Microsoft upgrade required........

[feral]

It's time for an upgrade as the school need to use USB sticks for transferring the kids projects.

I am running Windows 98..:lol2: which I am having problems finding a driver that will work with a Cruzer Micro stick. No wonder......:p:p:p:p:p

Now my powerhouse computer could be the equivalent of a Series 1 but here are the specs.

Pentium 2/3 MB, 556mhz, 256mb Ram, 40 gig HD, 128mb video card, CD burner, CD player. Works well, reasonably hassle free.

We do not need a u-beaut flat out spec computer as we do not do much with it and do not want to spend big dollars for it to collect dust in corner. I would rather spend it on the Td5.

So there is a couple of options available.....

Do I upgrade operating system to XP and then expect other issues?

Do I upgrade the motherboard and CPU and then the operating system.

Or is there something that I have missed :eek:

Cheers.

[CHRIS aka GWH]

if you are upgrading now wouldn't you be better to go to Windows Vista - i'm no IT egg-spurt but since they've been advertising it XP is no longer in the pictures so I can only imagine it has replaced it.

[incisor]

it will run just fine on that spec....it wont be a rocket ship but it will be just fine. should cost you about 149 for xp home...

back your data up and do a fresh install on a clean format, much more reliable than an upgrade in my experience..

[abaddonxi]

Why don't you download one of the cd versions of linux. Burn it to a cd, boot from the cd and see what happens. Cheap as chips, will probably run your usb stick and if it doesn't work you're only out a cd and some download. The great thing about them is that you don't need to reformat hdd or any of that stuff.

Of course it's just as likely there'll be a driver conflict or something like that, never know.

I ran a P3 800mhz on XP for the last several years until I put together the skip computer a couple of months ago. As Inc said, runs a little slow, but not terribly so.

If you do upgrade to XP you are going to want another stick of ram. Still, all up that would only be $2-300.

Cheers
Simon

[awabbit6]

I have a SanDisk Cruzer Micro that plugs into a Win98 machine without any problems. Do you want a copy of the driver? Will keep you going for a bit longer and then do a serious upgrade.
(Unless of course the lack of driver is an excuse for an upgrade, in which case, disregard this post ;) )

[abaddonxi]

Now that's the way to go. Here's a link to a Cruzer micro win98 driver.

http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/sandisk-cruzer-micro.html

Cheers
Simon

[MarknDeb]

Gday Feral, up the ram to 512MB then upgrade to Windows 2000, should be as sweet as

[feral]

Or is there something that I have missed :eek:

Cheers.


Now that's the way to go. Here's a link to a Cruzer micro win98 driver.

http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/sandisk-cruzer-micro.html

Cheers
Simon


Doh.............there is :imwithstupid:

The stick has U3 enable on it. When I looked for driver I went through the Sandisk site and downloaded the driver. It installed but it will not work. When you read the fine print the information suggests that the minimum spec is Windows 98SE.

[DarrenR]

Hi Feral

Win98 support for USB isn't that great, but saying that I do have a self-extract that adds USB support for use with your USB stick/drive.

I can't remember where I got it from, but if you email me (drobinson at dlink.net.au) I can send it to you as its only small. Simply run it, reboot and your USB drive should work.

It seems as this is all you really want to do.
Consider the following if looking at upgrading hardware/os.

Forget any upgrading of hardware, the formfactors in your system are no longer, with the exception of your video card if it's AGP.

So an "upgrade" is going to be CPU, motherboard, RAM, PSU/case, then after that you might as well put a new hard-drive in it as they are cheap.

With systems under 512MB of ram, XP will use about 130 - 160MB to get to the desktop.

Generally forget running your old win98 programs on XP.

But saying all that, XP is a stable, reliable operating system that uses available system resources very well and a new system can be built fairly cheaply.

Best regards
DarrenR

[Pedro_The_Swift]

hm,, there is a point here about your kids keeping up with the rest of the world,,

there wont be many of them using usb sticks with '98,, and I'm sure the school doesnt,,;)

for the price of a good tyre ($300)buy a second hand xp machine.
brand new around 7-800
and that would probably last your kid till uni.:D

[feral]

Yes, you're right Pedro.

That position is about 50% of the argument, atm.

These days you have to do the best for the kids or else they will be held back and miss out on many opportunities.

Cheers.

[Bushie]

My youngest daughter is currently running XP on an old IBM P2-450 with 128M ram it runs OK for her, like everyone said it will be a bit slow, but as she's only browsing, playing music and doing the 'occassional' :( school assignment. Its good enough.

Martyn