I bought a second hand PC and I have a few questions

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SameerPujji

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Jul 26, 2016
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Hi! I bought a second hand PC today, and I have a couple of questions.
The owner said it's a custom built PC.

1) I'm unable to connect to the Wi-Fi, is this because there is no wireless network card or because the driver for the card is not installed. If there is no wireless network card, can I buy this one? : http://uae.souq.com/ae-en/mini-usb-wifi-wireless-adapter-network-lan-card-802-11n-7290677/i/

2) I wanted to check if the computer was i3 or i5 but instead, in system properties it just says : Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9550. What does this mean? And when compared to i5 is it better or not?

3) The current CPU has only 4 gigs of ram, if I want to increase that, which RAM do I have to buy? (Does it have to be compatible with the motherboard or something etc? )

4) I want to format the PC, but the owner mentioned installing and XFX graphics card or something, and I connected the monitor to the graphics card, so does this mean if I format it and the driver for the graphics card disappears, I won't be able to use the monitor? (Because the regular VGA port doesn't work)

Thanks in advanced!
 
Solution
Barty1884
You bought a used rig, without really knowing anything about it? I sincerely hope you paid very little.

1. You would have to physically inspect inside, or explore device manager to establish if there's a wireless network card in there. If there is no card, a USB dongle is the simplest. If I was the hazard a guess, the one you linked probably isn't the best quality. It's an 'off brand' and driver support is likely limited. I've used generic wifi dongles in the past, and they can be ok, but when you start having problems it's near impossible to rectify.
If you're sticking to a tight budget: http://uae.souq.com/ae-en/tp-link-tl-wn725n-150mbps-wireless-n-nano-usb-adapter-4925710/i/
TP-Link aren't perfect either, but they will at...
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Isokolon

Isokolon

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Jul 24, 2016
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It would really help to determine which main board you got.
As for the CPU: the Core2Quad were the processor line before Intel introduced i3/i5/i7
It was a quite potent CPU at that time but it's rather old now.

The RAM has to be compatible to your main board.
Normally you need the display driver to display a good picture. Without it it should still work but will be a stretched 640x480 or worse. Is the display connection a dvi?
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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Apr 16, 2015
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You bought a used rig, without really knowing anything about it? I sincerely hope you paid very little.

1. You would have to physically inspect inside, or explore device manager to establish if there's a wireless network card in there. If there is no card, a USB dongle is the simplest. If I was the hazard a guess, the one you linked probably isn't the best quality. It's an 'off brand' and driver support is likely limited. I've used generic wifi dongles in the past, and they can be ok, but when you start having problems it's near impossible to rectify.
If you're sticking to a tight budget: http://uae.souq.com/ae-en/tp-link-tl-wn725n-150mbps-wireless-n-nano-usb-adapter-4925710/i/
TP-Link aren't perfect either, but they will at least provide some support and updated drivers.

2. A Core2Quad preceeds the Core i3/i5 etc naming convention. That specific Core2Quad is from early 2008. It is a 'true' quad core though. And clocked at 2.83GHz, so it's still somewhat viable for gaming. It's not going to perform as well as a modern (or even 1st or 2nd gen) i5, but it should still work.....fine.

3. We'd need to know the make/model of your motherboard before we can confirm. Some chipsets are maxed at 4GB. There's also a (slight) possibility that your motherboard uses DDR2 and not DDR3.

4. You can format your drives. Yes, it will remove a GPU driver - it removes everything from the drive. GPUs will still function without the driver though (to allow you to setup & install the driver). It won't look pretty, but it'll function.


Before formatting etc, I'd download all your required drivers & put them on a USB drive, external HDD, or disk. So you have them on hand & don't have to hunt them down online afterwards.
 
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Solution
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SameerPujji

Commendable
Jul 26, 2016
3
0
1,510


Hi! I payed 30$ for it.
I opened up the PC case, the motherboard is an Intel Desktop Board 02,so does that have a built in wireless network card?
Also there are I believe 4 slots for ram, two black in color, and two blue in color, the ram which is already there is from Kensington, so can I increase the RAM?
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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$30 for a Core2Quad + 4GB RAM.....that's not bad.

Desktop Board 02 doesn't narrow it down. You're looking for a model number, something like DG41RQ (as an example).

You're certainly not going to have onboard wifi - is there an addon card in either PCI or PCIe slots?
Do you have antennas on the rear of the case?
Chances are very slim you have wifi in all honesty.

You SHOULD be able to upgrade your RAM, but I can't confirm 100% without knowing the motherboard model. It's also impossible to confirm which RAM without the motherboard model (or at least the model # from the Kingston RAM). The Q6600 came out right around the DDR2 to DDR3 changeover........your board may support DDR2, or DDR3......there were even a couple of boards that supported both (2slots for DDR2 and 2 slots for DDR3 - you could use one or the other, not both together).

Do you currently have 2 slots populated? (2x2GB?) or 1? (1x4GB)
 
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SameerPujji

Commendable
Jul 26, 2016
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It's D33Q25.
Out of the 4 available ram slots, 2 are in use, and 2 are free. Both the blue ones are in use(if that makes any difference)

However, both the Kengsinton Ram sticks are not identical, one is 'taller' than the other, the height is more.
The model number for the small one is : kvr667d2n5/2g
and the bigger one : KVR800D2N6/2G
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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I can't find a single piece of information on that board model number at all, which is very strange.
You're sure you took it down correctly?

Ok,
kvr667d2n5/2g is DDR2 @ 667MHz
KVR800D2N6/2GB is DDR2 @ 800MHz.

So, they run at the lowest common speed .... 667MHz.

Blue is one channel, black is another.
Depending on how your board is set up, the black slots may accept further DDR2......... but they may be designated as DDR3.

Remove your RAM and compare the 'notches' on the RAM slot. Are they in the same place on all 4 slots, or do they differ between blue/black.

If all the notches are in the same place, you have 4x DDR2 slots. If they differ, you likely have 2x DDR2 and 2x DDR3 slots (again, they can't be used together).

You should be able to run at least 8GB.
If you have 2xDDR2 and 2xDDR3 slots, you'd need to replace with 2x4GB kit of either memory (likely DDR3 will have greater availabiliy.

If you have 4x DDR2 slots, you could either replace the current 2x2GB with 2x4GB DDR2..... or you could add another 2x2GB kit for a total of 4x2GB.

Needless to say, mixing & matching (like you currently have), there's no guarantee it'll function correctly. But finding 2x2GB DDR2 is likely easier than finding 2x4GB these days.
 
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