WHERE CAN YOU GET
A DIRT-CHEAP LAPTOP?
 
The one place for getting cheap laptops in the under-$200 price range is at the EBay auction website. But when you buy a laptop in that price range, you are looking at getting a USED laptop computer that you may have to refurbish. In other words, it may be missing some parts, may need to have windows installed, may need to be cleaned up, and may need to be tested in some manner to see if it works.
 
I took some time to browse through EBay doing a "laptop" search. The laptops made by Hewlett-Packard looked to be good. I thought that there would be a better chance of getting a still-good-quality used HP laptop at a cheap $100+ price. There are the other brands like Dell, IBM Thinkpad, Gateway, and others, but I thought that Hewlett-Packard with their HP laptops would be better for me.
 
I eventually "won" an EBay auction to buy a HP Omnibook 4150 that had a Pentium II 366 MHz CPU. It came with 128 MB RAM, a 6 Gigabyte Harddrive that had a slow 4800 RPM speed, and a CD-ROM drive. The Pentium II was a step down from the Pentium IV that I had on my PC-TV system, but I knew that the Pentium II 366 MHz would be above the bare minimum for running Windows XP. When I received the laptop, I cleaned up the case by using a little bit of Pledge furniture polish spray to wipe down the case and to remove any scuff marks. And then I ran the laptop for a couple days straight without turning it off. During that time, I installed a genuine copy of windows and the other software that I wanted to run on the laptop including downloading the updates.
 
Later, I added another 128 MB RAM, which I also got from EBay, to bring the RAM memory total to 256 MB RAM. After that, I upgraded the harddrive to a new 40 Gigabyte Harddrive with a faster 5400 RPM speed. I got the new harddrive from a local computer store. I also eventually got a DVD Drive to replace the CD-ROM drive. For the DVD Drive, I again went to EBay and searched for a DVD Drive module that would fit in the HP Omnibook 4150 Laptop. There are different DVD Drive modules for the HP Omnibook 4150 Laptop where the DVD ran at different speeds including 2X, 4X, and 8X. These DVD Drives could read CDs at 20X to 24X speeds. I got the cheapest one that I could find that had DVD 2X speed and CD 20X speed. (Later, I obtained the slightly faster DVD drive with a DVD 4x speed and CD 24X speed.)

RUNNING WINDOWS XP
ON THE LAPTOP
 
The HP Omnibook 4150 was originally made to run Windows 98 and Windows NT. It could run Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but you may have to update the BIOS firmware in order to get Windows 2000 and Windows XP to recognize the USB port. If you run Windows XP, you can run Windows XP with 128 MB RAM but windows may be a little sluggish and you will have to turn off and disable various windows services in order to free up the RAM memory to get windows to run a little better. Go to BlackViper's Windows XP Services Configuration at http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12 to see which windows services you can choose to turn off. What is better to help Windows XP run faster is to add more memory by getting another 128 MB RAM to bring the RAM memory total to 256 MB RAM. You'll be happier and Windows won't be sluggish if you have the 256 MB RAM.
 
Also note that when you install Windows XP with all the updates, that it will all take up 4 gigabytes or more on the harddrive. If you install Microsoft Office 2003, then that will take up more harddrive space. So as well as increasing the RAM memory, you'll want to upgrade to a larger faster harddrive like the 40 gigabyte 5400 RPM harddrive that I got for my HP Omnibook 4150 laptop.
 
If you don't want to run Windows on the HP Omnibook 4150, you could run LINUX such as Ubuntu LINUX. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com and order the free CD kit which includes an installation CD for installing Ubuntu LINUX on the computer's harddrive and a demo CD for running Ubuntu LINUX off of the CD without doing any installation. The Ubuntu folks will send the Ubuntu CD kit to you for free and they pay for the postage, but it'll take a few weeks before you receive it. FYI, Ubuntu LINUX is so easy to install and it comes with most of the software that you need including OpenOffice and Firefox. However, note that you may have to do some extra work to get the sound to work under LINUX on the HP Omnibook 4150. Note that there is the "older" 4150 version of the HP Omnibook 4150 laptop and the "newer" 4150B version of the laptop. The "older" 4150 uses the NeoMagic NM2200 multimedia chipset (a.k.a. NM256 A / V) and the audio side of that chipset needs to be specially configured under LINUX in order to get any sound out of the "older" 4150 version of the HP Omnibook 4150 laptop. Click here and here to read how users got the audio sound to work under LINUX on their "older" 4150 laptops. In contrast, sound under LINUX should work on the "newer" 4150B which uses the ESS Maestro audio chipset which is recognized by Ubuntu LINUX.

