Ubuntu Saves Compaq Presario 2100 From Death and Windows
Ubuntu Linux saved a Compaq Presario 2100 from certain death last weekend. Here’s the horror story and the happy outcome. For all of you with aging, slow-running Windows systems, I hope this quick blog post inspires you to breathe new life into the system by installing Ubuntu.
My brother in law (Ronnie) was ready to throw out his aging Compaq Presario 2100 laptop. The system was overwhelmed by viruses, worms and other Windows-related problems. Security packages from all the major software suppliers (Symantec, McAfee, etc.) failed to clean up the system. Plus, the security software only made the Presario run more slowly.
Frustrated, Ronnie purchased a Dell laptop to replace the Presario — and he was ready to throw the Presario away. That’s when I stepped in, asked to borrow the system, and loaded Ubuntu 8.04. The entire install took approximately 30 minutes. And as you know, I’m not just talking about the operating system. OpenOffice, FireFox and all the other open source bonuses also landed on the laptop as part of the Ubuntu install.
Ronnie’s mouth dropped when I showed him the Presario running Ubuntu. And running it FAST. Then he started asking questions:
- How much does Ubuntu cost? (Free, Ronnie)
- Will OpenOffice work with Microsoft Office files? (Yes, Ronnie)
- Why isn’t Linux available on consumer PCs?(It is, Ronnie. You just have to look hard)
- What’s the catch? (There is no catch, Ronnie)
Admittedly, Ubuntu isn’t perfect. I’m still trying to get WiFi working on the Presario. But the system links right up to Ethernet. And Ubuntu saved it from a landfill — and Windows.
I realize Windows Vista and Windows XP will have strong followings for years to come. That’s fine. But I hope users who are ready to pull the plug on their aging Windows systems will consider a new direction: Install Ubuntu.
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This reminds me of my first Linux experience I had an old laptop with Windows ME on it. We all know how bad ME was and an Ubuntu install brought it back to life and really got me to seeing the light.
Windows ME? I’d take MS-DOS over that one. Thanks for sharing your story, Wesley.
Joe: I agree ME I think could qualify as the worse OS ever and I always hated the laptop and it sat around for years and thought I would mess with it a little bit. It wasn’t the laptops fault
My brother had an Emachines desktop with ME. Such a combination should have been considered illegal. A breach of the Geneva conventions even!
I still have the mental scars. …
aikiwolfie: I agree Windows ME eradication should be the focus of all mankind. Positively the worse piece of junk OS ever created (i’m generally not completely anti microsoft, I even think vista is ok). I was absolutely shocked to see how great Ubuntu ran on the same hardware that seemed so crappy using the OS it was designed for. Funny how that works.
You guys are cracking me up. Not sure if you know it, but in the 1990s I was a strong advocate of Windows NT.
I thought very highly of Jim Allchin, Dave Cutler and the rest of the NT experts who were driving MSFT’s enterprise strategy.
But somewhere along the way, MSFT started focusing too much on SKUs (how many versions of Vista are there, anyway?) and too little on customer experience on low-end PCs.
Joe: Glad we could provide some comedic relief but I think you really hit on a great way to introduce people to GNU/Linux by saving old equipment. The great thing is that as it is good on old equipment it is just as at home on a new desktop that I am building that while not bleeding edge technology, it is a very good setup. I not being a programmer or super techy find it amazing that an OS can live so comfortably in both the old and the new.
Joe: I had a similar experience with a work laptop I replaced. Since I hate to throw out a machine, and I wanted to learn about Linux, I put Ubuntu on it. My experiences are similar, but it does run slow. Maybe it’s the 256MB of RAM it has. Need to upgrade to 512MB (the system maximum). I also am having ongoing problems with the WiFi. Is Canonical EVER going to get that working and reliable???
I too love rescuing older systems (or even brand new ones!) from Windows, but generally I opt for Debian these days, Ubuntu being too limited for my tastes (and their treatment of KDE is horrible, and I do not like Gnome).
However, its too bad that you couldn’t get this little story published outside of an Ubuntu-related blog — most of your readers will already have seen the light!
Perhaps even in the local paper’s Opinion section?
