Attempting to give an old HP Mini 110 New Life

[Bbeelzebub]

So, I'm a hoarder and keep all my working computers around to put in various places to always have internet access. I've had an old HP Mini 110-1025DX since 2009, I never used it all that much, but I've ran XP, Win 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 on it. XP and Windows 7 were fine but ever since the Windows 10 Creators update, it is nearly unusable. It was a lot better on the OG Win 10 release. Video is useless. I thought maybe it was the driver that MS installed or the fact that it only has 1gb of ram.

Just for giggles, I re-installed XP and tested video with Firefox and it was smooth. Handled 720p on youtube like butter. I don't want to run XP though and am trying to figure out how to smooth out Windows 10 (if all else fails, I've no qualms to go back to Windows 7). I ordered a 2gb ram stick that arrives tomorrow, but I don't think that is going to solve the video issues. Just sitting under Windows 10, it's using up nearly all the ram on a 1gb stick. Edge runs awful, Chrome runs awful.... Once I put in the new ram, I'll try Firefox 56 as well.

I know it's old hardware and I shouldn't expect much, but has anybody else had any luck getting these old fossils with old Atom N270 and Intel 945GM on board running smooth? Anybody have experience with these programs like GMABooster that supposedly boost the Intel graphics? I considered also ordering a cheap 49 dollar 160gb SSD, but still... don't see how that could smooth the video.

I already own multiple replacements for this device, but there is something about the old netbook form factor that just can't be beaten. They take a beating and still are nearly indestructible, can hide under a pillow, tossed abut anywhere and you can hold them one handed. <3

 

[JoshMD90]

I've got a similar HP mini which I bring out every so often. As you say it has no video capabilities anymore sadly, but here is what I've done to it:

• Upgraded the RAM to 2GB
• Changed the HDD for an SSD
• Installed a video card - but this seems to have had no effect on performance

It's passibly usable for light internet browsing. Keeping it in tablet mode helps to preserve battery life too and, I think, make it a little more snappy.

Hope that helps.

 

[The Curious TX]

Well, I am Windows user, but in almost all situations where you want to repurpose and old PC for some limited tasks or a specific task, Linux is always a better choice.

 

[Bbeelzebub]

Thanks for the input.

Upgrading the ram didn't show any differences at all. I ended up taking the ram back out and putting it into another old laptop. I have another older HP laptop that runs Windows 10 fine with the exception of Chrome.

Needless to say, with the HP Mini, I installed CloudReady on it and it is far more usable. With some tweaks in settings, you can even have Chrome run okay on it. None of the Linux builds I tried were very usable either. (Linux Mint, Lilbuntu, etc.)

It's the CPU usage running Windows 10 where the slowdowns occur. No matter what you are doing or not doing, the CPU is already in the 80% usage and opening a browser, etc..... Just completely brings it to a halt. Regardless, it had a good life and I've passed it on to my dad who is not very computer literate, so that he can pay bills online, etc. If he likes it, I'll just buy him a Chromebook for xmas or something.

 

[xandros9]

Used to have a Mini 1000 back in the day and after XP, Linux was the way to go. Something like Xubuntu, etc. was pretty competent on the Atom with a relatively small footprint.