dudes, I'm getting a Dell.....

[Xylob the Destroyer]

one of my co-workers has a Dell something or other that took a dive on him.
he turned it on and got the BSOD, so he just unplugged it and went out and bought a new one....(must be rough!)

anyway, he gave it to me for free on the condition that I at least make an effort to retrieve his "My Documents" folder to get the pictures of his kids off it, which should take me all of 15 minutes...
I don't know the model name or number (it's got a Celeron sticker on it), but I opened it up and it's configured in such a way that upgrading will be pretty much impossible (no cage cases or rails/bays!). though an additional stick of RAM is definitely going to happen.
On the outside it's got all these "XP" and "Built for Windows XP" stickers on it.
I don't want to put XP on it, I want to put Win2K on it.

Will I be able to put Win2K on this "Built for Windows XP" machine??
Is there going to be something specific about the hardware in it that won't work with 2K?

I just want to use this machine for basic email, as a print server, and a music 'server' for MediaPlayer for the other 3 PC's in the house.

TIA!!!

[bgclarke]

Will I be able to put Win2K on this "Built for Windows XP" machine ??

Yes. If it can run XP, it will love W2K.

[adam]

Its just a sticker, there's no way there could be anything about that computer that would prevent you from using Win2k.

Those Dell cases are crazy. When you open it, its like a pop-up book.

[ROF]

10 to 1 the hard drive is bad. This is very common with dell desktops especially those with the Mini-ATX boards and proprietary sound/video/PS/Etc. They use a proprietary restore program which tends to conflict with WinXPs which they always fail to turn off. This causes hard drive damage and eventual failure such as your friend saw. You may be able to format the drive, but I wouldn't store anything of importance on it.

My suggestion. Purchase a new hard drive and start the system fresh with this new drive. You may need to contact Dell in order to retrieve drivers for some of the equipment installed and you also may find that this equipment does not have drivers for Win2K since it's proprietary Dell equipment made for their version of WinXP.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

...You may need to contact Dell in order to retrieve drivers for some of the equipment installed and you also may find that this equipment does not have drivers for Win2K since it's proprietary Dell equipment made for their version of WinXP.

do you think they will be cooperative?

[thevoelk]

Dell's site should have the drivers. If not, PM me and I'll send you a disc with all Windows 2000/XP drivers from 2004 and before. They still have Windows 3.1 drivers up on their site.

Their video is probably an integrated Intel card, Windows update should have the driver. he sound card is most likely a SoundMax card.

[smearbrick1]

one of my co-workers has a Dell something or other that took a dive on him.
he turned it on and got the BSOD, so he just unplugged it and went out and bought a new one....(must be rough!)

anyway, he gave it to me for free on the condition that I at least make an effort to retrieve his "My Documents" folder to get the pictures of his kids off it, which should take me all of 15 minutes...
I don't know the model name or number (it's got a Celeron sticker on it), but I opened it up and it's configured in such a way that upgrading will be pretty much impossible (no cage cases or rails/bays!). though an additional stick of RAM is definitely going to happen.
On the outside it's got all these "XP" and "Built for Windows XP" stickers on it.
I don't want to put XP on it, I want to put Win2K on it.

Will I be able to put Win2K on this "Built for Windows XP" machine??
Is there going to be something specific about the hardware in it that won't work with 2K?

I just want to use this machine for basic email, as a print server, and a music 'server' for MediaPlayer for the other 3 PC's in the house.

TIA!!!

Once you remove the "Built For Windows XP" sticker from the case, the computer will run any OS just fine. It's all in the sticker.

[ROF]

...You may need to contact Dell in order to retrieve drivers for some of the equipment installed and you also may find that this equipment does not have drivers for Win2K since it's proprietary Dell equipment made for their version of WinXP.

do you think they will be cooperative?

I've never had a problem downloading needed drivers although their server tends to be down for a few hours each evening. I'd still be weary of the hard drive. It will more than likely continue to crash on you.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

smearbrick, you are an invaluable wealth of helpful information!!!
If I replace the Celeron sticker with an Athlon64 sticker, will it double the machine's performance?? :P

thevoelk, I may very well take you up on that, since the maching supposedly won't boot (I haven't had a chance to play with it yet) and as such it may be difficult to actually identify the components (vid card, sound, etc)

[iant]

Just a little bit of extra info here. Dell machines always have a 'service tag' which is a nice little number on a sticker and is also stored in a display in the BIOS. It consists of 7 alphanumeric characters which usually finishes with the characters '1S'.

If you find this and enter it on the DELL web site, it will tell you all about your new machine including the longshot possibility that it still may be under warantee. If it is, you may be able to get whatever is wrong with it fixed for free.

If not, you can at least get the specs, driver requirements and service history on it.

Hope this helps.
Ian

[Xylob the Destroyer]

SWEET!!!
though, I doubt that they would honor the warranty, as I'm not the.....
I'll definitely keep the rest of that info in mind tho!

