I bought a used laptop. Help?

[Taurus99]

Hello, My name is Tom and I have a question about a laptop that I just purhased used. It is a Dell C600 and Its operating system is Wndows 2000. The main reason I purchsed this laptop was to use it to run an automotive program on it. It is a diagnostic program to see your OBDII parameters off of a car. It uses the serial port off of the laptop to hook into its unit. Here is my question. Since I bought this laptop used I notice that there are alot of old files, etc on this computer from when the original owner had it. I am thinking that is one of the reasons It seems slower then it should be in booting up. Again the only purpose for this laptop would be to load the disc (It uses minimal hard drive space) To run this program. To use excel to send this info to it so I can see all the info from the car in its format. And occasionally to go on the internet. To be able to send my auto files with a zip program. Thats it. Since I dont know what would be safe to delete. Or even the best way to delete any thing on the computer that I dont need. Would I be able to start from scratch? I dont have a copy of 2000. But I have a copy of Windows 98. My thought is, I can just erase all thats on this compter, and then start new with the Windows 98. The 98 is compatible with the program I will be using. Would I be able to do this without any problems or difficulties. Would all the serial port parameters stay the same. I have no clue what I should do. If this would be okay to do, what would be the easiest way to remove everything? Do you think I am asking for any problems? I maen It seems to work okay now. But there seems to be so many files and things on this laptop that are very old. I dont know whats safe to delete. Thats why I want to start fresh. How can I do this? Tom :dizzy:

[smurfy]

Hi Tom and welcome.
Very short answer for you.
Yes.

i.e. you could and should wipe it clean and start with a fresh windows install, '98 or whatever.
The steps needed to do that will depend greatly on the hardware in the laptop. Does it have seperate Floppy & CD-Rom drives?

[Taurus99]

It has a cd rom drive. No floppy. What would be the procedure? Thanks.

[Taurus99]

Well. I was able to download the Win 98. And everything seems to work fine except the display. I cant get the display to full screen. When I go to adjust the pixels. The only option I have is 640x480 on the screen. I just cant get everything on the 14.1 inch screen. I dont know If I am not setting the monitor up properly/drivers. I have less then half a screen. That shows some of my desktop in it.

[tmbm]

You need drivers, whats your Video adaptor?

[Taurus99]

Hello again. Thank you guys for responding. First of all with Windows 98 what I ended up trying to do was download drivers for the Video, Audio, and network... The worst part was trying to get a proper download of driver to match the network hardware. The audio and video worked first shot. Dells support was of no use in this department. They tried, but to no avail. I ended up loading Windows XP. Everything worked like a charm. The only thing I was worrying about was that I have enough memory to support this upgrade. I may not be able to install much more after this download...:cry2:

[Sir Yuck]

whats the hard drive space, and ram? Windows XP takes about 1.5 Gigs of Hdd space, and requires 256 Megs of ram.

[Taurus99]

I have a Pent III processor. It was installed with 256mb of RAM, and it has a 10gb hard drive. It claims to have 7418.8MB left. The local disc has 7.25GB left over. Again. The only thing I will be doing with this laptop is pulling info out of a vehicles OBDII port from the serial port, and If I can record any info to the hard drive. Does it sound like it can be accomplished? In addition, can I free up any space anywhere?

[Taurus99]

In addition. I also went to Microsofts Homepage for sys requirements. They state RAM Minimum should be 128MG for XP. Or, If worst comes to worst I can add 128MB for I think like around $25-$30...

[smurfy]

Hi again. 128MB is Microsoft's minimum requirement for XP. 256 is the real world minimum requirement for XP if you want to run any software as well as the o/s.

7 Gigs free space is fine. There may be some optional components of XP that you can remove to free up a little space but it's probably not worth the effort.
Provided XP is compatible with the software you are using to pull the vehicle data and recognises the port connection, I think you should be fine now.

[Taurus99]

Well to be safe I ordered another stick of RAM (256). I did find one thing that I am having a bit of trouble with although. When I am surfing the net at any point If I try to go to the start tab to shut down It wont let me click on it. If i go to the X at the top of the page to hop out, It wont let me. It seems to lock up for awhile. The speed of moving around the net doesnt seem to be a problem. Its just when I try to get out of something. For instance I downloaded a file off the net. It let me download it no problem. I went to open it up on my desktop and It wouldnt do anything. Finally after waiting a few minutes, It just opened on its own. Can you give me anything to look at?