to go on strike until I am provided with a computer that ACTUALLY BLOODY WORKS?!

[HecateTrivia]

FYI. The answer, unless you have a death wish, is no.

I hate computers. This one in particular. I am typing each sentence here and sitting back and waiting for it to catch up with me.

I am unable to edit my website. It took 2 hours to do an edit that should normally take half an hour. What with frozen screens, and info not loading and all that and don't get me STARTED on the speed or lack thereof of the internet connection.

I am self employed and also work for my husband's business.I want a new computer. We cannot afford a new computer but I want one anyway. I cannot be expected to work under these conditions. And then there's that wonderful moment when I apply changes to an article and I get the message "internet explorer cannot display the webpage" and I have to be physically restrained from chucking a brick through the bloody screen.

We have a bloody ISO audit coming up. How the holy hell am I suposed to get ready for that when I would actually be better off etching info into ruddy SLATE than working on this damned thing.

Do you want to know how long it's taken me to post this? FIFTEEN BLEEDING MINUTES!

I can type over 70 words a minute - I should not be sitting here waiting for a pigging computer to frigging well CATCHUP!

Apparently, since there's nothing to be done but put up with it, I should not get annoyed

After I have thrown the pc through the window, I shall be throwing HIM!!!!!!!!

just looked at the Dell site - 299 is entry level - but pretty nasty in my book (speaking as i type on a Macbook pro I7 :-). You get what you pay for - and that machine was last state of the art when pontius was a pilot :-(

I'm afraid that there is a point at which upgrading becomes pointless. Firstly, modern components won't be compatible with it. Secondly, if you can find some that are, they'll be expensive. Thirdly, even if you do upgrade it, there's only so far you can go with it. A machine that old will never be equivalent to something even vaguely recent, even if you throw three hundred quid at upgrades, which is useless because for 300 quid you could buy a perfectly servicable brand new machine, albeit a low end one.

I'd look for something with Windows 7, ideally 4GB RAM although I suppose you'd probably cope with 2, at least a dual core processor (they're rated in Ghz, higher number is faster) and 500GB or larger harddrive. You don't sound like you need any sort of fancy graphics processing or high quality sound, so you can ignore graphics cards and sound cards, whatever comes built in will be fine.

The processor's a bit sluggish but bung a 1GB RAM chip in there (which will cost you £15 + VAT + delivery) and it'll be bearable. As I wrote earlier, the problem is RAM shortage. Windows XP SP3 needs a minimum of 1GB.

Also, Macs....haha.

Right. oh dear. Well, I suppose I'll have to hunt for one.

Is it worth looking on ebay do you think? Or is nothing decent sold on there?

I would look, but I think we've established I haven't got a clue

you're going to tell me I need to unpadlock my purse and get buying, aren't you?

now now flatpack - don't start me off

x-post, flatpack.

Now I'm all confused again.

Damn the computer age.

Hecate - yup - don't go to ebay tho - you never know what you will get

xp is part of the problem - that an IE. Nasty nasty nasty. you really ought to be on 7. Sorry hecate - i don't think 1gb ram will help - good money after bad

I heard 7 was unstable. Is that not true?

I officially cannot cope. Can someone just take over and say buy THIS one.

and then assume all responsibility if it's a pile of shit

Go to www.offtek.co.uk Offtek's website and put in the make and model of your PC. Their website will tell you the kind of RAM your PC will take, and you can order from them.

XP isn't a problem, voiceofnoreason It's a 10-year old OS but it isn't a problem per se.

If HecateTrivia can't find £500 for a new PC now, then £20 for a stick of RAM to make the machine usable for 6 months while she saves up for a new PC is money well spent.

