Computer geeks? Need advice on Christmas gifts

[BeckyScott]

I'm not sure if what we need is even do-able, or how much it's going to cost if it would be worth it to do.

Several months ago, DH bought two laptops at the local college's auction. They are HP's and not terribly outdated but not new models either. He got them for a great price and the plan was to give them to the kids for Christmas.

They no longer have Windows in them, the college erased everything out of them. The college IT guy was at the auction and said to put Win98 in them. (that was what they had before)

They also do not have CD-rom drives, just floppies.

I am stumped, and we are on a very tight budget this year.

I called a local computer repair shop and they said they could put Windows back in them, but they'd have to see them first to give me an estimate.

I want them both to have internet access, we already have a wireless router and I am pretty sure I can handle that part of it myself.

And I was thinking about some sort of external cd-rom? The kids do have a lot of games and of course none of them are on floppies.

In the end, I don't know if it's even going to be worth it to do all of this, if the price of it all, we might as well call it a lesson learned, wait until we can afford new laptops and find someplace to donate these. I dug around online trying to find a way to install Windows myself and got nothing but confused.

I am pretty sure the computer store here will happily take them and soup them up for us, but... we've taken our home computer there and they are very slow and very expensive.

Any advice, suggestions, best options? I'm really stuck. And DH was so proud of finding the bargain.

 

[msmayor]

If they were old enough to be using Win98 as the operating system, they may not be 'new' enough to handle a lot of today's peripherals and technology upgrades. Win98 was 10 years ago...that's the stone-age in today's computer world.

What processor is inside? How much RAM does it have? Are there any USB ports? Does it have a wireless card already installed?

 

[BeckyScott]

Okay. OmniBook 4150.

Not sure what processor is inside or how much RAM, but I'm guessing they haven't been upgraded from the original. There is a USB port. No wireless cards.

I'm going to have to get someone in person to look at these, aren't I?

 

[msmayor]

Okay. OmniBook 4150.

Not sure what processor is inside or how much RAM, but I'm guessing they haven't been upgraded from the original. There is a USB port. No wireless cards.

I'm going to have to get someone in person to look at these, aren't I?

Unless you know the full specs or are comfortable opening it up to find out what they are then yes...you may need to have someone look at it.

I don't know how old your OmniBook is, but I saw one on ebay that has 64MB or RAM. That's not much at all when you think about the memory hogs that some of today's games are. You should check the minimum system requirements of the games your kids will want to play and make sure that the laptop has those specifications...otherwise its nothing more than a flat sliver doorstop.

Also be aware that many of today's faster processors give off a lot of heat; even if you upgrade, the case for the laptop may not be designed well enough to dissipate that heat.

 

[XYSRUS]

I'm no expert, but those computers definitely won't run any games that your kids probably want to play. Today's games use the most technology has to offer. I hear it all the time...oh the kids are just gonna use it to play games...guess what...those games are going to need more power than you and I are ever going to use on a computer as far as word processing, spreadsheets or e-mail. I don't know what to tell you. I wouldn't even waste money putting windows98 in them-it's archaic. Chalk it up to experience, save your money and get a new computer. Just my opinion though. I know how hard it is when money is tight and we want to give to our kids. Good luck.