Blue screen problems

[Oneeyedvic]

Hi folks:

have just spent the day reformating my wife's computer - XP2400 with 256MB ram, and it wouldn't let me put on XP - kept coming up with errors. So I ut on Win 98 and now, (after I have spent a few hours putting on all her programs) it is coming up with the dreaded blue screen.

I suspect that there is something wrong with the harddrive but just wanted to check that the aforementioned errors could be caused by soemthing wrong with the harddisc and it wouldn't be anything else

 

Also - if I need to but her a new harddrive, is it worth spending money on a 133 or is 100 suitable - she only uses it for surfing and word processing

[fo3nix]

what was the original OS?

blue screens are generally not caused by the hard disc... usually some other hardware conflict (like your modem not behaving properly, etc.) or a software bug.

[Oneeyedvic]

thats why I was a bit concerened - original software was win98.

I fdisk, deleted partition and then created partition then formated hard drive. It rally wasn't happy trying to load XP - came accross error messages three times before I gave up and put 98 back on.

Only software put on is Norton Anti Virus & Firewall, Office XP, MS Autoroute and thats it. Shouldn't be any hardware conflicts as all sound is on board, has a fairly basic nvidia pci graphics card and a network card - no modem or anything else.

[fo3nix]

hmm, not sure what the problem is. Why problems did it give you when trying to run XP? It should be able to run OK on that computer. Do you have a copy of windows2000? That is perhaps the ideal OS (Microsoft OS, anyway), for it.

If you only use it for surfing, typing letters and things, consider using Ubuntu Linux. It's very easy to use, free (as in speech and beer), and comes with everything you're likely to need. OpenOffice for all your word processing, spreadsheet issues, etc. and firefox for browsing.

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

[Oneeyedvic]

Hey fo3nix - how does ubuntu work with relation to installing printers and stuff. What about things like google earth and nero?

Sorry to sound stupid, but am only used to Win 98 and XP. I know that i have some programs that will work on xp but not 98 (eg voipcheap for my free calls)

In principle it sounds great but I must say that I am into time savings and convenience over price (ie don't want to spend 3 hours searching for details on how to install something using a linux based system)

[fo3nix]

Yes, this is why I went back from Linux to XP myself.

Printers, scanners etc. should all work fine. The only problem I really had was that it wouldnt work with my iPod. Plus, all my music is in AAC format, which is not an open format, so it is not highly supported in Linux and thus I couldnt get a program to make it work.

Nero and Google Earth will not work with Linux. But there are many free programs out there that work like Nero. It's your option, but it may work very well for you if you are content with using word processing, web, email etc. on this computer.

Assuming that you also have a computer, why not use Google Earth and Nero etc. on that one? Ubuntu may work for you, it may not.

windows2000 is, imho, your best option overall however.

[Oneeyedvic]

thanks for that - why Win 2000 though - is it much different to 98 or XP. Not sure that I want to learn a complete new system. What are the advantages to it?

Also, she is not very computer literate and tends to panic if she sees a different screen in front of her, so doubt I can convince her to use a different ops system plus open office.

Won't let her use my pc - she my find things that she is not meant to ;-)

[fo3nix]

win2000 is far more stable than win98 for a start (you'll rarely see a blue screen if you're lucky), and it also contains more drivers. It also runs very quickly on slightly older hardware, pretty much as fast as win98 (and more stable at the same time).

winXP is really just win2000 with more drivers as standard, and a nicer-looking interface (debatable). win2000 would suit your requirements perfectly.

[Oneeyedvic]

Mnay thankfs for your help. Will look out for Win 2000