Working 486 laptop with at least 8MB RAM wanted cheap or free

Jul 5 20:32 UTC 2005

Does anyone have, for free or very cheap, a 486 laptop computer with at least
8MB RAM and a working internal keyboard and monitor (no color needed), for
a younger grexer who is running linux on one we gave him with a broken
keyboard.  He says he is not concerned about the floppy drive, but it is sort
of a nuisance to carry around a keyboard.  He does not want to do X.

response 2 of 29:

Jul 8 16:21 UTC 2005

Yes, a 486 laptop in which the keyboard still works, also the monitor, but
the floppy drive can be dead since we made him a serial transfer cable.
See the item heading 'Working 486 laptop'.

response 4 of 29:

Jul 8 19:47 UTC 2005

You can make a serial transfer cable from the tails of two serial mice, but
for a nullmodem cable you need more wires connected than are found in a mouse
(which I think is only 4).  He eventually got a parport zip drive working for
file transfer, which is faster.  A laptop computer is handy for transferring
larger files than 1.44MB between distant locations (farther apart than two
mice tails).  

response 6 of 29:

Jul 11 16:31 UTC 2005

re #5
Do they make devices to do quick copies from one cruzermini to another? 
That's my only problem is that they're easy to lose yet most folks rarely back
them up due to the inconvenience.

response 8 of 29:

Jul 12 13:24 UTC 2005

Re resp:6: Not that I know of.  I back them up to my hard disk.

response 10 of 29:

Jul 16 15:09 UTC 2005

Does it have to have a floppy?  I have some kind of pentium laptop that
I was just going to toss, but it has only a CD.

response 12 of 29:

Jul 16 18:44 UTC 2005

It specificially does NOT need to have a floppy drive, please pass it along.
You can do file transfers via serial or parallel cable.  No floppy drive is
a big improvement over dead internal keyboard.  We have had laptop computers
before that were designed not to have a floppy drive at all (286) and one with
a plug-in external floppy drive, and one where you have a choice of floppy
drive or CD-ROM drive, and with the right connectors also external floppy
drive.  

response 14 of 29:

Jul 19 01:09 UTC 2005

I bet Jim can fix the hinges - he is good at mechanical fixes.  Are you in
Ann Arbor?  Can you leave it at 512 Felch St. (just off Spring which is off
Miller) on the unlocked front porch?  I presume this computer has a hard drive
or at least the caddy for it, unlike the last one given to us (to recycle).
Thanks!  Can we fix anything else for you when you stop by?

response 16 of 29:

Jul 21 21:12 UTC 2005

Art Fair parking extends to my street, which proves it is possible to get here
by car.  You may prefer to leave it at Jim's house, on the far westside,
instead of near downtown.  1730 Charlton Ave, front porch, inside the red
metal box on the right side.  Between Liberty and Jackson, not far from the
fork on Huron to Jackson/Dexter.  This will be a major upgrade from the 486,
which has 12MB RAM and no CD-ROM.  In fact, it is even faster than the Pentium
laptop another kind grexer gave me (which does have a working floppy drive).
It will be much appreciated.  

response 18 of 29:

Jul 23 14:40 UTC 2005

Thanks.  There is never anyone home there because the house is under
construction (since 1986) but it is a good enclosed dropoff point.  We will
pick it up shortly on the way to or from the farmers' market and Jim can
investigate it during my piano lesson so he won't get bored.  It should, in
theory, be no harder to repair than the nice folding chair that I picked up
with a cracked armrest, and is much more portable by bike.  

That was clever of you to figure out my 512 address.  You are welcome to a
quick tour of the place - just let us know when to meet you there.  Also to
a repair of anything electrical, and an attempted repair of something
electronic.  Or a bike.

response 20 of 29:

Aug 3 21:39 UTC 2005

For the network card, I don't have a dongle for it.  The whole thing
came to me used and that was already missing at that time.
As to the hinges my thoughts are layers of epoxy and fabric after
figuring out what position the flattened metal part should have.  It
would look pretty ugly, but I think it should work.  If it looks like
the epoxy would flow inside the unit then significant disassembly and
packing with something to fill the void and wax paper as a barrier. 
Seems like a pretty big project to me, but I know you take on things
like that regularly.  I hope it works.

response 22 of 29:

Aug 4 02:12 UTC 2005

Jim says it needs to be a stiff hinge in order to stay open and not slam shut,
so he asked me to bring back the hole punch (for metal).  He has some idea
about how to get this working.

Unlike two other newish computers given to us, this one displays text properly
full-screen without distortion, and I know how to deal with the video for
linux, so it will be a prize if we can get it to work right, even without
floppy drive and more RAM and dongle.  

I will pass along your ideas about epoxy and fabric.  He has rebuilt tape
decks with missing or broken parts and this should be easier since the parts
won't need to move much or often.  

We also have a nice laptop from Scott, not quite as fast but completely
working, which will be mine if Jim fixes this other one and keeps it (and
passes along his 486 to someone who does not need the USB).  Got to set up
one or both of them for a trip this fall with the USB camera.  I wonder how
hard it would be to make a car power adaptor for this car trip.  

response 24 of 29:

Sep 21 23:26 UTC 2005

I fixed some broken laptop hinges with epoxy putty, once.  The putty 
has the advantage that it won't flow where you don't want it to, and 
you can kind of mash it and mold it into place.