Dumb and dumber

[jogiba]

I seen this post on another forum.
"I have a Dell XTS 500 with Windows 98SE and 5GB of memory left on a 10Gb Hard drive. My computer?s getting slower every day and it's at a point that it's just about worthless. It takes seven minutes to boot up and a ridiculously longtime to load web pages.

I don't think there's anything mechanically wrong with the computer is just clogged up with stuff and I don't know what to do about it. I want to keep the computer but I see it dying more and more every week.
Any contribution is greatly appreciated. Thanks."

WTF is wrong with people wasting time on a dumpster special ?

 

[Trippytiger]

Maybe they don't want to waste money on a new system when their 'dumpster special' is perfectly capable of doing what they want it to do? Very few people need (or want) to be on the leading edge of computer technology. All that system needs is for Windows to be reinstalled (or, ideally, a lightweight Linux distribution) to make it as good as new.

 

[jogiba]

Right, reinstall the OS on a 10gb HD. I guess some people don't value their time.

 

[Trippytiger]

Right, reinstall the OS on a 10GB hard drive. What makes you think it's going to be any different from installing it on a 500GB hard drive? Get it going, walk away, and come back every once in a while to hold Windows' hand. It's a long and annoying process no matter what you do, but at least it doesn't cost any money.

What do you have against older hardware?

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

This thread sucks.

 

[grohl]

Originally posted by: djmihow
This thread sucks.

QFT

 

[Quinton McLeod]

That guy can easily install a Linux distro. The hardware is absolutely perfect for it. If that particular person has such a computer, I doubt they play games on it. So, what's the best thing to do? Put Linux on that sucker. Linux can support everything they're trying to do with speed and security for next to nothing at all.

 

[jackschmittusa]

The 10gb hd is likely a 5400rpm ATA33 drive. There would be a noticable boost by moving to a 7200rpm drive. I recently bought an 80gb for $20 after rebate.

 

[Texun]

It may be a "dumpster special" to some, but if it once performed well enough for his needs then the request for help is justified. With a clean OS it will work as well as it did when it was the ?latest and greatest.? I know a woman who used a P-3 daily until 6 months ago. All she needed was email to keep in touch with her grandkids, and in her case the P-3 was fine. Her need to have a working e-mail box was as valid as yours or anyone else?s.

 

[smopoim86]

i still have 2 pentium IIs and dont see whats wrong with them for web browsing and documents, also use a laptop with a k62 at 450mhz it works fine.

On the other hand for $300 you can get a celeron with a 15" panel from dell, if you consider that then, yeah its a dumpster and waste of time

 

[Stumps]

I still have and use a couple of K6-2+'s and K6-III+'s that run perfectly fine....fair enough they have 256mb ram and 40gb harddisks but they runn all of my old Win98 based games fine

 

[powder22]

I have two computers, I use my older computer for testing things with linux, which is a Pentium 1 1ghz, 9.5 scsi Harddrive, 512 ram, Intel Moutherboard, onboard Sound and Video,. It runs pretty good on Ubuntu Dapper 6.06. Boots up in about 2 minutes or less, Quick for an older computer.

My main computer also has Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 on it. It has a Pentium 4 2.53ghz, 3 80gb Harddrives, one of drives is a SATA, Intel motherboard, Creative SB Live 5.1 sound, ATI 9800xt 256 DDR, 1gb Ram, Antec tower case. I use VMware Workstation for WinXp, Its nice having WinXp caged up, Under my control.

 

[Slugbait]

Seen this a dozen times with friends and family machines...they're so loaded down with spyware and adware, they think they need a new system.

With Win98, and what they wanna do, the system here is almost overkill.

So yeah, an OS re-install, create an image for the next time they slow it down...they're good to go. No "dumpster special" when all you wanna do is email, surf and IM.

 

[iamaelephant]

So what does HDD size have to do with speed? My systems only has a 12bg HDD, but it's no slouch. It has a 2200+ CPU, 768mb RAM and 9600 pro video card.

 

[AlgaeEater]

Originally posted by: jogiba
I seen this post on another forum.
"I have a Dell XTS 500 with Windows 98SE and 5GB of memory left on a 10Gb Hard drive. My computer?s getting slower every day and it's at a point that it's just about worthless. It takes seven minutes to boot up and a ridiculously longtime to load web pages.

I don't think there's anything mechanically wrong with the computer is just clogged up with stuff and I don't know what to do about it. I want to keep the computer but I see it dying more and more every week.
Any contribution is greatly appreciated. Thanks."

WTF is wrong with people wasting time on a dumpster special ?

Since everyone here has practically disagreed with your opinion of the matter (including me to be honest) I'll actually agree with you on the matter as well.

