The joy of old computers...

[ialsohaveadream]

So I gave my old computer to my sister, and said, "Here's the restore disk. Just pop this in and reformat it."

Of course I forget that when you reformat, it asks you to enter the serial number on the book. The book is long since lost. Any ideas??? It's a Win98 restore, if that makes any difference. The computer is a dinosaur (350MHz).

[DarkFury]

Well... you could try to stick XP on it (I've put that on a PC as slow as a 233MHz and it still worked...)

Or you can turn it into a big doorstop...

Good luck with whatever you decide...

[Bires]

If it's an old Dell, you should be able to get the drivers for everything. If it's a Compaq...it's a boat ancher.

[ialsohaveadream]

It's actually an IBM. That should give you an idea of how old we're talkin. :)

And it's not drivers I need. I lost the registration key, basically. So now my recovery disk is kinda useless, and the computer is sitting useless until I can find it or use another solution (like DF suggested with XP).

[Memo]

You're probably SOL with that disk. You don't have another Win98 disk laying around? XP should work fine on it though (as fine as a 350mhz can be)

[eSDee]

I'll hook you up.

[Merlin]

Wow GAM must really be slacking. A thread asking for a crack code for Windows and it has not been locked yet.

[billxp]

Wow GAM must really be slacking. A thread asking for a crack code for Windows and it has not been locked yet.
Well nobody even mentioned that till you did. :rolleyes:

Simply a user looking for options is how I took it. ;)

[redcolours]

put an easy distro of linux on it and teach her about THE OTHER alternative OS.

[ialsohaveadream]

I wasn't specifically looking for cracks, just solutions. And I'm not pirating, I own the software.

[WhiskeyPapa]

That IBM should have a sticker somewhere with the Win98 serial number. I believe that has been standard since the release of 98.

[DarkFury]

Wow GAM must really be slacking. A thread asking for a crack code for Windows and it has not been locked yet.

He never asked for that....

Now why you trying to start some mess here... :nono: :2far:

[mechmike0034]

put an easy distro of linux on it and teach her about THE OTHER alternative OS.

Is there a GUI Linux distro that'll run on that antique? Point me to it!

I have inherited a similar computer - an old HP Pavilion 6330, with a K6-2 300 and a whopping 48mb of RAM. I am very Linux-curious and would like to try it, but I thought it would take more computer to run it. I could probably scrounge some more RAM up...

I have Linspire, but that requires a 700 mhz or above according to their systom requirements. Plus, I get the (perhaps wrong) impression that Linspire is to Linux what AOL is to the internet.

I was actually considering buying a couple of NIC cards for that old Pavilion and making a Smoothwall or Freesco box out of it, but I'd really like to give Linux an honest shot as an OS.

[ialsohaveadream]

That IBM should have a sticker somewhere with the Win98 serial number. I believe that has been standard since the release of 98.

The only sticker I know of is the one that was on the book. I'll take a peek, though. Maybe it's inside the case?

[Nija]

Is there a GUI Linux distro that'll run on that antique? Point me to it!

I have inherited a similar computer - an old HP Pavilion 6330, with a K6-2 300 and a whopping 48mb of RAM. I am very Linux-curious and would like to try it, but I thought it would take more computer to run it. I could probably scrounge some more RAM up...

I have Linspire, but that requires a 700 mhz or above according to their systom requirements. Plus, I get the (perhaps wrong) impression that Linspire is to Linux what AOL is to the internet.

I was actually considering buying a couple of NIC cards for that old Pavilion and making a Smoothwall or Freesco box out of it, but I'd really like to give Linux an honest shot as an OS.

I have mandrake 9.x (i forgot the version number) running on a p150 (with the turbo button pushed :P) with 64MB of ram. No GUI though, because I can find drivers for the video card. It runs the command line nicely, though :) It might work for you. Or you could try Knoppix. Both can be found here (http://www.linuxiso.org/)

I recently installed Mandrake 10.1(or 2) on a celery 700. So far, I don't like it, I liked 9.x much better. I think a lot of it has to do with KDE changing their license, and it being pretty much incompatible with the GPL. I just don't like GNOME, so I'm thinking about reverting back to 9 whenever I get some free time at home.

[Dman33]

I have mandrake 9.x (i forgot the version number) running on a p150 (with the turbo button pushed :P) with 64MB of ram. No GUI though, because I can find drivers for the video card. It runs the command line nicely, though :) It might work for you. Or you could try Knoppix. Both can be found here (http://www.linuxiso.org/)

I recently installed Mandrake 10.1(or 2) on a celery 700. So far, I don't like it, I liked 9.x much better. I think a lot of it has to do with KDE changing their license, and it being pretty much incompatible with the GPL. I just don't like GNOME, so I'm thinking about reverting back to 9 whenever I get some free time at home.
:stupid:
No, seriously... give Mandrake a shot. Most of the time it is easy to install. Not like Linux used to be. With any luck you will have a decent machine that you can surf the web on, check e-mail and even do any word processing with OpenOffice. Try 10.x first but as Nija said, the v9 was better for many people.

[WhiskeyPapa]

The only sticker I know of is the one that was on the book. I'll take a peek, though. Maybe it's inside the case?No, it would be on the outside, usually on the side. It all depends on what brand you have. Major brands like Dell, Compaq, Gateway, will almost always have that sticker. It'll be pretty hard to miss.

Has the original OS been deleted? If not, you might be able to get the key from the registry.

Open regedit.exe to this key and look in the right pane for the entry ProductKey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

If the system is not working, you can boot from a floppy and at the A: prompt, type: C:\Windows\Command\Find /N "ProductKey" C:\Windows\System.dat

If all that fails, you can call Microsoft: 1-800-642-7676. They will issue retail and OEM product keys after verifying data located on the W98 CD.

[redcolours]

Is there a GUI Linux distro that'll run on that antique? Point me to it!

I have inherited a similar computer - an old HP Pavilion 6330, with a K6-2 300 and a whopping 48mb of RAM. I am very Linux-curious and would like to try it, but I thought it would take more computer to run it. I could probably scrounge some more RAM up...

I have Linspire, but that requires a 700 mhz or above according to their systom requirements. Plus, I get the (perhaps wrong) impression that Linspire is to Linux what AOL is to the internet.

I was actually considering buying a couple of NIC cards for that old Pavilion and making a Smoothwall or Freesco box out of it, but I'd really like to give Linux an honest shot as an OS.
believe it or not, it requires LESS to run a linux box.
ive dabbled with linux on and off since i first got my 300A celeron, and that used to have 64MB also - ran fine.
from my experience its NOT a resource hog, and is very good with memory management - NO memory leaks.
try SuSE also. im trying it now on a p3 450MHz laptop, and it ran well - recognized everything.

[Markel]

No, it would be on the outside, usually on the side. It all depends on what brand you have. Major brands like Dell, Compaq, Gateway, will almost always have that sticker. It'll be pretty hard to miss.
All the Win 98 installations I've used had the code on the cover of the book. I've only seen stickers for Win NT, 2000, and XP.