-- Posted by kk327 at 3:55 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 i have an old dell inspiron 8000 its running on xp sort of... it doesn't do much of anything right now... but i'm told it works and thats about all i know... so i turn it on and it gets to the welcome screen then it just stops... i let it sit for about 15 minutes and then the battery died and i don't have a charger yet.   so... is the computer hopeless or can i do something to make it work because i sort of would like to be able to use it for when i need to bring a laptop somewhere but i know its gonna get pretty beat up.   -- Posted by Live Just To Die at 3:56 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 Get a charger then...? -- Posted by kk327 at 3:56 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 Quote: from Live Just To Die at 6:56 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 Get a charger then...? i am getting one from where i got the computer... i meant besides that. -- Posted by k1Lka at 3:58 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 it can make a nice portable bench for hanging out in the park, or a lap tray for rolling joints, or for target practicing your new bb gun -- Posted by RIMHfire at 3:59 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 I haven't even hear of that type before. All Dells are crap anyway, but there's definitely something wrong with the hardware. -- Posted by kk327 at 4:02 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 Quote: from RIMHfire at 6:59 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 I haven't even hear of that type before. All Dells are crap anyway, but there's definitely something wrong with the hardware. yeah, and the damn thing after maybe 5 minutes is already so hot i can't have it sit on my lap.  the fan runs but its not doing its job at all.  and that causes the computer to slow down because there is some error with the fan or something... i don't know much about it.  i don't know much about computers in general. -- Posted by Naptime at 12:44 am on Aug. 21, 2008 If you've got discs with it, wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows. This will set everything right and it won't behave like this. No discs? Borrow a friends XP disc, and use your number on the bottom of Laptop (It's a like-for-like thing: if it has an XP home sticker, you need an XP Home disc, same for Pro and the appropriate versions of Media centre). Then, hit the Dell website and download the latest drivers for it. -- Posted by kk327 at 5:36 am on Aug. 21, 2008 Quote: from Naptime at 3:44 am on Aug. 21, 2008 If you've got discs with it, wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows. This will set everything right and it won't behave like this. No discs? Borrow a friends XP disc, and use your number on the bottom of Laptop (It's a like-for-like thing: if it has an XP home sticker, you need an XP Home disc, same for Pro and the appropriate versions of Media centre). Then, hit the Dell website and download the latest drivers for it. the computer came with ME  so should i try to find that?  or should i look into something different like a linux one? -- Posted by rand0mguy at 6:40 am on Aug. 24, 2008 Quote: from k1Lka at 3:58 pm on Aug. 20, 2008 it can make a nice portable bench for hanging out in the park, or a lap tray for rolling joints, or for target practicing your new bb gun i like the second idea -- Posted by Naptime at 12:09 am on Aug. 25, 2008 If it came with ME, I'd look at Xubuntu, which is Ubuntu with a different user interface, and on that is much skinnier. Google it.