Solved! Laptop Needs Something

[tentwothree]

My old Sony Vaio Vista laptop model VGN-CR590 is in dire need of getting by until I get a job only for light use. Is there a device or add on for storage, memory, driver, speed or anything I need for cheap to help me get by? I know nothing except it is not compatible with new commonly used software to send out my resume

 

[hang-the-9]

First off, what are the full specs of that system, how much RAM is installed? Is the hard drive IDE or SATA? Replacing parts in it will cost about as much as a faster used laptop would.

 

[tentwothree]

I was hoping for a good temporary plug into my laptop port extra memory/storage device. where do I find out if it is IDE or SATA

 

[hang-the-9]

I was hoping for a good temporary plug into my laptop port extra memory/storage device. where do I find out if it is IDE or SATA

There is nothing you can just plug into the laptop to get more memory you actually need to open it and install the RAM sticks. Storage you can just add with a USB stick or external drive if you want more storage. If you remove the disk you will see if it's SATA or not. But you also said it's not compatible with the software you want to use, adding RAM or storage won't help that at all unless you install a newer Windows version on it, which means a new license to purchase. By the time you do all that, you may as well just find a used $100 laptop already with Windows on it with an early i3 or i5 CPU. Lenovo T410 models should be good and not expensive.

Friends or relatives may have some systems lying around maybe you can use, or check with unemployment office to see what they can help with as far as donations of systems.

 

[tentwothree]

I was hoping for a good temporary plug into my laptop port extra memory/storage device. where do I find out if it is IDE or SATA

There is nothing you can just plug into the laptop to get more memory you actually need to open it and install the RAM sticks. Storage you can just add with a USB stick or external drive if you want more storage. If you remove the disk you will see if it's SATA or not. But you also said it's not compatible with the software you want to use, adding RAM or storage won't help that at all unless you install a newer Windows version on it, which means a new license to purchase. By the time you do all that, you may as well just find a used $100 laptop already with Windows on it with an early i3 or i5 CPU. Lenovo T410 models should be good and not expensive.

Friends or relatives may have some systems lying around maybe you can use, or check with unemployment office to see what they can help with as far as donations of systems.

Are there other brands or stick with lenovo because I have yet to see $100 deal. Any website you recommend? I went to Lenovo, newegg, discountelectronics and they have other brands. Is Lenovo most reliable or cheapest?

 

[hang-the-9]

I was hoping for a good temporary plug into my laptop port extra memory/storage device. where do I find out if it is IDE or SATA

There is nothing you can just plug into the laptop to get more memory you actually need to open it and install the RAM sticks. Storage you can just add with a USB stick or external drive if you want more storage. If you remove the disk you will see if it's SATA or not. But you also said it's not compatible with the software you want to use, adding RAM or storage won't help that at all unless you install a newer Windows version on it, which means a new license to purchase. By the time you do all that, you may as well just find a used $100 laptop already with Windows on it with an early i3 or i5 CPU. Lenovo T410 models should be good and not expensive.

Friends or relatives may have some systems lying around maybe you can use, or check with unemployment office to see what they can help with as far as donations of systems.

Are there other brands or stick with lenovo because I have yet to see $100 deal. Any website you recommend? I went to Lenovo, newegg, discountelectronics and they have other brands. Is Lenovo most reliable or cheapest?

Look at your local used sales, craigslist, ebay, etc... Lenovo is probably the most reliable used laptops as long as the hard drive is good. That is really the only thing that goes bad on them. I have a stack of dead Dell and HP systems with bad motherboards, bad screens, etc.. but Lenovo issues are pretty much only hard drives failing. Here is a $100 T420 in my area https/worcester.craigslist.org/sys/d/berlin-lenovo-t420/6790897745.html https/boston.craigslist.org/nos/sys/d/gloucester-lenovo-thinkpad-edge-e540/6798835111.html https/boston.craigslist.org/gbs/sys/d/lenovo-thinkpad-t420s-14-intel-core-ighz/6795652419.html

I sent you a PM.

 

[Solandri]

If these are the right specs for your laptop, then there's not much you can do. Looks like a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo (T5800), 3 GB of RAM (4 GB max), 320GB 5400 RPM SATA drive.

https/www.manualslib.com/manual/320296/Sony-Vaio-Vgn-Cr590.html

Moving from 3GB to 4GB won't be much help. I suspect your problem is it's probably running Windows Vista. Support for Vista ended 7 years ago, with security updates stopping 2 years ago. So software vendors have been dropping support for it. The laptop itself should be fine. It won't be speedy, but the hardware is more than adequate for web browsing and office tasks. The problem being that Chrome dropped support for Vista in 2015, Firefox dropped it in late 2018, and Internet Explorer is outdated.

Since Firefox dropped Vista support only a few months ago, you might want to try it. 52.9.0esr was the last version to support Vista, and can be downloaded here. See if it's compatible with Google's app suite. If so, you can edit your resume via your Google account.
https/ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/52.9.0esr/win32/en-US/

If that doesn't work, try downloading an Ubuntu live DVD/USB. Boot off that. If your laptop works with it, that'll let you use a more up-to-date browser. If the boot time off the DVD/USB is intolerable, you may want to wipe Windows off the HDD and install Ubuntu onto it.

https/tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/try-ubuntu-before-you-install#0

Office files for things like your resume can be edited using Google's apps via the browser. Or you can use Libre Office. Just be sure to print your resume to PDF before emailing it to employers since the .doc files it produces may not appear exactly the same when viewed in Microsoft Word.

Edit: Actually you might just be able to use Libre Office for Windows. I'm seeing mixed reports if the latest version supports Vista. So try all three. 6.1.4 (latest), 6.0.7 (enterprise), 5.4 (definitely supports Vista).

https/www.libreoffice.org/download/download/?type=win-x86_64&version=6.1.0&lang=nnhttp/downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/5.4.7.2/win/x86/

 

[tentwothree]

I was hoping for a good temporary plug into my laptop port extra memory/storage device. where do I find out if it is IDE or SATA

There is nothing you can just plug into the laptop to get more memory you actually need to open it and install the RAM sticks. Storage you can just add with a USB stick or external drive if you want more storage. If you remove the disk you will see if it's SATA or not. But you also said it's not compatible with the software you want to use, adding RAM or storage won't help that at all unless you install a newer Windows version on it, which means a new license to purchase. By the time you do all that, you may as well just find a used $100 laptop already with Windows on it with an early i3 or i5 CPU. Lenovo T410 models should be good and not expensive.

Friends or relatives may have some systems lying around maybe you can use, or check with unemployment office to see what they can help with as far as donations of systems.

Also should I steer clear of Pentium, AMD, Celeron or not?

 

[hang-the-9]

Also should I steer clear of Pentium, AMD, Celeron or not?

Depends on the system and price and overall condition. A fairly new system with lower end CPU with a good battery and in good shape would be better for basic tasks than an older one with a faster CPU that needs more work.