I recently found an old laptop with its charging cable in my house. Out of curiosity, I plugged it into mains and left it for a couple of hours. I came back to it and I pressed and held the power button for a few seconds. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the computer seemed to be working. Unfortunately when I decided to authenticate the old Windows account, I found that everything was super slow. It seemed that it would take a couple of minutes to perform an action as simple as selecting a text box. With the patience of a saint, I finally got passed the login screen. Great.
20 minutes later, all the shortcuts on the Desktop seemed to have finally rendered. I opened the Start menu and it opened after a couple of minutes. After much YouTube video watching (on a separate device), I reached the Windows Update page. I was about to check for updates in hopes of downloading a maintenance update that might magically improve performance but then I had an alternative thought.
I was getting worried that this old laptop may be having hardware issues and that was why it was performing so poorly. I didn’t have the expertise to change laptop parts. I could send it the local computer repair shop but that would cost money. I could try to change it myself by following a YouTube tutorial on that specific model but they had all these specialist tools for diagnosing issues. I would need to source the tools then work out what parts needed replacing then source the new parts. What it would have been educational? Absolutely. Would it have been cheap and easy? No. It seemed like a wild goose chase. I just wanted a simple solution. I realised I had to change tack. Instead of improving the laptop’s computing capabilities, what if I reduced its computing demands. What if it’s not a hardware issue, but a software issue.
My first thought was to look at all the applications installed in the Windows Settings but by this point the patience well had dried up and I didn’t want to subject myself to the torture of aimlessly navigating with a slow, unresponsive computer again. It was then that I decided that enough was enough and that I was going to get rid of the Windows operating system.
I already used an Ubuntu virtual machine for programming using VirtualBox as its hypervisor. I used to use VMWare Workstation but I wanted snapshots and virtual networking features, which seemed to only be available on the Pro edition so I made the switch over to VirtualBox. I didn’t see much point in looking for a lightweight Linux distro since it would have taken me time to find recommendations and then trying them out on a virtual machine. I only wanted the laptop for LibreOffice and web browsing and perhaps some scripting but nothing particularly intensive like gaming or virtualisation. Ultimately, I decided to use Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) since it will continue to be updated until April 2027.
Hoping it will be my last time, I navigated the various accounts on the old laptop and made sure that all the important files were transferred to a separate USB drive since installing a new operating system will delete all users’ files. Following the tutorial on the official Ubuntu website, I found an empty 16 GB memory stick and using BalenaEtcher, I turned it into an Ubuntu installation medium using the .iso file. I plugged it into one of the laptop’s USB ports. Then with great restraint, I managed to navigate to Windows Settings and then select the drive with the Ubuntu installation medium to boot from.
The computer restarted. Then after about 20 minutes, I selected the minimal installation and then I was taken through the process of setting up an account on Ubuntu and I logged into the Desktop for the first time. I ejected the installation medium and I restarted the computer. I was elated to find everything working as intended. Navigating it doesn’t give me time to have an existential crisis. It does the tasks that I wanted it to do and that’s good.
Maybe the laptop is a bit rough around the edges, both literally and figuratively. It still takes a couple of minutes to get from switched off to desktop but once it gets going, it runs smoothly and I am comfortable with daily driving it without much thought. It has only about 3 hours of battery life if it’s not plugged in but the charging cable isn’t too cumbersome. The hinge pulls apart the laptop every time you open and close it but there is nothing cello tape can’t fix.
What did I gain from this experience? Some practical knowledge and troubleshooting skills. What did it cost? My time. It costed me, my time. But in the end, I have a new laptop.
Until next time.
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