I'm just trying to get used to my new PC (not Mac vs PC)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yes, I am a Machead, and will remain so. I love my sublime G4 tower running OS X.2. But I just got a new PC running XP Pro.

Before I go any further, a few requests: No Mac vs. PC stuff. I love my Mac, so please no jabs about that. Also, needless to say, I have not “forsaken” the Mac collective because I got a PC—I started out on a PC and have always had one. I just don’t use it as much as my Mac. My old PC got too old and creaky so it was time to replace it.

I know this new PC is cheap, with a crappy motherboard. So I know that my PC’s cheapness is partly to blame for the troubles I’ve been having. I had a video problem, which (I hope) downloading the latest driver seems to have helped. Then, suddenly and without warning, I “lost” my CD-RW drive, for a little while. Rebooted a few times, and it’s back. But this upset me, greatly. I don’t know what to expect next.

One of my Windows geek friends says that PC users are used to losing their drives like that, but the drives usually come back and I shouldn’t worry about it. I intend to hunt down the latest driver for the CD-RW, and hope for the best. Anything else I can do?

I am a babe in the woods when it comes to warding off spyware, viruses and other icky Windows stuff, as this is usually not a problem on my Mac. My PC Guru (yes, I have a “PC Guru”) recommends Norton and/or McAfee. I remember using McAfee on my old Win98 machine.

A few questions: Should I do a “dual boot” thing with XP and put Win98 on my machine as well? I have enough disk space (60 GB). Maybe some of the “problems” I’ve had with this PC will only show up in Win98, (or only in XP) and this will help me troubleshoot. Also, how many times can I “activate” XP? I already reinstalled it once (I decided I wanted to partition). As long as the hardware on my PC does not change, will Microsoft care how many times I install XP?

My Windows geek friend also said that replacing my crappy motherboard would be an easy thing to do—that if I am unhappy with the performance of this current motherboard, then just get a different motherboard and put all the stuff in it (RAM, HD, CD drives, etc.). Would the rest of you recommend this? I’d have to pay someone else to do the removal and installation of all my PC’s parts—no WAY I’m doing that!

BTW, the specs on my PC are:

1800+ XP AMD CPU
512 MB RAM
60 GB HDD
CD-ROM
CD-RW
PCI card with USB 2.0
Windows XP Professional

I know I have other questions, but this is for starters. Thanks so much for your help!

2

Losing drives are not that uncommon with windows, I’ven’t had any problems with my own pc, running windows xp pro now… I can’t say for sure why you are losing your drives.

As for spyware and viruses, I recommend Norton Antivirus… they haven’t failed me yet, I have no experience with McAfee, so I cannot compare them. About spyware I would recommend Jammer ( http://download.com.com/3000-2381-5796741.html?tag=lst-0-1 ) if you are willing to pay for it. Apart from it scanning your network traffic, it also keeps an eye on the registry.

Microsoft doesn’t care how many times you activate XP, and IF the key wouldn’t work, all you has to do is request a new one. Of course, this is what I’ve been told, but…

I do suspect your motherboard to be part of the problem with you losing drives. Replacing it isn’t that hard, and chances are that your “geek friend” can do it. You shouldn’t be paying for that, unless the guarantee is void if you do something like that.

I hope I could help, and if I got something wrong, I’m sure other SDMB-ers are willing to correct me.

3

Congrats on the new 'puter. :slight_smile:

4

Errr… I don’t think losing drives in Windows should be a common occurence. If it was, I think Microsoft would have looked into it by now.

You shouldn’t need to dual boot unless there are programs that WinXP refuses to run, but that you need. It should handle the majority of the mainstream programs that have been put out in the last 5 years.

I am not sure how many times I changed my hardware until I had to call Microsoft (3-5 perhaps), but eventually I had to. When you’ve exceeded the number of times of activation, you will be presented with a dialog box with a alphanumeric string of about 30 characters (it is not the key that comes with your Windows XP cd. It is generated.). This string is used to calculate another alphanumeric string which the person on the phone will give you and you will have to enter this to activate the product.

If formatting and reinstalling WinXP doesn’t resolve it, it probably is a hardware problem. I’ll list a few possibilities that may be the source of the problem:

-cd-rw
-motherboard
-ide cables connecting the cd-rw may be loose or frayed
-incorrect settings for master-slave drives

You can also try moving the drives around. i.e. switching the cd-rw to master or slave (whichever it is not right now) or moving the cd-rw to another bus.

I would only recommend a new motherboard if/when:
a) you’ve exhausted all troubleshooting possibilities and detemined that is the source of the problem

or

b) you’re extremely wealthy and couldn’t be bothered to troubleshoot. If that is the case, I can understand why you are a Machead (sorry, had to get a shot in :))

Good luck.

5

Be sure to network the two computers. You can use the Mac as a “questionable file test bed” and then copy items onwards to the PC. Also use some unused space on the Mac to backup mission-critical files from the PC before doing reinstalls that you think might nuke your settings. Besides which, it’s nice to have access to the files of one system while working on the other.

Instead of partitioning your PC – unless you’re considering '98 for gaming purposes in which case this does not apply – you might want to consider Virtual PC for Windows, which will let you run separate sessions of any and all PC operating systems concurrently, including the ability to network them with each other and copy clipboard data back and forth. That way you can install W98, Linux, W2K Server, etc., while continuing to use XP as your main environment.

6

Just a note : I’m pretty sure the VirtualPC-type programs that Ahunter mentioned require a lot of RAM. For example, if you have 512MB and you’re running W98 and XP at the same time, the program allocates 256MB of RAM to one OS and 256MB to the other. You can’t use all the RAM on one OS at one time. That may slow down programs that use a lot of RAM, like image editing and binary Usenet readers.

If you use a dual-boot solution, you get to keep all your RAM (and the money you would have paid for VirtualPC), but it will take a couple of minutes to reboot to switch between OSes.

7

Thanks so much, everyone!

I am not mentally or emotionally equipped to take apart the PC’s innards and troubleshoot it that way. However, my Windows geek friend (not to be mistaken with my “PC Guru”) has his own PC Guru, who I suspect might be able to help me out (for a reasonable fee, I hope). I know my PC Guru would help me if he could, but he lives several states away, which makes things inconvenient for hands-on troubleshooting.

I am not eager to replace the motherboard, it just seems cheaper than buying a whole new PC!

Virtual PC seems inticing, but I’ve used it on my Mac, and didn’t like it then. (I guess it was just my Mac, or me, because I know many Mac users swear by it.) So partitioning seems more up my alley.

I turned on the PC last night and it managed to keep its CD-RW drive. I’m very proud of it. :wink:

Oh, yes, I will be networking the computers! In fact, I have another Mac down here in my Computer Cubbyhole so I’ll be networking 3 computers in total. Besides, I want the computers to “share” my cable Internet connection.

Thanks for the links, advice and congratulations, everyone! Bless your hearts!