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Today I get a email from the boss. Laptop TC4 is making noise - check it out.
Well this is a Toshiba Tecra 730 XCDT running W95 used only to run Windaq data acquisition software. So it does the job.
Fan is dirty so I clean it out and all is good for now.
Follow up email. Hey can you upgrade the laptop for the tester crew. So I send him a email suggesting a suitable replacement laptop with Data acquisition software for under $300.
He doesn’t want a new laptop but wants me to upgrade a laptop built in 1995 with a 2GB hard drive and 16MB of ram.

I’m good but dang I can’t do that. Still shaking my head at this.

24 Spice ups
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I’d just say it cannot be upgraded. I would run it in a VM on a newer machine. I do this with an old DOS loan amortization program. It works and gets the job done and does a better job than new Windows based software. So I run it in a VM.

5 Spice ups
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2nd-ing Space Force - did something similar with a legacy app, ran it VM.

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Talk about penny-wise and pound-foolish. Every Windows prior to Win7 is completely out of support and by definition a security risk. I wouldn’t even run them in a VM. Your boss should also see this .

Even for Windows 7 minimum specs are a 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM: The Tecra won’t go beyond 144 MB RAM and runs a Pentium 166. Heck, even WinXP wants a 233Mhz processor - assuming you’ve got a legit copy lying around somewhere.

It’s foolishness to even try and upgrade something that old. Time to politely tell the boss to bite the bullet and buy something new.

P.S. - The link above from DataQ specifies that WinDaq hardware is only compatible with WinXP or higher AND that any problems resulting from use on Windows versions that are EOL (anything prior to 7 at the moment) won’t be considered software failures by their tech support.

2 Spice ups
5

Yep, it’s time for Windows 98.

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You will probably have more problems after the upgrade…I wouldn’t waste my time with that nonsense.

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Windows 98SE (second edition) was pretty good.

Or maybe see if you get Windows 2000 Pro on it. That was a solid OS.

Just don’t do millennium. That was probably the worst version they ever made.

Or ya, get a modern machine.

2 Spice ups
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I would tell him that the laptop docks won’t fit the new hardware. Time for an upgrade

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Fact is, if you could get a W10 (64 bit) system to talk to the older systems that are needed, with the interfaces they need…you are a better IT guy than I am.

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If it isn’t networked, Windows 95 poses no greater security risk than Windows 10 with shared credentials.

But the laptop is probably already at the best the hardware and operating system can support. Back in the day, a computer was only “upgradeable” to the best of the technology available the day it came out of the factory. To a large extent, that’s still true today. “Upgradeable” only means you didn’t max it out when you bought it, and when your budget is ready for you beef it up, the hardware is obsolete and no longer available.

Up until about 2015, I supported a system from the late 90’s (running W95). It couldn’t be upgraded – not even a VM – because it had a proprietary processing card that required an ISA slot and was only supported under W95. The manufacturer of the card was long out of business. The system did what they needed, and did it very well; there was no business reason to upgrade. It was a non-networked machine. I had found a new-in-box motherboard that I kept in storage “just in case.” Thankfully, I never needed it.

There was no business reason, until there was. In 2015, they replaced the system with modern, supported, off-the-shelf software by a well-known, well-established company. If THAT company goes out of business, it will send shock waves through the business and IT world. They no longer require proprietary hardware.

So, sometimes, you can support a system long past its normal life expectancy, because it is able to do exactly what the client requires. Until it isn’t. And it sounds like maybe you’ve reached the point where it is no longer able to fulfill the needs – and there’s no way to make 20-year-old hardware fulfill the needs.

Upgrades like this become a Catch-22. You can’t upgrade the software because the old hardware won’t support it. But you can’t upgrade the hardware because the old software won’t work with newer hardware. Sometimes you have to do a multi-step upgrade, temporarily using newer-but-still-old hardware and OSes to migrate the system to a current hardware and software platform.

I think $300 might begin to pay for… planning.

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Eh, not if you keep it off the internet.

Given the nature of the software in question (Windaq) I am going to guess they have a hardware component that hooks up to the laptop that actually physically measures whatever they need measuring. Something no one in this thread seems to consider is that maybe this hardware is VERY expensive to replace, there may actually be legitimate business reasons to not want to replace the laptop and software setup.

I’ve seen this before, company has a million dollar piece of hardware, that only runs on Windows 9x or DOS. To replace it, and make it run on a modern Windows machine would cost millions of dollars, and there is just no financial justification for it, as the old hardware works perfectly and does exactly what they need. So it becomes much cheaper to just maintain the ancient computer and OS that the hardware needs. Not saying this is happening here, just saying it does happen, more often than you’d think.

OP, I am not sure why you can’t upgrade the machine as asked. I’d just buy the RAM from ebay, and look at getting a DOM that is ~2Gb. Make a backup image on the Win95 install, then do the upgrades. While doing that, have a conversation with the boss about why they can’t replace the machine and ask him what plan B is for when the laptop in question fails completely (and let him know you have an image backup of the OS just in case), and once you get a handle of the use case and the reasons why, then advise them on the best plan of attack, be it maintain the old machine, or move towards replacing/upgrading it with something modern.

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I would just explain the benefits of replacing the device.

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Scotty.jpg

3 Spice ups
14

Why not just go straight to Windows ME? :slight_smile:

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LOL, not sure the laptop could handle such an “advanced” OS

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I have 7 of these type machines. W95 and W3.1 None are connected to our network. A few of them could be switched to a newer laptops with a USB Windaq adapter. But a few of them are test cell pc’s that would crazy amounts of money to replace $40K to $100K ea. due to the software that runs the generators. Played with one for a while trying to get a VM to work with no luck and the vendors will not support if you do not use their set up as is.

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I think this has to be a pretty close toss up between ME, Vista, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Server 2012, and that release of Windows 10 that deleted all your files…

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8.1 was actually pretty good with a Start menu replacement. Virtually indistinguishable from Windows 7. But, yeah, the others were dogs (don’t forget Server 2008 non-r2).

And Windows 95 OSR2.5 was the most rock solid of that family line – and it had USB support.

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