UPGRADING LAPTOP FROM
PENTIUM II TO PENTIUM III
 

Ruel's Hewlett-Packard Omnibook 4150 B
with Pentium III CPU and ATI Rage Video
upgraded from HP Omnibook 4150 with Pentium II

A FEW EBAY TIPS
TO KEEP IN MIND
 
When buying on EBay, an auction is held open until it closes at a certain time on a particular day. For example, an auction could be set up to begin today at 6:00 AM and could be set to end in 5 days at 5:00 PM. If the auction is for an item that I would like to get, I would put that auction in the "My Ebay" section as an auction that I want to watch and then wait until before the auction is scheduled to end to put in a bid. You need to have patience when making bids on EBay. If you put in a bid early, someone is going to outbid you. I personally find it better to wait till later to bid and to make the bid in the closing minutes of the auction. Otherwise, I would look for a Buy-It-Now auction to buy the auction item right away. When buying on EBay, you can pay using Paypal. If you feel uncomfortable paying online, you can look for the auctions where the EBay seller is willing to take a money order that you would have to mail to the seller.
 
Also, as already mentioned, keep in mind that there may be missing parts on the laptop and that you may have to separately obtain the missing parts. For example, you may find a "complete" laptop in an EBay auction, but it may be missing the power supply or there may be no windows operating system on the harddrive. Or the harddrive is missing. Or the battery is missing. Or something else is missing. If you already have the parts like from an "old" laptop that is same as the "new" laptop that you are getting on EBay, then you just swap parts to the laptop you are getting on EBay. However, you may not have an "old"laptop to swap parts from and you will have to keep searching on EBay to get the parts that are missing.
 
One other thing you will have to watch out for is if a laptop being sold in an EBay auction has an unknown BIOS password already on the laptop. You generally don't want a used laptop that has a BIOS password on it because you don't know what the password is, the seller doesn't know what the password is, and you will not be able to boot the laptop if the BIOS password is also a BIOS boot password. Carefully read the descriptions in the EBay auctions to make sure you are not surprised about what you are getting and not getting.
 
One more tip that you will have to keep in mind when you are buying from an EBay auction is that you may get the laptop (or whatever you're buying on EBay) from someone who smokes or from an environment where people smoke. The laptop probably won't smell, but the delivery packaging may smell like cigarette smoke. So, as soon as you receive your EBay auction delivery, you may want to put the delivery box away like in your garage or somewhere outside the living areas of your home if you smell any cigarette smoke on the delivery packaging. For example, when I received the delivery for the "new" 4150B, the Fedex box that the laptop came in and the plastic bubble wrap smelled like cigarette smoke. I didn't notice the smell right away because I was too excited to get the delivery. The laptop didn't smell like cigarette smoke. However, later, I smelled the cigarette smoke on the box and on the bubble wrap and quickly put all of that delivery packaging in the garage and then later threw out the box and packaging out in the trash after I was sure that the "new" 4150B was working okay.

OTHER UPGRADES FOR
THE PRE-OWNED LAPTOP
 

Inserting a PCMCIA 802.11G Wi-Fi Card
provides wireless internet access.

Attaching a Mini Mouse to the Laptop
provides an alternative mouse.

Connecting a LapLink-type USB Cable
enables file transfer to a desktop PC.

ANTI-THEFT
SECURITY FOR
THE LAPTOP
 
With all the recent news about laptops being stolen, I looked for ways as to how to protect my HP Omnibook Laptop. One option is to set up a BIOS password to protect the BIOS from changes and also setting up a password in the BIOS for booting the computer. This is different from the windows password. If you set up the BIOS password and a boot password, be sure to set that to a password that you know you will remember because if you forget the password, then you will not be able to get in. You can't just remove a battery on the motherboard to wipe the BIOS clean because the BIOS passwords in laptops are saved in a chip on the motherboard and you will have to call HP for help if you forget the password.
 
Another security option is to install encryption software like the free CompuSec Whole Disk Encryption software or the CyberAngel Encryption Trace software. The CompuSec Whole Disk Encryption software is free and has online support to help you encrypt your whole harddrive. The CyberAngel Encryption Trace software both sets up an encrypted drive and also allows the laptop to be tracked if the laptop ever gets lost or stolen. There is also other tracking software such as Trackion and LoJack for Laptops. If you only want encryption software, but don't want to encrypt the whole harddrive, there is the free TrueCrypt encryption software which is recommended by a lot of people.
 
