Toshiba 4000CDS Laptop PC
Another car boot bargain (I hope!). If you've read any of my other articles, reviews, etc, you'll have noticed that a lot of the stuff I use is old or could be termed legacy. That is to say no-one else wants to use it anymore, so I try to pick these items up cheap and get them working to their full potential.
I normally stear clear of laptops, preferring pocket pcs or PDAs. The problems with old note-book pcs is that often they won't switch on - either the batteries are flat or dead, so you need to use the ac adaptor (which you can't test!) and / or buy a new battery. SO they're a bit of a gamble, and sellers always want a few quid for them. But as I was wandering round my local car boot sale early one Sunday morning I came across this tidy old laptop. What impressed me was that it came in a very nice hold-all, had the ac adaptor, a mouse, a modem card, a letter from the original comapny that owned it confirming it had been sold to one of their employees (5 years ago!) and a copy of Windows Office 2002. The software clinched it for me. I knew I could sell the software on ebay for about the same price as the Toshiba lap-top, so it was a no-brainer, even though it wouldn't turn on. £50 the lighter I headed home with my new purchase.
Plugging my new note book into the mains, it fired up straight away, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Windows 98 pop up, and everything seemed to be in order. The sound worked, the display looked nice, the Toshiba pointy pencil-rubber mouse worked, and the cd drive worked. Great! I went to the control panel to see what the spec was, and this is what I got for my £50: Intel Pentium 2 233mghz processor with 160mb of RAM (the maximum it could use), a 6gb hard-drive, 24x speed cd-rom, floppy, Psion Dacom 56k modem with lead, USB port (essential) serial / parallel ports, 12.1 inch (800x600) display, 2mb on board memory, on board sound, and Windows 98 with all the usual applications. I really like the bag it came in - large enough for all the accessories you need and more, with a good wide shoulder stap.
The bad news was the the battery is fried. I've tried to discharge and recharge to no avail, but replacements are available on ebay for about £50, so I can get it back up to original spec for £100, which I think is very reasonable, similair examples, without all the extra goodies that I got go for about £150 on ebay, so all in all I think I got a bargain. I was also hoping for a network connection, but I guess I'll just have to buy a network card, or I'm toying with the idea of going wireless to connect to my home network. I love the idea of being able to use my new note-book anywhere in the house, or at hotspots anyway. I also like the idea of being able to piggy back on other peoples internet connections, but thats a differnent ball game altogther!
Right, lets get this baby ready to connect to the internet. read on.....
Comments / Questions:
Internet Ready Toshiba 4000CDS Laptop!! (w/Warranty)!! Don't buy it. The 4000cds is too old now, you need something with at least a 40gb hard disc. New PC's / laptops are so cheap, I'd head down to my local computer store and see what offers they've got on. |
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