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General => General discussion => Topic started by: Guy on 26 October 2011, 18:35
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right... the small person (aged 7) in the household is wanting a laptop for christmas and frankly that ain't gonna happen! :laugh:
i had an idea though to get her in front of a pc (that isn't ours) so she can start to do her schoolwork on it (as they are given internet based learning) and play some games etc
i have an old dell 4500s (circa 2002) that seems to work ok... i haven't used it for a couple of years but it has never been problematic and I have just booted it up and it all seems to function ok
what I want to do is wipe it completely, get rid of all the old programs and saved rubbish on there, and then install some very basic windows os (as she uses that at school) that is not cluttered and will function with basically a browser etc and any security software (recommendations welcome) that we can lock the desktop down with so she doesn't get any nasty surprises :grin:
its not a world beater when it comes to specs and i think it is carrying about 512mb ram.. used to manage my adobe suite software admirably
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/SYSTEMS/dim4500s/specs.htm#1101572 (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/SYSTEMS/dim4500s/specs.htm#1101572)
what might my options be please? cost is an issue so I don't want to be spending out on copies new windows etc.. its currently running xp home edition
would giving it a reformat of some sort be the best option.. i am happy to do this if it clears everything in one hit and gives her a clean pc to muck about with
tia - Guy
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Just give it a good format, that'll sort it out good and proper, plus ensure any "old" files are removed ;)
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http://www.crucial.com/uk/?cpe=pd_google_uk&ef_id=0VpOa7irsBoAAEZS:20111026175155:s&mpch=ads
scan your system, then stick some more RAM in, i took a 2001 pc from 256mb to 1gig. what a difference, then get a copy of XP assuming you dont have the original CD's and do a fresh install, should be fine after that
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Delete the partition when reinstalling Windows, that clears everything even hidden files that you wouldn't know existed and stick around after a format.
Once Windows is reinstalled (I can give you a Dell XP CD or ISO with 99% of the updates so save you time updating it, Free) then install Microsoft's SteadyState (Free) which stops her from altering the PC beyond what you setup., Microsoft's Security Essentials (Free AV, low resource usage) and then PeerBlock (http://www.peerblock.com/)to help stop naughtyness getting on the machine.
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register with freecycle and beg/look out for a PC.
ebay has cheap RAM 1G for about £6
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Find out how much RAM it has, I've got some DDR kicking about that you can have if your slots aren't full.
PS: use this link, enter the service tag to find all the drivers you'll need.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
Also once you've entered in the service tag, look on the right hand side menu and click "warranty status" this should give you a page where you can find out the system specs.
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thanks guys for your feedback and thanks Jay for your input.. will try and do this over the weekend :cool:
i have been to crucial.com before and used to 'collect' spare ram from where I used to work many moons ago so I think it must be more than 512mb... its probably hovering around 1024mb at the moment.. i need to check this out
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RAM is definitely the solution to ensuring it runs along nicely.
And a clean install as already proposed.
If you can get your grubby mitts on Win7 then run that - we've installed it on loads of old kit here and it flies along very very well.
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RAM is definitely the solution to ensuring it runs along nicely.
And a clean install as already proposed.
If you can get your grubby mitts on Win7 then run that - we've installed it on loads of old kit here and it flies along very very well.
ideally i would.. but its finding a copy of win7 for nada that is the issue... what is the minimum spec for win7 pleasings? :smiley:
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http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/system-requirements
Windows 7 system requirements
If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
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RAM is definitely the solution to ensuring it runs along nicely.
And a clean install as already proposed.
If you can get your grubby mitts on Win7 then run that - we've installed it on loads of old kit here and it flies along very very well.
ideally i would.. but its finding a copy of win7 for nada that is the issue... what is the minimum spec for win7 pleasings? :smiley:
finding win7 for nothing is easy, it's activation it that's the hard part.
If you're trying to do this as cheaply as poss why not install ubuntu, it's free and has lower requirements.
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RAM is definitely the solution to ensuring it runs along nicely.
And a clean install as already proposed.
