Dell Dimension 4550 windows xp

I was given a Dell 4550 tower and I was wondering is it worth while cleaning up ( reformatting/fdisk) isn't xp a bit risky given the security flaws in xp? or can it all be be updated?

I thinking Ill need more ram. maybe a few other hardware upgrades... I haven't started it up yet but it looks almost brand new. The owner said it was getting to slow from him. which was the problem with most of the old xp computers..

any tips or problem I may encounter?

thanks

It will run like a dog if you do the updates, you should get a linux distro such as Ubuntu as it will run much faster on an old machine.

It really depends on what you'll be using it for. If it's just email and surfing the web it will be fine. If you're editing movies or playing graphically intense games it won't due at all. Since it maxes out at 1 gb of RAM it won't run Windows 7. Also remember Microsoft will stop support for XP by 2014.

Without a new processor, new RAM, and a decent graphics card - you won't get far with this one.

In my opinion it isn't worth it at all. You'll be better off buying a new computer, but it really depends
on the circumstance. If your just working on the tower - like buying ALL the hardware like you said,
go for it. But if your not looking to spend a lot of money, don't. I've had really really good Windows XP computers before (super fast) and they eventually just get old.

Not so much as even viruses that make it obsolete, but the fact that it just gets outdated.
From the specs that its running on now, it'll probably be hard to even run Mozilla or IE.

Your final option would be a iMac. They last for a LONG time. I still have mine and its lighting fast. Maybe about 5-6 years strong now.

its probably worth more split up into its constituent parts and flogging them seperately but if you want to install xp then 1gb ram should be okish for it but its never going to be a turbo machine

Originally posted by SunLife
I was given a Dell 4550 tower and I was wondering is it worth while cleaning up ( reformatting/fdisk) isn't xp a bit risky given the security flaws in xp? or can it all be be updated?

I thinking Ill need more ram. maybe a few other hardware upgrades... I haven't started it up yet but it looks almost brand new. The owner said it was getting to slow from him. which was the problem with most of the old xp computers..

any tips or problem I may encounter?

thanks

funny u post this.. i just spent a couple hrs yesterday installing a new hdd and xp home on a 10 yo dell dimension desktop for a friends dad.

and yeah its worth fixing. it will work fine for net browsing.

you should add some ram if you have it. most older dells only have 256 from the factory.

also u will need to get some drivers from the website. search the model number there.
its good to have another pc that has internet handy for this. and a thumb drive.


audio drivers, ethernet drivers, and maybe some others like usb and video drivers. its all free.

if you have any dell, compaq, or HP windows xp recovery cds you can use them, otherwise a fresh xp install should be cake on that pc other than having to manually install the device drivers


hope this helps


ps: i got that old dell to run the web like a rocket ship with 512k and a new os.lucky for us the video card is decent so i didnt have to change it. most people dont need anything faster than this. its a celeron and its faster that my droid now. fyi

Aye, I have a main computer, this will more a secondary computer but I still want the ability surf. I don't mind buy the upgrade so I can put windows vista or windows 7. looking at the specs it looks to be only missing hard drive space and ram... the processor is just short of the speed I have now.. from what I saw in a little bit of searching..

thus far you all have stated what I was thinking...
thanks

Hi Sunlife ,the Dell 4550 is a Pentium 4 processor so its not going to run very well with Vista or windows 7.

Updating your RAM and hard drives is the easiest option for a performance increase without having to change the mother board. Windows XP will only be able to use up to 4GB in RAM though.

Its true XP has few security flaws but these are greatly reduced by installing Service Pack 3 (SP3) which is a free download from Microsoft.The current speed of the system might well be down to what was originally loaded on it either intentionally or unintentionally. Windows XP can be quite quick when setup correctly.

If you have a WindowsXP installation disk i recommend you:

- Clean off the system and start fresh :
- Buy a small drive to install windows on (250- 500gb)
- Format the original system drive and use it as general data storage.
- Delete the paging file from the C: drive and set it up on the data drive. Moving the paging file off the system drive will always give you a performance increase when your system is running low on ram.
- Make sure there is 4gb of ram.

