# Computer is dead - what next?



## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

My problems started with the thread I started about rebooting. Now I can't get the computer to start up. It says system 32 is corrupt. I tried a pc system recovery but no good. I have the recovery disc I made when the computer was new. So what do I do now.

I am on my old computer right now and it is as slow as all get out.


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## PaulNKS (Jan 11, 2009)

Hope this helps....

How to Fix "System32 Corrupt or Missing" Error


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

If reverting to a previous configuration doesn't help, how about letting us know a little about your system. At the very least, tell us what version of Windows you are running.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

Nevada said:


> If reverting to a previous configuration doesn't help, how about letting us know a little about your system. At the very least, tell us what version of Windows you are running.


In a previous post he said Windows XP was.


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

install a new operating system?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

secuono said:


> install a new operating system?


I suspect the ultimate solution will be to reinstall XP. But I'm also concerned about how the current installation because corrupt. If that isn't fixed it's just going to happen again.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

Thanks everyone, I just got back from out of town. I have windows XP and as I stated in the previous post, My computer began rebooting every so often. Than it seemed that everything was ok then it rebooted and a blue screen came up and said that I needed to run a discscan. Now when I reboot after the blue screen, is says that my system32 is corrupt and I can't get past that. I have my recovery cd I made when I first got the computer. Can I reformat the disc and install the recovery cd's?


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## defenestrate (Aug 23, 2005)

You should be able to boot to the recovery disk and format and reinstall from it, if that's what you're looking to do. Disk is likely set up to be fairly straightforward, but if you have any questions, I'm sure someone will have an answer for you.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

I sent my computer to a friend of mine that works on computers. He just got back to me today and he said the virus I have is a bad one and he can not get it off. He tries to reformat the disk but the virus won't let him. He can put a new hard drive in for about $100 and says that I will need to buy the operating system (windows) at a $50 cost. My computer is about 5 years old and it is good enough for what I needed it for. I thought the recovery disc I made when I bought the computer (9 in all) was the operating system. Am I wrong in thinking this?


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

Go buy a new hard drive, it's less than 100$ and then contact the manufacturer of your computer for a replacement disk...should be less than 50$. Depending on the recovery disk set and the manufacturer of the computer, the os may or may not be on the recovery disks. Safer bet is to see about replacement OS disks from the manufacturer.

I have not read your other thread and I know nothing about your system. But before reading this last post by you, I suspected a bad hard drive. It is not often that a virus will actually destroy hardware so I am skeptical of that diagnosis...however I am not one to rebut another tech. diagnosis especially if I haven't assessed the system physically..but I sort of suspect something is a little off here. But that may not be the case. In any case, buying and installing a hard drive is not hard and it shouldn't cost anywhere near $100 if you do it yourself...and again... purchasing a replacement o/s from the manufacturer is 1/3 or less of the cost of purchasing a new out of box.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

If the drive isn't actually bad, and you're only fighting a virus, you can get DOD disk wipe (free utility) and rid it of the virus if it's written in the boot sector. It would save you $100 for a new drive. It wipes the drive completely clean, then format and reinstall.

Just curious too, how old is the computer? If it's more than about 6 years old, you might want to take a look at the capacitors on the board and make sure none of them are bulging or leaking. Virus or not, those can make a computer lock up or keep rebooting too.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

frank b said:


> I sent my computer to a friend of mine that works on computers. He just got back to me today and he said the virus I have is a bad one and he can not get it off. He tries to reformat the disk but the virus won't let him.


:hrm:

It won't "let" him reformat the disk? LOL That, to me, is like my engine telling me "I won't let you put oil in me." It doesn't have much of a choice...I've never yet run across any virus that would refuse to let me format a hard drive. Color me skeptical.



> He can put a new hard drive in for about $100 and says that I will need to buy the operating system (windows) at a $50 cost.


AH. Now I know why it won't 'let' him reformat it. LOL



> I thought the recovery disc I made when I bought the computer (9 in all) was the operating system. Am I wrong in thinking this?


Nope, you're correct. Most recovery discs are an image of the hard drive when you first got the PC - containing the OS itself as well as the applications and drivers.

