Good video, Gary! One additional step I'd recommend is to reapply thermal paste on the CPU. I bought a lot of netbooks at Goodwill, and the thermal paste in each device looked like dry and crusty bread. Fresh paste made such a huge difference with temps.
I can't even begin to describe the number of laptops I've "refurbished" like that for family. Heck, my own laptop, that I'm typing this on, was upgraded to an SSD, 16GB of RAM and dual boots Windows and Manjaro Linux. I seldom boot into Windows but it's nice that it's there when I need it.
One thing I have found on old laptops is the heatsink / heat exchange vents get clagged up with dust and fibres. Often just clearing this debris and freeing up air flow will bring a whole new level of performance to an old laptop as the CPU / Graphics won't be throttled due to temperature. A technical step further is to replace the heatsink compound on the CPU / Graphics chips as it tends to dry out. I found old Macbooks particularly suffer this problem, but the OS gives you no indication the hardware is being throttled to keep things cool.
I still use my 2008 MacBook Pro 8 GB, 512GB ssd [windows + Catalina OS + Ubuntu] use this laptop to watch media, and play with embedded electronics like Arduino, PSoC, STM32, FPGA, and SDR. It also runs some simulation software like Matlab. It runs all without sweating. I am amused that the Core 2 duo is so much more powerful even today. I have also reapplied the thermal paste and changed internal fans. And the laptop works like new. Cheers!!
I did a similar upgrade with Win 10 and Mint with the system defaulting to Mint if left to itself during boot. The problem I had was that a windows update needed to be completely monitored. It killed my Linux apparently due to the boot sequence during one update. I later switched to Linux only.
With a multiple boot setup like that you can also choose to make the bootloader select the last booted option automatically (at least grub can). That way if windows update restarts the computer it would default back into windows, and the update should run just fine.
For those looking to stick with windows there is a way to find the proper drivers usually for all the devices such as trackpad or Integrated graphics by using the hardware id from the device manager.
Besides the dusting and maybe reapplying thermal paste to the CPU. I wanted to mention that for weak CPUs or low RAM (or, especially, both) debloating windows is also a good thing to do/check. Though I'm not certain how much of it can be done in the Home Edition. Also, I don't remember the exact mention about the battery in the video, I think Gary said it was actually very good. For an old laptop, if it still has the original battery, other than it being an UPS when the power goes down and you have your several minutes to save your work and close, I would not trust the battery to do more than that. I had some time ago a laptop that was overheating quite a lot (I was pretty stupid and didn't do like almost nothing about it). Still, it worked ok. But after about 2 years, the battery died. To such extent that the laptop wouldn't boot with the battery connected, but would boot without a battery at all (connected to the wall plug, of course). Still, before the battery died, it did had a rather brief period when it started to malfunction. Like you suddenly found yourself with the battery reporting being only 6% and windows quickly shutting down while you were actually working on it. It was quite annoying.
Good video, Gary. I have three old laptops that I use for different purposes. Two run Antix Linux, which is useful if the processor doesn’t support 64 bit, the third runs OpenBSD.
I'm currently reviving an old 2000 Apple iBook G3 clamshell by replacing the logic board with one I've designed that uses the original display, keyboard, trackpad etc - so the laptop looks "stock". The logic board hosts a Raspberry Pi CM4 module (actually currently using a RPi4 for testing). This means the laptop now has usable WiFi, BlueTooth, HDMI 4K output, and is MUCH faster and usaable as a daily driver. The 4:3 screen is also ideal for console/arcade emulation. You can see a video of it running a Sega Dreamcast emulator here (the Dreamcast was from the same era, and obviously would have been impossible to emulate using the original G3 :) ): th-cam.com/video/IeZ-igvxz-Y/w-d-xo.html
I am working on a Dell xps m1210 from 2007. It was given to me and I used it for a couple of years. I pulled it out a week ago and I am tinkering with it. Installed CMOS battery I made myself. Thermal paste, maxing ram and windows 10 soon. So far $0 will be spent by using what I had and asking IT at my work for bits and bobs. I might even buy a cheap ssd for $40. The only problem is the battery is dead and $60 to replace. Any ideas? I dont solder. It is fun!! If I break it oh well! 🙂💻
I bought a refurbished DELL Latitude E7450 from my local computer shop after selling my MacBook Air to them (wanted a computer I could upgrade). I run Xubuntu 22.04 on it and I also run the same on my 11 year old Lenovo ThinkCentre M3306-G2U. These systems are old, but they're damn good performers. The ThinkCentre is my gaming PC and main system and the DELL is my on the go system. I don't any modern computers. These old puppers are just fine.
I did almost the same thing with a 2011 MacBook Pro for a friend recently. The SSD made it really much more performant, although the extra RAM helped too. Keep in mind that you can turn the old hard drive into an external with a cheap case, making it quite easy to transfer the OS and data. For Mac, I like to use Carbon Copy Cloner. I don’t dual boot an Intel Mac because it’s very easy to use VMWare or VirtualBox to run a plethora of other operating systems simultaneously.
I've put the full version of Linux Mint on a 2009 toshiba laptop, that had belonged to my dad. The laptop was a beast in it's day. Had 8 gigs of ram. Ran like a dream with Mint on it, till it sadly broke about a year and a half later. The CPU shorted out. Even my brother who is a wizz at electronics couldn't fix it. Used the full version of Linux mint on my 2016 toshiba Laptop. Before it was using 8.1 and couldn't even run Blender, it couldn't even open. Ran better on Mint, am able to do basic messing around with blender on it 🙂 Saved me from loosing my mind with all the issues I was having with Windows period. Changing over even on my Desktop helped me keep my sanity. Windows had become such an issue for me that it actually had more drawbacks than the linux, and that is saying something. That even me, who isn't all that clued up, Knowing just enough to put a OS on my computer and google basic issues could use Linux.