You do have an AGP slot for the GFX card on your mother board so you might want to invest in a higher spec GFX card. It all depends on what you want to use the system for and how well it runs for you.

If you dont have access to a WindowsXP installation disk then :

- Uninstall everything you can and give it a good scrub with a few free anti-virus programs.
- Make sure there is 4gb of ram.
- Maybe upgrade the GFX card.
- Maybe get a second drive to use as a data storage drive and also move the paging file there.

I would also recommend doing a BIOS update which is program you can download from Dell but this can be a bit stressful if you have not done one before.

- PhoenixOD (Microsoft Certified Professional)

reply to post by SunLife


xp is fine enough as long as you have a decent antivirus and use a browser that can disable page scripts such as Firefox.

However my more immediate question is what are the specs of that computer?
Processor, ram size, type of ram, hd size.

IMO if the processor is less than a core 2 duo. Don't bother.

Originally posted by SunLife
Aye, I have a main computer, this will more a secondary computer but I still want the ability surf. I don't mind buy the upgrade so I can put windows vista or windows 7. looking at the specs it looks to be only missing hard drive space and ram... the processor is just short of the speed I have now.. from what I saw in a little bit of searching..

thus far you all have stated what I was thinking...
thanks

i would recommend staying with xp on the older pc's. but that dosent mean vista or 7 wont work, there just might be issues with the chipset or the board working with newer os

Originally posted by grey580
reply to post by SunLife

 

xp is fine enough as long as you have a decent antivirus and use a browser that can disable page scripts such as Firefox.

However my more immediate question is what are the specs of that computer?
Processor, ram size, type of ram, hd size.

IMO if the processor is less than a core 2 duo. Don't bother.

im gonna guess 1.2 or somewhere around that

reply to post by SunLife



after i read you post again i would recommend first starting the pc if it will. then type "msconfig" into the run box on the start menu. then click the start up tab. then click "disable all" then restart.

that may fix half the problem there, "programs running in the background on start up" and u might not even need to install xp again..

it cant hurt. plan b is delete and reinstall

CTRL + F11 at the Dell startup screen should get you into the recovery partition on this machine providing it still has one, and it hasn't gotten corrupted.

Restore it to factory, install all windows updates, max out the memory, and use it till it dies.

Good luck.

ahhh, I have not fired it up yet. seeing as i dont see a dvd slot, it has to be the lesser of the two, 4550 types made.. from what I have read so far.

pentium 4 model DHM

opps I see on the disc drive rewriteable.. the lil door drawer that slides out for CD's.

Originally posted by SunLife
I was given a Dell 4550 tower and I was wondering is it worth while cleaning up ( reformatting/fdisk) isn't xp a bit risky given the security flaws in xp? or can it all be be updated?

I thinking Ill need more ram. maybe a few other hardware upgrades... I haven't started it up yet but it looks almost brand new. The owner said it was getting to slow from him. which was the problem with most of the old xp computers..

any tips or problem I may encounter?
thanks

A Dimension with factory Windows XP probably does not have a lot of RAM, I would say no more that 256 MB, based on Dimensions I have worked on. All Windows platforms experience a slow down after a year of so, mostly because Windows save nearly everything, cookies, temp and *temp* files, HTML pages. You could clean it up, and upgrade the RAM, but you will still have an XP computer, and I understand XP will not be supported for much longer.
How large is the HHD? If it is at least 30 Gb, yours, if it is stock, has a 60 Gb drive, you can install most any Windows, or Linux distro, but I would defiantly upgrade the RAM. Be careful buying RAM, here are the specs on your board:

CPU, Memory and Drives
The Dell Dimension 4550 had an Intel Pentium 4 microprocessor; and supported 128 MB to 1 GB of memory. The computer also included a 60 GB hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy disk drive and a CD-RW/DVD+RW optical drive.

