Resuscitating a Dead PC Using Ubuntu

Is an underpowered (or even dead) notebook or desktop PC languishing in your closet? My 2003 Compaq Presario 2500 notebook died two years ago when its disk failed. And as with most notebooks sold these days, it did not come with a Windows operating system CD. So it lay in my closet until I heard about the free Ubuntu operating system. I’m not a techmeister, but I still managed to return my notebook to usable life both easily and inexpensively. And if you too want to bring a dead PC back to life (rather than to the dump), then try what I did!

(1) Replaced busted hardware.

Your computer’s problems may be different than mine, but I needed to replace the Presario’s dead 40G disk. I found a new 160GB disk on Amazon.com for only $68, and a YouTube video showed me exactly how to remove the old disk and insert the new. (You can also search BestBuy.com and TigerDirect.com for other hardware… like motherboards, graphics cards, CD/DVD drives, or peripheral interfaces… that your computer needs.)

(2) Upgraded RAM.

My notebook originally contained 256MB of RAM. And while the Ubuntu operating system comes in lower-spec versions for older, less-powerful machines, I wanted to use its full version, which needs at least 512MB to run. So I upped the Presario RAM to its 1GB max using two 512MB sticks that cost $72 from Crucial.com. (Their excellent installation video showed me exactly how to remove the old RAM and install the new… I’d never done this before, but it was easy.)

(3) Downloaded Ubuntu from Ubuntu.com.

This was the only complicated part. People on the web recommended that I use the most stable current version at this writing (10.04), rather than the latest development version (11.04). One can even try Ubuntu without actually installing it… by loading it to a “Live CD" or USB drive and running it on the PC from there. This will give you some idea how Ubuntu will work on your machine (though it will run faster from the PC’s hard disk). I tried this live run first and liked what I saw.

(4) Burned Ubuntu to an installation CD.

Since I was downloading Ubuntu into my main PC, for installation on my dead notebook, I had to use two tools. The first was a free Windows CD burner called InfraRecoder, which I downloaded from the Ubuntu site (it also can be obtained from infrarecorder.org). I then used InfraRecoder’s “Write Image” option to burn the Ubuntu 10.04 software that I’d downloaded from Ubuntu.com to an installation CD.

(5) Installed Ubuntu on the notebook.

I inserted the Ubuntu installation CD in my notebook’s CD-ROM drive and selected the default installation settings. (Since I didn’t have a Windows operating system disk, I turned my notebook into an Ubuntu-only machine. But you can install Ubuntu beside Windows if you like.) Total software cost: $0.

The whole project cost me only $140. (Try buying a new notebook for that!) And the full version of Ubuntu that I installed included both the FireFox web browser and the free OpenOffice Suite (which is compatible with the Microsoft Office Suite). So Ubuntu also saved me at least $295 in software-replacement costs (based on Amazon’s current prices for Windows 7 and Microsoft Office).

I’m still learning Ubuntu. But it has its own “app store” (all free) and some of its visual user-interface effects even rival Apple’s. I’ve also read on the Web that one can run Windows programs on Ubuntu. So I’ll try that next. And like Apple’s operating systems, Ubuntu is reputed to be safer from hackers, viruses, trojans, and worms than Windows. If that’s true, Hallelujah!

So if you’d like to take a dead (or lethargic) computer on whole new productivity adventures (rather than to the dump), follow my lead. It isn’t hard!