I basically did the same as what you did. I pretty much updated the hard drive to a 500GB SSD and installed Linux Mint with Cinnamon fully. Sadly, something is wrong with the web cam; image is upside down. Tried everything to fix the matter, but couldn't figure out what to do. So I just blocked the lens and use my smart phone as an external web cam. I haven't gotten the time to replace the keyboard, as the keys do not respond. So for now I just have a mini wireless keyboard and trackpad linked to the laptop. Despite those issues, the laptop runs faster now. It's always refreshing to learn that you can give life back to old hardware, even for a new purpose. New hardware are not only becoming too expensive, but are also becoming near impossible to repair and reuse. And with cost of living getting higher and expensive, there being a huge market for buying broken hardware to salvage and Frankenstein the good parts can be very beneficial for the environment and save more money in the process.
I have a Lenovo B570 i3 from 2011, upgraded to SSD and more RAM about 6 years ago, nice fast start up with Windows 10, also kept the old hard drive putting it in the optical bay. It has a 2.4Ghz Wifi module, kind of tempted to look at a Wifi 6 mini PCIE module to replace it as they seem to be available fairly cheaply but not sure if I really need that.
I've rejuvenated lots of old PCs (I just can't throw away still working stuff). But the thing that get's me more and more these days is the power consumption of the old hardware. Sometimes, it's better to get a new device from eBay that uses much less power than using the older hardware, just becaus it still works.
Working on this myself on a 2011 Probook 4430s. Doing the same 1tb SSD, opting for 16 gb of ram, and I am able to replace the CPU, putting in a fresh bluetooth card, and swapping out the I5 for an I7. Add some fresh thermal paste, and that thing should be good for another decade. I've been thinking about doing the dual-boot as well, as I think it would be handy.
Linux is a pretty good choice, most of the drivers for the hardware will be baked into the Kernel, so no need to configure modules needed for your hardware (in most cases). I too like to be different and will usually use BSD based systems, but configuring the kernel modules for the hardware can be time consuming and painful.
I have a 2009 netbook with an Intel Atom Z520 (slower than an N270) that I use to manage my home Proxmox server. It's nice to have a built-in Ethernet port.
My 14" laptop is slightly older, it is an i5-2520M from Q4-2011 also with 8GB DDR3. It has 2 functions; laptop (twice/year) and backup for the desktop (weekly) and that is why it has a 2 TB HDD and no SSD. In Q2-2017 I bought this off-lease HP Elitebook for ~€200. On the desktop I moved all my apps to Virtualbox VMs. Due to the backup I run exactly the same VMs with the same data on the road and at home. I run the VMs from ZFS and thus from its memory cache. For me the laptop still works fine with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and OpenZFS, however I intend to replace that 12 year old laptop the coming year.
Did the same on a similar age Samsung laptop last week, internals look very much like that laptop you upgraded. I stuck with Mint 21.2 beta though, works very well.
You do be singing from my hymnbook Gary. You did almost exactly what i did to an old Lenovo T-500. Which now happily runs Linux Mint and it's a bunch faster to startup and thanks to Calibre, it has the Baen Free Library ready to read when we travel. True, given the lower prices on SSDs, I could install a larger one for dual boot - just haven't got around to that as Mint / Cinnamon is so nice to use.
I still use my acere aspire 5220 for video editing and web surfing, got to be 15- 20 years old now, just put a new dvd drive in it (2007) for £6, sweet
I used to do this a lot, but I have become spoiled and now I don't want any fan noise (old PCs tend to be noisy) and prefer quad cores for general use (but I have several dual cores for specific uses). Truth is I have so many modern PCs that I have retired many of the older ones, including the upgraded ones. My main PC is relatively old (4th gen i7 desktop) but powerful and with 32GB of RAM and I have 5 modern laptops with 16GB RAM (all upgradable to W11), plus 2 Macs with 16GB RAM, and a few more laptops and MacBooks with 8GB for specific uses. Makes no sense anymore to try and fin a use for older laptops
In my opinion, it's advisable to give old computers a really good clean first and I mean the inside as well as the outside and renew the thermal paste and test the cmos battery and then follow your procedure, I would not bother installing Windows though as it makes old laptops obsolete.
My process (ranked): 1. Replace HDD with SSD. 2. Add more RAM. 3. Change/upgrade OS. 4. Clean inside. 5. Add new thermal paste. I have a laptop from 2012 that runs Chrome and TH-cam flawlessly.
You can buy DDR3L sodimm which works with sodimm DDR3. I'm guessing if it was ivybridge, sandbybridge you can swap the CPU as well. I went with TLC SSD without DRAM which is sufficient for daily usage.
I recently got an old Macbook Air and put Ubuntu on it. I runs better and it's got modern software support. All of the features (including special key assignments) work perfectly fine.
With a machine like this I will tell you from decades of experience, there is no point spending so much money on something that ultimately wont get much use. Find spares for things like ram from other machines, you will never notice the difference between matching sticks vs a random stick to get the capacity up. An SSD will make a huge difference but just get a 128gb drive, that celeron won't like handling large files or indexing a huge drive. A free 10 year old low spec computer is like a free broken pot, yes you can repair it but it's not really worth spending a lot of time and money on.
Thanks for the reminder, I have a couple of older laptops in need of this treatment. With larger than 5.6" displays 😉(I know you corrected that on screen)
Within the first couple minutes of the video, you mentioned the specs for this laptop. You mentioned twice that is a 5.6 inch display? Did I hear that right? I’ve never heard of a laptop for such a small display.
