To buy a laptop without an operating system?Yes or no?

trouville

trouville

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Ive been trying to replace my old IBM X40 which sank last summer.Up to & including now i never seem to have the means.

Now there is an IBM X31 for sale without an operating system hard disc battery or charger but seems to be affordable?

A hard disc costs about 80 euros for it a battery and charger i have and a new battery costs about 40 euros 4400ma

BUT how do i add and operating system such as XP?I used to have XP pro and still have the licence number from my IBM but with rapid restore ultra i dident get a CD when i bought the X40 new in 2004

Can i download XP?? Or can/could i install Linux?? How do you install an OS??

I once tried to install win 95 which i bought on ebay the MS CD rom and licence but the laptop always rejected the number??

Can i just load windows or linux onto a new hard drive and go?????

Advise sort please

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Cher Trouville,
If I were you, I would avoid buying a computer which needs work done to it (other than buying a new battery if really necessary). You can buy a good Macintosh with all the software you might need (other than navigational!), which is well-built and much more 'future-proof' than Windows for euro 200-300. Glad to point you at one or two sites that can help. I myself bought a portable Mac second-hand; it's now 11 years old, works perfectly and still runs current software.
 
Bottom line is about 90 quid for a valid windoze license, from microsoft. If you have the remains of the old laptop, with the coa, a decent shop might be able to install windows on your 'new' one, with that coa. I would not pay for this unless/until the install would pass microsoft's verification process so you can get upgrades/updates etc.
Probably cheaper to source a laptop with a valid windows install, license and coa, and leave the windows-less pc's to chancers and linux types???
I'm no expert, but have a little (bitter) experience of wasting days with this kind of thing before deciding that the 90 quid was the easy way! I would now only buy a used pc if I could see the xp verify on microsoft.com.
New laptops are cheap, but I like the feel of the old IBM's, I have an ancient thickpad, which I can't bring myself to chuck!
 
With Linux then I believe Ubuntu is the easiest to install. Question is then what apps you want to run as I dont know how much navigation SW is available for Linux.

Buying an OS on its own is expensive and dis proportionately expensive compared to the HW. ....... unless you happen to be in somewhere in the far east and get lucky with a cheap DVD that just happens to work.
 
Thanks, ill look but macs are very hard to use and theres no afordable software?Ive heard some bad reports of late,& heard that a companys buying PCs and adding lepoard or the latest apple system to the irritation of apple & delight of users??

I hope someone can at least give me an idea as to how hard it might be add an OS

Yes sounds good advice so far!These X31s are selling for about £40(60euros) less than one with win xp charger battery that works the average price seems to be about 320 euros for an X31 and 380 euros for the X40

The X31 is better for me (i had one before the X40)as the standard battery lasts 5 hours plus(the 6200ma thats for sale at 48 euros against the 1900ma X40 battery at 109euros)the X40 with the 8cell has more weight and is less compact being ideal "short"light use on the move with the std battery

Im going to take the advice given so far and wait until i can afford to pay a little more

Id still like to know how practical it might be to add an OS??
 
It depends how much it is, how important getting right quickly is and how confident you are messing around with this stuff.

I assume you have another computer and the kit to make a boot disc on a media that the new (?) machine will accept. If yes to all that then download linux and open office and off you go!

I dont know what you want to do with the machine but I would seriously consider the ASUS Eee PC as a viable browsing device on a boat, these cost around £200 with wifi, operating system, open office and comms software installed.
 
No you can't download XP, you'll have to buy a copy or use a pirated version which means you won't be able to get security updates which is not such a great idea. If you have an XP cd, then it's fairly easy to install, as long as the computer is configured to boot from cd.

You can download linux OS, such as Ubuntu, though this will restrict the software you can run a little.

Like others have said, far better to buy a laptop ready to work, if you need to ask these sorts of questions, as there are several pitfalls on the way if you are not used to this sort of thing.
 
Excellent advice i really shouldent save hear as i may well end up with more costs than paying a bit more.

When i do get one id like to try a "partition and Linux" but even thats a bit beyond me??

As BrendanS said,if i have to ask these questions then indeed as it is im not used to installing and solving none functioning things,hence the IBM crash blue screen cycling press rapid restore button and begin again!!

I posted in a rush as i had to decide,to buy or not, now perhaps ill look at Linux,i had wanted an Asus Eee now im not so sure as they still cost on ebay almost as much as the X31 or the same.

