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Hello there! I've been lurking for a while and never made an account but after 2 years of working in a PC Repair Shop I finally hit a wall I can't get around. English is my third language, please don't eat me alive. I have this PC from the early 2000s with a fried board that, as usual, has some vital programs that would cost thousands of euros to replace. The first step was to find a similar donor PC and transfer the hard drive. After doing that, and after resolving some issues with user folder not showing up, we finally can log in-- oh wait, it needs to be activated. No biggie, the original PC still has it's license sticker. (Note: I took the images from the internet, the originals are in italian) . So I go for option number 2 ("Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows"), and get to the second part. "Wait a minute" I think to myself, "It never asked for a product key". I shrug, set my location to Italy, call the number (as usual, not a real person, just a nice robot-lady voice), give her the ID from step 3 (it displays one for me), and type the confirmation ID for step 4. Lo and behold, it doesn't work, citing a bad product key. "Doesn't matter, I have the original anyways". So then I press 'Change Product Key' and type the product key and press 'Update', and I wait... and wait... and wait... I tried other spare Keys I had, even a random one, nada. The longest I waited was 4/5 hours. The internet connection is there because if I unplug the cable it tells me the key can not be verified (I also tried installing a couple PCI Ethernet cards, just to be sure...). Since I can only enter windows in Safe Mode and Safe Mode with Prompt, I can't do the "change the registry value" trick because it works only in normal mode, which I can not access. I tried looking for command line solutions but found nothing. Before I go dumpster-diving for an early 2000s board, is there something that can be done at this stage? Did I miss something stupid that I should be ashamed of?

title says it all, im just seeing if its possible, my pc im talken about is a old compaq presario sr2180nx, its got a amd board, for windows xp boooyyy was it fast 2.1ghz amd atholon xp. just wondering if i can liquid cool or custom water cool it

My XP gaming PC (32 bit) is more or less finished and it's lovely. I was wondering what essential software or tweaks to the system I should do, to get the best experience. I've already got the following software: RTSS (for solid frame times/limits) RadeonPro (Vsync, AA, AF) TweakUI Specs: CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 215 GPU: ATI Radeon X1900 XTX RAM: 2GB DDR3 (single stick, which I might upgrade later to a dual channel 4GB kit) I've done a couple of things to tweak performance but nothing major and just thought I'd ask folks in case I've not thought of something.

I'm trying to install a "fresh" copy of Windows XP Professional on a old Dell Dimension 9200, but the installation crashes (read: BSOD) when the installation files are loaded. I initially bought a 3rd party disc from a company on ebay, but they sent me the wrong disc, so I got a Windows XP Home disc with a WXPP licence code. I sent them an e-mail and asked if I could get a .iso file instead, which I got. I then used Rufus to create a bootable USB drive. The drive is detected in the BIOS and it starts the initial installation sequence, but as mentioned, it then crashes (BSOD code 0x0000007B). The SATA operation is set to RAID Autodetect / ATA. Worth mentioning is that if I try to use the installation disc, the installation does not crash, so I suspect that it has some sort of driver for Dell machines on it. Does anyone know if a special driver is required for older dell machines and does anyone know where i can find such a driver if it is required?

Hey folks I'm planning a "retro" XP build, and while I haven't settled on whether I want to use components of the era, or low end modern gear yet (if anyone has any thoughts feel free to suggest), I can't decide which type of CPU to go for. Most XP era games, and even some later ones, really only need a fast single core CPU. However would I be shooting myself in the foot if I don't get a strong dual core one instead? I don't really plan on playing Crysis on this thing, probably only the following kind of titles: Strategy (AoE, Empire Earth, Civ) RPGs (Oblivion, KotoR) Far Cry / Doom 3 / Half Life 1 & 2

Need game recommendations that can sustain a playable fps other than minesweeper. Steam recently announced that it will terminate it's support for windows xp by the end of December 2018. I do not consider myself as a dedicated gamer and have never played a triple A title before. One of my cousins is going to visit us from China and I want to know a few popular titles that I can run on my PC for a 10 year old. Currently the most popular PC game in China is a f2p rpg game called "eating chicken". However my rig is a bit below the minimum requirements as depicted by the image below. Thanks

Hey, I've been setting up a Windows XP machine for some legacy software I have to use for a project. I had it working perfectly, then I had to leave for a week, when I came back and turned it on I found that the keyboard doesn't work anymore. The keyboard works on my Win10 machine and other keyboards don't work with the XP. The only time the keyboard does work however is in the bios. The machine is a stock Dell Dimension 3100 that I pulled out of my grandma's basement. Any ideas on what to do?

So, i'm here to ask for help. I want to build a PC from 2008 with only parts from around that era. I currently have some parts like a cpu, motherboard, ram, and a case that still hasn't been cleaned out since the year it broke down. The cpu is an AMD Athlon ll X4. I don't know the motherboard yet, but I know it has thing like 8 usbs, an HDMI, and sata ports. The ram is a single 2gb stick of ADATA DDR2 ram <---(Something that looks like this, but it isn't exactly this. The part number for my stick is ad2u800b2g5-drh) My case is busted up, the front panel was pulled off, but was never meant to be, so it needs to be replaced. I have an unknown IDE CD/DVD drive and an unknown IDE HDD. No psu because the past one died, and didn't bother to replace it. What i'm hoping to do is to revamp and rebuild this pc for a retro gaming pc that runs windows XP. I don't want to use a psu thats too old, because i don't trust old psus. I was thinking of getting an IDE to sata adapter for the DVD drive, but not for the HDD. I want to replace the HDD fully, that thing is OLD. The whole point of this post is to get help on recommendations for the parts. I know how a modern PC works, but not older ones.