Depending upon the computer and its age, the BIOS will often contain a hard drive scan utility, IF it will boot to the BIOS screen - and if it's getting far enough to tell you system32 is corrupt, then it's getting past that screen. System32 being corrupt simply means that part of the Windows system files are corrupt or missing. I run across that all the time at work...and with Windows Vista or 7, it's about a 2 minute fix. It's a bit harder in Windows XP, but unless the hard drive is bad, usually a repair install takes care of it.

If you can post the make/model of your computer, I can tell you whether or not (or how) to scan your hard drive using the built-in utility - or point you to where to download one. IMHO, if the hard drive IS good, I'd just do a repair install and save yourself the $$.

And I'm further skeptical of why you need the OS purchased - UNLESS he's speaking of a newer version. If not, then your current version should contain the license key on the disk somewhere...and a decent tech should know how to recover it. If he doesn't, I'd find another tech. LOL


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

Thanks for all the info. I will be getting it back next week and if it is not fixed, I will ask how to reformat the disc myself. I had put the recovery disc in to repair the system32 and it went thru the motions but it still did not fix the problem. Again, thanks


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

If your puter uses a SATA drive and buy a new drive get a solid state drive. It will blow you away and for 100 you can get over a 100-250 G drive on the Bay.


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## WhiteStar Acres (Oct 11, 2012)

Just put a live CD OS like Ubuntu or puppy into the CD drive and reboot.

If it runs just fine, the computer is fine. If the linux os can see, mount, read and write too the HD then it's probably fine too.

I also question the "the HD wont let me" thing. Any undamaged HD can be repartitioned and reformatted, and a new OS installed.

\\There are several good free programs that will boot the computer and run disk check utilities, partition and format. A new windows7 disk will do all that, if you tell it that's what you want to do on install.

I question the ability of your computer repair guy.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

OK, picked up my computer last night. He says he formated the disc and used the recovery disc. It works for a short time than craps out again. May be corrupt files on the recovery disc. I made the disc when I unpacked the computer and than put them away. The computer uses Windows XP Home & Student edition and it is an HP Pavilon. He says a new operating system would be over $100 bucks and possibly the hard drive is bad which would cost more and possibly something else is wrong with it. I had just increased the memory and the computer was very fast although it was about 5 years old - but all I needed for what I use it for. I am down in the dumps for sure.

I think I will hook it up tonight and use the recovery disc to reformat (can't hurt anything) and see what it does

How do I go about purchasing the os from the manufacturer? He told that the os was no longer available.


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## floyd242 (Jun 11, 2012)

It really sounds like your hard disc is bad.... If you just want to get it to work you can probably find a 100Gig hard drive for like $20-30 on newegg. Then just load your recovery discs on that.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

And really with MS stopping supporting XP in little over a year I sure wouldn't be spending much on a Xp unit.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

frank b said:


> OK, picked up my computer last night. He says he formated the disc and used the recovery disc. It works for a short time than craps out again. May be corrupt files on the recovery disc. I made the disc when I unpacked the computer and than put them away. The computer uses Windows XP Home & Student edition and it is an HP. He says a new operating system would be over $100 bucks and possibly the hard drive is bad which would cost more and possibly something else is wrong with it. I had just increased the memory and the computer was very fast although it was about 5 years old - but all I needed for what I use it for. I am down in the dumps for sure.
> 
> I think I will hook it up tonight and use the recovery disc to reformat (can't hurt anything) and see what it does
> 
> How do I go about purchasing the os from the manufacturer? He told that the os was no longer available.


When stored data becomes corrupt you really need to address the question of how it got that way. Simply restoring the data isn't going to prevent it from becoming corrupt again. I believe there's a good chance the hard drive is bad.

Since you're working with a dated machine that will only remain contemporary for a short time, you might consider a used hard drive from eBay. You should find one that you can use for a few years pretty inexpensively. Remember XP will become unsupported in another 1.5 years (April of 2014, I think). After that you can't really use XP on the Internet, since you'll be a sitting duck.

Check your PM.


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## WhiteStar Acres (Oct 11, 2012)

An older machine will run faster and better with a linux OS, most of the time.

A simple one is Puppy Linux, it's very small, and will work well with older systems. If you have never used Linux, it loks and feels pretty much like XP, with some minor differences.

