[Matt L]

My brother gave me this broken-down laptop recently. And when I mean broken down, I mean broken down. The reflection off the laptop is COMPLETELY HORRIBLE. The screen looks awkward no matter what angle you look from. Whether it'd be from the top of the screen or the bottom. There is not perfect angle to look at the laptop. It looks either too dark or too light if you understand what I'm saying.

Also, the software inside of it is screwed up as well. The keys on the laptop are screwed up. For example, if you press a key like 'L' on the keyboard, what comes up in the computer is a '3' or some sort of other number. The case that I'm currently talking about happens to not all of the keys on the laptop. Some of them actually work right.

I'm not surprised though. The laptop itself is very old. I believe my brother bought it from my uncle for $100 three or four years ago, and back then, it was already a bit worn down. The hard drive contains merely 1GB, and it has no sound or anything like that. (I'm trying to describe how old this is. lol)

Anyways, I'm looking into fixing computers and looking to make myself a little 'geekier' if you know what I mean. (Geekier / Geeks to Go - get it? heh.) Anyways, right now, I just want to take things one at a time and start with the thing that troubles me the most, and that's fixing this keyboard issue. My brother told me that reformatting the laptop itself might help a bit in the problem. I think you can install some kind of 'software' in the laptop itself, but I'm not knowledged in computers at all.

After the laptop is fixed of its keyboard issue, I'd like to also go into some more things... maybe even making this a laptop for typing things for my school. (HIGHLY doubtful, however due to the fact that it's very old.)

Anyways... The laptop is a COMPAQ Presario 1200; the laptop runs on a Windows 2000 L.E. I believe. I'm currently using it as a laptop to view files. Yes, the laptop can view the letters on the screen when it's typed out from another computer. Anyways, like I was saying before, I use the laptop to view text files and pictures. Mostly for walkthroughs for a game. (I bring it to my room, and I open up the files from another CD from a site like gamefaqs or something). It's quite useful, but it's very irritating when you're trying to read it from afar due to the screwed up screen.

So anyways, can anyone help me fix this thing? I'd really appreciate it.

Edited by Matt L., 25 November 2006 - 07:49 PM.

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I moved your post here to hardware so it gets more attention, and am bumping it. Best of luck with it!

Johanna

[Johanna]

I moved your post here to hardware so it gets more attention, and am bumping it. Best of luck with it!

Johanna

[Matt L]

Thanks. I wasn't sure where to put it. My apologies.

[SRX660]

There are several other machines in the Compaq Presario 1200 line, including the 1247 and several with model names of the form 1200-XL1xx. Most or all of these computers are very similar internally to the 1200-XL106.

The 1200-XL106 isn't a flashy computer by the standards of early 2000. Its basic specifications include:

http://members.cox.n...cs/presario.jpg

* AMD K6-2 475MHz CPU
* VIA MVP-4 chipset, which includes integrated:
o Trident Blade3D AGP video controller
o VIA 82cxxx PCI sound chipset
* 32MB of RAM, expandable to 160MB via a single SO-DIMM (I've expanded mine to 96MB via a DIMM from Crucial Technology)
* 512kB L2 cache
* 13", 800x600 HPA LCD display
* Toshiba MK6014MAP 5.6GB hard disk (that's true gigabytes, not disk manufacturers' trillions of bytes gigabytes)
* Toshiba XM-7002B 24x CD-ROM drive
* 1.44MB floppy drive
* Lucent v.90 56kbps software modem
* 1 serial, 1 parallel, 1 VGA-out, 1 PS/2 mouse/keyboard, 1 USB, 1 infrared, 1 audio in, 1 audio out port
* 1 Type II or III PCMCIA (aka PC-Card) slot
* Assorted Microsoft software

You can probably find drivers here.

http://h10025.www1.h...d...c=us&dlc=en

The screen problem is probably not worth fixing unless you have access to similar laptops to cobble parts from. You may just have to deal with it as it sounds like the backlight is going bad. Laptop keyboards are programmable because as you might have noticed they don't have the regular amount of keys as a desktop keyboard. Keyboard drivers are used for functions in laptops.

Google can be your friend with laptop drivers . Many times i have found drivers on the internet that worked on the old laptops. I have a old Toshiba Portage 660CDT laptop that runs very well. With its 1.2 gig hard drive i really can't do much with it, but its fun to show people the tiny laptop that works.

SRX660

[Matt L]

How do I install a driver properly on it? Do you know? I'm just wondering if there's a specific way on doing it for Presarios or something like that.