My friend has been getting by using an old HP Pavilion running Windows98, for word processing using the bundled MSWorks wp. It was fine with her until she began having occasional trouble saving files. When I had a chance to look at it, Wordpad also had the same problem. I figured it was probably the hard drive (3G) but it is only about 1/3 full and passes Scandisk.
She has a new netbook now and would like to give the HP (in working condition) to a computerless friend. Any thoughts?
Throw it away. Its way beyond its expected life and its having mysterious problems. Any sort of repair for that thing will cost way too much than its worth. I cant imagine blowing $100 for new RAM or a new drive (if it can even handle a modern drive) for that beater. Considering you can get a decent netbook for around $300, I dont see the utility in wasting time and effort to keep this thing alive.
Reinstall the whole system using the install disk from HP. Don’t give it someone if it’s still buggy.
You really need to run a low level sector scan. Be sure to turn off SMART sector remapping in BIOS. If this makes no sense to you then you are not the person to try and do this.
Malware and broken programs can cause the problem as well. These are best fixed by the aforementioned wipe and reinstall. (Which should be done in any case.) Do not connect this machine directly to the Internet. Always use a router with a firewall.
I see no reason to chuck a perfectly working computer if it is up to the task at hand.
That’s me.
No radio. Last time on net in 2000 on dial-up.
Yeah. that’s why I asked the question. ATC, to the recycler.
Thanks to all.