did!!

[@therobb5738]

I have that same Armada 1750!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!!!

[@caffeinatedhuman4035]

I have a 2004 Pentium M (20 years old) running Puppy Linux 19.03 32 bit Running from USB key USB 2.0 is a miracle that lasted for 20 years approximately Dead floppy...no problem Dead cd rom DVD drive...no problem Dead IDE hard drive... little bit of a problem You can test your Pentium M from a USB boot...no modification required If you like the style then keep it... Bonus points if your CPU is 64 bits... Which should mean you could use modern 2024 puppy Linux. Would be interested to see if your other 98 laptop could run puppy You would however never a plop floppy 1.44mb disc

[@TheRetroRecall]

I think someone else also mentioned puppy. What are your thoughts on Linux Mint?

[@caffeinatedhuman4035]

@@TheRetroRecall Good for a reasonable modern machine... Obviously there are different flavours of Linux Mint Even the lite version XFCE is too heavy for 20 year old machines I have also some 2007 laptops mid level ones They peak at lubuntu 18.04 ish Puppy worked on a recent Intel atom I picked up N280 The N280 has only 47 million transistors It did come out in 2009 granted It was the closest thing I could get to replicate my 2002 amd 2000+ xp CPU Running at 37 million transistors. Puppy ran on that just fine... Linux Mint seems to get fat after about 2018... But that's just my subjective test on my own hardware I own about 10 ish laptops from different eras. I run Linux Mint mate on a celeron from 2014... It runs fine. It really all depends on what functionality you wish for. I wanted to test H.264 encoding on super old hardware Which works at my desired 3 fps. Recording... You will not get gaming in general for Mint... Not without some tinkering... But Linux is up to a point basic video editing is perfect viable. I do not have windows on any machine at this point. I would suggest changing over unless you want windows recall on your machine We have just gone super surveillance mode... Yes they tell you that you can turn it off... Guessing every update they could turn it back on 🤔🤐 My suggestion to gamers at this point Either change to console... Maybe Have a separate computer only for games. Time for Linux is here for the mainstream if they value their privacy.

[@ayanned]

HP probooks / elitebooks quite good, similar upgradability and build with old thinkpads, the only downside is the rubber they use, they suck ass and disintegrate into sticky goo.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, much like the Thinkpad coatings!

[@carlsmuck284]

I have used Q4OS and it is one of the better Linux distributions. It was one of the best ways for a long time to use Debian Linux. Has really good hardware support. Better than straight up Debian Linux until Debian Linux 12 Bookworm. And LinuxMint LMDE6 is even better than Debian 12 Bookworm for wireless support. LMDE6 supports the Dell Wireless card in a Dell Precision M6500 when no other Linux distribution can.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome, good to know, thank you!

[@linuxforpunks]

(looks on floor. sees 5 vintage laptops running weird OSes) it's a mercy when they break I prefer mini pcs now

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha, a mercy lol

[@robertcartier5088]

I'm sorry you don't like Toshiba laptops... I have 11 laptops in my humble collection, ranging from 1997 to 2016 --> Six of them are Toshiba Satellites! I really like them. ;-]

[@TheRetroRecall]

Oh for sure, my experience has never been wonderful with them. The Tecra line was decent. I tended to lean towards the Thinkpad line as it was always reliable and a powerhouse... again, IMO :)

[@guntcheck]

Q4OS is amazing

[@TheRetroRecall]

I didn't get much into it yet, but its in my list to check out.

[@jjohnson71958]

i have 6-7 laptops windows os

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!!! So many, %%$&$ laptops lol!

[@Dutch-linux]

It is a version of linux ..... basically all linux distro's are the same ... I can see it has the trinity desktop installed .... if you need help I will try to help you !!!!

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's amazing!!! It is definitely worth exploring. Thank you for the offer, I'll let you know!

[@Gregorykemp-o3e]

Its 8MB Video memory LOL

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, and 8mb system memory. I tested again and only 8mb of system memory showed, however others have said it showed 512 on reboot due to the battery having some charge.

[@andrewchristiansen8311]

28:51 "I dont know what version of windows it has" Hey buddy, try the sticker by your hand nobody upgrades jack s***. - America

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hey buddy :) I have found many of these systems upgraded beyond what the 'sticker' says. Can't always assume as it can get you into difficulties when restoring these systems.

[@pcwizzy460]

8MB is the VRAM...

[@TheRetroRecall]

I reloaded the laptop and looked - it states 8mb next to the system ram as well.

[@ernestoditerribile]

The web-browser is Konqueror.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Is that in the Linux OS I showed?

[@ernestoditerribile]

@@TheRetroRecall yes you said it was Firefox, but I immediately recognized the logo.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I could of sworn I read Firefox setup.

[@MotownBatman]

WAHOO! Junk Laptops & Linux: No Arch BATOCERA! or depending on the processor Linux Lite 7 or Lubuntu. Oooooh Q4, I've Downloaded that and tried it So many times over the past 2 decades...? Super Basic, Fast. For some reason, I just don't care for it even on Ooold Systems I Love getting a pile o junk like this, the Wifey Not so Much... No Innuendo Intended LOL

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lmao!!!! Hahahaha. Yeah, I haven't heard any grumblings yet in terms of storage or the stock.. But I feel. The day is coming lol! Thanks for the Linux recommendations!

[@hallikandel]

@TheRetroRecall I have quite a lot of laptops of that era that require the battery to be present to boot up

[@TheRetroRecall]

I will definitely try that, thank you!

[@carlsmuck284]

HP laptops usually do not work with a Dell Power supply.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I have had good luck with them in the past. Unfortunately this one didn't work. Either way, it workes with the universal power adapter :)

[@Dutch-linux]

LOL that distro of linux is a ubuntu based linux distro it is a good and pretty low resource linux distro for older pc's and laptops... like I said if you need help hit me up

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the additional info! You should check out my video on an older Ubuntu distro I did.

[@michaelwood9866]

that dang ess audiodrive driver still eludes me....got win 95 with no sound

[@TheRetroRecall]

I did upload and there is a copy of the 1700 restoration cd's. That would install those drivers.

[@michaelwood9866]

@@TheRetroRecall thank you for that.....only laptop i have that isn't right

[@i80386sx]

What kind of computer do you have?

[@michaelwood9866]

@@i80386sx compaq armada 1530DM

[@carolimhoff2231]

Dead or dying GPU, Onboard graphics.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I assume you mean the Toshiba? If so, some have suggested bad solder joints.

[@Crazy-Games]

The Toshiba satellite more than likely has a dead CMOS battery Some PC’s simply refuse to boot unless there is a charged CMOS battery

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you! I will try that. :)

[@dagglock7615]

Laptops are just junk in my world. Can't do any real upgrades and I like to upgrade.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Definitely depends on the end user and what the use case is for these systems. Some older business models were certainly upgradable and are still in use today.

[@ChrisJackson-js8rd]

woot. ancient linux

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha indeed!