In the mean time i can continue useing this compaq N410c(i hope)

thanks
 
What do you need the laptop for? Printing electronic charts /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif?
I'd steer clear of linux or mac if you want to run any boaty stuff on it. OTOH chart plotting software and that kind of stuff tends to work well (but do check before!) with old windows versions eg 98/ME/2000 and you could probably get a Win98 OS CD dirt cheap. Worth a thought
 
Could you explain what you want to do with the computer? Whether there are any devices you expect to connect it to? Any specific software you want to run? That might help you get a more informative answer.
 
To do with it?

Communications!
At first the asus Eee sounded ideal & linux a crash proof virus resistant OS & sounded good value,unfortunately to many have made large profits with it,still on ebay its selling for up to almost 400 euros when it can be bought in a few shops for 306 euros,i only found such a shop yesterday.

At the same time a good X31 and an Asus sold within minuets of each other for 286 euros each.The asus would be wonderful as a replacement for my Dell pda to send & read email(not to many) & sms that i use a lot.

A day with my old IBM I would begin with a trip to town in a shopping bag there id order something and read the herald tribune,then pop in hear for a while.Later leave it behind the bar while i visited the market.

WHen i got back id sms the others,back at the boat id use it for SSB data weather music sometimes watch a DVD though not very often as i used an ASUS CD RW DVD rom which needed 220v

I stored pilots on it & charts that i could zoom into as well as handbooks & assorted info files.

By now ive got bookmarks data & applications on an USB memory plus a second one with portable firefox which lets me make any lap top "my own" though SSB data programs do need a permenant home
 
[ QUOTE ]
Can i download XP

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, but you'll need to get a torrent client (free) like utorrent
http://www.utorrent.com/
and then use the search option. Or choose one of these:

http://search.utorrent.com/search.php?q=...arch%3d&u=1

There are workarounds available that bypass the validation thing.

Easy.

Not that I've ever done anything like that of course. Or endorse such behavior........!
 
Hi trouville
Have an unused copy of xp somewhere you can have if i can find it. I bought it off ebay a couple of years ago and think it should work ok. its for nought!
joha
 
Buy a MAC .. Great .. No blue screen of death .. Works a charm on this forum .. Logs on to other networks .. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif .. Expensive yes but worth every penny .. Took the box home plugged it in and hey presto .. Only problems you can have with some laptops is drivers for screen and hardware ports .. Can be a bit of a pain sorting out which fits what .. Make sure you have enough memory XP likes as much as it can get so 256 or 512 + or it will slow to a crawl ..
 
Drivers??

Then that was what one company selling laptops ment when it said "XP instaled" "with" drivers.

Unlike win 98 XP always worked

What i can see is needed is not possiable! I should have one for trying downloads new applications.A second with the minimum just the very few things i do need.And a cloudbook or the new Dell with the 9 inch screen (£250)to carry about

Economic challenge is just that.Im now challenged to find a small laptop that can combine the uses i need it for,& remain reliable at a price i can aford

Ive never discovered how to configer an email client!!Hence at the moment i dont use email!So how would i ever set up windows???!!! Even at less than £100 plus £50 for the HDD by the time id got it working i would wish id just bought a Dell X300 or this compaq as they sell for less than 200 euros more or less

Back to the drawing board

Advice listend to and taken no laptop without a working OS
 
Re your reply to my message: affordable software? You don't need any! Any Mac will come with email, web browser, word processor as part of the OS. And you'll spend your time communicating and writing rather than trying to decrypt the latest in a long line of error messages from Windoze. I've worked with both and to my mind, there is no competition. Mac, c'est mieux et c'est plus facile, voilà tout! My wife, who is a technophobe, has decided to take computer lessons. Windows of course. WHen she gets home and swtiches on the Mac, she wanders why WIndows can't be so intuitive and simple. All this click, click, click of the mouse: c'est chiant!
 
You can actually download XP from a number of sources - just not officially.

Provided that you have a valid licence to install it (which the OP does) then to install it that way is legal - although some care is required to ensure that you install the version to which you are entitled. That might be tricky if you have an OEM key as they may be tied to a particular OEM version.

There might be a question as to whether having bought the software for one machine it is legal to install it on another, but I believe that it has been ruled that under EU law you can (assuming that you have removed it from the original machine).
 
If trouville wants something cheap and lean and will do the jobs he wants, then Linux and the opensource software will do the job. But Linux is notoriously difficult to configure for command-line newbies, especially for older laptops.

I have just converted to Ubuntu, which is such a relief after Microbloat, but if trouville wants something he can use straight away, with the minimum of fuss, and without relying on you, then he will have to spend a bit more /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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