Yet another security option is to register the laptop's serial number with a security registry like Inspice SmartProtec, StuffBak, TrackItAll, and BoomerangIt. Companies like StuffBak sells special security stickers with serial numbers that you register with StuffBak. Inspice's SmartProtec registers the already existing serial number on your laptop for FREE. On Hewlett-Packard Laptops, like the HP Omnibook 4150, the laptop serial number is on a serial number sticker on the bottom of the laptop and can also be seen on the screen before you go into the BIOS on the laptop. You may find that the FREE Inspice SmartProtec to be all that you need if you want some peace of mind that your laptop's serial number is at least registered for in case your laptop becomes lost, misplaced, or stolen. The Inspice.com website has graphic images of "warning" stickers (also click here and here) that you can print on sticker paper to stick on the laptop. Or you can print the stickers on photo paper and glue that onto the laptop.
 

This is a modified sticker of the free
Inspice SmartProtec Sticker Image
edited to include the serial number
and glued onto the laptop computer.

You can use INVIS-ID Invisible Ink
to mark the Laptop as Your Laptop.
(An included Ultraviolet Flashlight
will reveal Identification markings.)

OTHER PROTECTION
FOR THE LAPTOP
 
Another option you might want to consider is getting insurance. If you have renter's insurance or homeowner's insurance, you may want to check if your coverage includes coverage for laptops and if any such coverage is good enough to cover what you have. In the alternative, you may want to get laptop insurance from Safeware Insurance to cover your laptop computer.
 
Something else along these lines is to get a two-year warranty from Square Trade if the EBay seller (who sold the laptop) is also a Square Trade member. You normally don't expect to get a warranty with a used laptop, but if you buy a laptop from an EBay seller who is also a "Square Trade" seller, then you can get a two-year warranty from Square Trade. For example, if you get a laptop for $99, you can pay $11 for a two-year warranty for a used laptop if you buy the warranty within two weeks of getting the laptop from the EBay seller if the seller is also a Square Trade member seller (and then the price for the warranty goes up to $14.99 in this example if you get the warranty after the two weeks). If you are interested in the warranty, then look for the "Square Trade" logo and also look for the "Warranty Available" banner on the EBay auction page. One detail to note about the Square Trade warranty is that it begins 60 days after the date of purchase. The assumption is that the EBay seller covers the first 60 days, but you can expect that the EBay seller may probably sell the laptop with a policy of no returns and no refunds and maybe with only a guarantee of "No DOA" (which translates to "No Dead On Arrival" meaning that the laptop will turn on).

HEAT PROTECTION
FOR THE LAPTOP
 

You can buy an External Laptop Cooler
which typically has a few built-in fans
that you place underneath the laptop.

You can make a cheap 'Pencil Cooler'
with a Pencil and Two Eraser Caps.

Place the do-it-yourself 'Pencil Cooler'
under the backend of the Laptop to
help cool your Laptop computer by
using the natural conviction cooling.

BENEFITS OF REFURBISHING
A PRE-OWNED LAPTOP
 
I personally am satisfied with my Laptop and particularly since I got it for less than what you would pay for a new Laptop. And since I can carry and move the Laptop to anywhere I want to go, I can conveniently use the Laptop in the living room or in the kitchen or in the garage or anywhere else in the home (or outside the home) without the Laptop being shackled down to a desk like the typical desktop PC. Also, it was very satisfying to do all of the refurbishing, fixing, and cleaning of the Laptop as a personal project since doing all of that was similar to the experience of upgrading, building, and tweaking a Desktop PC. If you want to get a USED laptop, then be ready to perform some Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Refurbishing, Fixing, Tweaking, and Replacing of parts on the Laptop if the Laptop is lacking in some capacity. So, if you like tweaking your computer and if you like putting things together, then you may also enjoy refurbishing, rebuilding, and fixing a pre-owned used Laptop Computer that you "build" upon to have a rebuilt "complete" Laptop that works for you.
 
Happy Laptop Surfing!
 
Cheers,
Ruel

JUNE 16, 2007 UPDATE:
ANOTHER 4150B LAPTOP
 
I've since got another HP Omnibook 4150B (Pentium III 650 MHz) for $50 (plus $25 shipping). I accidently broke my previous 4150B. If you have a laptop, be careful in carrying your laptop. And so I went to Ebay again to get a replacement laptop.
 
Fortunately, laptops are easy to get on Ebay. The beauty of getting used laptops on Ebay is that there always seems to be an Ebay seller that is selling off-lease laptops that were once used by a company where that company is now upgrading their laptops. That company's old laptops, which are now off-lease, have to go somewhere. So that company gets new laptops and trades in their old laptops. And then the old laptops are refurbished, and / or stripped downed, and checked for defects. Bad laptops are torn apart and sold for parts on Ebay. Any unusable bad parts are discarded as scrap. The laptops that are deemed to still be good and usable are sold either as: (a) whole or almost whole working laptops sold at a discounted price on Ebay; or (b) working but stripped-down laptops that are sold at a discounted price on Ebay - but without the harddrive, RAM memory, DVD / CD drive, battery, and power supply.
 