SSD worked wonders on my 8 year old core i3 3220 dual core PC running windows 10. My motherboard didn't even have SATA III port 😂 but it was faster than the day I bought it.
You can install Linux only, you don't need to do dual boot like I did. The Linux performance will be the same single boot or dual boot, that doesn't alter.
So sad for me. My very old 2002 Compaq has build quality that blows away my newer high horsepower laptop. The keyboard feel, the wireless set-up and other feature are so much more functional. Alas, it has a dinosaur processor and finding more RAM has been a challenge. It's too good to trash yet too old to be up to spec in 2023. 😢
Besides Haiku, you can also try putting Gentoo on it. If you've never worked with it before, it will be quite the hassle to configure it (not to mention, you'd better compile things on another machine). But it has the potential to be the most minimalistic Linux, and to have it work best/fastest. That's because you can compile specifically for your CPU. And you can choose to not have things you don't need (like simply not compile anything bluetooth related). Of course, you can do that on other distros too, but in Gentoo this is much more streamlined, it's made so you can have this level of customisation for every program you have installed.
It will support 8GB for sure. If you can buy the memory from a place that will allow you no-fault returns then you can try 16GB (8x2) or 32GB (16x2) and then send it back if it doesn't work. If you don't have that option then 8GB is the safe bet.
Some sort of low overhead Linux build? Kubuntu? Mint? Edit: I recently picked up an great condition Lenovo Thinkpad P50 with an i7 6820HQ, 32GB RAM but no HDDs or SDDs for a song. Some office was chucking them away as they were upgrading. It also came with a 4GB Quadro M2000M dedicated graphics card, and not one but 2x nvme ssd slots as well as slots for 2x 2.5" HDDs. It can also run XEONs and ECC ram. Why anyone would chuck such impressive specs away is beyond me 😂
I tried to replace my laptop (ASUS- X8AI / year 2011) HDD with SSD sata but the laptop seem to be incompatible with it. I searched in the net for the issue and found that SSD's can not be used on dual core pentium 64 bit, i3 and above are supported. I wasted 4-5 day re-formatting many times for Linuxmint.
I would be surprised if that is the reason, I can't think of any technical issue that would mean an SSD isn't supported on a given CPU. The interface (i.e. SATA) is the same between a HDD and SSD.
@@GaryExplains I have a laptop which does not like most SSDs., it's a Lenovo L420 and it worked fine with a small capacity SSD., (64 gig.,) but not with larger capacity ones, so I installed a 7200 rpm., 500 gig., HD., and the laptop is currently working well with Linux Mint Mate installed, SSDs., operate at a higher temperature than mechanical hard drives, so that may be the reason why that laptop is not keen on them.
Unfortunately crucial 512 SSD didn't worked. It used to get installed but later after boot generated lot's of error and ultimately wouldn't worked, I tried many times ( lost 1 TBW / 150 TBW total ) . But it worked fine with my brother laptop with i7 sony Vaio laptop of 2012.
I don't doubt you had problems with the SSD. That is unfortunate. But I doubt it was the CPU. I have used SSDs on the desktop with pre Intel Core processors from 2008. No problem. It is likely that the BIOS needed updating or the laptop had a fault. In this video I am using a dual core Celeron.
You said the CPU wasn't upgradeable, but your re-pasting video clearly shows that it's a socketed CPU, so it is upgradeable. Doing a little research on the laptop model should provide a list of much faster CPUs that will work in that motherboard (chipset & firmware compatible). If you could upgrade to an i5, that would provide a huge performance boost! Also, 45 mins on battery is good?... No it isn't. If you want to use this as a laptop, get a new battery too.
I have a core 2 duo desktop with 4gb ddr 2 Ram😅 I tried everything to make some use of it. Nothing worked, wanted to make it a NAS, but won't let me install relevant softwares😅 Any idea on what I can do with it?
You should be able to install Linux and configure a NAS manually. Here is a document I wrote on how to do it with a Raspberry Pi, it will work on your machine as well. github.com/garyexplains/examples/blob/master/how-to-build-a-raspberry-pi-nas.md
@@GaryExplainsOh sorry didn't notice it at all. On desktop, it's below the YT progress bar and covered by the chapter titles, etc. I think it'll be a good idea to place text a little higher. Thanks for the awesome videos btw :)
you should really measure the performance of this laptop before and after this revival exercises and then comment on whether a worthwhile time spent on it.
Obviously the overall system performance improved, like boot time, and app launch. But the raw CPU performance (number crunching) doesn't change. Definitely worth it.
I am using my 2014 i3(4th gen) hp laptop by replacing hdd with ssd and doubled ram (8gb). It's not fast but I was able to participate zoom calls during pandemic. I should try Linux when Windows10 runs out of support in 2025!
30€ for 8GB of RAM is rather expensive. I've paid 30€ for a brand new kit of DDR3 Sodimm 16GB 1600MT CL 11 Gskill Ripjaws 2 days (in Western Europe) ago to upgrade my HP Elitedesk 800 G1 mini that I use as a Proxmox VE platform. Which bring me to a possible future video idea for you: why not make a video about moving away from expensive and underpowered Raspberry Pi's and virtualizing them on older x86 hardware? I've moved away from my 3 Pi's running all kinds of services a couple of months ago and it's great, the performance of the little Elitedesk is amazing compared to a Pi as is the upgradeability, also think the power draw isn't as bad on these little systems. IMHO this is something your target audience would enjoy.
