XP Home 2600 Packard Bell Imedia

[Pebble]

Hi to all,
Have scored this WinXP computer from a friend, as "it doesn't work very well, I'm getting a new one" Luckily she had never made the mastor restore discs or boot floppy, so did all that and decided to see what could be done with it. Lots of viruses, spycrap and completely useless programmes which I seemed to get rid of. (It's not now online - and never will be) So had to download all the tools on the trusty Win98SE and CD copy to XP.
Decided to restore to factory settings using recovery option 1 from the recovery boot disk, I did originally hope to avoid the factory settings option, but after cleaning, scanning, scouring, uninstalling and deleting, decided to go for the "as new" option. Have never done that before, seemed to go quite smoothly. Belarc advisor tells me I have about 50 updates to download. As this computer will never be online, do I really need ALL the updates and fixes? I only want this machine for the bigger oomph than the 98SE and that NTFS file system to do video work on, or are some of the updates needed for other fixes. Am going to chuck in a firewire card, more memory and a DVD burner.

--
B-)
Pebble in Boulder


SYSTEM SPECS
Imedia C2123ADRWS
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Build 2600 xpclient.010817-1148
System Manufacturer Packard Bell NEC
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 11 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~1202 Mhz
Intel(R) Celeron(TM) CPU 1200MHz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T, 17/10/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.0 (xpclient.010817-1148)
Mainboard : ECS (P6IWF)
Chipset : Intel i810E
Processor : Intel Celeron @ 1200 MHz
Physical Memory : 128 MB
Video Card : Intel Corporation 82810E 810e Graphics Controller
Hard Disk : Maxtor (41 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : COMBI RW16x10/DVD
DirectX : Version 8.1

 

[Malke]

Hi to all,
Have scored this WinXP computer from a friend, as "it doesn't work
very well, I'm getting a new one" Luckily she had never made the
mastor restore discs or boot floppy, so did all that and decided to
see what could be done with it. Lots of viruses, spycrap and
completely useless programmes which I seemed to get rid of. (It's not
now online - and never will be) So had to download all the tools on
the trusty Win98SE and CD copy to XP.
Decided to restore to factory settings using recovery option 1 from
the recovery boot disk, I did originally hope to avoid the factory
settings option, but after cleaning, scanning, scouring, uninstalling
and deleting, decided to go for the "as new" option. Have never done
that before, seemed to go quite smoothly. Belarc advisor tells me I
have about 50 updates to download. As this computer will never be
online, do I really need ALL the updates and fixes? I only want this
machine for the bigger oomph than the 98SE and that NTFS file system
to do video work on, or are some of the updates needed for other
fixes. Am going to chuck in a firewire card, more memory and a DVD
burner.

If the computer will really never be online, then you can just leave it
as is without antivirus software, updates, etc. Just remember to update
it and protect it properly if you ever change your mind about Internet
access.

Malke

 

[Patrick Keenan]

===============
Hi to all,
Have scored this WinXP computer from a friend, as "it doesn't work very
well, I'm getting a new one" Luckily she had never made the mastor restore
discs or boot floppy, so did all that and decided to see what could be done
with it. Lots of viruses, spycrap and completely useless programmes which I
seemed to get rid of. (It's not now online - and never will be) So had to
download all the tools on the trusty Win98SE and CD copy to XP.
Decided to restore to factory settings using recovery option 1 from the
recovery boot disk, I did originally hope to avoid the factory settings
option, but after cleaning, scanning, scouring, uninstalling and deleting,
decided to go for the "as new" option. Have never done that before, seemed
to go quite smoothly. Belarc advisor tells me I have about 50 updates to
download. As this computer will never be online, do I really need ALL the
updates and fixes? I only want this machine for the bigger oomph than the
98SE and that NTFS file system to do video work on, or are some of the
updates needed for other fixes. Am going to chuck in a firewire card, more
memory and a DVD burner.

--
B-)
Pebble in Boulder
<snip>
===============

I've found it highly useful to install a network card - this is very cheap
and trivially easy these days. On the occasions that you do need to
transfer files or install updates - like the XP SP2 that the system may well
not have, and which you may need for some apps - you can temporarily connect
to the internet or other local systems on a router.

When you want to be sure that you can't connect and want to maximize
resources, simply set the card to Disabled in Device Manager.

