what kind of memory

Pull one of the memory sticks out and take it to Best Buy

Google for Belarc. Download. Get results

A new OS install will *never* fix sluggishness. Any new OS, especially a MS one will always run worse on any given set of hardware. A fresh format and reinstall of the existing OS sometimes helps. As for memory, if it's a name brand PC you can go to pretty much any of the big tech stores sites (Fry's, CompUSA, BestBuy, etc.) and they will have links to the various memory manufacturers sites which have cross reference tables where you can lookup what your machine takes.

Pete C.

What OS? XP, with all the service packs and other patches will barely even boot in the 128 MB that was recommended when it was first released. It takes 512 minimum, but 1 GB is better.

Actually, each new dot-release of Mac OSX has had specific changes for performance improvments. Some noticable, some merely measurable. Being a unix system, background jobs and prioritization are handled completely differently than in Windows, so additional components don't cost anything if they're idle.

Hi,

Open the case, look at the motherboard and get the make and number or even just the number. Google the number and either get the whole manual or the info you need. I have to do this weekly. Put in as much memory as you can.

Don't know, hate the UI. I'll use a real unix system when I find a task where I would benefit from one. So far I haven't found such a task and the various Linux / Solaris / Tru64 systems I've had running at various points have all been short lived.

My Windoze systems run pretty much flawlessly in large part due to the fact that I don't blindly "upgrade" Windoze when a new version comes out and the fact that I don't run a mountain of downloaded spyware / music pirating / whatever junk. Most of my machines are on W2K and all are chugging happily along.

Completely differently from Mac OS 9, not all that differently from Windows.

They always cost something. Not a lot generally, but given the huge array of useless little garbage I see on pretty much every Mac users system, it adds up.

Pete C.

My personal experience of OS X, as someone who normally uses a Unix-based OS, has not been favourable. But I haven't used OS X since the first version came out several years ago.

I was annoyed by some of the stupid, pointless features such as the way that a window was "sucked" off the screen when minimised. The shell also lacked some features which I wanted (though I don't remember what they were now) and the case-insensitive file system irritated me.

As of 2003/04, I found OS X a backward step compared to OS 9 for the purposes of image editing and desktop publishing.

Best wishes,

Chris

What make and model? You really need to know what combinations of memory and max sizes are allowed.

Wes

Well, a lot has changed in 6 years...

You can turn off the animations, not sure what you mean by shell features (it's Unix; pick the shell you want), and the filesystem is most certainly case sensitive. Not sure about OSX 10.0, I came in at

OS-9 apps run just fine on OS-X boxes, so I'm not sure what you're saying.

I've got 800+ "real" Unix systems to admin at work, and the FreeBSD core of OSX is as Unix as any of the other Unix's I use. (mainly Solaris, HPUX, and a few different Linux distros).

Last windows instance I used at home was W2K. Probably still boots, haven't needed it.

It depends on your level of understanding of how jobs are backgrounded and how services operate.

No, inetd doesn't initiate networked services, for instance, until they are called for by an actual connection. Very different from "terminate and stay resident" thinking in Windows.

Before buying any memory you need to know more than what kind it is. You also need to know what the motherboard will support. For example, I had two 800Mhz motherboards, each with 256MB ram. I bought 512Mb simms (dimms, sdram, whatever) for them, but one of the motherboards didn't support 512MB size.

If this old pc is something like a Dell or Gateway or a Mac where you bought the entire system as a package, you should be able to contact the vendor either by email or maybe a support page on the web.

If not, then you should be able to get the manufacturer of the motherboard along with the model number and contact them. This should be stamped somewhere on the board itself so you will most likely have to take the machine apart to see it (at least open it up). I don't remember if there is a MS diagnostic utility that will give you that info or not.

But I have to add that if your machine only has 128MB of memory, then it is most likely time for an upgrade anyway. I just upgraded my wife's machine for about $300. For that you can probably get a motherboard that supports Intel Dual Core and has onboard video so you won't need a new video card, onboard Ethernet, onboard sound, and maybe even onboard modem if you need one. It should also cover approximately 1GB memory, and something like the Intel E6320 processor. The E6320 is a dual core with each core running at about 1.8Ghz.

All of this is for Intel/AMD processors, and Winblows, but I'm sure that this would also apply to Mac and *nix platforms too.

Good luck wit dat.

Wayne

before you spend $$ on memory, try downloading "ccleaner" and see if it helps - I've had several folks use it with great results - the important part is that it can clean up the garbage ina temp folder (which will slow down your system) and it will clean out unused stuff in the registry, which will aslo speed your system up.

The next Microsoft operating system always runs slower on the same hardware.

But if you're talking about upgrading from Windows 98 to Windows XP, that's almost always a good idea, especially if you add memory.

Always best to do a clean install after formatting the hard drive.

Be sure that if there are any important files on the hard drive, make a removable media copy of those files before you do anything. You should always have a copy of any important files from your hard drive. Too many people don't know that simple safeguard. A USB flash drive is easier to use than floppies and hold more data than CDs.

Probably right on target.

Your kid? What make and model of computer? Can you remove a stick and take a picture or look at the information on the module?

Probably easiest, there are programs for retrieving that information.

One called Everest I think.

The one I'm currently using

I guess you didn't notice that he specified Microsoft operating systems. But some people are so peeved at Microsoft, they cannot help picking a bone that doesn't even exist.

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Right. Like Windows has gone from 94% to 96% of personal computer market share.

At one point, Apple almost folded because Microsoft temporarily decided to stop making Office for the Mac.

The Apple Computer is a fringe personal computer nowadays. Applications developers don't write for it because nobody buys it. But I guess you don't understand that concept. The ideology you promote is that programmers don't need money, they can work for free, hatred for Microsoft puts food on their table.

Businesses can use server operating systems. The vast majority of home users are better off using Windows. Your hatred for Microsoft doesn't help anybody in the real world. When you mislead people, you end up making friends for Microsoft.

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I was just annoyed that the animations even existed in the first place! Some people will know what I mean.

I did a little research and it appears that case-sensitive file systems were introduced with version 10.4.

I don't remember the details of the problem I had with features. There was some minor utility I wanted which I couldn't find. Possibly it could have been fixed, but it wasn't my machine.

Just that the place where I used to work doing pagesetting upgraded from OS 9 to OS X, and I didn't like it anything like as much. I went off Macs at that point. But as I say, they weren't my machines, so there wasn't much I could do about it.

Best wishes,

Chris

Microsoft, Where do we want to carjack you to today.....