djstar
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« on: October 17, 2007, 03:40:26 AM » |
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I miss you guys. I sort of seek problems so I can post here...
A friend, in her 70's just got an Dell Inspiron 2500 from her brother. It is a bit used, but he cleaned it out pretty good and I took it home to try to make things a bit friendlier for her.
It did not finish booting for 15 minutes the first time she ran it. Then by the time I got it, I took out her brother as a user, put pretty flowers on the desktop and got it running rather normal.
It is an xp pro.
I am assuming it has upgraded from ME at one time. There is the original Norton from 2005 sitting trying to update and I could not get my little 98 notebook d-link card to install (Froze every time I plugged it in) so I just plugged the modem into the phone and dialed up my isp.
NOW the rash of internet demons
Right off I got what looked like spybot popups telling me I had 55 registry errors and had to connect to a site something like FIXPC.com...(no, that was not it...) but it was unusually persistant and I began to worry. Then a rash of popups. So... I went in and first updated the XP. 35k modem!!
That done, I looked and saw there was a pop-up blocker in the sp2 for xp... now is the PROFESSIONAL version different and should I get the sp2?
How can I check it out and see if indeed there is a glitch in the registry after my ill-fated attempt at wifi?
I had intended to get search and destroy, but I am not sure, with the slow load, what to put in first and how much to just load in off the desktop.
Any gentle advice as to where to begin to get her online safely enough that it won't get swarmed like maggots long enough to get her friendly with the thing and confident enough to buy her first REAL machine?
dj*
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Gł Solutions - Technology Defined
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« on: October 17, 2007, 03:40:26 AM » |
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KGIII
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« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2007, 04:42:13 PM » |
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I would highly recommend going with a clean installation and running from there. When a used PC is purchased you tend to also buy the problems that come with them.
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djstar
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« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2007, 07:56:05 PM » |
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I took it in to staples to have one of their free evaluations done. (the $39.99 one, not free until the end of the year)
This is not actually a purchase, it is an inheritance. Her brother donated it as a starter machine.
The first issue is the usual NO RAM and it had an xp upgrade at some point. I believe that may have something to do with the freeze when I put in my own WIFI card to try to install it.
I am trying to keep her simple, so I am going to see if I can run her from a usb port on my dsl modem. I have the dsl ether-linked in, as I never installed my own wifi, on the desktop.
It needs the spybot search and destroy, and I will enable her windows firewall and avg when I get a faster download. For her first go (the lady is 75 years old... bright but still 75 years old....) and this dinky machine, I was thinking of copper.net. It seems to be a $1 for the first 3 months and the usual $9.99 with good consumer response. I am trying to get her used to internet communications, getting email and a wee bit of surfing. As soon as she is in... she will buy a stronger machine of her own. I know the dial up will be frustrating but is it of any actual use to keep the hardware upgrades to a minmum and not install and install on this limited system to get her just prepped for a good machine, or is there actual hope of this, with a broadband connection, being a decent machine and let her invest a bit in a RAM upgrade and wifi system?
dj*
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KGIII_Not_HERE
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« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2007, 05:58:04 PM » |
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Oh certainly. If the USB option isn't available and the laptop is new enough then you can consider a PCMCIA card addapter if such is abailable on the laptop that you are talking about. Anyhow, I would certainly consider doing a clean installation. If you have an upgrade disk available (or any XP non-OEM) you can use the license numbers from the other and use any old disk (such as ME, 98, or 2k) as the qualifying media disk during the installation. If you want you can search the main site but here's a link:
kgiii. info/windows/XP/advanced/OEM_key. html
To recover the XP key, in case it has been lost, try here:
magicaljellybean. com/keyfinder. shtml
That should get you started - again, I HIGHLY recommend a nice shiney new clean installation for this.
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