If you can get your grubby mitts on Win7 then run that - we've installed it on loads of old kit here and it flies along very very well.
ideally i would.. but its finding a copy of win7 for nada that is the issue... what is the minimum spec for win7 pleasings? :smiley:
finding win7 for nothing is easy, it's activation it that's the hard part.
If you're trying to do this as cheaply as poss why not install ubuntu, it's free and has lower requirements.
i did think about an OS OS but the small person is being indoctrinated/mindwashed into the world of windows so its probably easier if she has that on her pc
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RAM is definitely the solution to ensuring it runs along nicely.
And a clean install as already proposed.
If you can get your grubby mitts on Win7 then run that - we've installed it on loads of old kit here and it flies along very very well.
ideally i would.. but its finding a copy of win7 for nada that is the issue... what is the minimum spec for win7 pleasings? :smiley:
finding win7 for nothing is easy, it's activation it that's the hard part.
If you're trying to do this as cheaply as poss why not install ubuntu, it's free and has lower requirements.
i did think about an OS OS but the small person is being indoctrinated/mindwashed into the world of windows so its probably easier if she has that on her pc
fair shout, guess it depends on they are going to be doing in there lessons.
ubuntu and open office will give a very similar feel to win7 and office 2003 (doubt the schools will be running the latest versions with the ribbon).
If you're going down the msoft route you might want to check out the student / teacher deals, just make sure you've enough RAM for the OS and office.
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I have a boxed (but opened and used many moons ago) version of Office XP Student edition if you need it, and want to stay legit? Only collecting dust at home.
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thanks for your offers and help thus far... aim is to have a proper look at the weekend and see what I can break! :evil:
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If you do go Win7 and your struggling to activate it drop me a PM :smiley:
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If you do go Win7 and your struggling to activate it drop me a PM :smiley:
gotcha :wink:
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right!!
have reformatted and reinstalled xp and installed ms security jobbie and peerblock
its taken nearly all day to do this but all seems ok
tried installing a netgear wg311v3 wireless card but every time I try to do this it throws a wobbly and will not let it acquire an IP address from the BT router
so i de-install and take out the wireless card and re-insert the ethernet card and then that too decides that it cannot acquire an IP address either :angry: (need the wireless card as it will be upstairs) so now at the moment the pc cannot get internet (which was working fine through the ethernet card before)
whats the fix for this please as I just want to get the wireless card working :sad:
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repair / reinstall the drivers, are you using the drivers from the Dell website? Also right click the network card choose repair, this refreshes the IP address and clears out the network cache, may help and is quick to do.
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repair / reinstall the drivers, are you using the drivers from the Dell website? Also right click the network card choose repair, this refreshes the IP address and clears out the network cache, may help and is quick to do.
yeah did all that... although the network card was from netgear
followed some problem solving bits and did it under the cmd prompt with a bit of ip releasing/renewing
the install of that card though has bought up one thing... it changed the log in profile from the original xp one to more of a windows NT stylee one.. very odd :/
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anyway... that log-in welcome screen is all sorted now after some de-install of some rubbishy netgear software
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Disable the Netgear sh1t from starting by deleting it from the Startup items in the All Programs list, if it's still there or needed at all in the future.
Have you got it to get an IP yet, either by wifi or cable?
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Disable the Netgear sh1t from starting by deleting it from the Startup items in the All Programs list, if it's still there or needed at all in the future.
Have you got it to get an IP yet, either by wifi or cable?
yeah... figured it all just before I made my penultimate post :laugh:
project now is to find 2gb of ram and install a copy of windows 7 :evil:
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Win7 is easy enough to get, in fact being a Dell it may *just work* without modification (PM incoming) but to trust it coming from torrents is a bit dodgy and may have some naughty infection already, is another risk. Post up the spec's from the Dell website or use the link I posted earlier, whack in the service tag and I'll have a looksie for compatible ram in my drawer of oldness :grin:
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Might have some DDR spare somewhere, I know I had a fancy 512MB stick which was the don back in the day. :grin:
Might be able to find a GB or so somewhere.......... Yours.
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Might have some DDR spare somewhere, I know I had a fancy 512MB stick which was the don back in the day. :grin:
Might be able to find a GB or so somewhere.......... Yours.
thank you chap - I think Jay has it covered for the moment but I will shout if I need it :)