You have not really described what steps that you have taken to diagnose the problems of the machine. You said that it does not boot from CD. Have you opened it up and blown out the dust? I resurrected a "dead" machine this way and was a hero/genius. Have you installed a good CD drive and tried to boot? Have you re-seated: cables, CPU, RAM? If you really want to save money then IMHO find out exactly what is wrong and just fix that. Maybe you've already done that but just not posted your investigation. Bryan Zimmer wrote: > Unfortunately people are not rational about computers. They are like > members of the family. As a result, people bang the around, put food > near them, curse them out, love them to death, care for them poorly but > innocently. No wonder there is so much work for those of us who make a > living from these types of people! > > My friend, I don"t want to give her real name, which is Cindy, so I will > call her Samantha. Anyhow, Sam had a relationship going with her > computer that was wholesome and innocent in most ways that I could tell, > except the other family members would burn questionable CDs and in > general treat it according to somewhat lower standards than did Samantha. > > Samantha's computer was an XP, probably with a Pentium III, 265 Megs > RAM, and a hard drive that must have been 60 megabytes. I didn't study > the ROM-BIOS setup screen that closely, but you get the idea, a machine > about 3 years old, maybe a little more. > > It was used so well, or should I say so frequently that eventually it > started breaking down, and in the end, lost its operating system at a > very crucial moment. Microsoft now DESTROYS any machine that doesn't > have a pre-purchased license. I wouldn't dream of putting an untested OS > on my equipment, but they have the policy, and they won. Until I sue them. > > Anyway, sorry to bore you with this, my main reason for writing was that > I am looking for a similar machine for about $300 dollars. Not more, > hopefully less. Hers would have brought considerably less at Computer > Renaissance, the CD drive had stopped working. > > OK,. now after all hat, is it even conceivable to buy a PIII computer > for $300? I have the RAM, I have a few components, only the tower is > necessary. And if the CD drive works, I bet that would be worth a little > more than 300. I don't know if I'm fooling myself, but recently I bought > as Pentium IV with 1 GIG memory and a 160 G hard drive, plus a few > extras. For about $800. After rebates. For real. > > So let me know if there are any nibbles of interest out there. I have an > open mind and a very slim wallet. The prices I reluctantly listed above > are regrettably all I have to work with. If it's not enough, maybe we > could buy parts of your working system. Who knows. She is clear on > wanting XP home edition. Like I said, she could probably be converted to > Linux if Linux runs AOL. I know Netscape has made something of a > comeback on Linux boxes. Not Mesilla, but commercial Netscape 7.2, > probably complete with AIM. > > Let me know, > > BAZ > baz at winternet dot com > > > > > BAZ > ------- > Bryan Zimmer > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scot Jenkins" <scot at thinkunix.net> > To: "TCLUG Mailing List" <tclug-list at mn-linux.org> > Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2004 12:44 AM > Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Computer donations > > >> Bryan Zimmer wrote: >> >>> I know of at least one person who is in need of a computer. Her >>> motherboard >>> was fried and now the computer is of no use at all except for certain >>> parts >>> (memory, hard drive, the sort of thing). It does not boot and has no >>> CD-ROM >>> drive to boot from. >>> >>> I truly need to find something for her. She is not only a friend but >>> sees me >>> as being able to "fix" most computer problems. I told her I couldn't >>> resurrect from the dead, but she still thinks I can produce a working >>> computer. I considered putting in a new motherboard, but the fact was >>> that >>> the computer was beginning to enter its "twilight months". It was >>> starting >>> to be one thing after another. Not worth the cost of repairs, many of >>> which >>> were done as a favor to a friend. >>> >>> If anyone has, or know of a computer capable of running Windows XP (or >>> possibly she will resort to Linux...can Linux run AOL?), I would >>> appreciate >>> it. >> >> >> What exactly does your friend do with a computer? If she's just using >> the internet over dialup (email, web browsing), and the occassional >> MSWord doc, she can probably get by with lower end hardware. >> >> I have an older P166 with 128 MB RAM that runs win2k respectibly. I was >> pretty surprised. I don't want to start a flame war, but on this same >> hardware IE6 is much faster for surfing then the latest Mozilla under >> Linux. Don't get me wrong, Linux as an OS is faster, but Mozilla is >> just a slow pig compared to IE on this old dog. >> >> My point is that there's plenty of old hardware (usually available for >> little or no cost), that still has plenty of usable life left in it. >> Why not put it to good use? Do most people really need a 2 or 3 Ghz >> processor with 128 or 256 MB of RAM on their video card just to write a >> word doc or check email? >> -- >> scot >> >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org >> Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >> https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org > Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > -- Eric (Rick) Meyerhoff _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list