need some help

[ghostknight3]

ok. im messing around with my parents old as sticks comp.
first off they have a p2 350mz/ 192mb pc100/10gig ata/hell if i know for a mobo.

im haveing a lot of errors and such. it takes about 45-90 seconds for full boot.
ive ran disk cleanup/scandisk/defrag, and a plethera of others as well a memtest and such.
everything ive done has not helped boot times and error.

im wondering if bios/battery/drivers are messed up. if so were can i go to get these. i have no idea what im looking for if i do.

thanks for the help ahead of time.

 

[IAM_7154]

Running a 350mhz, 45 seconds isnt uncommon. If the computer is all stock, go to the manufacturers website and dl bios updates, newest chipset drivers, and then try reinstalling windows and all new drivers etc. Dont expect too much from it

 

[Hefemeister]

What operating system are you trying to run on this machine?

 

[ghostknight3]

its running 98. personnaly im trying to get them to upgrade to a new comp. this thing hasnt been touched (upgraded) scince they got it like 5 years ago

 

[TheMajor]

I would format and install XP.

 

[ghostknight3]

id love to do that but 1. i dont have a copy of xp to install. 2. they wont let me back up what they need and format.

i know that that would help everything alot. ive tried to get them to let me do this but oh well. so i thought maybe that maybe if i can download driver updates or something it might help.

im gona try and update bios and what i can and see if that will work. oh i timed it lilke 3 times to see how long its takeing to fully boot and the average is about 2min 25 sec.

on a good try it gets about 60sec maybe a little more.

 

[ghostknight3]

umm hehe how can i find out my bios?

 

[intercodes]

ghostknight3,

If your mobo site doesnt have the drivers , check www.driverguide.com. They even have a tool for detecting what BIOS your machine runs on ,and some info about it.
If your parents doesn't use any 'applications' , then try to format the windows drive [copy the data in windows drive to some other drive] . and then reinstall windows 98. Dont install windows Xp ,if you have the chance.

 

[ghostknight3]

ok thanks intercodes. ill try there now

 

[Smokin-A.I.]

98 is good but if you have a copy of ME it will be better .
2min to boot.....down to 60 sec.?
if your not used to running a machine at higher speed , then you wouldnt knotice the S--L--O--W start up , slow starts can be caused by loading to many programs in the background, that is a common problem with older machines. try getting something like system suite 5 and do a clean up of the registry . that will smooth it out some