@@GaryExplains I did, but as far as I can remember it didn't go into virtualization, but I can be mistaking. But you probably made a video about that topic as well. 🙂
@@PihkalTheTihkal You are right, I didn't get into virtualization. Can you give me an example of 2 or 3 things that you virtualize? What do you use Hyper V?
@@GaryExplains I'm using Proxmox VE as a level 1 hypervisor, it's Linux based, open source and 100% free if you don't need support from them. Things I used to use SBC's for which I've now virtualized: 1. Home Assistant: Used to have its own dedicated Pi 3, now is a Proxmox VM. 2. PiHole & PiVPN: Both used to run on a Pi 1, now both have their own LXC (LinuX Container) in Proxmox. Technically this could have been one container but I choose to make one for each. 3. Open Media Vault: Used to run on a dedicated Banana Pi M1 with SATA storage attached to it, now once again is a VM with it's own SSD storage. (still no RAID or redundancy though) 4. Decided to upgrade my home router to something decent, so I've added an extra NIC to my little HP machine and created a pfSense VM. These are my "production" VM's/containers, besides those there are a couple more VM's on it that I only fire up when I need Windows for something or want to mess around in a disposable Linux distro. All of this is running on the little HP Elitedesk 800 G1 mini that I mentioned in my initial reply, the little machine cost me 65€, with 8GB of RAM and a 250GB SSD. I've now upgraded it to 16GB/1TB (+70€) so in total (135€) it still costs less than an 8GB Pi4 and is far more powerful. It has been rock solid, I really like it plus it's a great learning experience.
SALUDOS DESDE MEXICO, Actualice una lenovo g470 con celeron b800 4gb de ram y hdd de 480 gb a un i7 2720 con 16 gb de ram y ssd de 2tb con w11 pro y va muy bien actualice otra una asus a44h con 4 gb de ram hdd de 320gb y pentium b960 a i5 2520 2tb de ssd y 8g de ram ya que solo tiene un slot de ram con w11 pro y funciona igual o mejor que la otra con i7.
You can install W11 over W10 with Rufus+11 ISO + Flash Drive. Runs on a 1st gen Lenovo 11e with a N2## Celeron CPU, 2nd,4th, 6th and 9th gen Intel CPU's.
I keep finding this kind of videos but most of them are not for very old laptops, only for not so old ones lol mine can't be sabes, it doesn't even have 400mb of ram 😂 not even the trashiest versions of linux work with it
Yes they do. The easy version would be antix linux. It uses 150 to about 200 MB of RAM at startup. And you can also use Gentoo, but that is a much more harder endeavor. But you can create with it the most optimized version of linux.
i upgraded my i3 4th gen laptop with an SSD and 8gb of ram... used it for a couple of months... still ended up buying the M1 MacBook Air ... and the old laptop is again useless :p
Good video, Gary! One additional step I'd recommend is to reapply thermal paste on the CPU. I bought a lot of netbooks at Goodwill, and the thermal paste in each device looked like dry and crusty bread. Fresh paste made such a huge difference with temps.
True
I can't even begin to describe the number of laptops I've "refurbished" like that for family. Heck, my own laptop, that I'm typing this on, was upgraded to an SSD, 16GB of RAM and dual boots Windows and Manjaro Linux. I seldom boot into Windows but it's nice that it's there when I need it.
One thing I have found on old laptops is the heatsink / heat exchange vents get clagged up with dust and fibres. Often just clearing this debris and freeing up air flow will bring a whole new level of performance to an old laptop as the CPU / Graphics won't be throttled due to temperature. A technical step further is to replace the heatsink compound on the CPU / Graphics chips as it tends to dry out. I found old Macbooks particularly suffer this problem, but the OS gives you no indication the hardware is being throttled to keep things cool.
I have a Core 2 duo PC (2008), SSD+Ram+linux (now using Void ) gave new life to it 🎉👍 it's not much , but I love my PC , ❤
May also be worthwhile running software to test if cpu running hot and throttling. If so the fan probably needs cleaning out of a decade's dust
Good idea 👍
I still use my 2008 MacBook Pro 8 GB, 512GB ssd [windows + Catalina OS + Ubuntu] use this laptop to watch media, and play with embedded electronics like Arduino, PSoC, STM32, FPGA, and SDR. It also runs some simulation software like Matlab.
It runs all without sweating. I am amused that the Core 2 duo is so much more powerful even today.
I have also reapplied the thermal paste and changed internal fans. And the laptop works like new.
Cheers!!
I did a similar upgrade with Win 10 and Mint with the system defaulting to Mint if left to itself during boot. The problem I had was that a windows update needed to be completely monitored. It killed my Linux apparently due to the boot sequence during one update. I later switched to Linux only.
With a multiple boot setup like that you can also choose to make the bootloader select the last booted option automatically (at least grub can). That way if windows update restarts the computer it would default back into windows, and the update should run just fine.
@@qwertyazerty1439 I believe part of the problem is that Windows tends to mess with the boot loader too.
For those looking to stick with windows there is a way to find the proper drivers usually for all the devices such as trackpad or Integrated graphics by using the hardware id from the device manager.
Besides the dusting and maybe reapplying thermal paste to the CPU. I wanted to mention that for weak CPUs or low RAM (or, especially, both) debloating windows is also a good thing to do/check. Though I'm not certain how much of it can be done in the Home Edition.
Also, I don't remember the exact mention about the battery in the video, I think Gary said it was actually very good. For an old laptop, if it still has the original battery, other than it being an UPS when the power goes down and you have your several minutes to save your work and close, I would not trust the battery to do more than that.
