Do I have to use XP or Vista with a new PC?

Andy_L

rmh wrote:

You can install your copy of Windows 2000 on to it - provided you do not continue to use it on your existing PC (e.g. if you will be binning the current PC)

Unless its an OEM licence - they live & die with the machine they are installed on

tawnyowls

Andy_L wrote:

Unless its an OEM licence - they live & die with the machine they are installed on

Well, that's the official line, yes.

Not that I'm suggesting any of us would have tried, much less succeeded.

superscaper

tawnyowls wrote:

Well, that's the official line, yes.

Not that I'm suggesting any of us would have tried, much less succeeded.

Actually I've found MS to be pretty flexible when you call them re: activation. In my case it's more upgrading to the point of no original pc left but that's essentially the same thing. Don't think I've heard of MS actually denying transfer of OEM licence (well not for OEM you bought yourself).

krishna

albertross wrote:

If something is hogging the processor, or you are running out of ram which causes pageing, then this may help identify the problem. (your ealier post suggested about 80Meg of ram free, that could be eaten up by dreamweaver etc, at which point the pc will crawl.).

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx

If you really do have physical problems with the hard disk, then either a chkdsk or running a drive fitness test (from the hd manufacturers website), should identify it. There also may be stuff in the event log.

This utility will tell you exactly what is going on under the hood.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/processmonitor.mspx

Are these pc's attached to the internet via a router?

I installed and ran Process Monitor, but it doesn't mean much to me. If I look at the summary that seems to be just about the same as in System Information. What should I be looking for?

Yes the PCs are connected to internet via a router.

redux

It isn't quite clear yet if your problem is the disk, or just memory usage. My PC is about that age - P3 1GHz - and has 512MB memory which I believe is the maximum that is recognised by that processor. But I'm wondering about graphics capability needed for those programs - they don't seem to mention that, but you seem to be a bit near the margins of the system spec they recommend

http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/productinfo/systemreqs/
http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/systemreqs.html

If it's a charity, would some of its donors have old PCs (but newer than yours) they'd give you? Or are you too hidden away in the back office?

Otherwise, I think I'd go for a new PC with XP, and see if there are reductions on slightly lower spec ones that wouldn't be ideal to upgrade to Vista

krishna

redux wrote:

It isn't quite clear yet if your problem is the disk, or just memory usage. My PC is about that age - P3 1GHz - and has 512MB memory which I believe is the maximum that is recognised by that processor. But I'm wondering about graphics capability needed for those programs - they don't seem to mention that, but you seem to be a bit near the margins of the system spec they recommend

So you reckon I won't be able to install more than 512MB RAM? How can I confirm the max allowed?

As suggested by albertross I have downloaded HD checking software from Western Digital. It did a complete check and found no errors. Hmmm... We had a problem a while ago where the PC wouldn't boot. Kept giving error messages. Unfortunately can't recall what they were. But that is what sparked the thoughts of a new PC. So either those were fixed by chkdsk, etc. or that problem was caused by something else unknown. Anyway, it has not recurred for some time.

albertross_2

a P3 can address more than 512mb, goto https://www.crucial.com and either put your model number in, or run the scanner to see what your upgrade options are.

Windows not starting was probably a logical corruption (a file being corrupt), rather than a physical corruption.

Re process explorer, it will tell you if a process is hogging the cpu, or if you are running out of physical ram. Process monitor is a bit more techie, but if the disk is whirring for no apparent reason, and it is getting slow, you can use it to find out which program is causing it.

tawnyowls

superscaper wrote:

Actually I've found MS to be pretty flexible when you call them re: activation. In my case it's more upgrading to the point of no original pc left but that's essentially the same thing. Don't think I've heard of MS actually denying transfer of OEM licence (well not for OEM you bought yourself).

The official line doesn't necessarily reflect real life. Always best not to spell these things out too clearly, IMO - just in case it gives 'them' ideas!

superscaper

tawnyowls wrote:

The official line doesn't necessarily reflect real life. Always best not to spell these things out too clearly, IMO - just in case it gives 'them' ideas!

Good point, I should have emphasised that I was essentially getting MS's permission, to do that kind of thing without their permission would fall under the "illegal" category. The moral of the post I guess was that MS can be flexible, it is their rules to break after all but that doesn't mean it's a prescedent just that it's not hopeless to ask.

redux

That Crucial memory scanner is a bit schizoid. It says -

Maximum Memory Capacity: 512MB
Currently Installed Memory: 512 MB

and "Each memory slot can hold SDRAM, PC133 with a maximum of 256MB per slot.* "

- but still recommends 4 upgrade options of new memory - perhaps they just reckon they are better than Kingston