Computer Trouble/Help!

[Sasha]

<font color="red">Any computer gurus here?</font>

I'm running on a 866 MHZ, 128 MB of RAM and wanted to upgrade finally. The computer is being handed down to my brother, so I wanted to fix it up a bit before it goes off to him. I ordered 384mb's from Crucial in order to fully grasp the 512mb's that is standard today.

I got two cards, one 256, and one 128 of course. So, I opened up my PC and there's only two slots, one which is available. So ultimately I'm very mad, as it seems that I've wasted my money. The other reason behind this drawn out post is that the card wasn't able to be clamped down by the clamps on the side. The card as well, looked different than the original card that came with the computer. I'm thinking it's going to work because the bottom of the card "clicked" and common sense told me it should run fine. However, I turn my computer on and get to my desktop and let the PC load up and everything and I sense no change. I'm about an hour into the mod right now, and nothing has changed. The main reason behind my purchase of course is to be sure that I can run simultaneous programs at once, preferbaly two or three with some kind of precision and security.

Another thing, the main lag is with my internet browser and word processors, specifically on message boards like this one. The cursor is a huge problem, I at times wait on it to change for around 10 seconds in order to post a message, highlight some text, right click or any other miniscule mouse movements. It also presents the same kind of problems with actual typing, as text doesn't appear as keys are hit, but has a sever lag of at time 5-10 seconds or even more at times.


<font color="RED">ANOTHER THING...</font>

I want to reformat the hard drive and return the computer to a "factory setting."

I'm being consulted by this link on how to do such a task, as it is my first time. That said, I downloaded the Windows Me Custom, No Ramdrive boot disk from Bootdisk.com and everything has gone smoothly up until the direction from the above link which says to:

"At the A Prompt, type Format: C, and Answer 'yes' to the warning."

I'm not getting through to perform the rest of the process, because it doesn't recognize the prompt. What am I doing wrong, if I am at all? Keep in mind, I am running only an upgrade of XP onto the factory installed Me OS. If that means anything.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[dunksworth]

The problem with the ram could be that you're using the wrong type. Check the original ram and see if it says sdram or rdram. Older models, such as yours, may use sdram whereas the newer ones use rdram. I assume this could be the most likely problem b/c companies no longer make sdram, so all the ram that's out there are usually rdram.

My computer is about the same speed as yours and it too uses sdram. A few months ago I updated my ram but it wasn't too easy finding stores that sold sdram, and when I finally found one, it was quite pricey compared to the newer ram.


And with the format problem.... I'm not quite understanding what you mean by "recognize the prompt". Are you getting a screen that shows this:

c:

 

[TimmyDMVP]

to get the correct ram you may have to look for it on ebay

 

[Sasha]

It's all sorted out now, but thank you for your responses.

I got SDRAM, from a company called Crucial (used to be Micron) that makaes RAM for all computer manufactureres. However, I got the sized mixed up (one is 16x64, and the other 32x64) so, the larger wouldn't fit. I'm going to return it and get physically smaller sticks.

 

[dunksworth]

cool....

So how's the formatting problem going?

 

[Sasha]

That's done as well. I just deleted my old partition and created a new one. The problem I had was that the directions I was given were misspelled so instead of "Format: C" it's supposed to be "Format C:" logically because I did in fact want to format the C drive, I just didn't get that through my head as I made this post.

All is well, and thanks for the concern.