Hi! This seems like a great community, hopefully I'll be able to become an active member of it!

I'm a media arts student and I want to dedicate my desktop system to video editing. I'd like to do my schoolwork/screwing around on the internet on a separate system and I think a low-end (read: CHEAP) tablet system might be just the thing. On eBay there are a lot of Fujitsu 3400 systems floating around and they look intriguing, but at my apartment I only have a wireless internet setup and one of the requirements for any system I would buy would be internet connectivity. Also, they come loaded with Windows NT 4.0, which doesn't have USB support. I have a portable USB drive that I'd like to be able to use with it, so that's sort of a problem. Does anyone know how feasible it would be to load Windows XP on one of these? I fear it would run tremendously slow on the 400 megaherz processor, but on the other hand my family has a 400 megaherz desktop that runs XP just fine. Assuming XP isn't a good option, which OS do you guys recommend I purchase for it? Or is there perhaps a similarly inexpensive option that I should look into instead? My budget is extremely limited... I'd like to spend less than five hundred bucks if at all possible. I don't need too many bells and whistles, but I do need USB connectivity and wireless network connectivity...

Thanks in advance for the advice. Sorry if I seem brash and ignorant!

Welcome to Tablet PC Questions. Sorry to be slow to answer but I'm still recovering from the CES 2005 trip and trying to get student grades complete for the 20 week grade report.

A Tablet PC uses Windows XP Tablet PC Edition whereas a pen enabled tablet uses Windows 98/XP with a third party software package. The model you are asking about is a pen enabled unit.

Since your budget is in the 500 dollar range then you may be better off looking at a notebook with wireless capabilities. I doubt you'll find a Tablet PC for that price range. I could be wrong - so keep watching eBay.

Hopefully others will chime in. I know several of the members are also still unpacking.

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Let me first say that I too am new to pen enabled slate computing, and boy are some people touchy about calling a pen enabled slate computer a tablet PC, I guess we newbies have to be careful about that.

I recently bought one of those 3400’s, and nearly immediately replaced the OS with win2000. For the many modern features, specifically, I really hate a 2 gig FAT primary partition with the rest of your drive mounted as D:\ formatted NTFS. Although, just prior to the reinstall, I easily got a proxim classic gold 802.11b card working under NT4.0. It was necessary to move the drivers via a CF card in a PCMCIA adapter, which was luckily lying around.

One of the drawbacks to this setup is that NT needs to reboot for just about all network changes, and since the SSID is setup in the network system control panel, yup, reboot. This would become somewhat of a hassle if you are roaming from hotspot to hotspot.

But, you want USB also, so NT really isn’t an option…

I am on just about the same plan you are, Under $500, and I believe I am close or on track.

If you are looking at the same vendor I purchased from, he has like a million of these and is selling them three different ways:
His really good packages have a device with a good screen, the carry case, the dock, the keyboard and mouse, power adapter, the external parallel port CD, and the floppy drive. He is listing this for about 249 with a buy it now for 299.

He also has a package with a device a good screen, power supply, and pen. He starts these at 139

He is also selling sets of two 3400s, one pen, one power supply, both supposedly have many bad spots on the screen, he considers these “As parts”

I got one of his high end ones, for about 300 including shipping, I bought the high end package because I knew I would need the dock for traditional PS2 keyboard connectivity for reinstalling new OSs. Having spent a day doing so, I have wondered if I didn’t waste $160, and concluded that I hadn’t. I don’t think I could have gotten the install done without it.

Here is the bomb… Although I got the device for 300, have a 20Gig drive on order for less than 30 shipped, I fully expect to spend about $200 for a refurbished battery if I am lucky enough to find one, and it really needs one. I get only about 20 minutes use with it unplugged.

With the use of my handy CF adapter and keyboard and mouse I had little trouble getting all the drivers setup, and I am still working out the bugs of the handwriting recognition.

Since I have the dock/keyboard/mouse, I will probably buy one or two more of his mid-package models and referb them for applications where I have power, Vehicle GPS platform, and or bedside terminal. But, the real mobile slate computing experience will depend on the battery issue.

I think it is doable at or about your 500 limit.

BTW, I think my method of install would work for XP, but the Fujitsu never put out drivers for this model for XP, the 2k ones might work, I am sticking with 2K.

Small revision:

I finaly got conformation from a guy who has both, a 3400, and a 3500, that the batteries are in face interchangable.

the good news is that new/OEM referb batteries are available for the 3500, i just got one, 149 shipped.

Add that to the device and the replacment HD i ordered, and the WiFi i had, i have a very usable pen computer fo a bit under the theorhetical $500 budget.

Givent the chance to do it all again, i would go with the Mid-Range ones being offered (139) and use a USB: hub, keyboard, and mouse for installs, as now that mine is setup, i plan on putting the dock away forever. That could bring your affordable "Pen enabled slate computing device" in at a pricetag of way under $400

I bought 3 of these off Market2Market After using my friends Intermec 6640 I like the feel of a Pen Enabled Slate. (Saying this to please some Even though Fujitsu calls it a Tablet!)
I bought a pair of "Parts" Units, and a Loaded machine with the case Port Replicator and all. Finding add on goodies is like sleepwalking compared to other similar vintage machines.
I was lucky enough to get a pair of fairly usable batteries with my machines. However there are folks on eBay Selling NEW batteries for around 70 bucks.
I also like another one of you. I just ordered a 20 gig Hard drive myself. IBM Travelstar/Hitachi. Hopefully I'll get it to work good..
I'm using a Belkin F5D7010 802.11G Wireless 54G PCMCIA Card for my networking and Win98SE. It sucks down the battery terrible but it's SUPER Fast!
My Goal is to have something like a laptop. Yet with a little more portablity.
As More and More open Free Wi-Fi Networks are being built. I would like to have a little more internet freedom. Not being tied to my desktop for everything.
I have to hand it to Fujitsu. The 3400's I personally had found looking at a lot of other machines were one of the first usable Pen Tablet PCs. With all the bells and whistles of a top end laptop of the same vintage they are a real piece of well engineered technology.
The Intermec 6640's are nice machines But they were obsolete Long before being released. Major downer being the processor speed.
These 3400 Stylistic's with 400mhz PIII is a good quick Processor. Good enough still for light muilitasking, broadband wireless web surfing, and even DVD Playback.
I can forsee myself keeping those Fujitsu's for a long time. Thanks to eBay for bringing even more electronics into my very wired, or should I say wireless life.

I have a 3400 and I have upgraded it from 2000 to XP Pro and it runs great. I hae a toshiba Tecra 8000 and it runs slower than this one does.
Few quirks but if you check the forums like this and ( http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/) and search for 3400 and you will find several items to walk you t5hrough it easily. Only issus I have had is not rotation of screen and no hnadwriting in XP Pen only works like a mouse but hey it is great for most things.