> I also am having ongoing problems with the WiFi.
> Is Canonical EVER going to get that working and
> reliable???
This depends on your hardware, not on Canonical. Hardware is a fickle item that requires drives, and they’re not always available for Linux distros. Complain loudly to the hardware vendor!
[...] consider this story about how Ubuntu 8.04 saved an aging Compaq Presario 2100 from certain death. The blog entry appears on Works With U, the independent guide to Ubuntu [...]
> I also am having ongoing problems with the WiFi.
> Is Canonical EVER going to get that working and
> reliable???
“Are the WiFI OEMS ever going to release anything but crappy drivers for Linux? (or drivers at all)” should your question be. It is not the fault of Linux or Canonical, but of the hardware producers that keep ignoring Linux. We are sick and tired of it, just accept that we will not run Windows or OS X. It is no choice for us. Period!
Hardware manufacturers don’t even help the community code drivers themselves, the sit on the specs and treat it as some incredible hot secret that nobody must know. We should institute a website where producers that deliberately ignore Linux are warned about so that people can avoid them at all cost.
I understand that that is true about the hardware manufacturers. Although they may not be writing drivers themselves for economic reasons, due to Linux’s tiny market share, they should at least release their specs to the open source community, so that they can take care of it.
However, the story was about rescuing older laptops by putting Linux on them. Whether the WiFi problem is the fault of Canonical or the chip manufacturers doesn’t change the fact that these days a laptop is severely limited (if not outright useless to many) if the WiFi doesn’t work. Thus how many people, as a practical matter, are going to see the light on this solution if the WiFi doesn’t work? This will further limit the adoption of Linux to new system purchasers or those with WiFi cards that work with the Linux distro they are installing.
Understand that I am rooting for Linux. I am having fun with it on my old laptop. I just want it to succeed more than it is, and see this as a major drawback to that happening.
I think there is a positive side about the wifi. I remember my first install on a laptop. I started out with Mandriva and had to use NDIS Wrapper and well it just never worked right. I eventually moved to Ubuntu and had to run through some circles but when it worked it did work. Then came 7.04 and the restricted drivers management. Simply hooked up to a wired connection and bang my broadcom card was working. While there are problems I think there are some pretty monumental strides being taken especially with Ubuntu to get these problems solved.
Wesley: Good point. I will look at the Restricted Drivers Management thing again. If it is something that a newbie can do easily, then I agree that WiFi would not be as much of a problem. Thanks.
What? Windows ME? Once upon a time I actually purchased a freaking GENUINE Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Millenium Edition(R). I didn’t knew anything about computers when I did that (obviously) and I removed it immediately when I knew something, but I’ve kept the CD to remind me and others that some mistakes comes with enormous consequences (my shame is still almost too unbearable).
I had a similar experience with my parent’s desktop computer. It had windows 2000 on it and, a couple of weeks ago, it wouldn’t boot. So I initially tried Ubuntu 8.04, the same version I installed on my laptop, but it doesn’t have enough memory. So I eventually settled on Debian. I thought it ran a little slow, but tolerable, but they are happy with it because they tell me it now runs much faster than it ever did with windows.
For the WIFI problem, try WICD.
http://wicd.sourceforge.net/download.php
Steve Richardson: the restricted drivers are very easy, just hook up to a wired connection and click on Systerm –> Administration –> Hardware Drivers and click enable by the device you need. I think that’s right as I’m not at my Ubuntu machine at the moment, but that’s the general idea.
Neb: My goodness I thought I was the only one still holding onto an ME CD. You do have to admit the CD sure was pretty. Its a shame what it contained was so crappy.
The Linux Problem is still getting it accepted on NEW machines. I would guess that the Average User just goes and get a NEW machine, rather than “fixing” the old one. And a reinstall of the Compaq’s original OS would likely have also fixed the virus problem. And the WiFi would work.
BTW, I “Wubi-ed” [is that a word??] a Compaq Presario 2200 [close to 2100 !!], and Ubuntu detected the need for the Broadcom WiFi driver, downloaded and installed it, and the WiFi works great. And with the Wubi install, I can access the Windows ntfs files without any problem.