I had some time ago a laptop that was overheating quite a lot (I was pretty stupid and didn't do like almost nothing about it). Still, it worked ok. But after about 2 years, the battery died. To such extent that the laptop wouldn't boot with the battery connected, but would boot without a battery at all (connected to the wall plug, of course). Still, before the battery died, it did had a rather brief period when it started to malfunction. Like you suddenly found yourself with the battery reporting being only 6% and windows quickly shutting down while you were actually working on it. It was quite annoying.
Good video, Gary. I have three old laptops that I use for different purposes. Two run Antix Linux, which is useful if the processor doesn’t support 64 bit, the third runs OpenBSD.
I'm currently reviving an old 2000 Apple iBook G3 clamshell by replacing the logic board with one I've designed that uses the original display, keyboard, trackpad etc - so the laptop looks "stock". The logic board hosts a Raspberry Pi CM4 module (actually currently using a RPi4 for testing). This means the laptop now has usable WiFi, BlueTooth, HDMI 4K output, and is MUCH faster and usaable as a daily driver. The 4:3 screen is also ideal for console/arcade emulation. You can see a video of it running a Sega Dreamcast emulator here (the Dreamcast was from the same era, and obviously would have been impossible to emulate using the original G3 :) ): th-cam.com/video/IeZ-igvxz-Y/w-d-xo.html
Nice!
I am working on a Dell xps m1210 from 2007. It was given to me and I used it for a couple of years. I pulled it out a week ago and I am tinkering with it. Installed CMOS battery I made myself. Thermal paste, maxing ram and windows 10 soon. So far $0 will be spent by using what I had and asking IT at my work for bits and bobs. I might even buy a cheap ssd for $40.
The only problem is the battery is dead and $60 to replace. Any ideas? I dont solder.
It is fun!! If I break it oh well! 🙂💻
I had an old Thinkpad and I put mint on it and it worked fine, no fans or slowness. I'm on a modern laptop now but still using Mint.
I bought a refurbished DELL Latitude E7450 from my local computer shop after selling my MacBook Air to them (wanted a computer I could upgrade). I run Xubuntu 22.04 on it and I also run the same on my 11 year old Lenovo ThinkCentre M3306-G2U.
These systems are old, but they're damn good performers. The ThinkCentre is my gaming PC and main system and the DELL is my on the go system.
I don't any modern computers. These old puppers are just fine.
I did almost the same thing with a 2011 MacBook Pro for a friend recently. The SSD made it really much more performant, although the extra RAM helped too. Keep in mind that you can turn the old hard drive into an external with a cheap case, making it quite easy to transfer the OS and data. For Mac, I like to use Carbon Copy Cloner. I don’t dual boot an Intel Mac because it’s very easy to use VMWare or VirtualBox to run a plethora of other operating systems simultaneously.
could have put some new thermal paste on the CPU
I've put the full version of Linux Mint on a 2009 toshiba laptop, that had belonged to my dad. The laptop was a beast in it's day. Had 8 gigs of ram. Ran like a dream with Mint on it, till it sadly broke about a year and a half later. The CPU shorted out. Even my brother who is a wizz at electronics couldn't fix it.
Used the full version of Linux mint on my 2016 toshiba Laptop. Before it was using 8.1 and couldn't even run Blender, it couldn't even open. Ran better on Mint, am able to do basic messing around with blender on it 🙂
Saved me from loosing my mind with all the issues I was having with Windows period. Changing over even on my Desktop helped me keep my sanity. Windows had become such an issue for me that it actually had more drawbacks than the linux, and that is saying something. That even me, who isn't all that clued up, Knowing just enough to put a OS on my computer and google basic issues could use Linux.
Wow... a 2012 laptop seems so brand new if you're into retro computing... :D
I basically did the same as what you did. I pretty much updated the hard drive to a 500GB SSD and installed Linux Mint with Cinnamon fully. Sadly, something is wrong with the web cam; image is upside down. Tried everything to fix the matter, but couldn't figure out what to do. So I just blocked the lens and use my smart phone as an external web cam. I haven't gotten the time to replace the keyboard, as the keys do not respond. So for now I just have a mini wireless keyboard and trackpad linked to the laptop. Despite those issues, the laptop runs faster now.
It's always refreshing to learn that you can give life back to old hardware, even for a new purpose. New hardware are not only becoming too expensive, but are also becoming near impossible to repair and reuse. And with cost of living getting higher and expensive, there being a huge market for buying broken hardware to salvage and Frankenstein the good parts can be very beneficial for the environment and save more money in the process.
I have a Lenovo B570 i3 from 2011, upgraded to SSD and more RAM about 6 years ago, nice fast start up with Windows 10, also kept the old hard drive putting it in the optical bay. It has a 2.4Ghz Wifi module, kind of tempted to look at a Wifi 6 mini PCIE module to replace it as they seem to be available fairly cheaply but not sure if I really need that.
0:50 i agree. A 5.6 inch display is indeed very good
No thermal paste re-pasting??
I've rejuvenated lots of old PCs (I just can't throw away still working stuff). But the thing that get's me more and more these days is the power consumption of the old hardware. Sometimes, it's better to get a new device from eBay that uses much less power than using the older hardware, just becaus it still works.
p.s. Reincarnation is disallowed for some denominations of the One True Religion. Ask your popes why.
And also fan noise often, in addition to power consumption...
5.6 inch? Hmmm…what exactly were you thinking of reviving there, Gary??!! 😮
😂 Obviously I misspoke, I did put a correction on the screen.
@@GaryExplains haha yes, i saw that. Good occasion for a laugh though, eh ;)
Working on this myself on a 2011 Probook 4430s. Doing the same 1tb SSD, opting for 16 gb of ram, and I am able to replace the CPU, putting in a fresh bluetooth card, and swapping out the I5 for an I7. Add some fresh thermal paste, and that thing should be good for another decade.
