Compaq Evo N400c laptop

[BodyKnight]

What is the music that starts at 8:09?

[wastedpills]

it would be so nice if my brand new acer aspire 5733z had a standard definition tv output on it! then i could hook it up to a vcr and make a haruhi suzumiya vhs box set! i got two laptops for free that have s-video outputs on them (one is a core duo dell inspiron 9400 the other is a cheap ass microtech mystery laptop) but i can't get either of them to run linux so my best shot maybe to buy a vga to standard definition converter to hook up my new acer to my vcr.

[codic3s]

Ha I'm making so many comments on this, my N400c came with Windows 98, and so has a win98 license key on the bottom. 10+ year old laptop FTW I've had it for over 8 years.

[codic3s]

Oh yea and just recently I removed the internal modem/ethernet pci card and replaced it with an 802.11g wireless card so I no longer have a PCMCIA wireless card sticking out the side.

[codic3s]

I love my N400c. I replaced the keyboard and bought a touch pad from an Evo N410c since I don't really like those nipple mouse pointers. Mine is only a 700 MHz, jealous of your 850 MHz. I used it a lot through my college classes over my faster, but bigger newer laptop. Also having a serial port and parallel port as well as irda gives it features that newer laptops just don't come with. The internal battery lasts about 45 mins and I have the larger handle batter that gives it an additional 1+ hrs

[mikee286]

Wow that must have came out right as windows xp came out or just before. with the amount of monitor connectivity you could use it as a sort of retro HTPC hooked up to an old tv. it seems to have enough power to play SD video at least

[talldude123]

I'm actually going to get one of those Compaq Deskpro, the one shown in vwestlife's runtime video, for $20! All I need to add is a DVD drive and some more RAM. It's stuck in the 90's with 64MB RAM and CD-ROM.

[qcabron]

i need to boot my evo n400c to install an older version of ubuntu... buuut i dont find the way to boot it.. any help?

[Nikonman2000]

That Amdek Color-1 Looks like an Old TV that i have.Is the Amdek a TV?

[vwestlife]

@Nikonman2000 No, it's just a composite monitor, but it was probably based on a TV chassis.

[Nikonman2000]

@vwestlife Ok,The monitor reminds me of my dad's old IBM PC AT with Windows 3.1.Speaking of Composite monitors,I will try and change a Very Old Panasonic CRT TV to a composite monitor.But,where can I find the RCA Cable,how to convert?

[vwestlife]

@Nikonman2000 It is not easy to convert a TV into a monitor. You're better off using an RF modulator.

[Nikonman2000]

Is that for PC Cards?

[vwestlife]

@Nikonman2000 Yes, the Compaq laptop does have PC Card (PCMCIA) slots.

[Nikonman2000]

That monitor looks like an IBM PC's monitor,

[Nikonman2000]

What is the VGA Monitor's brand and model?

[vwestlife]

@Nikonman2000 Acer 54e.

[Nikonman2000]

@vwestlife Cool!I have one before,but it came out with color lines and a broken stand,then it died.

[an65001]

It's a better candidate for running 2000.

[Knaeckebrotsaege]

oh and BTW.. those older Pentium 3 coppermine laptops usually use the trusty old BX chipset, so you have to use low-density 256MB RAM sticks with 16memory chips total, instead of the common 8chip modules..

it's a chipset limitation

[Knaeckebrotsaege]

too bad compaq is owned by HP since a couple years ago, and the quality went down to HP level... i.e. total garbage :(

[SnakeSnakeSnake80]

nice laptop review, i think compaq laptops are better than thinkpads?

[vwestlife]

@SnakeSnakeSnake80 It depends on your price range. ThinkPads are among the best PC laptops made, but they are also quite expensive, while Compaq is more of a budget-oriented brand.

[Dell0304]

Cool! i always wanted an Evo! its funny to see XP on that old composite monitor! if it doesnt start up when you insert the RAM, try switching the slots. That always worked for me. also, is this your main computer?

[Dell0304]

These older laptops just dont have it in them to stand up to a lot. i have an older P4 Dell Latitude C640.

[TheDataZoo]

@Dell0304 What???? the older laptops are strongest

[Dell0304]

@TheDataZoo The C series Latitudes are really cheaply made....

[Slaterking2010]

I dont think any one can use your product key, its all ready registered to that laptop only and nothing else.

[WackoX1337]

Why is your fan turned of while your Laptop is on?

[vwestlife]

@WackoX1337 The laptop's fan only runs once in a while to keep it cool. It does not stay on all the time.

[theodorgh]

your laptop is faster than my Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook C1020, running on a P4 CPU @ 1.6 Ghz with 256 MB RAM! Do you also have antivirus software installed? That might be the cause.

[HBeagley]

Ubuntu would run all right on that PIII laptop?

Do a video of Ubuntu on it via a LiveCD and compare how fast it is

Windows Vs Linux.

[Honthetube]

This compared to my P2 compaq deskpro EN file dump is a pocket rocket...

