Finding Ext Devices to Work w/Win98SE Laptop (specs incl)

Good Morning to All,

This is a long one, but I hope you can help with some questions I have.
(I've also posted this at japan.comp.toshiba)

(laptop specs at the bottom)
I'm giving my disabled sister (who is 46 and very smart) a laptop (new in
2000) to use as a desktop (always connected to power). I put a fresh install
of its original OEM Win98SE OS on it. It's her first computer. My original
intention, to get her started, was to buy her a new, simple, inexpensive
color inkjet; give her my 2-year-old digital camera (a Kodak EasyShare
CX7430 which is compatible with her hardware & software); and a nice
selection of creative and learning software, which I bought for a Win95
desktop some years ago (and which appears to be compatible with the Win98SE
OS). It seems I've opened a can of worms...

My sister's friend has a newer desktop. Sis now wants to do (with the
laptop) all the things her friend can do with her desktop such as:

Burn CDs
Get streaming music from radio stations on the internet
Print-copy-fax-scan with an All-in-One machine, etc
She also wants another battery pack (the one it has still takes a charge and
works well as a battery backup in case of power failure). Methinks sis is
getting greedy and looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Anyway, the system requirements of a Canon MP390 All-in-One lead me to
believe that it *should* work with the laptop which has a USB 2.0 port.
According to the manual, the requirements to connect to a USB Full-Speed
port (USB 1.1 equiv.) are Win98, a Pentium 233MHz processor and 64MB (128
recommended) RAM. (The req. for a USB 2.0 High-Speed port are minimum
Win2000, 566MHz Pentium, 128MB RAM (256 recommended))

Q1. Will using the USB 2.0 port work? Is an adapter necessary? I'm thinking
no adapter is necessary and she can just plug and play as a USB 1.1 port is
older technology. The only limitation on the laptop regarding the USB 2.0
port is that only one device at a time can be connected (I'm guessing this
means she cannot connect a USB hub to it in order to use the camera and the
printer at the same time).

Q2. Can sis do all the newer tech things she wants to with this older laptop
(attach ext CD drive to burn CDs, get streaming music stations from
internet, connect an All-in-One, find add'l battery pack)? What, if any,
external devices will she need?

Q3. Is anybody using any of these devices successfully with their Toshiba
Satellite 1605CDS (or equiv.) running Win98SE:

External CD-RW Drive (for data file backup and burning music CDs)
External HDD (to keep mirror image of HDD on) In the manual, under Optional
accessories and devices, PC Cards, it lists: "Removable hard disk drive
(Note: Type III PC Card)"
Any All-in-One machine (print-copy-fax-scan)

Thanks for any guidance you can provide. Sorry for the length of this post.
:-/ I just want to be done with this "great idea for a gift for sis" and
ship it out!

Cheryl :-)

SPECS
Toshiba Satellite 1605CDS (the info immediately below is combined from the
original sales ticket and the User Manual specs pages)

-466MHz AMD K6-2 Processor w/3DNOW technology
-Level 1 cache 32KB
-Level 2 cache 512KB on-die
-Bus clock speed 100Mhz front side speed
-32MB SyncDRAM (added 128MB memory module for total RAM of 160MB)
-4.3GB HDD
-12.1" Color Bright DSTN Dual Scan Display
-4MB Video Memory
-ATI Rage LT Pro graphics controller
-Sound: Crystal 4281 PCI audio accelerator and 4279A Codec software wave
table, supporting 8-bit stereo, Windows Sound System and Soundblaster
Pro-compatible sound support; built-in stereo speakers, headphone and
microphone jack
-56K ITU v.90 Modem
-Successfully added SMC Ethernet card (LAN) to connect to Linksys Router
WRT54GX w/SRX 200)
-24X CD-ROM drive
-3.5" diskette drive
-USB 2.0 port
-Parallel port
-Serial port
-PS/2 port (MS PS/2 Intellimouse connected w/4.10 driver, have newer driver
4.12 but not installed yet - should I? Mouse cursor now "sticks". Could this
be the fix?)
-Video port
-Modem port
-2 PC Card slots
-NiMH battery

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...

My sister's friend has a newer desktop. Sis now wants to do (with the
laptop) all the things her friend can do with her desktop such as:

Burn CDs

Requires a CD-W or DVD-W drive and appropriate
software (sometimes bundled free with the drive.)
Your sister's laptop may be very slow at this data-
intensive function and you may have difficulty finding
type W = write drives that have drivers for Win98SE
rather than Windows XP. If spending serious money, it
seems cheaper to get a bare-bones XP desktop PC for
this rather than upgrade this ancient laptop.