I've been thinking about doing the dual-boot as well, as I think it would be handy.
let me guess? linux?
Maybe watch the video rather than guess. 🤷♂️
@@GaryExplains i will but i like to guess also.
Are you a medium? Because your read my mind. Ahahahahaha.
How about Haiku? It's able to be a daily driver OS these days.
Linux is a pretty good choice, most of the drivers for the hardware will be baked into the Kernel, so no need to configure modules needed for your hardware (in most cases). I too like to be different and will usually use BSD based systems, but configuring the kernel modules for the hardware can be time consuming and painful.
I have done about the same upgrade on a MacBook Air 2011 and a cople of ThinkPads from about 2011-12. Run like a bullett.
Using a 2011 MBP with a dual core I5, 16GB of RAM and a SATA3 SSD. Replaced OSX with MX21.3 (KDE) and it works great.
I have a 2009 netbook with an Intel Atom Z520 (slower than an N270) that I use to manage my home Proxmox server. It's nice to have a built-in Ethernet port.
My 14" laptop is slightly older, it is an i5-2520M from Q4-2011 also with 8GB DDR3. It has 2 functions; laptop (twice/year) and backup for the desktop (weekly) and that is why it has a 2 TB HDD and no SSD. In Q2-2017 I bought this off-lease HP Elitebook for ~€200. On the desktop I moved all my apps to Virtualbox VMs. Due to the backup I run exactly the same VMs with the same data on the road and at home. I run the VMs from ZFS and thus from its memory cache. For me the laptop still works fine with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and OpenZFS, however I intend to replace that 12 year old laptop the coming year.
Did the same on a similar age Samsung laptop last week, internals look very much like that laptop you upgraded. I stuck with Mint 21.2 beta though, works very well.
I have an old laptop from 2009 and the CPU is actually socketed and can be upgraded. That CPU likely could be upgraded as well if you check
@garyexplains Did you consider Chromeos Flex? Your thoughts?
You do be singing from my hymnbook Gary. You did almost exactly what i did to an old Lenovo T-500. Which now happily runs Linux Mint and it's a bunch faster to startup and thanks to Calibre, it has the Baen Free Library ready to read when we travel. True, given the lower prices on SSDs, I could install a larger one for dual boot - just haven't got around to that as Mint / Cinnamon is so nice to use.
did the same thing not long ago, but before changing the ram and disk, i applied new thermal paste. 20% performance gained right there.
I watched the yt short earlier today and thought the video was already uploaded 😅.
This video's a great guide. ⭐
such older laptops, you can sometimes change the CPU as well
I still use my acere aspire 5220 for video editing and web surfing, got to be 15- 20 years old now, just put a new dvd drive in it (2007) for £6, sweet
Linux is great, moved there about 10 years ago, best move I made. PCLinuxOS seems to work best, Mint and Puppy are also great distros
I used to do this a lot, but I have become spoiled and now I don't want any fan noise (old PCs tend to be noisy) and prefer quad cores for general use (but I have several dual cores for specific uses). Truth is I have so many modern PCs that I have retired many of the older ones, including the upgraded ones. My main PC is relatively old (4th gen i7 desktop) but powerful and with 32GB of RAM and I have 5 modern laptops with 16GB RAM (all upgradable to W11), plus 2 Macs with 16GB RAM, and a few more laptops and MacBooks with 8GB for specific uses. Makes no sense anymore to try and fin a use for older laptops
In my opinion, it's advisable to give old computers a really good clean first and I mean the inside as well as the outside and renew the thermal paste and test the cmos battery and then follow your procedure, I would not bother installing Windows though as it makes old laptops obsolete.
Did same thing to dell i5 3543. Just swapped HDD with cheap but quality PNY SSD 😉
My process (ranked):
1. Replace HDD with SSD.
2. Add more RAM.
3. Change/upgrade OS.
4. Clean inside.
5. Add new thermal paste.
I have a laptop from 2012 that runs Chrome and TH-cam flawlessly.
Priority wise
1. Install an SSD
2. Install Linux
3. Upgrade ram to 8gb. (Assuming you had 4GB previously)
I revived the lowliest laptop ever: Asus Aspire One. I still use it as my travel computer. Did exactly as you presented (Lubuntu).
Same.. Tried many different Distros along with Mint.
You can buy DDR3L sodimm which works with sodimm DDR3. I'm guessing if it was ivybridge, sandbybridge you can swap the CPU as well. I went with TLC SSD without DRAM which is sufficient for daily usage.
I recently got an old Macbook Air and put Ubuntu on it. I runs better and it's got modern software support. All of the features (including special key assignments) work perfectly fine.
would have put Tiny10 on it
For that computer the CPU can be upgraded
When friends and family come to me with an old and slow computer, this is pretty much my procedure. Max out RAM, SSD, and a fresh OS install.
With a machine like this I will tell you from decades of experience, there is no point spending so much money on something that ultimately wont get much use. Find spares for things like ram from other machines, you will never notice the difference between matching sticks vs a random stick to get the capacity up. An SSD will make a huge difference but just get a 128gb drive, that celeron won't like handling large files or indexing a huge drive. A free 10 year old low spec computer is like a free broken pot, yes you can repair it but it's not really worth spending a lot of time and money on.
Well I disagree. As I said, a smaller drive could be used, but for my purposes I am happy with my choice... And I also have "decades of experience".
@@GaryExplains hes right tho
Thanks for the reminder, I have a couple of older laptops in need of this treatment. With larger than 5.6" displays 😉(I know you corrected that on screen)
Within the first couple minutes of the video, you mentioned the specs for this laptop. You mentioned twice that is a 5.6 inch display? Did I hear that right? I’ve never heard of a laptop for such a small display.
