Reviving Old Laptop - Hardware & Software

I received a laptop from a friend, for free. It is a Gateway MX6124, think the laptop was released in '04 or '05, tbh. Specs: - Windows XP SP3 - Celeron M @ 1.5ghz ((Celeron M 370)) Socket 479/mPGA478C - MOBO with 910GML chipset, 400mhz FSB - 2gb 533mhz DDR2(?) I know it has 2gb for sure. - Fujitsu 60gb IDE 2.5in HDD @ 4200RPM (?) There's quite a few things I would like to do to this laptop to breath a bit of life back into it. However, there are a few things I'm not entirely too sure about, and would like some help. 1) While the chipset on the board supports up to only a Celeron M processor at 1.5ghz, which I have pretty much maxed, would it be possible to switch boards/processors out, and have the laptop still function? 2) I would really like to purchase an IDE SSD, and while I know the speeds could receive a huge bottleneck from the controller only allowing data transfer speeds of 133Mb/sec, the latency is a factor I'm really looking at. Would it be a good idea? I know 5400RPM IDE drives would still be out-performed by an SSD also, bottleneck or not. 3) I don't care for the OS, and frankly, would like to install a distro of Linux on the system, and call it a day. I'd really like to install a simple distro such as Mint, or Deepin, but here's the issue: I created a boot-drive from an extra USB stick I had laying around, partitioned the drive within the laptop for Deepin, rebooted from the live USB stick I created, and got nothing, but a blank black screen. I figured my hardware was restricting the Deepin install, seeing as how I'm not using a Pentium 4, and that's the minimum. I then recreated the USB stick for Mint, and once again, tried, to be greeted with the same black screen. I know this isn't a stick issue, or an issue with the USB on the laptop, so could my BIOS be screwing with the install? Phoenix BIOS, btw. Do I need to update, or maybe use a modded version of the BIOS, if there is one? I already went through it, and screwed with some of the USB/Boot settings, and still, nothing is working. Keep in mind, at the moment, I am trying to dual-boot, I still have XP installed, just in case I fuck something up. Could that be an issue also? Thanks!

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46852134]answer 1 uhh possibly socket dependent or it could be a BGA in which case you're fucked answer 2 ide SSDs are pretty costly and if you aren't doing much on it anyways I don't think an SSD would benefit you but they do exist and yeah they help. answer 3 how aer you making the USB boots? It should support USB booting just fine regardless, and yes it is possible to dual boot even with XP.[/QUOTE] 1) No, I mean, literally switching out the motherboard, if I can upgrade the processor on the one I have now. If I were to fully switchout the motherboard/processor, would the laptop still function? 2) I found a 32GB for $27. I don't need extensive amounts of storage, just something to install the OS on, and to make it boot a lot faster. Already takes like two minutes to boot up fully. 3) A tool I downloaded from here: [url]http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/[/url]

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46852471]1, oh yeah it should do if they are matching models 2 yeah that should be ok up to everything even 8 would fit on a 32 gb model 3 try using rufus ive had 0 boots fail under rufus [url]https://rufus.akeo.ie/[/url][/QUOTE] Okay, so this motherboard I have now supports a [b]Celeron M 370 1.5GHz[/b], 400MHz FSB, and THAT only, I believe. SO, if I were to buy a motherboard that sports a 915GM chipset, which would allow me to buy a [b]Pentium M 780 2.27GHz[/b], 533MHz, I could put those into my laptop, and not experience any issues with any other hardware? Just software, seeing as how I would need different drivers. Also, thanks for the tip with Rufus, I'll give it a shot! Edit: Assuming I remove the Celeron and it's motherboard, then putting the new motherboard/processor into the laptop, that is.

Sorry to butt in but could you tell me where you found that SSD? I've got need for a 2.5" IDE SSD, and I don't want to spend heavy dosh on it. Also an IDE SSD is still a massive improvement over any IDE HDD. Not just in speed, too. Noise, heat, and battery life will be significantly improved.

[QUOTE=Slippery-Q;46852521]Okay, so this motherboard I have now supports a [b]Celeron M 370 1.5GHz[/b], 400MHz FSB, and THAT only, I believe. SO, if I were to buy a motherboard that sports a 915GM chipset, which would allow me to buy a [b]Pentium M 780 2.27GHz[/b], 533MHz, I could put those into my laptop, and not experience any issues with any other hardware? Just software, seeing as how I would need different drivers. Also, thanks for the tip with Rufus, I'll give it a shot! Edit: Assuming I remove the Celeron and it's motherboard, then putting the new motherboard/processor into the laptop, that is.[/QUOTE] You could probably pull off the processor upgrade fine, but keep in mind it'll still be slow as ass. You could spend $70 upgrading an ancient laptop with slightly less dinosaury components or you could just buy a T61~ or set $180-90 aside to get a nice 8460p/t420 / win8 tablet. [editline]4th January 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Trekintosh;46853272]Sorry to butt in but could you tell me where you found that SSD? I've got need for a 2.5" IDE SSD, and I don't want to spend heavy dosh on it.[/QUOTE] eBay has a bunch of em, I've got a Kingspec one in my restored T42 thinkpad and it works finete

[QUOTE=fishyfish777;46853273] eBay has a bunch of em, I've got a Kingspec one in my restored T42 thinkpad and it works finete[/QUOTE] Hmm. I'm really tempted to pick one up for my 95 laptop with a 75mhz proc and 16mb RAM. I think that would be fun.

[QUOTE=Trekintosh;46853272]Sorry to butt in but could you tell me where you found that SSD? I've got need for a 2.5" IDE SSD, and I don't want to spend heavy dosh on it. Also an IDE SSD is still a massive improvement over any IDE HDD. Not just in speed, too. Noise, heat, and battery life will be significantly improved.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.ebay.com/itm/KingSpec-PATA-IDE-44Pin-2-5-MLC-32GB-MLC-SSD-drive-for-Desktop-Laptop-Notebook-/261534334935?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item3ce4a93fd7[/url] Isn't $27, was looking at one that was being currently auctioned, my bad. This one is $40, though. [QUOTE=fishyfish777;46853273]You could probably pull off the processor upgrade fine, but keep in mind it'll still be slow as ass. You could spend $70 upgrading an ancient laptop with slightly less dinosaury components or you could just buy a T61~ or set $180-90 aside to get a nice 8460p/t420 / win8 tablet. [/QUOTE] I'm not sure I can. I'm pretty sure this motherboard/chipset is strictly limited to Celeron M 370. I'm positive that I'm going to have to buy a motherboard with a 915GM chipset, and a Pentium M 770, and somehow squeeze it into the laptop. Even then, that's assuming the formfactor is the same for both boards. However, I just need a small boost in speed, especially for like flashgames, or youtube videos. And you're right, getting a Thinkpad would be the better route, however, it wouldn't be as fun. Part of the reason why I'm doing this is just to learn cool shit, and seeing as how it is a free laptop, if I fuck up anything, it's not like I'm at a huge loss. However, if I do end up breaking something, the T420 looks p/ nice. B)