can i get some computer help??

[Gamecock_Aholic]

alrighty, my family has three computers. one of them is windows 98. is there anyway to upgrade to a newer version of windows for free? or just anyway to speed it up in general? any help is greatly appreciated!

[TheMule]

IF you can find some memory cheap enough for the Win98 PC, that's as far as I'd go with that one. What brand, and CPU speed is it? Some people don't mind, but I wouldn't touch a bootleg copy of XP or any other OS.

[Gamecock_Aholic]

the sticker says Emachines(ive never heard of that). lets see, here's the rest of the stuff. i hope this is what your talking about. 2.60 GHz Intel Celeron Processor, 80 GB Hard Drive ultra DMA, 256mb DDR.

[theodometer]

If those are the specs of the computer--it'll run Windows XP. However, a computer with those specs would have likely come with Windows XP pre-installed. XP came out around 2001, when the going rate of CPU's was just under 1 GHZ. If a computer with those specs was running Windows 98 (assuming it had no junk on it), it should do quite well. The requirements for Win 98 were much, much lower than that.

To be blunt though, any computer with Windows 98 connecting to the internet is (IMO) a hackers dream. Microsoft stopped supporting 98 some time around 2004/2005.

I'm very partial to Linux--its a simple installation...you'd be amazed at how easy it is to use. And its free. Try Ubuntu-- http://www.ubuntu.com. Basically--there is no other (legal) free option that I know of...

Hope I helped...

[Dr. Cock]

the sticker says Emachines(ive never heard of that). lets see, here's the rest of the stuff. i hope this is what your talking about. 2.60 GHz Intel Celeron Processor, 80 GB Hard Drive ultra DMA, 256mb DDR.

While that's out of date by today's standards, that's not too awful for just browsing the web and what not. 256mb of RAM has got to be upgraded for you got to XP smoothly though. 512 is bare minimum, but I'd personally recommend 1gb if you want it to run real nice.

But yeah, in order to actually upgrade, you'll probably need to buy an OEM disk somewhere, assuming the original disk set doesn't have it on there. The disks for XP still don't run cheap unfortunately, but I'd recommend Newegg. Great customer service and great prices:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116378

For some RAM that I was talking about, you can get it pretty much anywhere like Best Buy. Just make sure it's in the DDR format and it's for a Desktop (the desktop strip is several inches long, while a laptop's is only about 2 or 3).

And finally, I would not recommend anything other than XP. Vista is terrible, and it wouldn't be able to run on that computer anyways. Linux, while good, isn't the best thing for totally computer illiterate people. IMO, it totally depends on how much your family knows about computers.

Good luck. I'm a computer technician, so take everything for what it's worth.

[SNEEZ]

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[TheMule]

the sticker says Emachines(ive never heard of that). lets see, here's the rest of the stuff. i hope this is what your talking about. 2.60 GHz Intel Celeron Processor, 80 GB Hard Drive ultra DMA, 256mb DDR.

This is the PC with Win98 on it? Something doesn't jive here. It would have come with XP Home installed on it out of the box. Check the back of it and see if it has a Windows XP sticker with the product key on it. Has it even been worked on before?
Doc is right. It should be DDR memory (NOT DDR2) and it's relatively cheap right now and worth investing in right now.

[acejrock]

This computer is on the very very last leg of upgrades.. I suggest using the money spent on an OEM OS and Memory and buy a new computer.

[ColaCock]

yeah something isn't making sense. with those specs, Windows 98 wouldn't have even been an afterthought. at the very least, WindowsME would have been on it...but I even doubt that. Windows 2000 or WindowsXP should have came installed on it.

those specs are insanely good to be running 98.

[Gamecock_Aholic]

so i just looked. the front has a sticker that says its designed for windows XP. AAAAND the kicker is the big sticker with all the spec's says its preinstalled! why would someone put 98 on here if it could run something better???

[Gamecock_Aholic]

alright, so i just talked with my mom. apparently my grandpa had the thing worked on to get 98 back on it because he didnt understand anything(he had parkinsons and started getting confused with everything). so, is there a way to get it back on there?

[ColaCock]

find the old CD...it should have came with a restore CD but i'm not exactly positive it will be able to do a restore if it was completely wiped of XP.

[Gamecock_Aholic]

find the old CD...it should have came with a restore CD but i'm not exactly positive it will be able to do a restore if it was completely wiped of XP.


and there's where i have a big problem. i dont have the cd. im not sure if its still at my grandpa's house or what

[Revcock]

This computer is on the very very last leg of upgrades.. I suggest using the money spent on an OEM OS and Memory and buy a new computer.


Ditto

The only freebies out there are the bootlegs or a really good friend. I have upgraded several emachines similar as yours with xp. I have some issues with drivers but nothing major. They have worked out ok, so far. My suggestion is that if you have to spend close to $200, then consider a new machine. Memory is the key to your issue as is partly the case with Vista (I've seen that faster processors are necessary too). The cost for these upgrades would simply not be worth it in the long run, IMHO.

[The Yancey]

256 mb of RAM isn't enough to run much of anything well. I'd just buy a new machine. A friend bought a new dual core machine with 2 gb RAM and Vista home premium for $225 on Ebay last month. I'd go that route.

[ColaCock]

oops i didn't see it only had 256mb ram...that is very poor. 1gb to 2gb is pretty standard now.

[FlorenceCock]

If there is a XP cd key on the side you can download a iso torrent and burn a copy of XP. It probably takes PC 2100 or PC 2700 ram which should be cheap on ebay. You could put in one 512 stick and you would be fine.

[2000grad]

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