Computer Cleanup

[free=good]

I've got a computer thats a couple of years old that I will (hopefully) be turning into my wifes home office computer. Its got a 633 celeron with 64 megs of ram and a 15 gig hd (told you it was old). Anyway, I started getting it going again as its basically sat there unused for a year or so, and its all jacked up. I've installed xp (was ME) and some other stuff (dell axim software and a wireless router) and its running super slow and locking up on me now. I ran anti-virus and system works and its showing a ton of errors. I'm thinking about installing the restore cds that came with the computer and starting from scratch. Good idea or bad?

Before anyone suggests just buying a new one, my wife doesn't really need anything more than fast internet, ACT! and microsoft office stuff.

 

[minivette_horn]

In reply to:

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[free=good]

OK, do I need to ditch the whole system or is upgrading that enough? If so, how tough is it?

 

[twid]

you need more memory if you want to run xp. you need a lot more. normally people should have at least 256 mb for xp to run properly. i also usually hear at least a 1 gig processor prescribed for computers running xp. starting from scratch would not be a bad idea (make sure and back everything up), but i would probably not recommend trying to put xp on it again. go with windows 2000, it'll be a lot more stable.

 

[free=good]

OK, thanks for the heads up on xp/too little memory. Now I'm thinking I'll just have to buy another one.

 

[hellbunny]

Get 256 to 512MBs of ram and install windows 2000 instead and you'll be in good shape.

 

[free=good]

Is it as easy as cracking open the case and plugging it in? If so, should I first restore it to original (after saving the one or two items I need) or just uninstall xp and get more memory?

 

[hellbunny]

In order of things I would try:

Save Data
Try restore CD
Install your wireless/office stuff
Check performance/stability

Go buy ram
Check performance/stability
Install Windows 2000 (maybe XP)

Unless you've got a really weird system you should be able to go out and get RAM. From the age I figure you'd need PC100 or PC133 RAM.

 

[Bob Wills]

I've got my wife on a PIII-600 w/ 384 MB of RAM running XP Pro, so I think you'll be fine for most office, productivity, and internet apps. Keep it regularly updated with patches and definitely put some virus/malware software on it. Personally, I would also stick a larger HDD in there.

If you can convince her to use some other browser than IE and some other email app besides Outlook, then more power to you.

Look around for some RAM sales too. I know you can find 256 MB SDRAM sticks for about $30 and 512 MB sticks for about $55/60.

 

[plimon]

I installed XP on an old laptop that has a 333 Mhz PII. I upped the memory from 128MB to 256MB and set the Performance Option to "best performance" in the System Properties. It's mainly used for web surfing, email, and watching DVD's on the road.