kona0197 kona0197

So the computer finally is showing it's age

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So the computer finally is showing it's age

from WinCustomize Forums

It's taken me awhile to start this thread, sorry. I know this may end up in flame wars. Again I am sorry.

So everyone knows my situation. Well those close to me on this site do. My computer is finally showing signs of how old it truly is. Keep in mind my computer has a Pentium 4 processor so I am guessing this setup to be almost ten years old. The problem, even after a few friends helped me here with a new hard drive and more memory, is the rest of the system. The processor can't keep up with the newer operating systems. I'm having a hard time just running XP. Found out the other day my DVD Burner drive is almost dead as it will read disc sometimes and other times it will not. Monitor is on it's last legs as well. Hard to read anything and the brightness is going out. It's an old CRT Dell monitor that is almost as old as the tower.

As Starkers had told you this computer is my main way to communicate with the things that are important in my life. So I was hoping someone out there had a few newer parts I could install to extend the life of the machine a bit. Nothing special. I already have DDR2 memory and a newer hard drive. Just need a few other things.

So carry on. Discuss I guess.

1,124,966 views 739 replies
Reply #426 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Yeah I might look into it. For now I want to finish off Yuri's Revenge. I've beat all of Generals including the expansion packs. I might try my hand at Generals again with a harder CPU setting. Might be interesting. Not sure if the tower will be here tomorrow, last check said Wednesday.

Reply #427 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I'm glad to hear you got the disc Kona. Surprised too because I thought it would take much longer. Oh well....in this case the sooner happened before the later, pretty cool. Once you get Ace's hardware and it all comes together........Wow! Have fun. 5* 5*

CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #428 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I got the 80 GB hard drive and IDE cables in this morning. Thanks guys!

Reply #429 from WinCustomize Forums Top

:thumbsup:  It's not a big one but it tested perfect and has been used recently.  Remember when 80GB's was a huge amount of storage? And 256 MBs was a lot of RAM? o_O

 I know the gfx card will be the lowest score in WEI but it is significantly better than most on-board gfx, won't use system memory and gives you multi-monitor options. It should do C&C just fine. ;)

Reply #430 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Wizard1956, reply 429
It should do C&C just fine

 

Yep , especially since that board has OverClocking capabilities in the Bios settings. :thumbsup:

Reply #431 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I wouldn't know the first thing about overclocking. What make/model is the board? thought I would look up the manual right quick.

Reply #433 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I overclocked my cpu the other day for the fun of it, I have a MSIdka790gxplatinum w/oc capabilities, well, it failed and my computer wouldn't start after. Scared the __ _ _ _ OUT OF ME. Had to get out my manual, fortunately I did no harm, just had to reboot three times to reset the BIOS. Was still scary for a moment. Never again, thats what bigger CPU'S are for.IMO.DT1

Reply #434 from WinCustomize Forums Top

That video says it is an AM2 mobo, not a AM2+ mobo. Will there be issues with this CPU I have?

Reply #436 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have an AM2+ processor I used in it , so I know it works. :thumbsup:

Reply #437 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Wizard1956, reply 429
Remember when 80GB's was a huge amount of storage? And 256 MBs was a lot of RAM?

My first bought PC...I remember when 1 gig was huge and 16 meg ram was a lot.

Second PC I ever had was a real IBM XT [hand-me-down]...had a 1 meg expansion 'card' the size of a small city....

...back when 640k was all you'd ever need....;p

....and its HD was a whopping 20meg.

Reply #438 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 437

Quoting Wizard1956, reply 429Remember when 80GB's was a huge amount of storage? And 256 MBs was a lot of RAM?

My first bought PC...I remember when 1 gig was huge and 16 meg ram was a lot.

Second PC I ever had was a real IBM XT [hand-me-down]...had a 1 meg expansion 'card' the size of a small city....

...back when 640k was all you'd ever need....

....and its HD was a whopping 20meg.

And now we have 4.2ghz beasties with 32 gigs of RAM and HDDs with terabytes of space.  Due to a purchasing mixup with my nephew and my having to fix his machine, I have recently come into possession of an AMD FX8350 x8 @ 4.2ghz... in exchange he gets my AMD Phenom 1100T x6 @ 3.8.  Silly sod left it way too long to return... besides, he opened the package and had installed the CPU on the wrong mobo, so his best option was the swap.  As they say, fair exchange is no robbery... and the 1100T initially cost more anyhow.

Reply #439 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Still trying to figure out how we got XP to run well on only 256 MB of memory. :-|

Reply #440 from WinCustomize Forums Top

My first interaction with a pc was a freebie.It had a pair of 2gig hard drives with windows 98 and 64mb of ram, pentium pro i think?

I had to do disk compression to run the thing even after a clean install!I think todays TV remotes are more powerful.

Reply #441 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I checked Wizards link. and the first thing I saw was a paragraph at the top of the page saying, "am2+/am2 support. You will be fine!

Reply #442 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting doortech1, reply 441
I checked Wizards link. and the first thing I saw was a paragraph at the top of the page saying, "am2+/am2 support. You will be fine!

Me too, and something that I've not seen on a mobo in ages are IDE connectors.  Seeing those took me back.   All my recent [Gigabyte] boards have only SATA ports

Reply #443 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Well the case and mobo got here today. I'm now assembling the system. Keep your fingers crossed, I hope this works. Ace the board sure has a lot of dust on it. You sure it will work OK?

Reply #444 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting kona0197, reply 443
the board sure has a lot of dust on it. You sure it will work OK?
Blow or brush it off, don't put it in the washing machine or dishwasher. ;P

Reply #445 from WinCustomize Forums Top

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Reply #447 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Well the system is up and running. However I can't get the mouse to work under Windows 7 at all. No matter if it's my PS2 mouse or my USB mouse, it really does not like either mouse. I can't get the PS2 mouse to work under Linux either. The USB mouse works fine. So what do I do? Keep in mind I am running the system in Linux right now.

Reply #448 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Did you reboot after plugging the mouse in? That or shut the machine down, plug in the mouse and restart. I have one USB mouse like that and the drivers don't load until a reboot. After that, it works fine unless it is unplugged and the machine shut down again. If the rig is booted up, just plugging the thing in never seems to work.

I mean, do this with Windows installed.

Reply #449 from WinCustomize Forums Top

probably just a driver issue with seven, try uninstalling the mouse through device manager, then reboot ? on your own with linux with me any way, no nothing there.Glad your running though.

Reply #450 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Missed your post Wizard, sorry to repeat.

 

Also, do you have any other usb device you could try while in windows to make sure windows is recognizing your usb's?Maybe for some reason it did not install or turn on support? did you use the mouse while installing windows?