[Xylob the Destroyer]

well, it doesn't seem to be a bad little PC
PROCESSOR, 80531, 2.2G, 128K, 400FSB, CELERON
DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 256, 266M, 32X64, 8K, 184

I don't suppose I can stick just any additional RAM in there?


I got the HD into my other PC and have never seen a hard drive that was so badly fragmented......
I've also never seen a paging file that was scattered all over the drive
these issues are probably a big part of why it wouldn't boot anymore...
by the way, does anybody know where I can find the jumper settings for a Western Digital Caviar WD600BB??
their site is a nightmare, and a google search only yielded pics too fuzzy to read

I've also never seen a PC with this much dust/lint inside it.....
taking the case apart looks like it will be a total pain in the ass too -- cleaning this bitch is gonna be tons of fun!

[budz]

I had a dell pc that my friend sold to me for 20 bucks, all it needed was a new hard drive. My friend lost the restore discs for the pc. Dell website no longer had the drivers posted and their forum reported that dell no longer had the restore discs to this particular celeron pc. Members of the Dell forum posted how crappy that celeron pc was built with no exhaust fans which caused lots of the pc's to overheat and die. Dell even had the celeron processor overclocked. I shook my head and said to myself, "You get what you paid for"! I slapped in a exhaust fan, network card & a old 20gb hd I had lying around then installed xp pro which had all the drivers for it. Then sold the pc to my cousin's kid for 50 bucks!

Here's a link for the WD jumper settings:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Tech/manuals/idehdsettings/WD72.pdf

[thevoelk]

Dell recommends using Cable Select for all of their drives, for what it's worth. It's most likely for their "techs" to assemble them faster. Most of thir standard components, like onboard audio and video, use the same drivers for Windows 2000 and XP. Here's a link to Dell's driver page:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?~ck=mn

It looks like you have a Dimension desktop by the specs you gave. Dell will still support you if put Windows 2000 on it. Before we could use Windows XP at work, we used Windows 2000 on the Designed for XP boxes, Dell had no problem with it. Even with the PC being ordered with WIndows XP from them.

As for more RAM, you should have at least one extra slot.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

yup, it's a Dimension 2350
as far as the RAM isssue, yeah, there's one open slot, I've just heard so many nightmare stories about Dell's in regard to "you can't upgrade or add stuff to them unless it's from Dell", so I was wondering if I could just go to CompUSA or ZipZoomFly.com and just get the cheapest stick of DDR2100, or if I have to use the exact same kind of "Dell" RAM that's in there...


Thanks for all your input on this thread, guys!!!!!
You've been a lot of help.
While I was running a data recovery program on the hard drive, I completely (and I do mean COMPLETELY) disassembled the Dell and thoroughly cleaned every single component -- now there's a pile of lint/dust/crapola on my patio.
I've got the drive wiped and the whole thing put back together. Later today I'll boot it up with the Win2K install disc and make it mine.

[thevoelk]

You should be able to buy module of DDR2100 RAM, just try to match it the best you can. If not, buy an additional 256MB with the RAM you want from CompUSA. I've used aftermarket RAM in my Dell's at work, usually to replace out-of-warranty RAM. I've yet to have an issue. Also, if your decide to replace the original RAM completely, your desktop supports up to 1GB of PC2100 RAM, but needs the configuration to be 512MB x 2. Look here:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2350/specs.htm#1101572

The downside of this is that you have no AGP slot on your computer, but you have 3 PCI slots that you could use a nice video card in. You can also upgrade the processor to a P4 2.5GHz if you want, may be worth it if you want better performance.

Here's your Windows 2000 drivers:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=...os=WNT5&osl=EN

[Xylob the Destroyer]

yeah, I don't know if I'll bother with any kind of upgrade since I'm just going to be using it as a music and print server.
and I haven't even seen a PCI video card in stores for over a year now!

[burnman99]

Xylob, if it's a 2.2GB you'd think You should be able to upgrade it to 1GB RAM 2 (512MB Sticks). I'd recommend Crucial, Samsung, Corsair, or Kingston (CompUSA carries Kingston). However, Dell's are fairly hardy so even cheap RAM could work but I personally wouldn't use it. As far as the rest of it, the only thing normally Dell specific is the Power Supply, as far as I know.

HTH

Roger

yup, it's a Dimension 2350
as far as the RAM isssue, yeah, there's one open slot, I've just heard so many nightmare stories about Dell's in regard to "you can't upgrade or add stuff to them unless it's from Dell", so I was wondering if I could just go to CompUSA or ZipZoomFly.com and just get the cheapest stick of DDR2100, or if I have to use the exact same kind of "Dell" RAM that's in there...


Thanks for all your input on this thread, guys!!!!!
You've been a lot of help.
While I was running a data recovery program on the hard drive, I completely (and I do mean COMPLETELY) disassembled the Dell and thoroughly cleaned every single component -- now there's a pile of lint/dust/crapola on my patio.
I've got the drive wiped and the whole thing put back together. Later today I'll boot it up with the Win2K install disc and make it mine.