In my situation, my old 4150B was, well, dead, but fortunately as far I could tell the harddrive, RAM memory, DVD / CD drive, battery, and power supply were all fine. So I went to Ebay and bought a stripped-down HP Omnibook 4150B Pentium 3 laptop to match my now-dead 4150B laptop. When I got the "new" working stripped-down 4150B laptop, I took the harddrive, RAM memory, DVD / CD drive, battery, and power supply from the dead 4150B and put all of that into the "new" stripped-down 4150B. And I had a working laptop again. Nice, simple, and easy.
 
If you compare this to the new-from-the-store laptop situation where the warranty may still be in effect but does not cover accidents, and therefore you would have to pay for the repair and parts, you would have to send your dead laptop to the manufacturer, wait for it to come back, and you at least lose control and possession of the data on your harddrive because you are sending the laptop to the manufacturer -- or, at worse, you may lose your data if the manufacturer reformats your harddrive and reinstalls Windows as new on the harddrive to bring the laptop back to its original state.
 
For me, so long as the harddrive in my laptop is intact with my data, software, settings, etc. and still working, I would rather just get another used laptop on Ebay and take my harddrive and other stuff from my laptop and put all of that into the "new" refurbished laptop. It's just cheaper that way on an overall basis instead of buying a whole new-from-the-store laptop. Of course, you have to have some knowledge as to what you are doing. And if you do, then you will most likely enjoy the experience of doing it yourself.
 
Happy Laptop Surfing!
 
Cheers,
Ruel

SEPTEMBER 18, 2007 UPDATE:
YET ANOTHER 4150B LAPTOP
 
I got another HP Omnibook 4150B (Pentium III 500 MHz) as a backup laptop from Ebay for $15 (plus $21.99 shipping). I got this laptop as "backup" hardware for just in case my current HP Omnibook 4150B (Pentium III 650 MHz) somehow stopped working. When my previous HP Omnibook 4150B died, I was without a working laptop. To not go without a working laptop again, I kept looking on Ebay for another good cheap used HP Omnibook 4150B to have as a "backup" laptop. The screen on this "new" backup laptop was cracked. And so I took the screen from my other old dead HP Omnibook 4150B and put it on this "new" backup laptop. Also, the keyboard on this "new" backup laptop was a European version of the keyboard with slightly different keys but I took the keys off of the keyboard from my other old dead HP Omnibook 4150B and replaced the European keys on the "new" backup laptop. I put my old 6 gigabyte laptop harddrive (HDD) on this backup laptop and installed Windows 2000 on it. And it works. I did try my 120 gigabyte harddrive (HDD) with Windows XP on it from my regular laptop in the "new" backup laptop and that worked. I put back the old 6 gigabyte harddrive (HDD) in the backup laptop for now so that I can turn it on once in a while to make sure that it works while the "new" backup laptop is in its backup status. Luckily, this "new" backup laptop came with a really good HP F1466A 11.1v 5400mAH lithium-ion battery module. I put that in my current HP Omnibook 4150B (Pentium III 650 MHz) - so that my current laptop has two 11.1v 5400mAH lithium-ion batteries where each of those two batteries have 4 hours each of battery life. Therefore, my current regular 4150B laptop has a combined total of 8 hours of battery life. I have a DVD module for my current regular laptop, but I usually have two batteries in the laptop. I put my other old HP 1466A 10.8v 4200mAH lithium-ion battery (which only has 2 hours battery life on it) and a CD module in the "backup" laptop.
 
One thing that I believe in is having backups. I have my harddrive (HDD) for my current regular laptop backed up to keep the data and my system all backed up for just in case if windows crashes and I can't manually get it working again - in that situation I would just restore from a backup of the harddrive (HDD) to get windows working again. So it also made sense for me to have a "backup" laptop in terms of having working "backup" hardware for in case if the current hardware in my current laptop somehow goes down. Assuming that the harddrive (HDD) is okay, then all I have to do is swap the harddrive (HDD) into the backup laptop and I have a working laptop again. (Of course, I would also swap the batteries, ram, etc. in addition to the HDD as they are all easy to swap between the essentially identical laptops.) Now, you probably can't do this if you have a fresh-from-the-store brand new laptop unless if you can afford to buy two brand spanking new laptops. But you can find having a "backup" laptop to be much more affordable by getting cheap used laptops on Ebay.
 
Happy Laptop Surfing!
 
Cheers,
Ruel

OFFICIAL HP MANUALS
(PDFs FROM HP.com)