Source
Were I you, I would install a 1 GB stick, and use something like
Ultimate Boot CD to completely erase, not format, the hard drive, this will remove any "nasties" from the drive, and make it like new again. Start on the CD and navigate to HDD, I use both DBAN and CopyWipe myself, both have quick erase and longer polling erasure algorithms. A 7 time erase will erase forever ANYTHING.
Then install your choice of operating systems, I recommend PCLinuxOS, a very good Windows to Linux transitional distro that looks like and works like Windows. Easy to install, automatic partitioning, (use entire empty drive) easy to update and install programs, and come with much of what you will need. A great forum, and PCL is a constant upgradeable distro, as long as you keep updating, you will always have the latest version. PCL has Drake Config, and many MESEC Security Settings that will protect you. Firefox is a fast and configurable browser with many available extensions. Good luck with your project!

Originally posted by autowrench

Originally posted by SunLife
I was given a Dell 4550 tower and I was wondering is it worth while cleaning up ( reformatting/fdisk) isn't xp a bit risky given the security flaws in xp? or can it all be be updated?

I thinking Ill need more ram. maybe a few other hardware upgrades... I haven't started it up yet but it looks almost brand new. The owner said it was getting to slow from him. which was the problem with most of the old xp computers..

any tips or problem I may encounter?
thanks

A Dimension with factory Windows XP probably does not have a lot of RAM, I would say no more that 256 MB, based on Dimensions I have worked on. All Windows platforms experience a slow down after a year of so, mostly because Windows save nearly everything, cookies, temp and *temp* files, HTML pages. You could clean it up, and upgrade the RAM, but you will still have an XP computer, and I understand XP will not be supported for much longer.
How large is the HHD? If it is at least 30 Gb, yours, if it is stock, has a 60 Gb drive, you can install most any Windows, or Linux distro, but I would defiantly upgrade the RAM. Be careful buying RAM, here are the specs on your board:

CPU, Memory and Drives
The Dell Dimension 4550 had an Intel Pentium 4 microprocessor; and supported 128 MB to 1 GB of memory. The computer also included a 60 GB hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy disk drive and a CD-RW/DVD+RW optical drive.

Source
Were I you, I would install a 1 GB stick, and use something like
Ultimate Boot CD to completely erase, not format, the hard drive, this will remove any "nasties" from the drive, and make it like new again. Start on the CD and navigate to HDD, I use both DBAN and CopyWipe myself, both have quick erase and longer polling erasure algorithms. A 7 time erase will erase forever ANYTHING.
Then install your choice of operating systems, I recommend PCLinuxOS, a very good Windows to Linux transitional distro that looks like and works like Windows. Easy to install, automatic partitioning, (use entire empty drive) easy to update and install programs, and come with much of what you will need. A great forum, and PCL is a constant upgradeable distro, as long as you keep updating, you will always have the latest version. PCL has Drake Config, and many MESEC Security Settings that will protect you. Firefox is a fast and configurable browser with many available extensions. Good luck with your project!

10.4 thanks for the help maybe I can put to a good use.

reply to post by SunLife


I'm using a Dimension 3000 with a Pentium 4 and only 512 mb ram; running XP of course. I had problems in the beginning until I installed a good firewall. I do daily maintenance (registry clean, etc.).

Because XP is going away, I've been trying other systems as well. I've successfully installed Vista and Seven Ultimate, but they run way to slow. I decided to give Linux another try, and found an excellent distro named MacPup. It's a Puppy Linux distro with the Enlightenment desktop. You don't even have to install it, because it works great with the live cd, and saves everything to the hard drive or thumb drive. It also installs on the thumb drive if you need to. It even lets you re-master the live cd with your favorite stuff on it if you like. By the way, it's lightning fast, even on my old rig...

