PC Upgrading

[Chris Hebden]

Hay all i would like some help and direction on upgrading a PC. The PC is a Dell Dimension 1100 and the spec looks like this:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1076752

Currently it has a virus, so i am "hoping" to start it and run the PC in safe mode so i can format the hard drive.


Couple of questions:

1. Format the hardrive - is this done by going to MS Dos and typing the comand prompt c: format?
2. Will this get rid of the virus once i have re-installed the windows?
3. What would be the first thing people would do to "speed" up the above spec? I was thinking RAMming it to the full 2gb that it can use?

Any help and pointers would greatly appreciated! Cheers Chris

[UNICRONICUS]

1 & 2. If you have the original Windows installation CD just format and re-install with this. Make sure you make a backup of all of your files/folders before wiping though as you will lose everything when you perform a full format of your hard drive! If you format and re-install windows this will more or less guarantee that the virus has been destroyed. Make sure you have all of the drivers for your computer when re-installing Windows, do you have the original driver disk that came with your computer? If not, go to the Dell website and download the drivers from here and stick them on a USB stick or something so you can install them later.

3. You hit the nail on the head with that upgrade, install the maximum amount of ram that your board can handle (2GB), just go to Crucial for this. Please bear in mind though that you will be looking at around £50 for DDR memory as it is pretty rare and expensive nowadays compared to the normal DDR2 that most people have. Other than that you are pretty bummed... You could try finding the best possible P4 processor for your motherboard but you might already have the best one available. What do you want your machine to do? If you want it for a gaming machine then just buy a new computer because that spec won't play a lot of modern games! Dell's have always been very limited when it comes to upgrading them so you're best off buying or even building a new machine to benefit from upgrades.

[Sparkie]

i've got a 1GB DDR RAM board here at work.... how much will you give me for it? £49.99?

[Chris Hebden]

1 & 2. If you have the original Windows installation CD just format and re-install with this. Make sure you make a backup of all of your files/folders before wiping though as you will lose everything when you perform a full format of your hard drive! If you format and re-install windows this will more or less guarantee that the virus has been destroyed. Make sure you have all of the drivers for your computer when re-installing Windows, do you have the original driver disk that came with your computer? If not, go to the Dell website and download the drivers from here and stick them on a USB stick or something so you can install them later.

3. You hit the nail on the head with that upgrade, install the maximum amount of ram that your board can handle (2GB), just go to Crucial for this. Please bear in mind though that you will be looking at around £50 for DDR memory as it is pretty rare and expensive nowadays compared to the normal DDR2 that most people have. Other than that you are pretty bummed... You could try finding the best possible P4 processor for your motherboard but you might already have the best one available. What do you want your machine to do? If you want it for a gaming machine then just buy a new computer because that spec won't play a lot of modern games! Dell's have always been very limited when it comes to upgrading them so you're best off buying or even building a new machine to benefit from upgrades.

Thanks, thats great information. I do not have the original drivers so will hunt Dells website for them soon! I do not have the original windows disc but i do have "a windows XP disc "

As for the PC, its going to be a web surfer/word processor nothing fancy at all! Just would like it to boot up within a day!!!!!! (and get rid of the virus)

[Chris Hebden]

i've got a 1GB DDR RAM board here at work.... how much will you give me for it? £49.99?

might be interested though Sparkie????

[Sparkie]

hmmm, think i dropped a ball bag there. - just realised its a laptop RAM, not a PC ram. sorry

[Chris Hebden]

hmmm, Think I Dropped A Ball Bag There. - Just Realised Its A Laptop Ram, Not A Pc Ram. Sorry

Teaser !

[UNICRONICUS]

Thanks, thats great information. I do not have the original drivers so will hunt Dells website for them soon! I do not have the original windows disc but i do have "a windows XP disc "

As for the PC, its going to be a web surfer/word processor nothing fancy at all! Just would like it to boot up within a day!!!!!! (and get rid of the virus)

As long as the Windows XP disc is genuine and you have the proper license key it will be fine.

Formatting and installing Windows will make your machine faster anyway so you're already onto a winner with the boot up times! The extra RAM will make a difference too. Do you know how much in each slot you have at the moment? You can check this out by going here and typing in the service tag of your system to bring up the spec of the machine when it was shipped (that is if you or anyone else has added/removed RAM since owning the machine!). The other, definitive, way is to take the case off the computer and check for yourself by looking at the RAM modules. Where am I going with this? Oh yeah... Go to the Crucial website and upgrade your RAM. As you can see, each slot can hold up to 1GB, so you might have two 512MB stick in at the moment, in which case you will need two 1GB sticks to make up 2GB. OR, you might have one 1GB stick so you can get away with buying just 1GB from Crucial.