WOW!

Well, the junker T43 I got a few days ago just will NOT work right.  Tried it with Wary Puppy, which is about as basic as it gets, and it still froze up in the interface.  When I just tried to boot into the copy of Windows on the hard drive, it of course demands you "activate" Windows.  And then freezes.

On a lark, I dragged out the poor little X41 Tablet and pulled the extra memory stick out and stuck it in the T43 (which only had 512 MB).  No go.  Same problems.  Same outcome.

Disgusted, I put the memory stick back in the X41.  And then I got a wild hair...  The X41 is missing it's hard drive, and is also missing keys off the keyboard, and one Trackpoint button.  But...

But...

I went in and dug out an old thumb drive with Puppy Slacko 5.5 on it, plugged it in, hooked up the power brick, and hit the power button...

Damn.

The fan in the X41 kicked on and screamed...  Then settled down.  I hit F12 for boot devices.  Took it just a second, but...  There was the menu, and there was the USB drive.  Select that...

It booted.  Long story short, it booted.  Even in the savage shape that little notebook was in, it booted.  The lost 'G' slot still worked fine.  And the seemingly stuck right Trackpoint button worked.  (I didn't try the missing scroll button.)

When I'd had the back memory door open, I noticed a wireless card installed.  So...

It did.   It went online flawlessly.  I browsed the web for just a second.  (Didn't fiddle with YouTube, as I hadn't adjusted the sound, but I have no doubt the system would've dealt with it quite well.)

A check of the system showed a PentiumM running at 1.6 Ghz, with a gig of memory.  Nicely appointed little system.  Granted, it has it's problems, as I noted above.  The screen latch is busted, too.  And no hard drive.

But, I just might put a little work into it.  Maybe see if I can find those missing keys.  And maybe a new HD.  This little computer deserves a second chance.

It's a fighter.  And it's pretty darn cool for it.