The nice thing about a small os Like puppy, it runs in the computers memory, not off the HD unless you install it to do so. You can put the CD in the drive, turn it on and run it normally. If you turn the computer off, it will ask if you want to store your personal settings on the HD in a small file, so when you start it up again it reads that little file and puts you back right how you left it. No install needed.

I gave my niece a laptop recently, when her desktop died. The laptop had no HD in it, just a puppy disk in the CD drive. When she turned it off she told the OS to store her setting on a thumb drive, and that worked fine for months until she got a new laptop.

If you can start and run your computer NOW, why not run scandisk, and let XP examime the HD disk for errors or problems, see what it finds. You might have some damaged surface area but not enough to make it unusable... just enough to make it choke every now and then.

If you take a week and use puppy linux, and you see you have no computer problems at all with it, then it could very well be a bad HD that xp is installed on. It happens.

But, you have free options, if the money is a barrier. Puppy linux has a large online forum and lots of help to learn to use it.

Then again, all things being equal, XP should run as well as it did when you got the computer, if you find the gremlins in the machine and kill em.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

How do I get Puppy Linux to try it out?


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

OK, tonight I reformatted the disc and used the recovery disc and everything seems to be working ok. I hope it will continue.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

Well, it died this morning. Started it up and when I clicked to get on the internet, it rebooted again. Every thing was ok for a short while than it froze. I rebooted and it came back but the screen was messed up. I could see the background but over that was 4 up and down blinking scribble lines and nothing worked - had to reboot. That is what it was doing before I reformatted. When it is working, the computer is fast and works great. Is it the OS. Hard Drive or computer it self?

When I used the recovery disc, it said DirectX could not be copied. Don't know if that had anything to do with the problem.


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## floyd242 (Jun 11, 2012)

Try and run chkdisk

How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP

If you can't boot, try following these instructions and run it from the CD

Windows XP - Running CHKDSK


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

I had run a scan disc when it all started and it said the disc was ok.


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## floyd242 (Jun 11, 2012)

OK if you think the disc is fine, I would check your memory next. 

You said you just increased the memory, how long was it after you installed it that you got the first problems? You may have received a bad memory stick. It happens fairly often.

Here's a tool to check it:

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

You can either burn it to a bootable cd or put it on a usb stick an boot from the usb stick.

Or you can try your old memory.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

It has been about 6 - 8 months since I have added memory. However, I will check the memory as you suggest. My problem started when I was downloading the movie Centennial from youtube about 1 1/2 months ago.


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## WhiteStar Acres (Oct 11, 2012)

frank b said:


> How do I get Puppy Linux to try it out?


Puppy Linux Community Home - Getting Started


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## WhiteStar Acres (Oct 11, 2012)

frank b said:


> Well, it died this morning. Started it up and when I clicked to get on the internet, it rebooted again. Every thing was ok for a short while than it froze. I rebooted and it came back but the screen was messed up. I could see the background but over that was 4 up and down blinking scribble lines and nothing worked - had to reboot. That is what it was doing before I reformatted. When it is working, the computer is fast and works great. Is it the OS. Hard Drive or computer it self?
> 
> When I used the recovery disc, it said DirectX could not be copied. Don't know if that had anything to do with the problem.


This sounds like the typical issues with a defective/dying power supply unit. it's getting enough power to run but when it requires a spike or any additional power, the lack of it causes the CPU to freak out and seize, or it causes memory errors, and video malfunctions.

The spontaneous rebooting when you try to do something is a classic sign.

Stick a new PSU in it and I bet your problems will go away.
Unless all the repeated trying to do stuff and the constant rebooting hasn't damaged anything. Normally a decent quality PSU has a fault protection in it that protects the board and chips from getting zapped.

A good PSU from newegg will run you about 50 bucks. Cheap ones are underpowered and usually have a short life so... look for the one with the best user reviews and pick the one you can afford out of that pile.

Or... find a scrap PC to borrow the PSU out of and see if it corrects the problem.

A flaky PSU will make you pull your hair out.