Modest correction: I did exactly as Wesley indicated to get the wifi to work.
Not that I am a windows supporter – I like linux just as much as everyone here (I have 5 machines at home – 3 of which run linux) but if your system is slow because of viruses, spyware and the like you can always (god forbid
reinstall windows.
There are alot of lightweight distros out there that run great on old machines -currently for novice computer users i install Tinyme (pclinuxos) i revived a 500mghtz hp vectra 128 ram – it runs like lightning! and is so easy grandma can use
for others i really like Wolvix (slackware)
@ JOE – as for setting up wifi The hands down best thing about Ubuntu is it’s community and forums it’s huge! just google presario 2100 wifi ubuntu there is a ton of help there – you will have it installed in no time
@ Steve: ubuntu and especially kubuntu use a bunch of memory -if you like ubuntu though i’d recommend xfce version xubuntu
hope this helps – main thing burn a copy of your favorite distro and pass it on!
Similar story. Old Inspiron 2650 (celeron 1.6, 256Mb, 20Gb, 16Mb video) with no use because too slow, viruses and malware and I did not have Dell’s recovery disks or XP install disks. I then discovered Ubuntu’s educational version (Edubuntu). Now my preschooler Daughter uses full time and she is pleased. Additionally I’m not worried she will break my new HP dual-core laptop …
@icebox: Re-installing Windows and MSFT Office would have required more than an hour, plus all the registration nonsense. And within 15 minutes of going on the Internet, most Windows PCs are already suffering from exploits, Symantec has told me. So the worms and virus would have all returned within a matter of hours or days or weeks … but they would have been back.
Putting in Ubuntu required 15 minutes. And no more security headaches.
I have a compaq 2100 at work, it has a realtek pcmcia wi-fi card an 256MB RAM, and XP running (I’d say walking) on it. That’s not a computer, that’s a coffee machine with a monitor. However, I “wubi-ed” a xubuntu installation (as the hard disk can’t be resized due to some errors it has) and though I admit that getting the wifi to work was hard at the beginning I found out that there was a graphical ¿interface? for ndiswrapper and at last it took me five minutes to make it work. Now the machine is not only usable but I can say that it works fast. The only problem I have is that the ATI drivers suck and the X freezes from time to time.
When my Power Mac died this summer I decided to get something a little easier to work on, and settled on a used Dell OptiPlex that I got on the ‘Net for about $100. It came with Windows XP, which I’m not all that fond of, but at least it ran okay. I put Linux on that box (Ubuntu, I ought to add), and there’s a definite performance difference between my (almost!) fully configured Linux installation versus my fully configured Windows installation. More power to the Linux users! Let’s keep that old hardware churning along and out of the landfill!
This summer I was working for a language school in Ningbo China. No, you never heard of it, only about 10 million people live there. The school had some 8 year old Dell opticons, or some other opti-thingys, like i really didn’t care. Viruses, check. Malware, check. key loggers, check. special chinese online password stealers for popular games, check. botnets participation, check. OOOOOO they were a lovely piece of work. 30 minutes, Xubuntu. the office was standing around going Cooool, is that macintosh??? ROFFL
@laura
One beautiful thing about X is that there are often two drivers from which to choose. Many displays will also work with the vesa driver. If there is a bug in one driver, usually the other will work. I set up a lot of systems and often choose vesa. The vesa driver is 2-D only.
In /etc/X11/xorg.conf change ati or whatever with vesa.
I’ve been using my Presario 2132 RS (that’s the Radio Shack version) with Ubuntu linux since version 6.06. I bought this computer new and was always frustrated by the kinds of problems and costs associated with windows xp. My D-Link WNA-2330 pcmcia wireless card works great as it was detected on install. I have it configured to use wep encription to access my netgear wireless router. The wireless card won’t hot plug so if I want to use wireless I have to have the card plugged in when I boot up (no big deal). I love ubuntu and never will go back to windows. I try to get others to understand how much better, in so many ways, linux is than windows. The speed increase and stability were immediately noticeable, and the ability to customize so well is awesome.
