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What can I do with this old XP computer?


ZortMcGort11

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2nd update:

For some reason "CCleaner 5.20" wouldn't run, and neither did "HWiNFO", nor "McAfee Stinger".... all three gave blue screens of death and froze the computer!!!! Yarrggghhh! Worse than Windows ME. LOL.

Good news: installed latest VLC media player, and Malware Bytes Anti-Malware, and FastStone Viewer 4.6, and NewView Graphics Viewer 13.1. Downloading Foxit Reader 7.1 right now.

Since there is a modem I might try using the newest version of Opera on dial-up in "turbo mode." Turbo mode is basically the same as accelerated dial-up, pictures get compressed on their servers.

Will probably go with ClamWin and Clam Sentinel for anti-virus (along with Malware Bytes). What do you guys think about the built in "Windows Firewall." Any good?

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1 hour ago, ZortMcGort11 said:

As far as #1 that's next to the USB plug-ins.... is that my connector for the network/ethernet card? It's like a bigger phone jack hole.

Yes, #1 is a RJ45:
http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-rj45-and-rj11/

#2 is a DVI :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

which essentially means that you also have an add-on video card or that the one on the motherboard has a dual VGA+DVI output.

And yes #3 looks like an old modem (as add on card).

About the Blue Screens, do check device manager, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a number of devices with an exclamation mark or a question mark (no driver or not working driver) since it is uniklely that your DELL disc had drivers for those add on cards, and tools like HWINFO are very likely to be interrogating the hardware and crash because they find something that is not properly configured/working (stinger or Ccleaner are less likely, still ...)

As well, if - for any reason - one of those add on cards is not working properly (independently from driver) it could cause the issue with HWINFO.

jaclaz 


 

Edited by jaclaz
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Thanks.

I looked in device manager and there are indeed five things preceded with yellow question marks and or exclamation points:

Ethernet Controller
Multimedia Audio Controller
PCI Simple Communications Controller
Video Controller
Video Controller (VGA compatible)

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Some - as usual in a grumpy tone - general remarks.

In the good ol' days (and today as well) a lot of people bought/buy an otherwise perfectly working machine for office use and thought that adding a videocard and/or an enhanced mulltimedia card made that into a gaming machine (or a graphical workstation or a recording studio on a budget).

Reality check, if a motherboard has on-board sound and video, leave it alone, hardware engineers, that very likely, at a 99% probability rate, know more than you do on how a PC works took some time to embed some circuits and they are usually the best ones (limited to the intended scope of the machine overall) for the best cost.

If you really want a graphical workstation, build one with suitable hardware, same goes for other "dedicated" machines.

Back to topic, most probably the Video Controller is an add-on graphical card (the DVI) output you have, and the thing that looks like being a modem card is possibly the PCI Simple Communications Controller and/or the Multimedia Audio Controller :dubbio:, what is strange is that the Ethernet Controller (which is built-in) has not a proper driver installed (that should be in the original DELL OS install CD/DVD).

jaclaz
 


 

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On 7/27/2016 at 6:21 AM, ZortMcGort11 said:

There is also another green disc that came with the computer that is the Driver Re-installtion.

Um... you might want to pop that in there. That's the Drivers for the PC, They aren't integrated into the Reinstall CD. If that board has SATA (instead of PATA/IDE) drives, chances are that those drivers are integrated. But not any of the others. And yes, that "PCI" one is part of the Modem (Conexant - see link below).

Edit - Hmmm, seems that the NIC is a Broadcom - it's not going to be on the OS Reinstall, but should be on the Driver CD.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/optiplex-gx280/drivers

Look at the above and note the hardware you have (or variations). Also not there's several variations of the ATI Video, and AFAICR, the original Built-In connector is still right there (under the COM port, to the right of the PRT port). The ATI is an add-in that automagically overrides the Built-In Intel one (see drivers link above).

Edited by submix8c
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I had an Optiplex GX280 in the desktop form factor until I gave it away recently. Prescott Pentium 4s are vile, evil things, and I don't wish to ever own one again. I much prefer to use a Dothan Pentium M laptop in a docking station / port replicator.

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On lunes, 08 de agosto de 2016 at 5:13 PM, MrMaguire said:

I had an Optiplex GX280 in the desktop form factor until I gave it away recently. Prescott Pentium 4s are vile, evil things, and I don't wish to ever own one again. I much prefer to use a Dothan Pentium M laptop in a docking station / port replicator.

Im still running a P4 3.4ghz, no complains here.  Sure the P4 are not good CPU at all, but i think is not soo bad neither

The funny thing is that i removed the fans inside my USFF 280,  and this machine is running without any fan since 5 or 6 years ago... jeje still working good

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I also have a xeon 3.6ghz with 4gb DDR2 ram with 250Gb HDD , 1gb Graphix card

I used it until 2012 . Now it is in my cupboard.

it is quite fast at its time , i cannt say those bad .

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