[CLOSED] -Dell 2.6ghz 512MB Base unit £151.57

pwhite8314

Indeed, that is the full recovery disc. Doing a fresh install is easy enough, but if that's not your game, you can just de-install anything you don't want via the Control Panel. Not as effective, but far easier to do if you're not happy doing a full rebuild.

GDB2222

There is also a hidden partition on C: of 4 gigs

I am not familiar with xp so I just assume that its capable of a complete reinstal of xp on a new h/drive without any interaction from either Dell or MS?

My initial reaction now that I have some software installed on this base is that the McAfee stuff slows it down quite a bit with its virus checking etc and I had to give permissions across the firewall to get my other networked w98se pc's to me able to file share.
Other than that its all gone reasonably smoothly.

Not over keen on the base level keyboard, but for the money I am quite happy overall.

The CD is a full windows install CD, rather than a recovery disc, if you get the difference.

MacAfee does slow the pc down a lot imho.

The keyboard is pretty good for the 50p or so that it cost to make. I agree that it's crap, though. I use a Cherry one at work that is still going strong after nearly 10 years, so it's cost me £3 a year to have a decent kbd.

The hidden partition includes Dell's diagnostic software. If you run FDisk, you can delete that, but it may complicate any repairs to the hardware. I have no idea what dell do if they tell you to reboot into this software but you have already scrubbed it off the hd. It would probably be rather puzzling for them.

FF99

I actually find the keyboard pretty good and could do with a spare to replace an even tackier Fititsu keyboard. Would anyone like to sell at nominal cost + postage ? If so please send me a PM

MikeT_3

You see, mention "keyboard" and "50p" in the same sentance and a bargain hunter pops up to try and buy it ;D

mhuk

I got mine just before Xmas, started to instal Windows 2003 over the top of XP and now ****

2003 install can't read the CD.... Is there a quick workaround or do I need to add a floppy drive, boot from a DOS floppy and fdisk it???!!!

GDB2222

I got mine just before Xmas, started to instal Windows 2003 over the top of XP and now ****

2003 install can't read the CD.... Is there a quick workaround or do I need to add a floppy drive, boot from a DOS floppy and fdisk it???!!!

Can you change the boot order so it boots off the CD without even attempting to load whatever mixed-up version of windoze you have on the hard disk?

Then, I agree, a total reformat is in order. Can't see any point in running fdisk, but can't see any harm either.

FF99

Wonder if any of the technos can help.  Just received my new basic spec Dell with 64Mb onboard graphics to replace an elderly Gateway with an 8Mb AGP card.  To my eyes the old Gateway produced a better image on my new Videoseven 19" monitor than the new Dell, just for general use.  I am talking overall sharpness and image quality rather than response times etc.

Is that likely to be right ?  If so, and assuming I could still find a PCI graphics card, what would be the minimum spec card worth getting as an improvement to the onboard graphics ?    How easy would it be to fit.  Just normal plug and play or will I have a problem with XP and an old PCI card ?

Could it be that it is simply a question of using an updated driver and that XP Home has not found the best driver or is that nothing to do with it ?

I have an even more elderly disused Gateway (we are talking PII 266 Mhz) which I would guess has some form of PCI graphics card.  Would that do the trick ?

MikeT_3

Have you had a look at the properties for the display?

When mine arrived it set itself to a default monitor at 1024x768 32bit colour but refresh rate was 60hz so it looked awful on my 21" crt.

Have a play and see what its set for.

FF99

Have you had a look at the properties for the display?

When mine arrived it set itself to a default monitor at 1024x768 32bit colour but refresh rate was 60hz so it looked awful on my 21" crt.

Have a play and see what its set for.

Had poreviously done that. Set to max resolution (1280x1064) and 75Hz refresh. I have a Fujitsu with 32Mb onoard graphics which offers much higher resolutions. Is the Dell real cr*p ??

MikeT_3

I would guess that you are pushing the basic Dell video chips that are on the mobo just a little bit too far with those settings. After all this is a base entry level pc meant for office applications.