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## redwall (Mar 10, 2007)

you can get a ceap brand new computer for 250 at best buy, ask the sales person you will never find it your self. they like to hide the things.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

Looks like I will have to get another computer. It is still freezing up after it is on for a time. The tech at office depot said it looks like the mother board. Who makes the Lenovo computers. I saw the new ones at Office Depot and it has the intel core i5 processor. The HP has the AMD. Both computers have windows 8. Do they all basicly have the same hard drives and motherboards but the brand of the computer is different?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

frank b said:


> Looks like I will have to get another computer. It is still freezing up after it is on for a time. The tech at office depot said it looks like the mother board. Who makes the Lenovo computers. I saw the new ones at Office Depot and it has the intel core i5 processor. The HP has the AMD. Both computers have windows 8. Do they all basicly have the same hard drives and motherboards but the brand of the computer is different?


I'm not normally a computer brand person. I usually select computers based on specifications, not who assembles them. I am, however, a fan of Intel processors.

I didn't used to be, since years ago I believed that Intel processors were overpriced and didn't perform as well as AMD processors. But prices have come down and performance is competitive. Most operating systems seem to like Intel processors. I always lean towards Intel processors today, for both workstations and servers (yes, they make processors just for servers).

Lenovo is an IBM brand name. They make a good laptop. I personally would lean towards the Lenovo with an Intel processor that you described.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

Yes Intel processors is the way to go.
That was one the the reason I now have a iMac. They quit having chips by Motorola. Now this iMac has a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Chip. And that way Macs can run Windows on the same Machine. Although I will not, but some do.


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## WhiteStar Acres (Oct 11, 2012)

The innards of most computers are pretty much the same, if you buy brand name, chances are it's all re branded stuff from the same asian factories. For example you can have a video card and it will be sold under 10 different names in 10 different minor configurations and the chips and assembly are all from the same places.

Go by specs, read up on customer reviews (some pre assembled computers are junk, the customer feedback like you find on amazon or store websites like best buy will give you an idea how reliable it is.) and pick one you can afford.

The only way to get what you pay for and know what you got is to build it from scratch but, that's not really needed. I have compaq, dell and toshiba laptops and most all of them outlived their usefullness and just got obsolete, but kept on running.

I've had pre assembled cheapo Emachine towers that ran for yrs, and custom hand made jobs I fussed over that died in weeks. 

Buying a computer anymore generally means little to rely on a brand name. Inside of it, the brand name means nothing.

I tell people go buy a good sale at wal mart, you got 45 days to bring it back. If it hasnt died in 45 days, chances are it'll run for yrs before something breaks down on it.

As for windows8, it was just released, I'd avoid it like the plauge until the bugs are all worked out of it.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

I echo what others have said, except to say

a) if you need help with HPs I have enormous access to their information (can get service technician manuals and the like), and 

b) for my money, I'd probably go with either Lenovo or Toshiba.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

WhiteStar Acres said:


> As for windows8, it was just released, I'd avoid it like the plauge until the bugs are all worked out of it.


He may not have much choice. I just got the weekend sale sheet from Fry Electronics with the newspaper this morning. Everything listed has Windows 8. But that may not be a bad thing. Just as we're all using Windows 7, we'll all eventually have Windows 8.

I don't like being in a test group any more than the next guy, but now is as good of a time to take the plunge into Windows 8 as any.

******
By the way, I don't want to turn this thread into a Windows 8 discussion, but there are some really interesting features of Windows 8 that I'm looking forward to. One is the "hybrid boot" feature, that stores setup information during shutdown for use during the next boot. Basically, booting will be more like recovering from hibernation than a cold start, which promises to be very quick. Here's a short video to illustrate.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLyFsehgvS8[/ame]

Note that she presses the power button at the 23 second mark of the clip, then you hear the chime at the 31 second mark. That gave her an 8 second bootup.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

I do believe everything that is bought new now, has Windows 8 in it. That is just the way it is.


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## WhiteStar Acres (Oct 11, 2012)

Windows8 is probably all fine and good, I suppose. Like you say, you have to start using it sometime, it might as well be sooner than later.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

Thanks. I will look at the office depot sale sheet this week. The Lenovo computer might be the way to go. I have always had good luck with HP's but maby a change will be good. Will check things out this weekend. Again thanks.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

I think I will try and fix the computer myself. I have the recovery disc with the operating system and I will replace the harddrive. The drive in it now is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200 gig. Model # ST320082248.