I misspoke, it is 15.6, I put a text correction overlay.
@@GaryExplains OK. Did not see the overlay. I am blind. Literally.
Nicely done! Love Linux!! 😊
Outstanding free advice. 👌
SSD worked wonders on my 8 year old core i3 3220 dual core PC running windows 10. My motherboard didn't even have SATA III port 😂 but it was faster than the day I bought it.
Very interesting. I wonder how much of a performance upgrade it would be if the old laptop just ran Linux?
Is that even possible?
You can install Linux only, you don't need to do dual boot like I did. The Linux performance will be the same single boot or dual boot, that doesn't alter.
i got late 2012 mac min and mac air
just simply putting linux on them makes it run better
Old laptops make for great home servers, self hosting etc. I use Yunohost
I see CasaOS is becoming a thing now, too. It's pretty easy to use.
A little ram and an SSD that's always my answer to this
So sad for me. My very old 2002 Compaq has build quality that blows away my newer high horsepower laptop. The keyboard feel, the wireless set-up and other feature are so much more functional. Alas, it has a dinosaur processor and finding more RAM has been a challenge. It's too good to trash yet too old to be up to spec in 2023. 😢
Try Haiku OS.
It should fly on your old machine.
It's almost ready to be a daily driver OS.
Besides Haiku, you can also try putting Gentoo on it. If you've never worked with it before, it will be quite the hassle to configure it (not to mention, you'd better compile things on another machine). But it has the potential to be the most minimalistic Linux, and to have it work best/fastest. That's because you can compile specifically for your CPU. And you can choose to not have things you don't need (like simply not compile anything bluetooth related). Of course, you can do that on other distros too, but in Gentoo this is much more streamlined, it's made so you can have this level of customisation for every program you have installed.
Will windows get deactivated?
Hi gary. How to check maximum ram capacity i can upgrade?
Just Google the laptop model number and look around a bit and you will likely find the information.
@@GaryExplains I already google it but cannot find asus a46cm wy095d. There is article write its support 8gb, other article said 32gb
It will support 8GB for sure. If you can buy the memory from a place that will allow you no-fault returns then you can try 16GB (8x2) or 32GB (16x2) and then send it back if it doesn't work. If you don't have that option then 8GB is the safe bet.
@@GaryExplains thank you Gary
Thanks for this nicely presented video.
Glad you liked it!
Some sort of low overhead Linux build? Kubuntu? Mint?
Edit: I recently picked up an great condition Lenovo Thinkpad P50 with an i7 6820HQ, 32GB RAM but no HDDs or SDDs for a song. Some office was chucking them away as they were upgrading.
It also came with a 4GB Quadro M2000M dedicated graphics card, and not one but 2x nvme ssd slots as well as slots for 2x 2.5" HDDs.
It can also run XEONs and ECC ram.
Why anyone would chuck such impressive specs away is beyond me 😂
Maybe you should watch the video.
@@GaryExplainsaha! Called it mate 👍
Gary wisely installed Win first before Linux, and not the other way around.
If you do try it the other way round then you will get problems later!
Indeed, it is important to do it that way around.
Are the two OSs completely separate, or do they share a common data area?
The linux install will be able to read the windows partition but not the other way around. Unless you purposefully configure a shared storage area.
I tried to replace my laptop (ASUS- X8AI / year 2011) HDD with SSD sata but the laptop seem to be incompatible with it.
I searched in the net for the issue and found that SSD's can not be used on dual core pentium 64 bit, i3 and above are supported.
I wasted 4-5 day re-formatting many times for Linuxmint.
I would be surprised if that is the reason, I can't think of any technical issue that would mean an SSD isn't supported on a given CPU. The interface (i.e. SATA) is the same between a HDD and SSD.
@@GaryExplains I have a laptop which does not like most SSDs., it's a Lenovo L420 and it worked fine with a small capacity SSD., (64 gig.,) but not with larger capacity ones, so I installed a 7200 rpm., 500 gig., HD., and the laptop is currently working well with Linux Mint Mate installed, SSDs., operate at a higher temperature than mechanical hard drives, so that may be the reason why that laptop is not keen on them.
Unfortunately crucial 512 SSD didn't worked. It used to get installed but later after boot generated lot's of error and ultimately wouldn't worked, I tried many times ( lost 1 TBW / 150 TBW total ) .
But it worked fine with my brother laptop with i7 sony Vaio laptop of 2012.
I don't doubt you had problems with the SSD. That is unfortunate. But I doubt it was the CPU. I have used SSDs on the desktop with pre Intel Core processors from 2008. No problem. It is likely that the BIOS needed updating or the laptop had a fault. In this video I am using a dual core Celeron.
Another alternative for someone who wants/needs windows is windows 10 ltsc. Lighter/faster/better
You said the CPU wasn't upgradeable, but your re-pasting video clearly shows that it's a socketed CPU, so it is upgradeable. Doing a little research on the laptop model should provide a list of much faster CPUs that will work in that motherboard (chipset & firmware compatible). If you could upgrade to an i5, that would provide a huge performance boost!
Also, 45 mins on battery is good?... No it isn't. If you want to use this as a laptop, get a new battery too.
I have a core 2 duo desktop with 4gb ddr 2 Ram😅
I tried everything to make some use of it. Nothing worked, wanted to make it a NAS, but won't let me install relevant softwares😅
Any idea on what I can do with it?
You should be able to install Linux and configure a NAS manually. Here is a document I wrote on how to do it with a Raspberry Pi, it will work on your machine as well. github.com/garyexplains/examples/blob/master/how-to-build-a-raspberry-pi-nas.md
1:15 5.6 inches? Did you mean 15.6?
