Bunch of questions about malfunctioning outdated computer and recycling/reusing.

lovethee

Honorable
Oct 9, 2013
17
0
10,510
My computer is running very very very slow, it was nothing spontaneous, it has been like this for years, I barely use it, it takes like 10 seconds to open a folder, may takea minute to load up a webpage, videos are watchable but on low quality.

I have grown tired of this and I plan on buying a new computer, but before that I want to look at the following options:

A) Fix my computer
B) Build a computer reusing some parts.
And finally, if it's impossible, then C) buy a new computer.

I'll assume option A is impossible and even if it were possible, I'd still like to upgrade it, so, what I really want to know is: what could be causing this? Hardware of software? What parts of my computer are reusable, should I throw everyhing out?
So far I am down to reusing my Case :)
What else is definitely reusable? What is definitely non reusable.

Additionally I have another question, does microsoft operate on planned obsolescence by making software work badly? I mean, all OS I used always stop working correctly after a couple of years.
What about hardware manufacturers?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
1. A reinstall of whatever OS might work wonders. (depending on how 'old' it is)

Aside from that...without knowing how old and *what* it is, we can't suggest any upgrade path. Some parts may be reusable, but maybe not. Including the case.

The OS might 'slow down' over the years because of accumulated cruft. Install/delete/malware/low drive space....all contribute to making something 'slow'.

MS doesn't (IMHO) work on 'planned obsolescence'. But time marches on. A 10 year old OS is not like a 10 year old car. It is more akin to a Pinto. The previous version is akin to a Edsel. The one before that, to a Model T.
 

lovethee

Honorable
Oct 9, 2013
17
0
10,510
I don't how how to post information about my PC, the software, etc...
Here is all I know about it, if there is any log file I can post or anything else let me know how to post it:

OS: Windows XP
CPU: Intel Celeron D CPU 3.06GHz
GPU: Nvidia gforce 7300 SE /7200 GS (256MB)

It's having minor trouble running old games like Age of Empires. For moderately new games like League of Legends, it's ridiculously slow, loads for half an hour and then just goes at super slow mode, impossible to play.
Videos are watchable but they stutter and anything fullscreen or anything over 360p becomes unwatchable.


The very first thing I want to do is find out if the problem is the hardware or software, but I do not have the OS CD, how can I reinstall it?
 

lovethee

Honorable
Oct 9, 2013
17
0
10,510
DxDiag log:
http://pastebin.com/Z0cEqNB3

OK, wow, I just noticed my PC has 512MB of ram, I don't know about how the rest of the hardware fares, but if it's all on par with the RAM, I think I won't reuse anything. How do I know how good/bad a piece of hardware is, I have a good sense of the quality of a RAM, since I can gauge it by the size and I can think of how much memory my usual programs take and I know what RAM is. How do I measure how effective GPUs or CPUs are? I don't have a sense of what % of either some programs take and I have no way to measure their capability, do I measure CPUs by their cache size, clock speed? or GPUs by the display memory, or release date?

Rather than if any of the pieces of hardware are reusable, now my question is, is any piece of hardware decent?
And what reason can there be for a case not to be reusable?

My most computer intensive uses would be playing League of Legends while having programs running in the background in case that helps answer the question.

Thanks for the help.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
For your current equipment:
512MB RAM will not run any recent OS, outside of a stripped down Linux version.
The motherboard won't take much more, nor would it be any recent RAM technology.
The CPU is a decade outdated.
Same with whatever video subsystem is in there.

As far as the 'case'...a lot of the retail boxes from the middle of the last decade were decidedly not built to a standard. And as such, new parts would not actually fit.
But the case can be had quite inexpensively. You'd spend far more time trying to mesh new parts into an old case, over just getting a new $40 case that actually works.

"Upgrading" does not work after a while. The technology has marched on. Nothing new fits with anything old.

So...a new PC it is.
Start here, and fill in the blanks:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/353572-31-build-upgrade-advice

Define a budget and use, and people will be along to suggest something in that budget.

Also, look at the build suggestions at the top of this section, and see if anything fits.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-31.html
 

lovethee

Honorable
Oct 9, 2013
17
0
10,510
Thanks, it's a relief to hear that, I'll get some help on the subject and try to build another one. About time.

http://pastebin.com/gSGAxGSt
Could you tell me how outdated this one is?
I was under the impression that there was a graphics card since there is nVidia software in it, however, DxDiag didn't tell me anything about it.