System #5 - HP 655 laptop

Specifications:

CPU: AMD E2-1800 APU (2 cores, 2 threads) - Boy is this thing slow!

Motherboard: It's a laptop, who cares lol.

RAM: 4 GB of DDR3L (2 sticks of 2 GB).

GPU: Integrated AMD Radeon HD 7340.

OS: Debian GNU/Linux 13 with MATE desktop environment.

Disks: A delicious 500 GB, 5400 RPM HDD that houses all of my .mkv files of cartoons for my kids.

Case: It's a laptop :|

Sound card: Integrated.

Network connectivity: The internal network card of this laptop is broken somehow - it doesn't even show up in any device manager. So I have a small USB 5 GHz WiFi card plugged into it at all times.

Display (primary, integrated): A surprisingly decent 1366x768 TN screen. It's okay for what it is.

Anything else of note: It has a DVD drive, and SD card reader, both of which are super nice to have.

What I use this system for:

It's mostly been used as a way for the kids to watch cartoons, after our only tablet died (oh yeah I gotta update that page too..)
Also after I installed Debian on it, I've gained more of an appreciation for this laptop. I'm actually writing these webpages on it :)

Backstory, history and thoughts on the system:

My wife had this laptop when we met. It used to have Windows 8.1 on it, but in the autumn of 2025 I finally had enough of it - it had horrible performance, getting absolutely bogged down and hammered the CPU at 100% by doing just mundane stuff, or nothing at all. Now with Debian, it's like an actually usable machine, as long as you know its limits.

Latest updates on the system:

2025, September - Reformatted the internal HDD and installed Debian GNU/Linux 13 in place of the previous OS it had; Windows 8.1.

2025, some time in spring - Took apart the entire laptop, replaced the dead CMOS battery, and cleaned the CPU fan, and reapplied the thermal paste. It runs cool and quiet and actually has a functioning memory of date & time etc. now 8) gotta show some love to the underdog..

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