win xp on an old comp

[markymark]

what's up everyone....

i have a little project that i am taking on. i was just given a dell notebook (inspiron 3800) that's at least 3 years old. i want to revamp the whole notebook and put a new harddrive and more memory and all that in it.

my question is this. the comp has win ME on it now, but i want to install win xp pro. is this possible? will i run into any problems later? any suggestions?

thanks,

mark

 

[4Ryan6]

First find out what the Minimum Requirements for WinXP are and make sure the notebook meets them, if it does, It should load with no problems, and probably load all the drivers, if all the parts are original and no components have been changed, but go to the Dell site and see if theres any WinXP drivers available for that notebook, if there is download them and prepare a loading disk, and get drivers ready for any changed components if there are any.


<A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp" target="_new">Know for sure by downloading and running this upgrade advisor from Microsoft</A>



<b><font color=purple>Listing your system specs, will greatly aid us, in being able to help you solve your problem.</font color=purple></b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by 4ryan6 on 10/04/03 11:28 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[alltaken]

don't even attempt using less than 256 Mb of ram, i mean i have seen it run on 128 but i would never try it.

i'd even go as far as suggesting win 98 which can do as much as xp anyway , or even using linux




Alltaken

 

[4Ryan6]

'd even go as far as suggesting win 98 which can do as much as xp anyway , or even using linux

Yes I agree, I'm dual booting WinXP Pro and Win98SE, the biggest noticable performance difference between the two OP/SYS is decoding and re-encoding video, the 98SE runs on the exact same machine at 10FPS faster, thats a major difference on a 2 1/2 hour time period.


I really wish they'd worked on perfecting Win98SEs capabilities, instead of completely changing to another monster, and dropping it by the wayside.





<b><font color=purple>Listing your system specs, will greatly aid us, in being able to help you solve your problem.</font color=purple></b>

 

[Zoron]

I really wish they'd worked on perfecting Win98SEs capabilities, instead of completely changing to another monster, and dropping it by the wayside.

'Tis the way of things in the world of software... it's not likely to change. Old gets replaced by new... eventually you have so much newer stuff out, you can no longer afford to support the old.

It's only a matter of time before driver support dries up for 98 the way it has for 95.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[4Ryan6]

Theres no harm in wishing, even though it'll never happen, and thanks for throwing the cold water on me, I'm feeling much better now. LOL

<b><font color=purple>Listing your system specs, will greatly aid us, in being able to help you solve your problem.</font color=purple></b>

 

[markymark]

Thanks everyone. Yes i am def going to use at least 250 MB, actually thinking of throwing 512 in. one more quick question though:

as far as the BIOS goes....should i update it? the last released version of the BIOS was prob for Win ME (which is the original OS that was on the comp).

 

[4Ryan6]

If theres a more recent BIOS release than the one on your machine, then I'd say yes before you install XP, if it addresses any of your hardware on the machine, and It would be easier to flash it with WinME still on the machine, Make sure you follow the Flashing instructions from the website to the letter, or you could end up with a dead M/B, if everything proceeds as normal flashing is a breeze, but if something goes wrong during the flashing process remember this: Do not turn the computer off!!! Its a good practice to download, and have ready to disk, a copy of the earlier .BIN file flashes, just to be on the safe side, but you may know this already, and I may be wasting my time telling you this.

<b><font color=purple>Listing your system specs, will greatly aid us, in being able to help you solve your problem.</font color=purple></b>

 

[4Ryan6]

Out of curiosity I went to the DELL website and researched your notebook and found out some need to know information, like the Inspiron 3800 could either be a late PII, or an early PIII do you know which one it is? Also DELL wanted to scan my machine to find out what I needed, and I wouldn't let them do it, so what I could access from their site was limited. I did discover the last BIOS release was A17 released on 3/17/2003 of this year, but I didn't see anywhere listing any WinXP OP/SYS Upgrading, in any of the old BIOS flashes, Win2K yes, but you'll need to check into that yourself. Thoroughly check into this thing before you even consider flashing the BIOS, because it appears theres a hardrive available type flash and a floppy type flash, letting them scan your machine should narrow down exactly what you need. Ryan

<b><font color=purple>Listing your system specs, will greatly aid us, in being able to help you solve your problem.</font color=purple></b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by 4ryan6 on 10/05/03 11:55 AM.</EM></FONT></P>