Reinstalling XP

pitfallharry219

pitfallharry219

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My computer has been running rather shitty lately, so I've decided to reinstall XP. However, I don't have a XP disc. I got my computer used and it didn't come with one. From what I've read online, I can burn my i386 folder to a disc and use it along with a Windows 98 boot cd to reinstall windows. I have a few questions about doing this.

1. Can it be done this way?

2. From what I've tried already, I start up the 98 boot CD and it starts up and goes to the A: prompt. When I try to change the prompt to my DVD drive, it says it's invalid or some shit. What's the problem here?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
[quote name='pitfallharry219']My computer has been running rather shitty lately, so I've decided to reinstall XP. However, I don't have a XP disc. I got my computer used and it didn't come with one. From what I've read online, I can burn my i386 folder to a disc and use it along with a Windows 98 boot cd to reinstall windows. I have a few questions about doing this.

1. Can it be done this way?

2. From what I've tried already, I start up the 98 boot CD and it starts up and goes to the A: prompt. When I try to change the prompt to my DVD drive, it says it's invalid or some shit. What's the problem here?

Any help is greatly appreciated.[/quote]

How would you get past the keycode prompt for XP? Have you tried basic stuff like a defragmenting, clearing all your temp files, running Spybot, etc?
 
http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

Getting the key isn't the problem. If it's OEM XP, you can't reinstall with that key. Only retail keys can be reused, and it's fairly rare for a computer to have a retail copy of XP installed. You probably have an OEM key, unfortunately.

Personally, I don't like the idea of installing from the i386 directory already on your PC. I'm sure it's possible, but it's not the ideal way to reinstall Windows at all.

If you do have a retail key, and not an OEM one, I'd look for someone with an XP disc, or maybe try to download one (though I've never tried that). IMO, the best way to reinstall XP is to completely wipe your hard disk, then boot from an XP disc and partition/format from within the installer. There's nothing XP likes more than to think it's getting installed on a new PC. :p

And then there's the matter of completely wiping your hard disk... I've been using "parted magic" recently, this awesome little linux distribution... just put it on a USB key or a bootable CD, delete all the partitions using the GUI, then execute:
Code: 
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/??? bs=512 count=1
Replacing ??? with the device ID of your hard drive, usually hda or sda. This zeros out the partition table, and your hard drive looks like it came right from the factory, at least to any operating system you install.

Oh, and the thing with the Win98 CD is due to the antiquated nature of Win98--it installs from DOS, then expects certain files to be edited to point to a DOS driver for your DVD drive. Usually, this would be stored on a corresponding floppy disc, which is one of the many reasons why it's sending you to A:. In contrast, WinXP installs from a simplified version of XP, which tries to load drivers to match your system.

If all else fails, the educational price for XP Professional is 80 bucks (often cheaper at certain colleges). You could always seduce a hot young college student then get her to buy it for you. :p
 
Unfortunately, I'm fairly certain it's an OEM version. I've ran Ad Aware and Windows Defender, and they've found nothing. I've defragged, and still nothing. I tried doing a complete scan with Avast and it kept freezing up. I did a full scan with Defender Pro and it didn't find anything.
 
[quote name='pitfallharry219']Unfortunately, I'm fairly certain it's an OEM version. I've ran Ad Aware and Windows Defender, and they've found nothing. I've defragged, and still nothing. I tried doing a complete scan with Avast and it kept freezing up. I did a full scan with Defender Pro and it didn't find anything.[/QUOTE]

how many services do you have running?
 
No, it's basically how many things your computer is trying to do at one time. ctrl + alt + delete, go into the task manager, then look at processes. It will give you a number at the bottom. If you have too many things running then it can slow things down. You likely have a bunch of things running that you don't need.
 
It's running around 30 processes now, and the CPU usage is never very high. I have noticed that when I'm trying to load a web page, it goes up to 100% and I don't think it did that before. That's the main problem I've noticed, loading web pages and trying to stream videos and Youtube stuff. It stutters like crazy on the videos.
 
[quote name='pitfallharry219']It's running around 30 processes now, and the CPU usage is never very high. I have noticed that when I'm trying to load a web page, it goes up to 100% and I don't think it did that before. That's the main problem I've noticed, loading web pages and trying to stream videos and Youtube stuff. It stutters like crazy on the videos.[/QUOTE]

30 processes isn't bad at all. What are the stats on your computer? Does the processor stay at 100%, or just goes up there while it opening and then goes back down?
 
It goes up to 100 and then back down after the page is done loading. It idles anywhere from 2 to around 25 percent. It's got a 1.8 ghz celeron and 256 mb of RAM. It's an older computer, but it's ran fine til now.
 
Try creating a new user and see if it helps .
I've done that before instead of reinstalling XP .

[I have a beta copy that can't be updated with service packs anymore]
 
[quote name='pitfallharry219']It goes up to 100 and then back down after the page is done loading. It idles anywhere from 2 to around 25 percent. It's got a 1.8 ghz celeron and 256 mb of RAM. It's an older computer, but it's ran fine til now.[/quote]
I would guess that insufficient RAM is the problem. Check your page file usage in the task manager. When you overflow main memory your computer will use the HD (i.e. virtual memory) for additional (much slower) storage.
 