HTH
-pk

 

[peter]

I see no reason to update IF you never ever go online with this machine.
You could download SP2 on this machine that you are using for email and burn
the file to a CD/DVD and install onto the other from there.
This would be a safe way to go ..in case one day you do decide to go
online.This would prevent that XP specific malware from attacking as soon as
you are online.

On another note I noticed 128 of Ram...its cheap to double that and increase
the speed by about 50% especially with the build in video using some of that
RAM.

peter

--
"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."
Hi to all,
Have scored this WinXP computer from a friend, as "it doesn't work very
well, I'm getting a new one" Luckily she had never made the mastor restore
discs or boot floppy, so did all that and decided to see what could be done
with it. Lots of viruses, spycrap and completely useless programmes which I
seemed to get rid of. (It's not now online - and never will be) So had to
download all the tools on the trusty Win98SE and CD copy to XP.
Decided to restore to factory settings using recovery option 1 from the
recovery boot disk, I did originally hope to avoid the factory settings
option, but after cleaning, scanning, scouring, uninstalling and deleting,
decided to go for the "as new" option. Have never done that before, seemed
to go quite smoothly. Belarc advisor tells me I have about 50 updates to
download. As this computer will never be online, do I really need ALL the
updates and fixes? I only want this machine for the bigger oomph than the
98SE and that NTFS file system to do video work on, or are some of the
updates needed for other fixes. Am going to chuck in a firewire card, more
memory and a DVD burner.

--
B-)
Pebble in Boulder


SYSTEM SPECS
Imedia C2123ADRWS
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Build 2600 xpclient.010817-1148
System Manufacturer Packard Bell NEC
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 11 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~1202 Mhz
Intel(R) Celeron(TM) CPU 1200MHz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T, 17/10/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.0 (xpclient.010817-1148)
Mainboard : ECS (P6IWF)
Chipset : Intel i810E
Processor : Intel Celeron @ 1200 MHz
Physical Memory : 128 MB
Video Card : Intel Corporation 82810E 810e Graphics Controller
Hard Disk : Maxtor (41 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : COMBI RW16x10/DVD
DirectX : Version 8.1

 

[Johnny Lingo]

Hi to all,
Have scored this WinXP computer from a friend, as "it doesn't work very
well, I'm getting a new one" Luckily she had never made the mastor restore
discs or boot floppy, so did all that and decided to see what could be done
with it. Lots of viruses, spycrap and completely useless programmes which I
seemed to get rid of. (It's not now online - and never will be) So had to
download all the tools on the trusty Win98SE and CD copy to XP.
Decided to restore to factory settings using recovery option 1 from the
recovery boot disk, I did originally hope to avoid the factory settings
option, but after cleaning, scanning, scouring, uninstalling and deleting,
decided to go for the "as new" option. Have never done that before, seemed
to go quite smoothly. Belarc advisor tells me I have about 50 updates to
download. As this computer will never be online, do I really need ALL the
updates and fixes? I only want this machine for the bigger oomph than the
98SE and that NTFS file system to do video work on, or are some of the
updates needed for other fixes. Am going to chuck in a firewire card, more
memory and a DVD burner.

--
B-)
Pebble in Boulder


SYSTEM SPECS
Imedia C2123ADRWS
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Build 2600 xpclient.010817-1148
System Manufacturer Packard Bell NEC
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 11 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~1202 Mhz
Intel(R) Celeron(TM) CPU 1200MHz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T, 17/10/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.0 (xpclient.010817-1148)
Mainboard : ECS (P6IWF)
Chipset : Intel i810E
Processor : Intel Celeron @ 1200 MHz
Physical Memory : 128 MB
Video Card : Intel Corporation 82810E 810e Graphics Controller
Hard Disk : Maxtor (41 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : COMBI RW16x10/DVD
DirectX : Version 8.1







As long as you will *truly* never go online with this machine, the updates
aren't completely needed. You may want to at least apply Service Pack 2
though!
You may also want to consider getting your RAM up to 512MB as XP will run
much better! Also, a video card other than the onboard card will also help.
You may want to get an AGP video card with at least 64MB of RAM onboard
(although I would get more if it were me).
http://www.newegg.com/

 

[Pebble]

Thanks everyone for your opinions, so all the updates are just for the online security aspect? Would SP2 be an advantage in other ways ie making XP work any better?
Have ordered more memory 2 x 256Mb, so that should sort the video work out! Am thinking maybe another video card?
Thanks once again everyone.