Laptops

[dragonfly]

Hi everyone, well wish me luck,today I'm going to start my hunt. I've got everything wrote down here and have a price range in mind, so if I don't find something I can afford it's back to my trusty pencil LOL

[dragonfly]

Hi everyone, well day 1 on the hunt yielded no results. I went to a local computer store and they had a COMPAQ computer for $100. The guy was really trying to help me and spent quite a lot of time to accommodate me. but in the end he could not get into the bios. I figured if I could get into the bios i could erase windows98 and install DSL (Damn Small Linux) which would free up the HD. This was an old laptop and only had 10GB. Try as he might he could not open the bios. Very good advice ------ take your linux cd with you ---- I'll keep you posted..

[satelight7430]

most machines will offer boot from by hitting F12, try that.
dells are F8??
hp/compaq's are F!0??
press the power button,hold this key down as your booting.
this is comming from memory,so dont quote me.

[SaddleTramp]

most machines will offer boot from by hitting F12, try that.
dells are F8??
hp/compaq's are F!0??
press the power button,hold this key down as your booting.
this is comming from memory,so dont quote me.

HP=F10=>10-4 (interpret: HP is F10, yep)

[cowboy]

Some advice, would not look at any under 40 gig HD, I know you can always replace the HD but laps are not as easy as a tower. If this is not a need to get soon..take your time..something will surely pop up soon..Tough time to look for one now, school is starting up..slim pickins.

[dragonfly]

Hi everyone, believe me this guy tried everything to get into the bios. He went on line to get the directions to open them. Nothing worked and in the end he said "this just cost me $100 in time and this is as far as I go" and that was that. I don't blame him someone will come along and buy it with a win98 on it.

[Baphomet]

Why would he need access to the BIOS to install Damn Small? Would it not boot from the optical?

Also, sometimes it's the DEL key that pops open the BIOS.

[satelight7430]

you tell em baph, forgot that one!!

heres one for ya. start machine up,insert disk,unplug & remove battery.
just plug in,try staring again(most machines are defalted to boot from disk,so the main problem is just getting the disk in the drive. or just remove the hd so that it defalts to the cd rom.
that might be the problem,do you have a dvd or cd?? does the machine read the disk?? been there also!
its usually the little things like that that will kill ya!!

[dragonfly]

Hi eveyone, I thought I had to get into the bios in order to check read from disc to install an OS. Yes I went home and got the DSL OS and the laptop read it fine. There is was not enough room on the hard drive to install ubuntu and still have any memory left. I don't think I will go back to that shop as the guy was pretty nervous about losing the existing OS and not being able to reinstall if I didn't buy it. My daughter says "What's he worrying about- no one's going to buy a win98 anyway" LOL. Anyway I'm taking my time and enjoying the ride. Quite funny really watching all his customers coming in with problems concerning viruses, I haven't made a visit to the repair shop since I installed a linux system.

[cowboy]

Hello dragon..another small Distro that is nice..is Vector Linux Gold..that works good on a small HD or an older system..was afraid of the size you had qouted for installing Ultimate Edition. You also might try Ultimate Edition 1.4 the CD version that is small and still one of my favorites..it though might give you a problem on install.