[quote name='oleander']I would guess that insufficient RAM is the problem. Check your page file usage in the task manager. When you overflow main memory your computer will use the HD (i.e. virtual memory) for additional (much slower) storage.[/quote]

I would say that's it..

Windows XP requires atleast 128 MB of Ram by itself, which doesn't include your programs etc; and that's just to run.
 
I've encountered this a lot... the software nowadays has a baseline expectation of your system specs, and makes allocations based on that... the baseline probably being the systems they are programming on. Like it or not, 1GB of ram is now the norm, even in XP.

Take Flash, for example... Flash 7 will likely run a swf faster than Flash 9 on your computer, but Flash 9 will blow Flash 7 away on an Intel Core whatever with 1GB of ram.

In some cases, the software is bloated and taking a larger memory footprint than it needs. But in the Flash example, it takes a larger share of resources for a performance boost. If those resources aren't there, the software craters. And that holds true for movie players within Flash as well... my YouTube performance took a hit when they updated their player on my old PC, but received a boost on my new one.

From your specs... you're a bit behind the low end of the curve. I would call today's baseline specification a Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 with a gig of RAM, with video that supports DX9 in hardware.

Cheapest way to get that, in my opinion, is to hit up Dell's Outlet with a 15% off coupon. You can get a solid PC for about $220 shipped or so. Or you could just try 50 bucks for a gig of ram... you'll get a performance boost, but how much of one? Who knows... there's lots of factors. It sounds like your system is also bogged down from general use... XP tends to become bloated over time, and this is difficult to undo.

For the time being, if you aren't using a static-sized swap file, that might help, since you have so little ram. In XP, under "System Properties -> "Advanced" tab, hit the "Settings" button in "Performance" Box. In the "Performance Options" window, "Advanced" tab, "VIrtual Memory" box, hit the "Change" button. Make sure the "Custom Size" radio button is highlighted, and set "Initial" and "Maximum" size to the same value... XP SP2 usually defaults to 1500MB or so.

This way, there's always 1.5 gigs on the disk where XP is installed, for it to use when it runs out of ram... XP can usually call for it independent of whatever program you are using.
 
[quote name='schwartzvald']I've encountered this a lot... the software nowadays has a baseline expectation of your system specs, and makes allocations based on that... the baseline probably being the systems they are programming on. Like it or not, 1GB of ram is now the norm, even in XP.

Take Flash, for example... Flash 7 will likely run a swf faster than Flash 9 on your computer, but Flash 9 will blow Flash 7 away on an Intel Core whatever with 1GB of ram.

In some cases, the software is bloated and taking a larger memory footprint than it needs. But in the Flash example, it takes a larger share of resources for a performance boost. If those resources aren't there, the software craters. And that holds true for movie players within Flash as well... my YouTube performance took a hit when they updated their player on my old PC, but received a boost on my new one.

From your specs... you're a bit behind the low end of the curve. I would call today's baseline specification a Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 with a gig of RAM, with video that supports DX9 in hardware.

Cheapest way to get that, in my opinion, is to hit up Dell's Outlet with a 15% off coupon. You can get a solid PC for about $220 shipped or so. Or you could just try 50 bucks for a gig of ram... you'll get a performance boost, but how much of one? Who knows... there's lots of factors. It sounds like your system is also bogged down from general use... XP tends to become bloated over time, and this is difficult to undo.

For the time being, if you aren't using a static-sized swap file, that might help, since you have so little ram. In XP, under "System Properties -> "Advanced" tab, hit the "Settings" button in "Performance" Box. In the "Performance Options" window, "Advanced" tab, "VIrtual Memory" box, hit the "Change" button. Make sure the "Custom Size" radio button is highlighted, and set "Initial" and "Maximum" size to the same value... XP SP2 usually defaults to 1500MB or so.

This way, there's always 1.5 gigs on the disk where XP is installed, for it to use when it runs out of ram... XP can usually call for it independent of whatever program you are using.[/quote]

Right now, before I've messed with anything, it says initial size is 384 and maximum size is 768. So what should I set it to?
 
Right now, I'm trying to watch a youtube video. My cpu usage is at 100 percent and my page file usage is at 252 mb. The video and sound are stuttering quite a bit.

I've had this computer for three and a half years now and it's never given me a problem until now. I've not installed any new programs lately that would use up any more memory than anything before.

I started noticing something was wrong when I turned it on one day and when XP loaded, the warning balloon popped up and said Windows firewall was off. But when I checked it, it said it was on. This happened for a few days and then stopped. Then I started noticing that Avast was getting turned off somehow. I'm guessing this all has to do with some kind of virus or something.
 
TinyXP trims down XP considerably. On my old PC (128MB RAM) it's power on to Google in 30 seconds.

You could use nLite to cut XP as well.
 
Since it seems like you have noticed a change in your system's performance, some problem with Windows is possible. But, your computer's specs are also very low. At the very least, upgrade your ram.

A reinstall may help. You can borrow someone's Windows XP installation disc and then type in your product key, if you have one.
 
You could download an OEM copy of XP of the brand of your computer and it would automatically accept it without the key, but I don't know how legal would be, since you do technically have a legal copy of XP.
 
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