will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2015-04-03 19:41 (#6CBE) I read the linked article but it didn't answer my question. I have a nice older IBM ThinkPad T40 with a great keyboard, touchpoint (pointing device) and screen. The processor is slow and whatever has messed up the WinXP installation makes it even slower--to the point that it is effectively unusable.Will the Chromebit stick be able to "take over" and utilize the ThinkPad hardware? Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 2, Informative) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-04-03 20:40 (#6CDT) Nope. Not unless your laptop has HDMI inputs, and the rest of hardware (keyboard, mouse, etc), can be plugged-in to a USB hub... The Chromebit is designed to plug-in to HDTV & computer monitors, taking over for a tower PC.Besides, a Chromebook is only $50 more than the Chromebit... so if you want the laptop form-factor, you should spend the extra $50 and get the former, ready to go out-of-the-box. Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 1) by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-04-04 19:52 (#6DXV) It would be really fun to take do a weird mod with it, like gut out an old all in one pc, and replace the guts with the chromebit. Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 1) by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-04-05 08:15 (#6EM6) It's been done quite a bit. Google 'Raspberry Pi Commodore 64 internal" and you'll come up with a huge list of guys who have gutted old C64s and replaced the computing parts with a Raspberry Pi on which they run emulator software, usually. There's also a guy on Etsy who created his own custom keyboard controller, and now sells refurbished C64s, Sinclairs, and other retro computers you can now use as a fully-functioning USB external keyboard. I'm sorely tempted by these - love the idea of a C64 on my desk connected to a real computer elsewhere.
Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 2, Informative) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-04-03 20:40 (#6CDT) Nope. Not unless your laptop has HDMI inputs, and the rest of hardware (keyboard, mouse, etc), can be plugged-in to a USB hub... The Chromebit is designed to plug-in to HDTV & computer monitors, taking over for a tower PC.Besides, a Chromebook is only $50 more than the Chromebit... so if you want the laptop form-factor, you should spend the extra $50 and get the former, ready to go out-of-the-box. Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 1) by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-04-04 19:52 (#6DXV) It would be really fun to take do a weird mod with it, like gut out an old all in one pc, and replace the guts with the chromebit. Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 1) by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-04-05 08:15 (#6EM6) It's been done quite a bit. Google 'Raspberry Pi Commodore 64 internal" and you'll come up with a huge list of guys who have gutted old C64s and replaced the computing parts with a Raspberry Pi on which they run emulator software, usually. There's also a guy on Etsy who created his own custom keyboard controller, and now sells refurbished C64s, Sinclairs, and other retro computers you can now use as a fully-functioning USB external keyboard. I'm sorely tempted by these - love the idea of a C64 on my desk connected to a real computer elsewhere.
Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 1) by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-04-04 19:52 (#6DXV) It would be really fun to take do a weird mod with it, like gut out an old all in one pc, and replace the guts with the chromebit. Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 1) by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-04-05 08:15 (#6EM6) It's been done quite a bit. Google 'Raspberry Pi Commodore 64 internal" and you'll come up with a huge list of guys who have gutted old C64s and replaced the computing parts with a Raspberry Pi on which they run emulator software, usually. There's also a guy on Etsy who created his own custom keyboard controller, and now sells refurbished C64s, Sinclairs, and other retro computers you can now use as a fully-functioning USB external keyboard. I'm sorely tempted by these - love the idea of a C64 on my desk connected to a real computer elsewhere.
Re: will the stick work with an old laptop? (Score: 1) by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-04-05 08:15 (#6EM6) It's been done quite a bit. Google 'Raspberry Pi Commodore 64 internal" and you'll come up with a huge list of guys who have gutted old C64s and replaced the computing parts with a Raspberry Pi on which they run emulator software, usually. There's also a guy on Etsy who created his own custom keyboard controller, and now sells refurbished C64s, Sinclairs, and other retro computers you can now use as a fully-functioning USB external keyboard. I'm sorely tempted by these - love the idea of a C64 on my desk connected to a real computer elsewhere.