What do I need to get that is compatible. It does not have be 500 gig or more. Just something to keep this computer working.


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## 2horses (Jul 19, 2004)

If your MB is bad a new hard drive won't fix anything, so you may be throwing good money after bad. But if you insist, please read this first: Newegg.com - Learning Center,Laptop Hard Drives


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

Lenovo's are good. Been working on several Lenovo servers and workstations lately at a new client. They have my vote. So does their support.

I have to ask though.

Seems like the computer just shuts off....is that right? Just up and shuts off....does it actually "log you out" or show any shut down stuff on the screen or simply plainly shut off? Any blue screen or red screen? Does it make at least one beep when you start it? If not, is there an internal speaker mounted in there or not?

Are all the fans running? Has someone tested your power supply? Have you looked at the electrical supply? Does it do it no matter where you plug it in at? Is it going through surge protector? Did Office whatever actually test the motherboard or was that some sort of off hand suspect/suggestion without actually testing the components?

If you set it all up as normal but have the side panel off...when you start the computer or even when just everything is hooked up...are there any amber lights on the motherboard glowing?


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

It will be running and than it will reboot like you would go to start and restart the computer. It does not show anything like saving your settings - just reboots and everything comes on like you just started it. Than it will run for a few minutes, than lock up. sometimes when it reboots, it will have a black screen and say that system 32 is bad. I reinstall system 32 from the recovery disk and it runs a while and locks up again. Sometimes the screen has a lot of scribbles scrabble in 4 rows on it that are blinking and the computer is locked up. It does that no matter where it is pluged up. Office depot did not test the mother board.

There are no amber lights glowing on the motherboard and all the fans are working. The power supply is fairly new, may be like 6 months old. A computer tech replaced it when my old one went bad.


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## nadja (May 22, 2011)

If all else fails, I bought a refurbished Dell from Blair Tech. about 5 years ago, and it is still wizzing along just fine. Paid about 152.00 which included shipping. New hard drive and only had to registar it. Picture some little indian over in India peddaling a bike gennie with a lap top bungie corded to handlebars. Took a couple of hours. But did get it done and no problems . Just type Blairtech.com into Google search and it should come up. Also, they sell on ebay. Mostly just hd computers from business's and is a small company. Nice people to work with. Tenn or Ky , can't remember.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

nadja said:


> If all else fails, I bought a refurbished Dell from Blair Tech. about 5 years ago, and it is still wizzing along just fine. Paid about 152.00 which included shipping. New hard drive and only had to registar it. Picture some little indian over in India peddaling a bike gennie with a lap top bungie corded to handlebars. Took a couple of hours. But did get it done and no problems . Just type Blairtech.com into Google search and it should come up. Also, they sell on ebay. Mostly just hd computers from business's and is a small company. Nice people to work with. Tenn or Ky , can't remember.


I agree sometimes it is just "Bite The Bullet" and get a different machine. You can add things and add things but after all it is STILL an old machine. Maybe the RAM memory is too little, maybe the drive has issues. 
I have a friend that went to a store that sells the Trade in models from companies, schools and such clears out al the programs except Windows itself.
And 3 years ago was able to get XP Pro plenty of memory and was $235
And that was for XP Pro. 
He will go back to them in a year or so when XP support goes bye bye.
The minimum now in RAM for XP using SP3 wants at the very least 1 gig in ram, and really should be 2.
3 Years ago when I bought this iMac it had 2 gig ram. Now I have upped that to the max at 8 Gig.
Never can have to much ram in todays machines with all those Special Packs that MS has come out with. GONE are the days when you could just get by with 256mb
And as time goes on web sites will not recognize the older browsers anymore. Some XP users are already locked out now because they can't move past IE8.
Look at this way how many dollars are already being put in a old machine that is still not any better then before.
And those dollars could pretty much get into a different machine or even Have past the price of a used re-furbished machine already.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

Thanks all. After thinking about it and getting the input from you guys. I will get a new one with windows 8. I see today that Office Deport has the HP with 4G memory. 500 gig Hard drive and the AMD E2 Accellerated processor for $299.00. I will check that out tomorrow.


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