Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

SShink · 3K+ Club

Anyone else running Windows XP on older PC's? Are you upgrading?

Enganeer · Mega Poster

Check out Craigslist, there are plenty of inexpensive windows 7 PC and laptops out there.

Lost in the 60s · President

I have XP on an old one upstairs. I should move all my business records to my newer one with Windows 7.

I don't use it enough to justify the upgrade, but if you still use yours, the, the $100 is less than a new computer.

Although, I did build this one for around $800 from a hand picked parts "kit" from Tiger Direct a few years ago. Price didn't include a monitor, as I had just recently bought the 21" digital I still have.

Tony Hoffer · Moderator

Had XP and Loved it till the old computer crapped out End of last year.. Built a new computer and its a rocket at a fraction of the price of the old one.. Still getting used to 7 and there are some things I dont like about it. But its not bad.. tay away from anything beyond Windows 7 though

SShink · 3K+ Club

You are right John. There a lot on CL. I emailed a couple of them. There is a used computer store in Bloomington a block from where I work, so I'm going to check it out at lunch tomorrow.

Dave Seitz · Mega Poster

My PC crashed about a month ago and I picked up a new custom built PC after the one from best buy was a bad deal. I had Windows 8.1 and it SUCKED the big one it is horrid to deal with unless you are running either a tablet or laptop. The latest version 8.1 has patches in so you do not NEED to use the touch screen to get things done. New systems are not all that bad and less money than you may think with no issues or lingering spy or spam.

Speed junkie hint: Have a new PC built with a Solid State Drive to run just the Windows program. Everything else is loaded and saved onto the hard disc drive. No matter how much stuff you load onto the hard disc the main drive will never slow down, it works as a flash memory. From power off to hitting the net time is 30 seconds, shut down in 15 yes I timed it. Worth EVERY PENNY OF THE $125 for the drive.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

Funny this has been brought up. I was just spending an hour or so looking at some deals for a new Dell tower. No need for a monitor/keyboard and mouse. I can re-use what I have but my computer itself. IE, the tower, is from 2003 so I figure if I spend a few hundred bucks for a new tower and reuse my old components. I got my moneys worth out of this XP unit. Ive seen windows 8.1 and what a PITA t is.

Back in Black · Active Member

I keep XP running on and old laptop in order to run a couple programs that just won't work on Win7. :(

SShink · 3K+ Club

So here's what I've found out as far as buying new Windows 8 PC's from Best Buy, or used/refurbished from 'The Box Shop' in Bloomington:

-Best Buy has a deal through the 19th that they will give a $25 gift card AND $75 towards a new PC if you trade in a working XP version laptop

-With that deal, I can pick up a new Dell or HP desktop tower for about $250 that has Windows 8, 4 Gig Memory, 500 Gig hard drive, eathernet card, wireless capable, and DVD/CD Read/Write drive (My son has Windows 8 on a laptop he got recently, and I didn't like it. I'm sure I would figure it out eventually, and I read yesterday MS will stop supporting Windows 7 six years from now in 2020, and I don't want to go through this for at least 10 years.)

-With the same BB deal, a basic laptop would be around $200 with 4 Gig Memory, 500 Gig hard drive

-The Box Store has refurbished Windows 7 Desktops from $139-199 depending on hard drive size and speed with 30 day warranty

-The Box Store has refurbished Windows 7 laptops for $199-279 with the 30 day warranty

So.... right now I'm leaning towards trading in our XP desktop and one of our laptops for the Best Buy deal to get the current stuff that should be good for at least another couple of years, or until big brother Microsoft changes things up again.

The guy at The Box Store kind of poo poo'd the whole 'my XP isn't secure anymore' panic, and he didn't hard sell me on replacing mine, but seemed very sceptical about the whole thing. But with the news yesterday that there was a security breach on all the HTTPS sites over the past couple of years, I'm starting to wonder what can be done to be secure anyway. Maybe we need to go back to a gold standard society and only trade in beads and blankets instead of using credit cards.

66 RAT · Vice President

If I'm not mistaken, Win8 computers can be set to run in "Win7 mode" which some people seem to prefer. However, I have no first-hand knowledge.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

SShink wrote:
My son has Windows 8 on a laptop he got recently, and I didn't like it. I'm sure I would figure it out eventually, and I read yesterday MS will stop supporting Windows 7 six years from now in 2020, and I don't want to go through this for at least 10 years.