I saved an old Dell Dimension 8100 desktop, loaded Ubuntu 8.04 and am using it to write this note. It has become my main computer while the wife and kids use the Win XP desktop and an old Mac Tiger laptop.
I have toyed with a few other distros but have returned to Ubuntu as most stable on this particular box (strictly opinion!).
I have had several friends ask about “upgrading” their old computers or what to buy in a new computer. My very strict rule is to steer anyone away from upgrading old stock and attempting to run Vista, it’s just not worth the headaches, also telling them to think hard about purchasing Vista pre-loaded on anything short of a supercomputer (sic). And I always tell them not to upgrade for the sake of upgrade — basically, if their computer is doing everything they need to do, not to waste their money.
You should see their eyes when I show them this old box. They can’t believe this machine is 7 years old as it boots faster and loads programs faster than our much newer XP machine.
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Great post. I work in the area of music print-publishing. I installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my (inherited) Compaq Presario 2170 last January and have been enjoying the stability and security of Ubuntu GNU/Linux ever since. I’ve since updated to Ubuntu 8.04. Got wireless networking going and now it’s my primary workstation and I do all my email, accounting and word processing on it, as well as maintaining clients’ files (for reasons dependent on clients’ file format preferences though, I am dual-booting Ubuntu along side Windows XP). I look forward to the day that I can kick resource-hogging, monopolizing, license agreement-as-a-bludgeon-wielding, open-source-software-fearing Windows to the curb. First, I just have to convince my clients that open-source solutions will do as good or better a job than their proprietary counterparts.
I’ve bookmarked this page,
Dave
http://www.thenotesetter.com
It it truly amazing, how new old hardware can feel when you put brand new code on it. In the Windows world, a old laptop will look very old and useless, because there is no way you will be able to install a new Windows on it. But on Linux it just works. I just recently revived a 1.3 Ghz Laptop with more RAM and installed the newest Kubuntu on it (256 megs is usually very tight, put 512 or 768 Megs in it and wow).
The cool thing is:
Software is always improving, functions that were impossible yesterday are possible today.
Hardware is in essence just an empty shell and the software will define the functionality. I am no fan at all of proprietary hardware that has firmware or some other piece of pathetic software on it. Hardware makers many times have NO CLUE about writing software, so software companies (and the Linux community) should do that. I have a very expensive (800$) car radio, that cannot read OGG files. It is very sophisticated, can play videos (which I don’t need), but the scanning of the tracks on a 4 Gbyte Medium takes AGES.. it is the only piece of hardware that does what I need (it is a JVC AX33something) and I am moderately satisfied with it, but the bugs it has are aweful and any audio player on Linux, dating back to 2002 does a better job.
Everytime you restart the radio (starting the engine) it will re-read the whole media. How stupid is that?
I wish I could beam some open source on that piece and do the functions I want in the way I want, but there is no way to do that.
Being able to install your own OS is just such a relieve, since proprietary software companies are many times just clueless and get sidesteped by much better open source code. I have heard that you can now install linux on some routers and I have no doubt that things will run much smoother afterwards.
Especially car makers have a hard time getting around the concept that you will need a full OS in a carcomputer nowadays, tying all together. These companies have not the least clue how to do a OS and their proprietary nature, they will probably stick to Windows once every car has one of these gadgets.
Installing Linux over it will liberate the HW from the limited stupid backwards code, where you pay for every little ounce of extra functionality (ever noticed the license-o-rama game that is going on in enterprise software? I love the Linux “do whatever and how much ever you want with it, without paying a cent more”)
Markus
There is an easy workaround for the WiFi issue. In fact I know of some laptops that have WiFi problems with Windows that make use of this workaround. Just plug a WiFi PCMCIA card into the machine. The cards that I have are quickly recognized by Ubuntu.
Thanks for reassuring me.
I’ve got an old Presario 2100 to play around with and was considering putting Ubuntu on it for the hell of it. I still love Windows, particularly XP, and this definitely won’t change my mind, but I think I’m going to drop a full install on the laptop to breathe some new life into an old spare piece of hardware.
It’s pretty beat up and the mousepad buttons and PCMIA slots aren’t working so great anymore. (I’m not even sure about all the keyboard keys.) But it’ll make for an interesting experiment and it’ll let me see whether it’s an easy, worthwhile process or if I’ll want to find the nearest Linux nerd and punch them in the face.
