Computer Trouble

[RanchMan]

<font color=blue> Forget the WXP, it would not run on your system...its too old.</font color=blue>

Hmmmm /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif, well, although the recommended processor is a 300 Mhz, MS says that 233 is the minimum required. I agree though that his system would probably be happier with an earlier OS.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif


<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/sysreqs.asp>http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/sysreqs.asp</A>

 

[billboe]

For stability, I'd say W2K or XP... All other MS OSes have been notorious for the three finger salute...

 

[Wingnut]

I usually stay out of these holy wars ... get enough growling on my other posts ... but I'll give you some "bin there done that" advice.
98SE ... your hardware will be supported. M$ is famous for saying "you can run it on ....." but having the minimum requirements NEVER works. SE only locks me down about 3 times a day as opposed to hourly ... and I really give the poor thing a workout. With 98SE ... your memory is pretty well sufficient.
I don't have ANY boxes without 2 drives (some have more). These things do have moving parts that, when they go "oops" cause very bad things to happen. Having a spare means you have an extra place to save backups (I hope you backi up your data files at least weekly?) as well as more space to save tractor pictures.
USB is, indeed, pretty handy now that the standards are being pretty well adhered to. I haven't seen any results from add-in boards ... but I can't imagine that they're much different than on-board support.
I'd echo others though and say ... spring a little extra change and buy a new box. I just saw an ad from Gateway for a 1+ gb box for $599. You can always buy a little lower (if you can find it) and save money by not buying a monitor.
You can also go to a barebones unit (assuming your not afraid of cracking a case) really cheap ... but they usually come sans OS.

wingnut

 

[RanchMan]

USB -

The newer Mboards and add-on cards seem to support USB 2.0 which the USB folks claim runs 40X faster than 1.1 - Same operation, cables, etc, just faster.

I'm currently limited to 1.1 so I'm considering a 2.0 card - problem is I'm out of slots /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. Can anyone out there speak to adding a 2.0 based card and how it performs???

 

[Rowski]

Wingnut

Which OS would you use, if you were in my shoes? That's what my thought was in having 2 hard drives, Keeping back-ups and having more storage capacity. Lately I been using lots of zip disks, gets expensive and don't seem to last forever. I wish I had a little extra change (new baby changes things a bit ), I would by a new one. Thanks for your help.


Ranchman,

Thanks for time and all the info. I think I may have answered my own question.... I can't find my w95 CD/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif. So I guess I'll have to spring for a new OS. What is the difference between W98se and Wme? I see Wxp is at the minimum requirements so that is out. About that Memory recycle thing, Is there anyway to avoid that other than a restart? Thanks again.


Scruffy,

What do you mean by Wme being flakey? Just in looks or in function? What is a good price on an OS? Seeing on how I can not find my W95 CD, I'll have to buy new rather than upgrade. Thanks for your help.




Here is a stupid question, is Wme and W2000 the same?

 

[RanchMan]

Rowski -

No Problemo! That's too bad you can't find your CD (OS upgrades ask you to insert it at some point, so just having the key won't help you either /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif)

I'll have to admit, I'm not real sure what the differences between 98se & Me so I'll abdicate that to Wingnut & Scruffy to answer. The memory thing - there are some "memory recyclers" out there. CNET.com has several different versions. I'd check there. Most are freeware.

To answer one of the questions you asked Scruffy, OS's will run you in the area of $75-$100. You can find them on e-bay, or if you want to deal with a "real" store, there are a lot of on-line stores cheaper than the "brick & mortar" type. Here's a link to one I've had good luck with if you want pricing on things...

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=90&manufactory=1149&DEPA=1>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=90&manufactory=1149&DEPA=1</A>

 

[scruffy]

