Trying to make an old 5106CL work better.

[Nineoniner]

Hello guys.. I was hoping some of you could give me a hand here.A little background, my main computer a DELL 320 was taken away for some time, as it is needed in a families office, and it seems it will be for a very long time.So basically they left me without a computer, except this one I'm using right now, an old Compaq 5106CL.. now, I do remember this machine being of great performance back in it's day. But right now I'm limited as to what I can do with it. These are a couple of issues I'm having with it:-Youtube videos lag incredibly, audio is okay, but as far as frames.. it's very pathetic.-When trying to watch movies in WMP or VLAN, the computer will do a system block, and freeze completely.-Computer slows down when using Messenger, and any other browser at the same time. -Internet browsing is extremely slow in websites that have either Java, or flash player, sometimes causing a system freeze.I'm running Windows XP Professional with 376mb of ram, it's been the same for 4 years. Is there anything I can do to try speeding up this computer..? I really need your help guys, I don't have much money, so I doubt I can make big upgrades to it, but anything you can recommend to help it cope with what I need it to do would be great.Thank you very much for your time guys.

 

[-RockMan-]

Hello guys.. I was hoping some of you could give me a hand here.A little background, my main computer a DELL 320 was taken away for some time, as it is needed in a families office, and it seems it will be for a very long time.So basically they left me without a computer, except this one I'm using right now, an old Compaq 5106CL.. now, I do remember this machine being of great performance back in it's day. But right now I'm limited as to what I can do with it. These are a couple of issues I'm having with it:-Youtube videos lag incredibly, audio is okay, but as far as frames.. it's very pathetic.-When trying to watch movies in WMP or VLAN, the computer will do a system block, and freeze completely.-Computer slows down when using Messenger, and any other browser at the same time. -Internet browsing is extremely slow in websites that have either Java, or flash player, sometimes causing a system freeze.I'm running Windows XP Professional with 376mb of ram, it's been the same for 4 years. Is there anything I can do to try speeding up this computer..? I really need your help guys, I don't have much money, so I doubt I can make big upgrades to it, but anything you can recommend to help it cope with what I need it to do would be great.Thank you very much for your time guys.

Hmm sounds like your old pc doesn't play nice with you.. welcome to TF.com.
To start off that case you have it is ATX standard case, meaning the I/O shield can be knocked out.
I would personally rebuild it.

AMD athlon X2 3800+
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Energy Efficient - 1.9 GHz Dual-Core (ADO3600IAA5DD) (0073014324127) | eBay

MSI Socket AM2 - K9VGM-V/MS-7253 RAID/VGA w/ AMD Sempron 3 GHz | eBay

Newegg.com - Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2N6/2G

Also I have a ide hdd you can have if your going to build.
I have some parts I received as a donation but I cannot test the mobo athlon x2 64 without ddr2 ram.
If I knew for sure it worked fine I would ship this down to mexico with no sale price. :|

 

[MindoverMaster]

We're at TF.net, Mike.

Yeah, Mike's right. I would just rebuild it.

 

[Nineoniner]

Thanks for your replies guys!Sadly, I don't think I could rebuild it, money's tight at the moment.. I have been asking some friends if they have a couple of DRAM's laying around or something, but still no luck whatsoever. Is there some sort of.. I don't know.. adapter for the DRAM slots so I can use a spare DDR I have left from my other computer? Trust me guys, if I could rebuild it, I would have gone that way some time ago :c

 

[-RockMan-]

No there isn't, I'll check around the net and see if I can find some ddr 2700 under 15.00 bucks.
Even if I do find it thats your best option for now.

This is what I have for now:
http://www.techfuels.com/attachment...-msi-k9mm-v-socket-am2-motherboard-987897.jpg

http://ii.alatest.com/product/full/...2-CACHE-SOCKET-AM2-89W-DUAL-CORE-ADV600-0.jpg

I'll call my partner in the morning and make sure he knows what he gave me still works.
If it does you can have both of them minus you get the ddr2 ram which is a much better buying price than ddr currently.
If you have any family in texas or close to you in the USA I'll be more than happy to send it that way but not about to deal with another country border custom inspection.
Shipping internationally with big items means **** happens. :\

 

[Nineoniner]

Thanks for the answer Mike!
Well I did a little research, my cousin is checking if my motherboard would be useful, but he said I shouldn't keep my hopes up, as most of the parts will probably become useless sooner or later.

I do as a matter of fact have a friend who constantly goes to San Antonio, as he has an apartment there, I do understand the whole border custom inspection.. it wouldn't be the first time a package of mine gets lost trying to bring it into Mexico..

Thanks a lot for your help and interest!

 

[Nineoniner]

What would you consider a bigger priority?

So I asked for help here about how to optimize my old 5106CL after my personal computer was taken away, and was completely wiped without my permission since one of my family members needed it for her job.

And I was recommended to just rebuild it.. so Mike might be helping me with a motherboard and a new processor if all goes well c: (Thanks Mike!)

Anywho.. a question that I've been asking myself is what would you consider more important.. getting more ram, or getting a video card?

Long time ago when we had to fix this computer, the techs kind of ripped me off, I was young, and naive, and said that I liked flight simulators, but my computer didn't have the old joystick port, and back then USB joysticks were difficult to come by, and also expensive, so they opted to put another video card on the computer.

Little did I know, they took away the 16mb ATI Rage that I had bought for it, and put just a whatever you call it that included a joystick, and audio ports, so my computer doesn't even have a video card anymore, only the built in one by prosavage which is 8mb (took me a year or two to realize that those guys pretty much stole a perfectly good video card by 2001's standards)

SO... what would affect performance more? Say to have less laggy youtube experience, or watching movies in my computer, upgrading RAM, or getting a video card?

 

[-RockMan-]

I'll called my partner this morning and asked about his cpu and mobo combo, he said he may have killed it or not, he said hasn't touched it in 2 years since upgrading.
You might not want to hear this from me but this maybe your best option:
1 GB PNY Optima RAM DDR 400 MHz PC 3200 single module (751492226484) | eBay
All the other ram for ddr2700 on ebay I do not trust, if I dont recognize the brand and neither does anyone else don't waste a dollar on it.

If you need anything else please reply if I dont come back, mind will handle it from here on.

 

[Nineoniner]

Hey Mike, sorry I couldn't reply in a while, I had trouble with this computer, and couldn't run it for a day or so, it's been difficult to work with this machine..

So all in all, the parts could be dead? That's a pity.. but thank you nonetheless c:

Uhm.. is there anything I could get the computer to make it run a bit better, and that won't involve buying such large components..?