Q4OS Forum

Qwertius

Member

Registered: 2017-10-24

Posts: 66

Your oldest working computer

Mine is a Compaq Deskpro EN - like the one in the image.

SFF chassis --- with a Pentium 3.

Built in 1999 ~ 2000   - so 25 years old.

Max ram 512 MB

In the past I have installed everything from W98 - 2000 - XP & W7.

W7 worked like a charm ---

Also became my 'test-bed' for trying out a variety of early Linux Distros.

Loads of fun - learned a lot in the process.

For the moment it is sitting in a corner unused - but I know it works - or at least it was working 6 months ago.

Might try to drop Q4OS Trinity onto it -- I'm sure it will do well.

Q

Germ

Member

From: Bushyhead, Oklahoma

Registered: 2023-06-30

Posts: 96

Re: Your oldest working computer

A 2008 Acer Aspire 5315-2153 Laptop

The last windows version on it was Vista and after that it has been all linux.

Celeron 530 1.73 GHz, 2GB RAM

Running Q4OS Aquarius TDE now.

I've had to replace the battery and the RAM one time each.

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Calm down, it's only ones and zeroes

Qwertius

Member

Registered: 2017-10-24

Posts: 66

Re: Your oldest working computer

That's a nice little unit.

I am presently using a Dell 9020 SFF - 16GB of ram.

Over 12 years old now --

Runs very well - even if it's getting a bit long in the tooth --

Last edited by Qwertius (2025-11-18 00:16)

Germ

Member

From: Bushyhead, Oklahoma

Registered: 2023-06-30

Posts: 96

Re: Your oldest working computer

Yea, nice one.  $222 at Amazon.  I may have to pick up one.  Price is right. 

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Calm down, it's only ones and zeroes

tlmiller76

Member

From: AZ, USA

Registered: 2016-11-29

Posts: 498

Re: Your oldest working computer

Mine is a Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G3 AMD.  AMD Ryzen 7 6850U, 32GB LPDDR5, 2TB SSD, 400-nit low power WUXGA LCD.

Yeah, I don't really keep hardware a long time....

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Q4OS Trinity machine - HP Probook 445 G11.  AMD Ryzen 7 7735U, 16GB DDR5, 512GB m.2 NVMe SSD, Radeon RX780M, MediaTek MT7922 (AMD RX616) Wifi 6E + BT 5.2, 14" WUXGA 400-nit LCD.

Midas

Member

Registered: 2017-12-15

Posts: 263

Re: Your oldest working computer

Probably a Thinkpad T61... Or the ThinkCentre Tiny M910Q I use as a home workstation. Both refurbished, BTW.

Germ

Member

From: Bushyhead, Oklahoma

Registered: 2023-06-30

Posts: 96

Re: Your oldest working computer

Yeah, I don't really keep hardware a long time....

LOL.  I'm a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"  kind of guy....

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Calm down, it's only ones and zeroes

philc

Member

Registered: 2017-03-24

Posts: 35

Re: Your oldest working computer

Toshiba Equium A210-171 laptop from 2008, s/h in 2017 in vgc.

Processor: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (2 GHz)
Display: 15.4-inch LCD with 1280x800 WXGA resolution
Memory: 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM (I seem to have 2.8 GB)
Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA HDD (5400 rpm)
Graphics: ATI Radeon X1200

It's built like a tank.  I had to replace the HDD in ~2023 but this was accessible and easy to do..  Q4OS-Bookworm-Trinity is no trouble.

detoo

Member

Registered: 2019-01-17

Posts: 101

Re: Your oldest working computer

IBM Aptiva / AMD K6-2 300MHz processor, built around 1998 by Acer.

Compaq Deskpro EN / Pentium II 350MHz processor, built in early 1999.

I've run older Puppy Linux versions on both, but don't go online with them.

EbonHydra

Member

Registered: 2025-12-19

Posts: 15

Re: Your oldest working computer

Well, the oldest functionally working computer that I have is a PowerBook G3 from 1997. The battery holds no charge, the hinges are busted, and the picture is horrible, but it boots into the OS (Mac OS 9.2.2) just fine. The oldest modern-era functional computer that I have working now is an ASUS ROG G series laptop (I think it's a GS700) from 2009 and it currently runs the TuxedoOS Linux distribution in tandem with Batocera. Maybe I should wipe the Tuxedo OS partition out in favor of Q4OS. And before you ask, I couldn't get Windows 11 to work on that stupid thing no matter what I tried, so I'm probably just going to abandon such a foolish notion.

Taige

Member

Registered: 2025-08-19

Posts: 39

Re: Your oldest working computer

I've always thought that these computers might one day come in handy, but only if they are kept off the internet.
A day when, perhaps, for some reason, all the newer computers will cease to work or be tampered with.
So, keep them working at all times, you never know what will ever happen in this world where society has reached worrying heights of madness.

rlg0613

Member

Registered: 2026-01-23

Posts: 1

Re: Your oldest working computer

Mine is a Acer Aspire AO532h V1.21
Intel Atom N450 CPU, 2 GB RAM
Last OS was Windows 10 but it barely ran. It came with Windows 7.
Updated to OCZ 240 GB SATA SSD

I lost track of the number of Linux, Chromebook, etc. OSs I tried before I found Q4OS.Q4OS version Andromeda Plasma.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,107

Website

Re: Your oldest working computer

Welcome to the forum @rlg0613

Sandgroper

Member

Registered: 2024-06-16

Posts: 3

Re: Your oldest working computer

Win 7 on a Toshiba Satellite. Forget about trying to install it on Win 10. I used the Q4OS window installer to install Aquarius. Works like a charm.

MuhWose

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2026-04-07

Posts: 1

Re: Your oldest working computer

Off the top of my head that would be a Vtech "pre" computer, from the 90s, that used a CRT TV for a monitor.

In terms of computers that actually function as such I'd say it's the Sony Vaio netbook [VPCW11S1E] I installed q4os on this evening/morning.

For some unknown reason it had Windows 10 on it but it was designed for Windows XP.

I was surprised the disk was 160gb honestly as I was expecting a smaller harddrive. 2gb of RAM seems standard for what it was and the time of the device.

The wireless card still works, the touchpad still works, the screen is in good condition, the speakers work and its reading USB devices without error. I haven't tried to use its webcam yet but I doubt I'll bother, unless I get very bored.

I haven't checked the mic and headphone jacks, yet, and as a high friction area I'd be surprised if the headphone jack works and if it does that the sound isn't bad.

The keyboard is tiny but responsive and I haven't noticed anything "off" about it other than it's small and that the right shift key is so small that I end up pressing an arrow key.

The battery doesn't seem to hold charge but I have its charger so that's fine.

I had been trying to fix an old Compaq machine but it ran so hot you could use it to toast sandwiches. I tried various means of cooling it down but it never seemed to help for too long.

Other older devices are owned but they're in various states of repair or use and it would be hard for me to comment on their functionality.

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Yeah I'm FoSS... Free of stupid software!