On a day much like this one, at a garage sale, MonkeyLinkMega found something that would change his life forever. Or, for a couple of years, at most. He found a used laptop, for only $15. A Compaq Presario CQ62. He jumped at the chance to have his own computer, and brought it home, beaming. It needed some love, but, luckily, this Dad knew what to do. Tech Dad replaced the battery, the charging cable, and the keyboard. He added RAM and upgraded the hard drive. Once it had Linux on it, it could ALMOST run a full-screen YouTube clip without stuttering. You see, it only had a single core processor and no dedicated video. (Cue gasps and sobbing)

Eventually, MonkeyLinkMega traded up for something a bit better, and this laptop was consigned to the spares pile. It languished, sad and alone, for years, until one day, the tech-savvy Dad decided he was going to max everything out for a Linux installfest fundraiser.

The maximum RAM was listed as 4GB DDR2 (which it had) on some sites, and 8GB DDR2 on others. Tech Dad splurged on some eBay RAM, which was only expensive because it had become harder to find over the years. He also swapped the spinning platter hard drive out for a SATA SSD, to make sure that storage wouldn’t bottleneck what little speed the laptop could get.

Initially, things were looking good. The full 8GB of RAM was recognized, and several distros of Linux would install, but none of them booted. After several rounds of this, successful booting became intermittent, even off of the USB drives. In the end, the laptop stopped booting at all, and wouldn’t even POST.

Tech Dad had a sad, but knew that the laptop had lived a long and productive life. (It’s me, I’m Tech Dad.) In the end, the RAM and SSD were put in a drawer and the laptop in electronics recycling. Rest in peace, you glorious garage sale find.

Also, if anyone has a need for DDR2 SODIMMs, let me know. :)