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For my distraction-free writing, the solution I found was to buy a 1992 grayscale LCD 386 laptop. I can do writing in Word that I have installed on Windows 3.1

For my distraction-free writing, the solution I found was to buy a 1992 grayscale LCD 386 laptop. I can do writing in Word that I have installed on Windows 3.1 and then open them later on my modern day computer with a floppy disk drive. This setup works great and I can help answer questions if anyone is curious. I was going to write a blog post about this but I ended up sitting on the draft for too long and forgot about it, I really should publish that post :)

0des 4y ago
Are you always connected to power? I kept a few old laptops that would be practically useless today, but always wanted to resurrect for simple offline things. The biggest issue I have is power when off the charger. I think my best laptop is 45 minutes or so per charge. At one point I even bought extra batteries and kept them safely stored and dry, only to realize that this does almost nothing to preserve their longevity as now years later I find them all to have about the same lifespan. I have extra 18650 batteries, however Im not sure, given the size of these, that this is what they use in there.
- e-_pusher 4y ago
  Yes the battery is long dead, so I always run it off of wall power. I have though about making a 3D printed modern day battery that is shaped like a NiMh battery of old, but has LiIon batteries inside, gets charged off of USBC, and provides voltage at the same level that the original NiMh would provide. Should be doable, but never got around to it.
  - 0des 4y ago
    That seems pretty complicated, I like it.
  - the_biot 4y ago
    That sounds like a fun project, but I think you're overthinking how hard this needs to be. Instead of 3D printing an enclosure to fit the laptop, just fill it out with some goop like sugru or something. It just has to not rattle, is all. For voltage, just get some cheap buck converter board off Ebay, one that you can adjust down to the voltage the laptop needs, and have your battery pack a higher voltage than that. And a Li-Ion BMS board to charge it of course.

0des 4y ago

Are you always connected to power? I kept a few old laptops that would be practically useless today, but always wanted to resurrect for simple offline things. The biggest issue I have is power when off the charger. I think my best laptop is 45 minutes or so per charge. At one point I even bought extra batteries and kept them safely stored and dry, only to realize that this does almost nothing to preserve their longevity as now years later I find them all to have about the same lifespan. I have extra 18650 batteries, however Im not sure, given the size of these, that this is what they use in there.

e-_pusher 4y ago
Yes the battery is long dead, so I always run it off of wall power. I have though about making a 3D printed modern day battery that is shaped like a NiMh battery of old, but has LiIon batteries inside, gets charged off of USBC, and provides voltage at the same level that the original NiMh would provide. Should be doable, but never got around to it.
- 0des 4y ago
  That seems pretty complicated, I like it.
- the_biot 4y ago
  That sounds like a fun project, but I think you're overthinking how hard this needs to be. Instead of 3D printing an enclosure to fit the laptop, just fill it out with some goop like sugru or something. It just has to not rattle, is all. For voltage, just get some cheap buck converter board off Ebay, one that you can adjust down to the voltage the laptop needs, and have your battery pack a higher voltage than that. And a Li-Ion BMS board to charge it of course.