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Michael A. Terrell

wrote:

On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:20:33 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

Snag wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
"Martin H. Eastburn" wrote:

Buy if you don't have a set of XP. Then buy the windoze 7 machine
and format the C drive. Install XP.

Make sure you have all the drivers you need, first.

I've been foolin' around with old comps , and found that you can usually
find the drivers you need on the mfr's website . Exception I've found is the
older emachines . Had problems loading the drivers once I found 'em , but
then this was a W98 box . I wanted an old box for some old games I useta
play , but decided the return wasn't worth the effort .
You can download a copy of XP from one of the torrent sites , and use a
key from just about any dead box to activate it . Which is why I grab any
comps I see on the curb . Nobody thinks to keep that sticker , and that's
the license . Why pay for it if you can get it for free ?
I've also collected some pretty nice video/network/audio cards from those
dead boxes . Hard drives are usually worn out though ...

Snag
the computer repairman ...

Some of the Emachines ME drivers work ok with 98.

I have repaired computers from the early '80s, starting with Motorola
Exorcisor bus 6800 based systems used for graphics in Cable TV. I
repaired Commodore Vic 20, C64, some models of the PET line and the
various drives to the component level. The newer Emachines restore disk
is a drive image for that model like the W3118. I have a few, but most
of the time I have to track down the motherboard OEM or chipset OEM to
find some drivers.

Dell is easier. It is similar to the OEM XP disk, with the drivers
that were current when it was made, so it covers a lot of models.
Yes, but very often NOT the actual model the disk was supplied with.
You still need to figure out which component the "unrecognized" item
is - who made it, and what driver it requires. Without calling Dell
Tech Support and giving them the tag numbers from your machine, it can
be very frustrating - hense my refering to them often as "the DELL
from HELL"

You can use the tag number to find most drivers for the OEM
components on the Dell website. Like the computer I'm using, right now.
It was part of a business network that held everything on a small office
server. It was faster to wipe the hard drive and reinstall XP than
clean out all the separate passwords and links to the server.

The Dell restore disk was shipped to me by an IT guy from a
university n California a few years ago when they cleaned out a
storeroom. i downloaded all the drivers I needed to a USB stick on
another computer, installed XP, and installed the missing drivers.

--
Greed is the root of all eBay.