Sometimes people don't let go of things. I know it's functional, it works, and yatta yatta, but like that t-shirt you got back in 1987 that's paper thin and the logo on it practically incomprehensible, it's just time to move on.

But people don't, and they continue to use things... old things. Because it does what they need it to do. Like a old a pair of shoes that's almost literally falling apart. They just keep wearing them because they need to run in the sand or dirt at the local park. It's just a basic view upon things and there's nothing wrong with it.

Granted technology has always had a theme associated with "high tech, latest and greatest" when it comes to computers, some people just keep some old tech around. You can't blame a lot of people either, because including myself, I have tons of spare parts from generations of computer building. The computer I'm typing on right now was made entirely of spare computer parts, as all it does all day is stay on and download/upload my p2p programs and torrents.

I don't know where the fine line is (If any) but sometimes people need to get a reality check on things. Sure, using an old computer is fine and dandy for what they need, but it's also not a time saver or cost efficent situation as they turn it out to be. The computer in the OP's post for example can be replaced literally with modern budget tech that's way, way faster for around $120 bucks. I'm talking about an entire rig ready to go minus a monitor, with 64 bit processor and other tidbits.

I don't know why this post is so long, I'm just really talkative about this issue for some reason because it's just one of those things.

 

[limer]

I have a Dell XTS 500 with Windows 98SE and 5GB of memory left on a 10Gb Hard drive. My computer?s getting slower every day and it's at a point that it's just about worthless. It takes seven minutes to boot up and a ridiculously longtime to load web pages.

I agree with the other posters that just because it's a slow machine, doesn't mean it's a bad machine. I will say the OP may be thinking the hd will fail within so long, in which case he may have a limited point. Obviously, you could purchase another HD, possibly use a hacked bios update to allow larger drives.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: djmihow
This thread sucks.

agreed!!

 

[0roo0roo]

the slowness of 10gb hd... thats painful stuff. i had an ibm 10gb that still worked so i cobbled together a pc outa the old parts. it was quite hideous...thrashity thrash thrash, it had an xp2000+ athlon so that wasn't the bottleneck heh. now the ibm is back in the closet for safe keeping...

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
So what does HDD size have to do with speed? My systems only has a 12bg HDD, but it's no slouch. It has a 2200+ CPU, 768mb RAM and 9600 pro video card.

Well an old 12GB HD is going to be much older tech (thus slower) than a current generation drive, thanks to slower seeks, less dense platters, lower density etc. There's also a good chance it's going to be 5400rpm, far slower than 7200.

 

[bob4432]

hell, win2kpro ( i don't know linux well ), apache, mysql, php, 450MHz p2(or was the beginning of the p3.....), 64MB ram 10GB hdd and onboard video and you have a decent little web/ftp server

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
So what does HDD size have to do with speed? My systems only has a 12bg HDD, but it's no slouch. It has a 2200+ CPU, 768mb RAM and 9600 pro video card.

Well an old 12GB HD is going to be much older tech (thus slower) than a current generation drive, thanks to slower seeks, less dense platters, lower density etc. There's also a good chance it's going to be 5400rpm, far slower than 7200.

my 9GB 7200 rpm seagate is still going strong

 

[jogiba]

I guess some of you would run out into a highway to pickup a penny. Yeah right ,spend all weekend trying to get your only PC to run Windows 98 and all your software on a 10GB HD in 2006 when 100GB HD's are $29. And I thought people on the other forum were total retards.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: jogiba
I guess some of you would run out into a highway to pickup a penny. Yeah right ,spend all weekend trying to get your only PC to run Windows 98 and all your software on a 10GB HD in 2006 when 100GB HD's are $29. And I thought people on the other forum were total retards.

The message says he's only using 5GB of his 10GB hard drive.

 

[bendixG15]

Originally posted by: jogiba
I guess some of you would run out into a highway to pickup a penny. Yeah right ,spend all weekend trying to get your only PC to run Windows 98 and all your software on a 10GB HD in 2006 when 100GB HD's are $29. And I thought people on the other forum were total retards.

Sounds like you never owned a 10 gb drive with Win98...

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: jogiba
I guess some of you would run out into a highway to pickup a penny. Yeah right ,spend all weekend trying to get your only PC to run Windows 98 and all your software on a 10GB HD in 2006 when 100GB HD's are $29. And I thought people on the other forum were total retards.

op - we all don't have to agree with your statement. if i only need 5GB and had a 10GB laying around, why the hell would i go out and spend $$$ when i have something right here? if i was building a machine around those specs i wouldn't be expecting too much anyway. if you are using a machine with a 10GB hdd you probably only have ata33 anyway, not like you have ata100 or sata...

now if i was putting a 10GB hdd in my rig and then complaining about the speed, then yes i would deserve a kick in the nutz