[bluedeval]

What kind of video chip does this have?

[vwestlife]

The video chipset is ATI Mobility M1.

[ThisIs2009]

removable disk (C:) lol

[thecomputergeek100]

why are you running xp service pack 1?

[vwestlife]

Because it's what I had on hand when I installed it. I can always update to SP3.

[Nas49Razing]

can it handle ssds beause you put in a flash hard drivee

[vwestlife]

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, but you could use an external card reader that plugs into the USB port. If you plugged in another Compact Flash card (used for data storage) into the IDE adapter, it would replace the one that has Windows on it, and then the laptop would have no way to start up.

[user12119]

I think what Nas49Razing means is can you put a SSD hard drive in there instead.

[Trance88]

Man! I wish my Compaq laptop had a built in composite video out built into it. Interesting you're using a flash memory card instead of a hard drive.

[SpeedSwordCarbon]

that was before they was bought out by HP

[Da9eI]

Try formatting the flash card in Fat32 file system. I have experienced that NTFS does twice or mybe three times more writes to the flash card than FAT filesystem do. It might be some of the extra protection, journaling and buffering stuff that NTFS do.

[ak47killer200]

i need help i got the same laptop just it have the touchpad my cpu runs at only 750mhz i need help on geting it to 850mhz plz help it's moveing so slow and i got the 512 ram upgrade

[vwestlife]

Some Evo N400c models were only equipped with a 700 MHz processor. Press F10 when it's starting up and then go to the System Information screen. It will tell you what speed of processor it has installed.

[themaritimeman]

Bumping the CPU speed up by 100 MHz is NOT going to make a noticeable difference.

If you're running Windows 2000 or older, run Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to tidy up the hard drive a bit.

If your running Windows XP, then you'll have to deal with it, because nothing can be done about it.

[ak47killer200]

well i just want it up to 100 more mhz how did you do it how did yoyu get to you bios sceen to change it to 100 mhz

[vwestlife]

There is no way to change the speed.

[tsm32383]

lol the laptop is cute and your hot which makes a complete circle LOL

[hunter371]

Was I the only person who got memories of the Genesis/SegaCD model 1 when the laptop was put on the docking station? No one? Fine.

The flash drive in place of the HDD is interesting. 32GB isn't a lot, but I'm sure that's probably in the ballpark of what this model shipped with.

[vwestlife]

The original hard drive in this model was 20 GB.

[ThisIs2009]

where did you see 32gb? i saw an 8gb ssd.

[coondogtheman1234]

hahaha XP registred to Bill Gates how is that possible? and the CF card mod is awesome I bet you get longer run times between charges with that. im going to do that to my iPod video im going to replace the HDD with a CF card as soon as I can find a good 32 GB card that works.

at around 8:53 I can see the computer trying to communicate via the infrared port next to that big blue button.

[vwestlife]

Windows lets you type in whatever you want as the name and company when you install it. Battery life will be better with a flash drive instead of a hard drive.

[coondogtheman1234]

lol sweet I might change mine if all I have to do is type in something and hit Save. I know that I will enjoy my iPod once I get a new battery and the CF flash card adaptor thing. and ppl wonder why flash based ipods have longer run times between charges, its b/c of the hard drive. apple are idiots when it comes to making ipods with HDD's vs flash memory but it looks like they are getting the point now.

[wilkes85]

That's cool how it's running off a flash drive instead of a hard drive. All computers should use that instead of a hard drive, because hard drives are so delicate. It would be perfect for a laptop.

[vwestlife]

Hard drives do crash, but flash drives are not immune to problems either. Flash memory is only rated for a certain number of read/write cycles before it starts to wear out. At this point the technology is still too new to judge its long-term life.

[Kin632]

This is really close to one of those Eee PC 700's

[ThisIs2009]

BIGGER lol

[Kin632]

LOL!

[Mrtechguy94]

Haha, in the computer's information window I see you have the OS registered to Bill Gates.

[techguy1995]

Thanks for making this video :)...Im typing this on my compaq evo 410c (pentium 3 M 1.3ghz,384mb ram,30gig hdd,and a 32mb ati radeon with moded ram).

[tghbenz99]

That is similar to my Compaq Armada E500. I had the same problem when trying to upgrade to 256MB sticks of ram. Mine is a 650MHz P3 and I installed a 32GB SSD (actual SSD not Compact Flash) which is a noticable improvement over the HDD. I also have 2 9-cell batteries that give up to 3 hours of use even with them being so old (one battery is interchangable with the floppy drive). They have really great sounding speakers in them, better than alot of new laptops.

[batterymaker]

I haven't seen one of those Amdek's in years...

[ReviewTechUSA]

i would love to have that thing...if ur looking to browse the web or just watch SD video its more then fine...and for a laptop thats all i want to do....

[vwestlife]

It does play YouTube in regular quality fine, but HQ playback gets choppy and obviously HD is out of the question.

[mvaughn84]

that's pretty cool. Not much appreciation for the old school hardware these days. Keep making the awesome videos, man!