Flatpack, I can't in good conscience recommend anyone upgrade a machine that old, especially as it's still running XP and is being used for business work. Yes, a 1GB ram chip will make it marginally faster than it is now - which will still be glacial. It is an absolute waste of money. It's a nine year old machine, it's frankly a miracle none of the hardware has burned out yet. Also, XP in this day and age for business purposes is so non-secure it's not even funny, all support from Microsoft bar the absolutely essential has ended for it. I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess Hecate isn't using an up to date browser either (because nothing modern supports it properly) and thus her browsing isn't secure.

Hecate, if you can at all afford it, as this is a business need for you, do yourself a favour and buy a new machine. It will make working so much easier and more pleasant.

Buggeration. Offtek's website. Sorry. I had a moment.

No, Windows 7 is excellent, very nice and stable. You're probably thinking of Vista, which was a festering pile of shite of an OS.

Hecate - I use 7 and it seems ok for me - i also use OSX Lion - which also has its faults. My advice is set your self a budget and look at Dell or Apple and see what you can get. Get the best processor / most ram and largest HD you can afford. That will get you going :-) 3-400 should be enough unless you are doing heavy lifting computer wise

Naoko

I work on client machines that old. I've got a school running a couple of 7-year old machines. Some of my clients don't have a spare £500 lying around and this is a dirt-cheap way to get a few months of life out of an old machine.

If it's a business machine then spanking-new hardware would be the least of my worries. A decent backup regime would be far more of a concern.

Agree with Naoko who is much more eloquent than I

if Hecate is running an old browser perhaps the reason she is running slow is half of her processor is running a LOIC for Anonymous. OOOh zombies

Oh I agree on the backup regime but I was trying to ease Hecate into that gently :D (Do back stuff up, Hecate, on a machine that old something could go any day!)

The machine currently works, just about. If Hecate can't currently afford a new one - and I'm fully sympathetic with that, if my PC blows up tomorrow I'll have a serious problem too - there is no point trying to upgrade the old one. She will have to put up with it until she can save up for a new one. Upgrading it (which really won't do very much if it's in this bad a state - like I said, a very minor speed increase is all you're likely to see) is a waste of money that could go towards a new machine, which I think we're all agreed will have to happen here sooner or later.

i use cloud backup.

I also have everything important on a (32gb? I think) usb stick.

the website is also backed up remotely onto the host thingie peoples (BT) server

I have kaspersky, which is supposed to be really good protection

ie8 and firefox - according to the 'about firefox' in Help, it's 12.0

how am I doing?

oh, and the computer had a new motherboard a couple of years ago

There's the prob - nice funky new software running on a machine from the ark. a gig here or a gig there won't make much of a difference. Cloud will also suck upload bandwidth up. You have very little upload capability - you may want to think about investing in SDSL if you are pushing a lot of stuff up.

Doing alright there Hecate! Backup in several locations, browser on the latest version (almost fainting with shock here, I think you're the only person I've ever met with a PC that old who's remembered to use a modern browser), and solid antivirus, I'm impressed :o

But yeah as voice says, it'll really not be helping your speed issues. That software was written for hardware a lot beefier than yours and I"m not surprised it's struggling.

SDSL?

Have I made you proud Naoko?

It's scary how little I know about computers, considering my business is web based.

You won't believe this, but I have actually built TWO websites from scratch (using joomla)

Yet all these letters and numbers mean nothing to me. I can't translate them into anything tangible, iyswim.

It's like distance. That means nothing to me. You can say, I dunno, ten yards. Then ask me to walk 10 yards away from you and I couldn't do it. I understand it's a measurement of distance, but I can't make it mean anything real.

if that makes sense.

Just updating, even though you probably don't care i feel it's rude not to.

Well, we took it to 30quid guy. Mainly because I felt guilty to promise him money and then change my mind He's not a business, he's a bloke with 5 kids who sorts computers from home. I didn't want to go back on it.

I don't know what he did, something about a new processor? My husband said "quad" processor but I'm sure he said new processor. but anyway, the old girl is really so much faster now. The only difference I can see is in properties it says something about a physical address extension.

Still, it is useable while I save up. It means I can take more time to save up for something NASA can only dream of