XP and a New Puter ... It's a Whole New World ...WOW

vanity | 01-01-02 | mercy

[mercy]

It sorta just snuck up on me. My old nanao monitor started winking at me, the ole gal felt like dropping by Comp USA and the next thing I know I'm rolling out the door with a new VAIO tower, a Samsung syncMaster flat screen LCD and a Canon bubble jet (there goes my buy American bluster).

I wasn't going to do it. Really. The thought of venturing past my garden path was too scary. The ole Dell XPS 200 and windows 95 was so .... well, familliar. I was afraid taking the leap would be just too painful. Boy was I wrong. Mama was in the mood to spend money and ya just can't go against that flow. Might not happen again in a coon's age.

Been hearing not so good things about Dell and the prices have been plunging so that one has to wonder about what they're putting in those things these days. Besides I wanted the security of just being able to walk the box into the service dept. if I had a prob and actually getting the thing back in days rather than weeks. The Sony seemed like a solid machine and not a conglomeration of god knows whose parts. The flat screen just knocked my eyes out. XP made my old OS look like a cheep 40's cartoon. So I jumped.

Despite my desire to get in a dig at Bill Gates whenever possible I'm going with 'internet exploder' for now. doesn't seem so bad and I'm not really missing Netscape ... yet. (I may pinch him a bit by dropping Office and going with Corel) I haven't had any trouble with XP whatsoever. I've deleted some junk they had in the box and I've added several programs. I'm all over the net and not a glitch. ON THE FIRST DAY. I can't believe I waited so long. I love the whole package. AND for some unknowable (for me) reason my internet connection is chunking along at twice the speed of before though my dialup connection is the same lame ole 28k and I already had a new top line modem in the ole box. Go figure.

So if any of y'all out there are like me and afraid of the change .... don't be. It's wonderful.

[SamAdams76]

Perhaps I should clarify that statement. To my knowledge, my Windows NT Server has never had to be rebooted due to a problem or crash. Yes, we do bring the server down from time to time to do upgrades and install patches.

[unixfox]

You need to check the internal clock which can be set in the BIOS. Generally this is done by restarting the computer and just before it boots you will need to enter the system BIOS utilities by pressing a specific key (usually displayed on the screen) such as the DEL key, F10 key or maybe even a combination of keys.

When you finally get into the BIOS settings you should see an option to change the system time. If the clock still fails after you change it in the BIOS you may need to have the internal battery changed.

[Prodigal Son]

Thanks everyone for your input. That's a pain because if I crack the box myself and mess with it, the warranty gets invalidated. I'll have to take it downtown this weekend.

I'm more of a "fix it with a hammer" kinda guy when I get mad- don't laugh, you'd be surprised what the expert application of brute force can accomplish but I don't think the wifey would be to happy to see her new baby with a hole or dent in it. Anyway, thanks a million. I should be able to sort out the icon myself at least. Last word, XP is a groovy system.

[Licensed-To-Carry]

Bump this thread.

[Amelia]

It's THAT EASY? If I'd known it was that easy, I'd have bought the new computer last week! I was dreading the thought of transferring all my files plus setting up the network - now I only have to dread transferring the files!

Thanks so much!

[Bogey78O]

You can transfer every file you have via a direct cable connection between the computers. XP includes a PC-PC transfer program.

[lonestar]

I ordered a Dell last Saturday. Dimension 4400. I'm a computer idiot so I don't know what all I have. But I do know I needed a new one!

[timestax]

Is that a better computor than a Vic20 ??

[PoorMuttly]

I wonder if Microsoft can see you, while using XP...

[PoorMuttly]

I wonder if Microsoft can see you, while using XP...

[PoorMuttly]

sorry...got to go...they evidently can get into 2000 Pro, too.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Are you resetting the clock in the Operating System or in the BIOS?

Try this. Boot the machine to the BIOS. Set the clock in there, reboot and shut down before the OS comes into play. Go smoke a couple cigarettes, come back and reboot to the BIOS. Check the clock. If the time is off, then it's likely a dying battery on the motherboard.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Skip MS Office and Corel. Go with Star Office from Sun. It's free, it's compatible with MS Office, and you can download it here: Star Office Download Site.

Or you can send them money to have them ship you the CD. I downloaded it, installed it, and it works great.

[airedale]

You might want to pick up the little piece of software that Steve Gibbson wrote to open and close Upnpuu. It's free and available at http://www.grc.com While your there read the entire section on a denial of service attack he suffered. Reads like a Clancy novel..

[Solar Wind]

Dear Prodigal,

I don't know how to permanently fix the PC clock but I do know of a utility that you can download off the NIST website to correct your computer clock time as needed. It is located at http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/service/its.htm

The NIST runs an atomic clock in Fort Collins, CO, so that is about as accurate as you are going to get. NIST are the same folks who run WWV, the time station.

The utility can be used to update when ever you request it to or it can be set to update automatically at intervals.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

There is a great deal of information retrieval from the Tech_Index area.

And I am gonna do it after reading all of the good comments on your thread.

It is gonna be top of the line AMD Athlon XP with two IBM 60 gig 7200 rpm drives with Raid - striping. Including the Soundblaster Platinum , 512M of PC2100 memory and a RADEON video card for playing with TV in and out . DVD drive and CD-RW , all in a Black case and very upgradable. Got a quote from PC Club to build it for around 2K. Cheapest computer I have ever bought. And we'll do XP too, after reading about hte good experiences here!!

Thanks!

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[doglot]

Miss the IBM outlet store over at Cary/RDU?

[dennisw]

Computer clock? I will bet that you have to adjust the clock in the BIOS. When the clock in the BIOS is too far off from what you see in your Windows computer screen, you will have trouble adjusting the clock there.

Has been my experience

[goldstategop]

Windows XP has an atomic clock software built-in. You can change the atomic clock server the Windows taskbar clock checks into from time.windows.com to time.nist.gov through this procedure:

Click your right mouse button on clock on right side of Windows taskbar then click with your left mouse button Adjust Date/Time in the pop up submenu;

Now click Internet Time tab with your left mouse button then locate time.nist.gov in the drop down menu and then click Update Now with the left mouse button. Then click OK. Your taskbar clock should now be synchronized with the U.S government's atomic clock time servers on the Internet.