66 RAT wrote:
If I'm not mistaken, Win8 computers can be set to run in "Win7 mode" which some people seem to prefer. However, I have no first-hand knowledge.

I already heard somewhere that you could do that too but never took note of it at the time since I wasnt in the market for an upgrade to this computer. Given what Stan is reporting on Win7, I have no problem with going to 8 then.

First time I ever tried Windows 8 was at Jamies place one night I was there. He was frusterated with how to operate windows 8 and I tried it and wasnt too impressed with it either. Just now before sending this post, I decided I better google some info on just what making win8 look like windows7. Looks like some recommendations by reputable websites are recommending some of the same downloads to make it work like that. Most of them free.

I did find a LOT of people complaining about how bad Windows 8 is as well. Several people even recommending Linux operating system instead of Windows.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

Well it looks like im going to be replacing my desktop much sooner then I hoped. Was doing my usual internet stuff today and this weird popup pops up on my entire screen and completely prevents me from opening up any programs or windows and locks me out of doing absolutely anything. Turns out its a virus called the ICE virus, ICE being a acronym for some fake government internet security agency and they want you to pay them to remove it from your computer. Had to do some googling on another computer and turns out its nearly impossible to remove at home and I called a few shops in town. Not cheap to remove this one and no guarantee it gets complete removed from the sounds of it. Its not worth spending the money on a 13 year old Dell desktop so it looks like ill be upgrading much sooner then I can afford to. Carefull out there with these older XP machines, I hear im not the only one.

SShink · 3K+ Club

Sorry to hear that Chris. That sounds like serious stuff if it locked you out.

I did end up scoring pretty good with Best Buy since they had the 'trade in a working Windows XP laptop, and get $75 in store credit + a $25 gift card' deal. I traded in the 2 XP laptops we had, so got $100 off a new tower and laptop that have Windows 8. The Dell tower ended up being $265, and the laptop was $165 after the discounts, so couldn't complain. We had our son's old Windows 7 laptop in storage, so I put that in the man cave. It's working great other than the screen goes pink when opening the laptop, then it's fine for the cave use.

I figured it was worth it to go Windows 8 now, so it should be good for another 10 years, or until mother Microsoft decides to flip everything upside down again...

Enganeer · Mega Poster

Did the same deal as Stan. Traded my old worn out man cave XP laptop that could run on battery power about 1 minute for a new touch screen laptop.

SShink · 3K+ Club

Bad thing is that Best Buy deal ended on April 19th.

bowtie · Secretary

malwaretips.com/blogs/ice-cyber-crime-center-removal/

IIRC, that Hitman program is a good option.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

bowtie wrote:
malwaretips.com/blogs/ice-cyber-crime-center-removal/

IIRC, that Hitman program is a good option.

Thanks for that Bryan. I actually did find that same page while searching for solutions for fixing it. I had went through that page and all the options wont work because the Trojan wont even allow you to access any programs to open and run them. However, after skimming through that page again, its possible that Option 2 for using HitmanPro Kickstart should work, from the way I understand it, it appearently bypasses the ice screen and has the computer boot up from the USB drive containing the HitmanPro antivirus software. Ill have to give that option a try.

66 RAT · Vice President

Chris -- as a last resort since you would lose all of your files, could you get into your computer far enough to start reformatting your hard drive and then reinstall Windows XP? I'm no computer pro so I don't know the feasibility of doing this.

4-door Chevelle · Super Poster

I have 2 computers Up North still running Windows XP. They are both utilitarian boxes, 1 for lights and 1 for cameras. I will never surf the Internet or check email so these are fine for now. Viruses, trojans, malware can all be pretty nasty and your average Joe or Jolene may have a lot of trouble cleaning it up and making it work right again. If you have a seriously messed up computer, pull the hard drive out and put it in an enclosure ($10 Microcenter) then plug it in to the USB port on another computer so you can get your files off of it. Best Buy gets about $199 to do this for you or $299 if it includes an OS reload.

So...buy a new computer like you would buy 2 new tires for your Chevelle.