Dell complaints

Floppy_Drive · Regular Hater Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 31

I just got a old Dell P166. I know its old l.o.l. Im going to use it maybe a internet cafe someday. It would be good for surfing the NET. There is no need spending big bucks on a PC and take the risk of someone damageing it.But anyway can i still get drivers for this? I need Win 98 drivers not sure if i will use 98 1st or 98 SE. Oh and yes it doese work. Also one more ? how do i get into the BIOS?
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Yes i would buy another Dell. Its not the stupid machine. Its the tech support thats so bad. The only bad hardware is the cheap celerons.

ShaftDu · Dances with Hate Joined: 26 Nov 2004 Posts: 585

you know what you should do is put linux on that bad boy if you could. I mean if this machine was open to the general public, everyone will be getting you spyware and viruses.

do it!

Floppy_Drive · Regular Hater Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 31

Ha ha ha i already get spyware. Very seldom get viruses. But i thought about linux. Hey its got 98 SE installed. The guy i got it from said the drive was formatted and no OS was installed. So its got drivers.
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Yes i would buy another Dell. Its not the stupid machine. Its the tech support thats so bad. The only bad hardware is the cheap celerons.

Nebuchadnezzar · Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:32 pm Post subject:

To get into the bios... well, its a different key for each computers, but i think dells tend to be F10 - as soon as the computer starts up you'll be presented with a screen saying 'Dell' - somewhere on that screen it'll say something like F10 - Setup or something. Press that key!

If you were going to install linux may i suggest something simple like mandrake - its designed for the linux novice, so its set up to need as little configuration as possible - chances are if you're using an ethernet you can just plug it in and use the internet.

Linux would definitely be better for a use as simple as surfing the net and getting emails - its quicker than MS, crashes... well, never, and there's no profit to anyone to design viruses or spyware to run on a linux computer, cos no-one who's likely to be gullible enough to get viruses or spyware uses it. In fact, there's an interesting site by a guy who tried to run viruses on linux - the only one he got to run he had to run through wine, and it didn't do what it was supposed to atall - i can't remember the URL though. Also, unix based systems have a much better record of running on the internet - Unix was designed from base up to run on a network, while microsoft only recently jumped on the internet bandwagon when they realised how popular it was becoming.

Anyway, Linux is definitely the best choice for an internet caf, its really not as hard to install as is made out (mandrake: download cd's, put cd in computer, click OK a few times). But if you're looking for ease of use don't go anywhere near distros like Gentoo - i've just managed to install that after a few years of running and learning linux - and that was with very heavy refernece to the install guide.

Oh yeah, If you're insisting on using 98, don't you need SE to go online? or is that 95?

Good luck with the internet caf!

Floppy_Drive · Regular Hater Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 31

You can get online with 3.1 i think. But i will probaly keep 98SE in scence its installed. its got a 1.2 gig drive. I got a extra 3 gig i will ghost everyhting over to it. And i don't see a DELL logo screen for some reason. I know the screen your talking about. I will try F 10. i got a old compaq deskpro that the BIOS program (not the chip) but the program has to be installed on the harddrive and it has to be a partition 1st and the secound has to be set to be the active one. Maybe this dell is that way? Because i never see the prompt to go to BIOS. And the compaq want show the prompt unless the BIOS is installed.
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Yes i would buy another Dell. Its not the stupid machine. Its the tech support thats so bad. The only bad hardware is the cheap celerons.

Nebuchadnezzar · Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:07 pm Post subject:

if F10 doesn't work try...

F1 or Delete,
Ctrl, Alt + enter
or... press the reset button twice...

- sounds weird but i just found these while googling dell bios (i'm very bored Wink

)

delltech_jeremy · Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:31 pm Post subject:

If you're needing drivers, go to http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
Type in your service tag, select your OS, and you should be in 7th heaven Razz

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Badger · Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:12 pm Post subject:

Okay, a P166 is probably not the best computer if you're going to run a net cafe, regardless if it's simply for checking e-mail. At least get some old P3's.
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Floppy_Drive · Regular Hater Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 31

Badger · Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:44 pm Post subject:

Floppy_Drive · Regular Hater Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 31

Ok now i see. This thing has the old type ram. I don't mean SDRAM. I mean the small sticks of ram 64 Mb of it.
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Yes i would buy another Dell. Its not the stupid machine. Its the tech support thats so bad. The only bad hardware is the cheap celerons.

Nebuchadnezzar · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:15 am Post subject:

Floppy_Drive · Regular Hater Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 31

I do have a PII 400 Mhz. And it runs Win98 SE With all updates just fine no problems. Very few pages i get an error on page at bottom above start menue. But its not Win 98 problem. This one Xp Pro Sp1 doese the same.
And you can still get updates for Win 98. Not sure what i will do with that old P166.
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Yes i would buy another Dell. Its not the stupid machine. Its the tech support thats so bad. The only bad hardware is the cheap celerons.

Nebuchadnezzar · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:37 pm Post subject:

Do they still have new updates coming out? I was pretty sure they'd stopped all new updates, but i may well be mistaken.