Heres a link...
Mac Pup Linux

Originally posted by visualmiscreant
reply to post by SunLife

 

I'm using a Dimension 3000 with a Pentium 4 and only 512 mb ram; running XP of course. I had problems in the beginning until I installed a good firewall. I do daily maintenance (registry clean, etc.).

Because XP is going away, I've been trying other systems as well. I've successfully installed Vista and Seven Ultimate, but they run way to slow. I decided to give Linux another try, and found an excellent distro named MacPup. It's a Puppy Linux distro with the Enlightenment desktop. You don't even have to install it, because it works great with the live cd, and saves everything to the hard drive or thumb drive. It also installs on the thumb drive if you need to. It even lets you re-master the live cd with your favorite stuff on it if you like. By the way, it's lightning fast, even on my old rig...

Heres a link...
Mac Pup Linux

Good for you. 512 MB of Ram is just not enough to run Vista or 7. Vista and 7 run best with at least 3 GB of Ram. I have tried Puppy once or twice, but I have an Nvidia board which is iffy with some Linux distros. Besides, I like to customize my OS, and I like to save pictures and videos to the drive. I am building a rather large database of MP3s of all of our favorite songs, using Firefox with Youtube MP3 extension. I'm running Fedora 16 with 3 GB of Ram, and Fedora runs really fast, as does Firefox, with all of my tweaks to Firefox Configuration, something that cannot be done with IE or Chrome. I also like that my true IP is hidden, and proxied, and my physical location shows some 1000 miles from my true location.

reply to post by autowrench


Vista and Seven gave me trouble as well with my hardware. I have the 82865g chipset which is not supported after XP. I found a new driver but it's not digitally signed, so I had to disable the auto check for that to get it to install on either OS. Both kept locking up and not responding. They obviously need more ram to stretch their legs out. I don't recommend going through all the hair-pulling I did.

Even so, I didn't really care for either OS. I'm gonna keep on using XP until they stop supporting it. I'll use the Linux system when I can to get more familiar with it. My last adventure was with a home-build of Unity called Humanity E-17. One day I updated it and it never would boot again. It had the Enlightenment desktop I like as well. So far the Macpup hasn't given me a lick of trouble, although I haven't fully installed it on the hard-drive. Heck, they recommend that you just use the live cd anyway. I installed Oracle's Virtual Box, and I'll probably experiment with Macpup on that for awhile. I can always re-master the cd with updates and personal settings.

I don't plan on buying a new computer every 15 minutes to keep up with the technology; I just want something that works every time you turn it on. I'm also playing with an oldie called Longhorn which was never really finished. There are groups of people working on it still unofficially, and they've made some decent advances. It uses the WinFS file system, and like a database, has the ability to recognize relational data better than NTFS. It's obviously not officially supported either, but the 4XXX series (such as 4074) is somewhat license-safe, compared to the 3XXX and 5XXX builds. That's what's keeping the geeks from running into copyright problems from Microsoft. There's a guy named Joe Joe that made some really good advances (with his crew of course). You'll have to google that name, because the last time I plugged a website on ATS, my post was deleted and I got a stern warning (Extreme Violation). I'd love to see more people working on it even if just as a hobby; it has potential.

Good luck to all of you, and I hope you all have a prosperous year...

Oh yeah, I'm told to stay away from the Longhorn 2008 project. The guy who released it apparently went another direction with it which is not consistent with the original philosophy and fired up some of the original builders of the system. There is a beta archive online which has most of the versions of Longhorn for free download. They only last 180 days, so you have to take out the time bomb feature with TweakNT which is also free. The serial number is available everywhere... google the string beta archive and you should find these things no problem. You have to join the forum and make 10 qualifying posts to get free downloads but it is definitely worth it...

Welp I Fired it up, it has SP3, 784 ram and like 75 GB of hardrive. It also has Nortons 360. It also was fairly clean excpet a few programs that wont un install. Also it wont pick up the net... tried a few things in the network settings and drivers and still wont connect. It wont restore.. I think I am going to try to uninstal notrons 360.. keep trying to get the network to connect.