Rowski, My personal choice is Win98SE for a windows OS. For my uses, it is a lot more stable than ME. I do a lot of install and uninstall of quite a few differant programs. ME gets flakey with that and crashes more frequently than I care to deal with, although, 98SE also does similar things! My spouse has used her ME (same identical system, except she's running an 850Mhz cpu, whereas I'm running a 1.3 ghz cpu.) for the past six months without a crash, or problem of any sort. She doesn't overclock hers, and I do overclock mine periodically....which tends to cause problems here and there. I've had three memory modules (total of 1152mbs of memory) take a dump on me for various reasons, partially overclocking, partially bad chips, and partially who knows.
WINME can be installed and have a good load (personal experience) IF you install a new load on a clean hard drive. Do not do the upgrade route, as that will cause some very flakey functional use. If you ever decide to dump it and revert to WIN98SE for example, fdisk, format and fdisk /mbr are highly recommended. Win Me likes to 'hide' info in the master boot record that will cause problems for other loads.
fdisk in itself won't necessarily rewrite the master boot record, hence the reasoning behind the fdisk /mbr, which incidently can be done on a fully loaded drive without messing up anything loaded on the drive. (NOTE: IF you have an antivirus software loaded, such as NAV, it MAY cause a problem, as NAV writes to the Master Boot Record also)
No WinME and Win2000 are differant. Win2000 is a standalone home pc variant of WIN NT ... (the network version), and is more closely related to it, ME shares much of the 98 OS platform, with a few new items thrown in. It is sort of a bridge between the 98 platform and XP, sharing some of each. (personal opinion on that observation)

 

[RoyJackson]

IF you have an antivirus software loaded, such as NAV, it MAY cause a problem, as NAV writes to the Master Boot Record also

Rowski, you should also disable any virus scanner in the BIOS when you load a new OS.

Don't forget to enable it once you've loaded you new OS.

I've read also all the posts on this thread...funny, I rarely get the "blue screen of death" with Win 98SE.

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>Win2000 is a standalone home pc variant of WIN NT ... (the network version),</font color=blue>

Um, almost right Scruffy.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Windows2000 replaced WindowsNT as Microsoft's operating system aimed at the corporate environment. There are 4 versions of Windows2000; Windows2000 Professional (desktop), Windows2000 Server, Windows2000 Advanced Server and Windows2000 Datacenter.

WindowsXP incorporates much of the features of Windows2000 and is aimed at the home user.

My personal recommendation for a Windows operating system, assuming the PC is not going to be used for playing games, is Windows2000. It is extremely stable. Our average availability, including both scheduled and unscheduled outages, is 99.976%. The reason Windows2000 and games (some games anyway) do not get along is that many games want to talk to the hardware directly in order to run faster. Windows2000 does not allow software to talk directly to the hardware. Why? Because if the game software is not written carefully, it will crash the PC. My second recommendation is WindowsXP.

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

 

[Wingnut]

You got all the right answers (imo) from the others, Rowski.
I was trying to say, in my original post, that Win98SE was your best bet. WinME is way too flaky .... although a few people report no problems ... a few people also believed Clinton ... what can I say? As Scruffy noted ... WinME can be installed ok if you do it completely fresh .... but unloading and reloading everything isn't a lot of fun.
Memory ... you have lots. Most memory problems ... and I have lots (not just oldtimers ...) of these ... are due to the way that the OS works ... not from a true lack of memory. The memory that "runs out" (and I'm being simplistic on purpose here to keep all the "not exactly right" messages from clogging this up) is a very small chunk of memory the OS reserves to keep track of what should be on your screen. Unfortunately ... M$ is very bad at writing programs that clear this chunk out when they're finished ... and therefore, opening and closing many graphics intensive programs (such as the M$ Office apps and M$ Exploder) will run you out of memory. This will usually not cause blue death ... but will bite you just as you're about to save an hours work (autosave is a wonderful thing). There is NO way to expand this chunk of memory ... so throwing more in won't help.
When the system starts to report memory problems .... I've found the only sure way to avoid bad things is to close all the apps, and shut down completely - a cold boot. (leave the swicth off for 10 seconds or so).
Of course, this is just my experience based on having to use Exploder, Excess, and Access all day, working on my eCommerce stuff .... I generally tend to cold boot about 3-4 times a day if I'm actively working on catalogs .... once a week if I'm just doing "normal" work. (this is Win98SE ... I scrapped WinME immediately and have no intention of sending Bill my money or information for XP (eXtra Profits).
Zips are expensive and also very dicey. The drives are better than they used to be ... but a lot chancier than other media. A CD-burner (newer one with burnproof) is a far better ... and the media is much cheaper!
Good Luck!

wingnut (longing for the never no crashes nohow days of AmigaDOS)