Get streaming music from radio stations on the internet

You can try this now by downloading RealPlayer software
(or any of the other free streaming audio programmes.)
For listening pleasure, you need a high-speed link to the
Internet: a phone cannection may seem intermittent
(and this 466 MHz CPU may be too slow i.e. allow
breaks that a faster PC would not.)

(The BBC web site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/askbruc.../radio_1.shtml
gives good advice and links (somewhere) to a page listing
half a dozen free programmes. Never download the very
latest version, and check beforehand that it runs under
Win98SE (i.e. is not WinXP-only.) I always choose free
software 1 to 2 years old, i.e. already debugged, not brand new.)

Print-copy-fax-scan with an All-in-One machine, etc

Easy with any such machine that has Win98SE drivers.
But nowadays they all connect via USB i.e. will occupy
the sole USB port on this laptop. (USB is backwards
compatible i.e. devices built for USB version 1 will
connect OK to a USB.v.2 port.

She also wants another battery pack (the one it has still takes a charge
and
works well as a battery backup in case of power failure). Methinks sis is
getting greedy and looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Yes: batteries are expensive and (for an old laptop)
may be scarce. Why bother unless mains electric
supply fails often?

In your place I would set a target overall budget,
then see which functions can be afforded
(a) added to this particular Win98SE laptop or
(b) installed in a cheap WinXP desktop.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"Don Phillipson" wrote in message
...
| "Cheryl" wrote in message
| ...
|
| My sister's friend has a newer desktop. Sis now wants to do (with the
| laptop) all the things her friend can do with her desktop such as:
|
| Burn CDs
|
| Requires a CD-W or DVD-W drive and appropriate
| software (sometimes bundled free with the drive.)
| Your sister's laptop may be very slow at this data-
| intensive function and you may have difficulty finding
| type W = write drives that have drivers for Win98SE
| rather than Windows XP. If spending serious money, it
| seems cheaper to get a bare-bones XP desktop PC for
| this rather than upgrade this ancient laptop.
|
| Get streaming music from radio stations on the internet
|
| You can try this now by downloading RealPlayer software
| (or any of the other free streaming audio programmes.)
| For listening pleasure, you need a high-speed link to the
| Internet: a phone cannection may seem intermittent
| (and this 466 MHz CPU may be too slow i.e. allow
| breaks that a faster PC would not.)
|
| (The BBC web site
| http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/askbruc.../radio_1.shtml
| gives good advice and links (somewhere) to a page listing
| half a dozen free programmes. Never download the very
| latest version, and check beforehand that it runs under
| Win98SE (i.e. is not WinXP-only.) I always choose free
| software 1 to 2 years old, i.e. already debugged, not brand new.)
|
| Print-copy-fax-scan with an All-in-One machine, etc
|
| Easy with any such machine that has Win98SE drivers.
| But nowadays they all connect via USB i.e. will occupy
| the sole USB port on this laptop. (USB is backwards
| compatible i.e. devices built for USB version 1 will
| connect OK to a USB.v.2 port.
|
| She also wants another battery pack (the one it has still takes a charge
| and
| works well as a battery backup in case of power failure). Methinks sis
is
| getting greedy and looking a gift horse in the mouth.
|
| Yes: batteries are expensive and (for an old laptop)
| may be scarce. Why bother unless mains electric
| supply fails often?
|
| In your place I would set a target overall budget,
| then see which functions can be afforded
| (a) added to this particular Win98SE laptop or
| (b) installed in a cheap WinXP desktop.
|
| --
| Don Phillipson
| Carlsbad Springs
| (Ottawa, Canada)
|

Thanks for responding, Don. You've taken a heavy load and made it much
lighter for me!

I gave sis your info. Since she's on a fixed income, she'll wait on burning
CDs until she saves some $$ for her own new computer. I'll test the
streaming radio tomorrow (don't know why I didn't think of this myself) -
sis will have high-speed cable. She was thrilled to hear that finding an
All-in-One to work w/Win98 won't be difficult. Her home's power only goes
out maybe 4x a year, so based on your response, having another battery pack
is not an issue anymore (at least today it isn't). If she brings it up
again, I'll just buy her a UPS. Whew! I'm glad this is over. I'm praying no
more issues come up.

Thanks again!
Cheryl