eXPeriment: Using XP as main OS for school

About a week ago, I decided to start an interesting experiment which involved using Windows XP as my main OS for all my school related stuff.

You might think; that's no big deal at all. And yeah, it isn't. There shouldn't be any reason for this experiment to fail.

However, I'm using a Dell Latitude D600 from 2003/2004. I found two of these laptops in the electrical trash at my school right before summer break, as they were tearing down the school to rebuild it. They're in mint condition, and the battery works for two hours.

This laptop has some limitations such as a 1,4GHz Pentium M and an old Wi-Fi card. Processor speed and overall performance of the computer is actually something that matters. I study something called Automation, which is basically industrial computer control systems and mechanical constructions in the industry.
It involves a lot of programming, simulation and drawing using huge programs such as CX-One (Omron) and PCSchematic.

Here's the fun part. This laptop and this operating system has no problems with such tasks, and it performes really well considering its age.

The only problem I've had so far, is that I cannot connect to the network at school wirelessly. It had an Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 network card, and it could only support 802.11b. I did just upgrade it to a 2200BG which should support 802.11b/g and might work, I hope so.

Other than that, I am actually surprised. Mostly surprised by the performance of the laptop, since I already knew XP wouldn't have any problems with the software that we use.

Specs on the D600:

Intel Pentium M @1,4GHz
1,5GB DDR 333Mhz RAM
50GB 5400RPM IDE Drive
1024x768 standard LCD
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32mb
Windows XP Professional SP3

A picture of the desktop for those of you it might interest:



Running the Inexperience Patcher for the Windows 2000 look.

 

I don't know if I want to believe this post. My laptop is in "mint" condition from 2007 and the battery barely lasts more than 30 seconds.

 

I'll do a proper timelapse video/test to confirm. I've got two fully working batteries for it and one dead.

UPDATE: Just tried the new network card today, and it actually worked flawlessly. Finally I can connect to every Wi-Fi network at my school.

 

Well, this isn't really a timelapse, but I just tested the battery.

http://imgur.com/a/TROiu

It lasted about two hours with moderate brightness and the CPU was throttling at 1400Mhz instead of the speedstep 599Mhz in battery mode.

This was in completely idle mode, screen showing the desktop, Wi-Fi activated and hard drive spinning all the time. With normal usage such as browsing the web and watching SD videos, I could get about 1/1,5 hours of battery.

 

^ That is a lie. Laptops circa 2003/2004 are from the pre-multi core CPU era that weren't optimized for battery life. They're generally high power consumers. And Li-Ion batteries don't last that long. They lose 1/2 their capacity by 4 years, and 1/2 of that another 4 years later. To think a non-duo core laptop from 12 years ago would have a run-time of 4 hours at that time it was released is implausible, and to even hold charge for 30 minutes after 12 years belongs in the realm of fantasy...

 

Btw, I don't know whose leg you're pulling. My school board won't even give away 15 y/o desktop PCs. Everything must be accounted for and returned to their hardware depot. To think a school would carelessly leave two working laptops in the trash bin and not send them to a recycling facility... The Principal of that school could get fired for such a careless act.

 

The battery might not be from 2003 for all we know, but the numbers on the back reads "JP-00R160-48634-3C9-2003". Most likely it was replaced around 2005/2006.

It's funny you think it's a lie, and I'm quite shocked, makes me want to make a timelapse video with a realtime clock to show you that it truly isn't. Or maybe do a whole 1 hour video showing SD playback.

Well not on my school, they threw out loads of older laptops including ProBook 6735p from 2007. Managed to also get one of those with an extra battery, both batteries being in good condition. They were thrown out into a electrical recycle bin, and I were allowed by my teacher to pick whatever I wanted from it.

It actually has the state markings on it for anti-theft (saying that it is a property of the school), but according to my teacher, the serial numbers were invalidated in their registry when they were thrown out.

 

Just finished recording and transferring the video. It's a full 1:27 video of the battery lasting 1:21 while playing a 700x292 DVDRip AVI file in Windows Media Player 9.

Four minutes of the recording was lost, since my phone apparently doesn't record files over 3,96GB (4Gb). However, I re-visited the recording location just four minutes after this happened. This is from 21:56 to 22:00 real time, not video time.

Here it is: Dell D600 battery test
It might still be uploading or processing, since it's taking 37 hours to upload according to YouTube.

You're pulling your own leg, dude.

 

I've accepted a desktop and a notebook from both a school and a business before. I don't see what's so unheard of about that.

Now I currently have a Dell D610 (circa 2005) with a Centrino M 1.8 GHz. I can get about 45 minutes of battery life out of a charge. Perhaps the OP has a newer compatible battery.