Yes, of course I meant 15.6, I put a text correction on the screen.
@@GaryExplainsOh sorry didn't notice it at all. On desktop, it's below the YT progress bar and covered by the chapter titles, etc. I think it'll be a good idea to place text a little higher. Thanks for the awesome videos btw :)
6:36 "that was a win-win situation"
No, it was a Lin-Win situation methinks :-)
new CPU, more RAM and SSD is good upgrade
Wow a 5.6" laptop 😂
😂 Yeah I misspoke, but I did show a correction.
@@GaryExplains his Parole Officer ... 🙂
£70 to extend the life is not bad, but it is a gamble, how long it will last, as nothing lasts for ever.
Indeed. As I said I could have bought a much cheaper SSD and only bought one RAM SODIMM. That would have reduced the cost significantly.
@@GaryExplains It is still a usable spare laptop when needed and not in landfill.
you should really measure the performance of this laptop before and after this revival exercises and then comment on whether a worthwhile time spent on it.
Obviously the overall system performance improved, like boot time, and app launch. But the raw CPU performance (number crunching) doesn't change. Definitely worth it.
I've got a 2008 MacBook with an SSD, maximum 4Gb RAM and Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon, and it's still a useful machine.
I am using my 2014 i3(4th gen) hp laptop by replacing hdd with ssd and doubled ram (8gb). It's not fast but I was able to participate zoom calls during pandemic. I should try Linux when Windows10 runs out of support in 2025!
30€ for 8GB of RAM is rather expensive.
I've paid 30€ for a brand new kit of DDR3 Sodimm 16GB 1600MT CL 11 Gskill Ripjaws 2 days (in Western Europe) ago to upgrade my HP Elitedesk 800 G1 mini that I use as a Proxmox VE platform.
Which bring me to a possible future video idea for you:
why not make a video about moving away from expensive and underpowered Raspberry Pi's and virtualizing them on older x86 hardware?
I've moved away from my 3 Pi's running all kinds of services a couple of months ago and it's great, the performance of the little Elitedesk is amazing compared to a Pi as is the upgradeability, also think the power draw isn't as bad on these little systems.
IMHO this is something your target audience would enjoy.
Did you see my video on using a PC as a Pi alternative?
@@GaryExplains I did, but as far as I can remember it didn't go into virtualization, but I can be mistaking.
But you probably made a video about that topic as well. 🙂
@@PihkalTheTihkal You are right, I didn't get into virtualization. Can you give me an example of 2 or 3 things that you virtualize? What do you use Hyper V?
@@GaryExplains I'm using Proxmox VE as a level 1 hypervisor, it's Linux based, open source and 100% free if you don't need support from them.
Things I used to use SBC's for which I've now virtualized:
1. Home Assistant: Used to have its own dedicated Pi 3, now is a Proxmox VM.
2. PiHole & PiVPN: Both used to run on a Pi 1, now both have their own LXC (LinuX Container) in Proxmox. Technically this could have been one container but I choose to make one for each.
3. Open Media Vault: Used to run on a dedicated Banana Pi M1 with SATA storage attached to it, now once again is a VM with it's own SSD storage. (still no RAID or redundancy though)
4. Decided to upgrade my home router to something decent, so I've added an extra NIC to my little HP machine and created a pfSense VM.
These are my "production" VM's/containers, besides those there are a couple more VM's on it that I only fire up when I need Windows for something or want to mess around in a disposable Linux distro.
All of this is running on the little HP Elitedesk 800 G1 mini that I mentioned in my initial reply, the little machine cost me 65€, with 8GB of RAM and a 250GB SSD.
I've now upgraded it to 16GB/1TB (+70€) so in total (135€) it still costs less than an 8GB Pi4 and is far more powerful.
It has been rock solid, I really like it plus it's a great learning experience.
SALUDOS DESDE MEXICO, Actualice una lenovo g470 con celeron b800 4gb de ram y hdd de 480 gb a un i7 2720 con 16 gb de ram y ssd de 2tb con w11 pro y va muy bien actualice otra una asus a44h con 4 gb de ram hdd de 320gb y pentium b960 a i5 2520 2tb de ssd y 8g de ram ya que solo tiene un slot de ram con w11 pro y funciona igual o mejor que la otra con i7.
You can install W11 over W10 with Rufus+11 ISO + Flash Drive. Runs on a 1st gen Lenovo 11e with a N2## Celeron CPU, 2nd,4th, 6th and 9th gen Intel CPU's.
Step 4: replace the processor 👍🏻
linux is the key
Chrome os flex , raspberry desktop os....a lite weight Linux distro...
That all? I guess there was no point in making the video then! 🤷♂️
I thought he was going to use Chrome OS
Well, no "he" didn't.
I keep finding this kind of videos but most of them are not for very old laptops, only for not so old ones lol mine can't be sabes, it doesn't even have 400mb of ram 😂 not even the trashiest versions of linux work with it
Yes they do. The easy version would be antix linux. It uses 150 to about 200 MB of RAM at startup. And you can also use Gentoo, but that is a much more harder endeavor. But you can create with it the most optimized version of linux.
i upgraded my i3 4th gen laptop with an SSD and 8gb of ram... used it for a couple of months... still ended up buying the M1 MacBook Air ... and the old laptop is again useless :p
1) I would have ONLY installed Linux! 2) If windoz had to be installed, I would have gone with windoz 7!
Every version after that is *CRAP* !!!! 👎
In your humble opinion.
LOC OS
laptop revival successfull
👍
Windows 7
Windows 8