# Laptops for in-car tuning. What specs are needed? **URL:** \ **Category:** NYSpeed Automotive\ **Created:** [July 27, 2006, 7:41am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109 "2006-07-27T07:41:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Clean\_Baldy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/clean_baldy/32/7308_2.png) [@Clean\_Baldy](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Clean_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 7:41am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/1 "2006-07-27T07:41:00Z")
I have a few laptops sitting in my office. They’re pentium 166 machines, with 32mb RAM and 2GB hard drives. They all have COM ports. They’re pretty useless, because they cant even run win2000 or XP. Maybe they can be useful for car tuning? What system specs are required for the programs used by people who tune cars? If they don’t require winXP, these may be cheap solutions for someone who just wants a laptop for in-car tuning. Does anyone have any websites I can look at to see what software is used, or know if they even require windows? Do some programs boot off of floppys? Thanks Jeff ---
**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/uploads/speedlife/original/2X/b/b7170c8eddc0b95ece6b88172b2f416a08489a45.png) [@system](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 7:58am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/2 "2006-07-27T07:58:16Z")
With most new tuning software those are useless. Junk em or give them away to children to play with ---
**Author:** ![LZ1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 7:59am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/3 "2006-07-27T07:59:25Z")
mmm paper weights… ---
**Author:** ![Clean\_Baldy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/clean_baldy/32/7308_2.png) [@Clean\_Baldy](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Clean_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 8:07am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/4 "2006-07-27T08:07:57Z")
I take it most new tuning software is running through XP? No software that uses dos? Bummer… I was gonna sell em for like $20 or something. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Inn-Tune](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/inn-tune/32/7588_2.png) [@Inn-Tune](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Inn-Tune)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 8:12am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/5 "2006-07-27T08:12:48Z")
too slow for tuning ---
**Author:** ![Zong](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/zong/32/7580_2.png) [@Zong](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Zong)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 9:00am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/6 "2006-07-27T09:00:03Z")
My P3 1.5 ghz laptop has trouble running Tari racing, and it’s not even demanding compared to some other softwares. You’re better off going office space on those pos’s. ---
**Author:** ![Clean\_Baldy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/clean_baldy/32/7308_2.png) [@Clean\_Baldy](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Clean_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 9:06am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/7 "2006-07-27T09:06:41Z")
Thanks guys 🙂 Now I know that these things are just as worthless as I thought they were! YAY! ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 10:25am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/8 "2006-07-27T10:25:17Z")
Actaully you have any junker laptops with a USB port? ---
**Author:** ![Clean\_Baldy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/clean_baldy/32/7308_2.png) [@Clean\_Baldy](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Clean_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 11:28am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/9 "2006-07-27T11:28:19Z")
> [@FuzzyFish](#): > > Actaully you have any junker laptops with a USB port? I think they have USB ports on em… they also have docking stations. ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:06pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/10 "2006-07-27T12:06:17Z")
My brother might be interested if you have one with USB and a working battery. As well as a CD-Rom drive too. ---
**Author:** ![articzap](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/articzap/32/7361_2.png) [@articzap](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/articzap)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:11pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/11 "2006-07-27T12:11:29Z")
ill take one if its free and works ---
**Author:** ![Jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@Jon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Jon)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/12 "2006-07-27T13:10:41Z")
Donate to amvets,tax write off. ---
**Author:** ![MikeRi24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@MikeRi24](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/MikeRi24)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/13 "2006-07-27T14:02:16Z")
can they run FireFox, AIM, and support any kind of wireless card or has an ethernet connection? if so, im claiming one! i kno thats pushing it, but i figured it try lol. ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/14 "2006-07-27T14:35:08Z")
From the sounds of it with Win95, or 98 it should be serviceable. Using GAIM or anything but AIM in place of AIM due to it’s much lower memory usage. I still use my old p133 laptop with 80MB RAM running win95 for dial-up on occasion when it’s needed. Suprisingly speedy if you keep flash off of it. ---
**Author:** ![MikeRi24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@MikeRi24](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/MikeRi24)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/15 "2006-07-27T14:41:47Z")
basically i want something to surf the net and talk on AIM while im in class lol. ---
**Author:** ![LZ1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/16 "2006-07-27T15:21:08Z")
ughhh you wouldnt want to surf the net and use aim on those… ---
**Author:** ![legend4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@legend4life](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/legend4life)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/laptops-for-in-car-tuning-what-specs-are-needed/15109/17 "2006-08-05T16:14:39Z")
Windows 98 SE is fine for tuning software for standalones like AEM EMS. Actually it’s probably better than XP because the software doesn’t require XP and XP just hogs more resources and memory and slows things down. My old IBM Thinkpad A20m had 600Mhz P3 with 128mb RAM on Win98 SE ran AEMPro perfect, I never had issues with speed even realtime pc logging. Most newer laptops don’t have serial ports either and then you have to run serial to usb ot serial to pcmcia converters and many times it isn’t as reliable and causes connection problems. Now I have a newer Toshiba Qosmio with 17" widescreen dual lamp ultra bright glossy screen, 1.8Ghz Centrino, XP, etc but it’s a hassle running a converter and it doesn’t work any better for tuning than the old pos Thinkpad did. 166Mhz and 32mb RAM might be a little too old though lol:P.