Yeah I have my original Compaq 2100, came with XP – and I found the whole “pig of and operating system” from Microsoft; was a total terd on the laptop.
Most of it was in the way that XP ran and the way it ran other programs – like Office 2000.
Oh lets do / open a document – And away with the 5 minutes of disc caching, thrashing the computers hard drive to death.
And FINALLY it opens…..
You get the idea…. Thanks to Microscoffs idiotic operating system/s that are at best badly built botch jobs, MY computer was getting it’s guts spun out.
So I got rid of the XP and all the shitty programming to go with it and tossed in Ubuntu – and several versions later, well I am still using it, and it’s getting better than ever.
Cause Linux relies almost exclusively upon RAM memory, and only fractionally upon cache memory, for pretty much all of the time, the PC is operating, the HDD barely ever flickers, and if the screen didn’t glow, you wouldn’t know it was on.
Much happier; everything works just fine and I am now running Ubuntu 9.04, along with the full Edubuntu expansion package…
Brilliant.
So glad there is a DECENT operating system and a huge range of software packages to use.
So glad to be be free of that insane corporate mind fuck called Microsoft – and it’s never ending upgrade loops…
When I see the never endingly HUGE size of the operating systems, the software and the HUGELY insanely specced machines to run them; and the exhorbitant costs and the mind fuck feature deficit packages from the basic / home / small business / enterprise and empire etc., and their fees, registration and the ongoing cost of running the ELECTRICITY EATING computer……
I go “Ubuntu – it’s got it all – Fuck Microsoft”
And my little loyal laptop – is just so nice and happy and so am I.
I recently recovered some files from my daughter’s gateway laptop with Vista. It was stuck in a constant reboot loop and she was crying because she needed some homework she couldn’t get to. I downloaded Ubuntu and ran from a cd. Great program for file management. Lots of extras on the software also. She is still playing the games that came with it. Hooray for something useful from the internet.
Just installed Ubuntu 9.10 in a Compaq Presario 2100. I was about to trash it because no one could repair it and I coudln’t boot my WXP nor install a new copy.
After formatting the Hard Drive and trying to install Ubuntu like 5 times I finally succeeded! First I tried installing and old Ubuntu version from an old CD I had. The CD had some errors and couldn’t boot. Next I downloaded the latest version of Ubuntu and burned it into an OLD virgin CD which had errors while burning. Finally I burned the image into a NEW virgin CD and tried to install. Most of the times I arrived to the last step of the Installation Wizard, and started installing, but couldn’t install more than 0% :S
Sometimes I got this strange message:
“PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, check cable
Operating system not found”
So then I read somewhere that this error could be product of a bad contacting in the Hard Disk pins, so I did the trick recommended by hundreds of users: violently smack the laptop thrice near the HD connection. Surprisingly it worked!
After that I could install the OS wit no problems. Even though I lost the info in the HD (no biggie) the “soon to be trashed” laptop is now working perfectly! Now I’m selling it on ebay! Any offers??
The repair took almost a whole Sunday but It was worth it and I felt pretty good at the end of the day. Seems like this model isn’t quite robust.
I hope this post helps someone! And never give up when trying to revive your old computers!!
Just this morning I found a Compac Presario SR1040AN “ON A RUBBISH PILE”! In the street while walking my dog. I live in town and people simply leave their discarded PCs out on the footpath. Usually they’ve been cannibalized by the time I pass by and I’m lucky to pick up a spare HD or a DVD-R DRive or a couple of RAM sticks.
This morning I was out early as I’d stayed up all night to watch the World Cup and this computer was completely Intact. Took it home, wiped off the rain water, made sure it was dry and switched it on.
All that was wrong with it was a Grub error.
I installed Ubuntu 10.04 and 50 minutes later I have a fully operational Compac Presario sitting in my office next to my main computer.
What’s wrong with people that they haven’t the patience to investigate the problems with their PCs before they just chuck them out. I’m amazed. No wonder the planets resources are dwindling at such an extraordinary rate.