Hi Gang:
The wife said she would spring for a birthday gift (tomorrow I will be 68) I would like to get a small laptop to mount on my board mostly just for lyrics. (get rid of the music rack) New/used? Dell/Ibm/toshiba/panasonic? 12" or 15" screen?
I know nothing about laptops, but surfing on ebay I see thousands of them, and see a few for less than $200.00 that look like they would do the trick? The only thing I can think of that it should enclude is cdrw drive, internal floppy (for my hundred's of disks), usb port and a pretty good sound card, and the usual things. I don't ever intend to hook it to the internet. It stays on the keyboard, mostly as a lyric's display and lyric's storage. (probably need help figuring out how to make it do this also)
ANY ADVISE OR COMMENTS WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED. Whats your suggestions?

------------------
Support the arts
FEED a Musician
Cheers....Pose

If you're looking at used, be sure to get a Pentium 3 or similar. 30 gig HD and 256RAM are essential. Good luck finding a newer model with a floppy drive, they are hard to find - you might have to get a USB add-on. Bonus if it has any Windows Office loaded, especially Word, 'cuz you'lll want it for your lyrics. I suggest Dell; they will cost a little more, but are upgradeable and reliable. Good luck.

I'd look locally in newspaper classifieds and also local website classifieds if there are any. I put an ad in website classifieds that I wanted a laptop but it had to be cheap, else I'd just go buy a new one. I got one for $50! My brother was astounded. It was like brand new. Lady bought it for her kid, who never used it. It wasn't state of the art but for lyrics, it was totally adequate. Great soundcard... I don't think you're gonna get that in a cheap laptop.

I saw a Dell(?) recently, brand new from Dell for $599, so, there's your gauge. If you can't find one for $200 or less, just buy a new one.

Also, if used, reformat. Wipe that sucker clean. Then never go online, haha.

------------------
Me Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 700m for performance use (lyrics, midis, mp3). It's a 12" wide screen so once set up it'll appear more like a music rack rather than a laptop.

Glenn

Been checking around all morning, This ain't easy. seems like the dell's are the most popular (and most expensive) (BILL) Tried looking at the Dell site and could'nt find one for $599.00 Could'nt find anything less than 700.(GLENN) that looks like a very nice one you bought, but more money than I got to spend. (cassp) you're right on about the floppy drive, the ones with a internal floppy drive are usually 32mb with a processor almost big enough to run a calcalator. LOL
I've seen a couple of adds on TV from dell, I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and call them and see if they still have the $595.00 special. either that or keep shuffling all the lyrics from the floor back to the music rack and trying to play with music sheets falling on top of my hands, and trying to remember the words and where the keys are,until I get a break to put stuff back in order. (anyone ever done this LOL....
Thank guys for helping out and getting my brain out of neutral. Whoops I think I'm in park.......Pose

I had been looking for one too, but have put it on hold.

I have found that if you check with Office Depot and Circuit City they will have new ones with rebate for even $499. Also, I would check WalMart online. They have a lot of merchandise that they don't stock. They also have low priced laptops.

The advantage to going to one of these places is you can return them.

The other thing I would try is go to Froogle.com and type in some of the specs you want. So if you want a laptop like cassp mentioned, you could search for: Pentium 3 30 HD 256RAM. Or you could list PIII I see is listed that way sometimes. If you look to the left you can pick priced low to high. Sometimes companies will first list accesories, so you might have to go in a number of pages before the actual laptops start.

Scott Langholff

Parade magazine in last Sunday's paper had a Dell ad featuring the Inspiron 1200 for $499.
30 gigs. 256 ram. 14" screen.
Eddie

Thanks guys I'll check these out.

I just missed one on ebay that I bid on, that was a sleeper, I would have got it for $155.00 except my wife came back from safeway and was leaning over my shoulder asking questions, missed by a couple of seconds. It was a dell.

I'll get off here and check out your suggestions....Thanks again.....Pose

If I were buying one for what you said and did not find a used one locally, I'd probably go for a refurbished Dell. I think they have full warranty.


------------------
Me Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

Pose,

For what we do with computers we really do not need an ass kicking laptop with lots of bells, whistles, memory, and anything at all fancy.

The $499 Dell has been advertised on TV and the newspapers for a couple weeks, and all you need to do is call their 800 number and ask about it. The price is after instant rebates.

As for a used laptop, most will suffice, and there are lots of good ones at the local computer shows that take place monthly throughout the nation. Nearly every major city in the country has one of these going on, and that's where I got my first one for $300. It still works, does an excellent job, and to date, I have not used my Dell Inspiron backup comuter one time.

If you need more details, email me your phone number and I call you ASAP.

Gary