Thread: Where can I get a new operating system for my computer for free ?

What you should do Ripper is get a new iMac which has a great screen takes no space relatively won't give you any grief in the way of freezes crashes etc etc etc. The new one runs on an Intel duo core 1.8ghz it is blinding fast.

MMMM sorry to all the windows people out there but it is a bit of a rusty Taiwanese stanley compared to the Mac OS which doesn't get virus's or crashes.

Studley

Originally Posted by Ashore

How right you are forgot that
Jake if you are not running Adawear then get the free download
Type adawear into google to find
and you need spybot also free , once again use google , you need these as well as your anti virus protection

Jake

I'd add one more Ashores list that is SpyBlaster. You can find it with Google. It is also free. Just make sure that you update these every week.

Robert34

Spywareblaster is great mate, woof.

Forget trying to get new memory for that model, you won't find it on the shelf in Australia, it will have to be ordered in.

You may also run into problems getting a new HDD to work in a PC that came with an 8Gb HDD.

Some motherboards have a barrier at 8Gb & others have a barrier at 32Gb.
You would need to get an 80Gb Samsung HDD that can be strapped back to 32Gb.

Skip trying to use NT4 'cos you will have a lot of farting around to do to get it to load on a HDD bigger than 4Gb.
Once it is loaded & had the service packs applied, it will work on a larger HDD but then you will need a utility to resize the partition without loosing Windows. It can be done but needs geek help.

A copy of Win 2K will run on that machine BUT.... it will take ages to start.
Once it has started, it is more stable than 98SE as long as the hardware is in good order.

Don't try to load Win XP on it as it will be far too slow.

Win98SE can give trouble but shouldn't be causing that many problems.
I suspect you may have Spyware or fat caps on the M/Board or both.

Try a clean up with spybot & if that doesn't fix it, don't waste any more money on it.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

I suspect you may have Spyware or fat caps on the M/Board or both.

Cliff

What is Fat Caps. Please explain, I've never heard of it.

Robert34

The average computer shop will knock you up a reasonable workhorse with XP included for about $800. By the time you muck about with getting XP and RAM and another hard drive for an older machine, the $800 will look pretty good.

Originally Posted by Termite

The average computer shop will knock you up a reasonable workhorse with XP included for about $800. By the time you muck about with getting XP and RAM and another hard drive for an older machine, the $800 will look pretty good.

I tend to agree. Might even me able to get it cheaper than that though.
Another plus is that if it doesn't work you can take it back.

One final thought here (from me):

Whether it be Jake, or any other PC-needy forum member, I've just had a look in the "rummage cupboard", a found a (I think!) 2.4Mhz P4 processor on a 512Mb RAM equipped motherboard, with a 32Mb nVidia Graphics card.

It also has on it a SCSI adaptor board, and I could throw in a whopping(!) 2Gb SCSI HDD. It wasn't that long ago that that sort of spec was the Dog's, ahem, sphericals...

Free to a needy home in return for the postage cost.

Note that it's the M/B, CPU, RAM, V/Card only - no (regular) HDD, case or PSU, never mind monitor, rat or keyboard...

(Twas the predecessor to the antecedent to the machine I mainly use now - so don't get those expectations up too high - but still a generation or three beyond Jakes HP kit). Sorry Jake!

Originally Posted by Robert34

Cliff

What is Fat Caps. Please explain, I've never heard of it.

Robert34

There was a capacitor electrolyte scandal a while back.
Resulted in a lot of faulty capacitors on PC Mother Boards.
The electrolyte dries out, the cap (short for capacitor) gets hot, swells (fat) & ruptures & fails to do the job it was meant to do IE: Filter spikes of the power so the result is , the computer crashes often.

Originally Posted by keith53

Solution:

1. Feed chain into computer case - let it hang out about 1m.
2. Fill case with concrete.
3. Attach 4m of rope & a float to the chain.
4. Send to bitingmidge for use as an anchor for his rapidly-finishing canoe.

Good luck with it all..

!..... sounds like I've got a piece of shi t sitting in front of me.

I took Ashores advice (thanks mate), cleaning and defraging...... the cleaning bit cleaned up about 4mb it said, if that means anything...the defraging, took 3 hours !...

Started defraging....left it, went grocery shopping, picked up the kids, went to the park, wiped their noses and arses, nicked out to the shed to cut a blade, hit the house again to find the thing still defraging !!!

Thanks again. So, try spybot, Adawear, spywareblaster(woof)....yes ?
If still &&&&house...dumb it, and by a whole new kit. ta. See how we go.

If you don't hear from me for a while, its not because I've got the &&&&es with any of you...... just, cause, uno. Computers stuffed, and decided to go fishing instead, using it as an anchor (why waste it on bitingmidge !).



ps. how can you blokes live with all this computer jargon floating around your heads. I feel dizzy just from reading about some of it from your posts......

Originally Posted by apricotripper

ps. how can you blokes live with all this computer jargon floating around your heads. I feel dizzy just from reading about some of it from your posts......

Try logging on to Overclockers or Afterdawn, if you're dizzy now they should be good for a total spin out.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

There was a capacitor electrolyte scandal a while back.
Resulted in a lot of faulty capacitors on PC Mother Boards.
The electrolyte dries out, the cap (short for capacitor) gets hot, swells (fat) & ruptures & fails to do the job it was meant to do IE: Filter spikes of the power so the result is , the computer crashes often.

Thanks for that Cliff.

Power spikes should not be a prob for me as I have a Battery Back Up Unit which; I believe is supposed prevent normal power spikes. Not lightning of course.

Rob.

Originally Posted by Robert34

Thanks for that Cliff.

Power spikes should not be a prob for me as I have a Battery Back Up Unit which; I believe is supposed prevent normal power spikes. Not lightning of course.Rob.

I think you will find that Cliff was refering to the spikes created in the power supply unit, not incoming line spikes.

Originally Posted by Robert34

What is Fat Caps. Please explain, I've never heard of it.

Its a Jackie Chann movie

Fat Caps and the Dragon.

Al