Hey folks! Newbie to the forums here, but I was having a big think about a friend's love for older Windows XP games he spent many hours on back when he was 12-13 and his dad's LAN Center (We're not even that old we promise) but Battlefield 1942 was one of his favorites and when I was building him his current PC to primarily play the newest borderlands and WoW he brought up getting 1942 to run. I told him I've tried it before but with not a whole lot of luck because of modern hardware. Here's the point of the post. I've been watching a lot of LGR in addition to Linus Tech Tips as I sit and wait for my shift to end on graveyard, and I thought to myself. "Why not just make a system around the same idea for older hardware that we can use to play with some of our other friends! The obvious hurdles to me would be the hardware compatibility. Like would XP be even able to accept a mobo and a CPU that new inside a virtual machine? Even then looking towards GPUs Would it be possible to split the resources of a single GPU? Or to have an array of older hardware that while too weak for today's titles would knock the socks off of anything pre 2010. What do you guys think about this? Any advice as I look into it? be pretty rad to have something like this and throw it inside a Dell Inspiron case or something like that *Edit: Since I would want to get a few friends who have long since moved on from regularly gaming in on this, I don't want to burden them with a PC that would be a single use machine, And I have limited closet space. hence one package

well i upgraded my pc and lost my windows license key, called windows and they sent me a brand NEW! 25 character license key for new years. Soon after updating i realize that for one the NVIDIA Control Pannel was missing (got it back via installation on windows store for anyone wondering what worked) windows now looked different example here: just wondering how i can get my windows to look normal again <3 thankya dudes

I want to do a early 2000s gaming pc build to play older games, but before i get started i need it to run on windows xp. does anyone know where i can get old Windows versions?

Hi, so i decided to upgrade my old pc from windows xp to 7. But when i set new volume for windows 7 setup active and restarted for setup it got me error "ntdrl is missing". So now how do i get back to windows and how do i fix this error so i can boot the setup? Thanks for any help.

Hey everyone I have a old laptop from 2009 which my uncle used and it was running Windows XP at that time. In 2017, I got that laptop from my uncle just to have fun with it. It was running WINDOWS 10. So i was wondering that can i install Windows XP again?. This experiment may sound funny. My first pc had Windows XP. My second one had Windows 7. And now all the PC'S i have runs Windows 10. Can i install Windows XP on these PC's ?? Lenovo thinkpad Sl400 Intel Core 2 duo T6670 4GB Ram 300gb WD hard drive Integrated Graphics Windows 10(was running Windows XP) Acer aspire AX3810(i don't remember the model number properly so it may be wrong) It was sitting on our store room since 6 years after the GPU died Core 2 duo(i don't know the model no but it was 32 bit or X86) 2GB ram 500gb hard disk Geforce 7800(maybe) Next of these are newer hardware Lenovo ideapad 310 Intel Core I5 7200u 8GB ram Sandisk 1tb SSD Geforce 920m Custom built AMD pc AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Msi B450 tomahawk 16GB ram GTX 1070 250GB Samsung 960 evo 2TB Seagate barracuda Custom built Intel pc(Uncle's pc) Intel core I5 8600k Asus strix Z370-E 16GB ram GT 1030? 250GB Samsung 960 evo 2X2TB Seagate barracuda Can these machines run WINDOWS XP Edit: My first Pentium 4 machine died a year ago. It had windows XP. Then i installed windows 10. It ran fine until the board died. That machine is disassembled and kept in my store room.

Just build a new Ryzen system, and the plan was to have Windows 10 on an M2 SSD, then (as half-novelty / half-actually-useful) Windows 7, XP, and Ubuntu on an old 500GB hard drive for when I wanted to run old / otherwise incompatible with W10 software. So Windows 10's running just fine, but I've given up with everything else (mostly, I'm ashamed to say, through lack of trying). The XP Journey BSOD for ACPI support, but you can skip that. Another BSOD due to windows XP being too old to include AHCI drivers, and the motherboard being too new to support ATA mode. Read about loading drivers with a floppy drive (but only a floppy drive, not a USB floppy drive), and installing via USB with Windows Server 2003, but couldn't be bothered. I'm never going to actually use XP anyway. 0/1 The Windows 7 Journey Ryzen USB drivers aren't compatible with Windows 7 because Windows 7's so old (I'd forgotten that Windows 8 was released 6 years ago!). I do have a PS/2 keyboard to get things going, but it's 150 miles away (my words 2 months ago of "when am I ever going to need this again?" rang loud and clear in my head) Read an Anandtech article on unattended booting, but again, I couldn't be bothered. I have windows 7 on a laptop so I'm only losing some performance by not having it on the new desktop. And anyway, I'll just wait until I'm home at Christmas and grab the keyboard then. 0/2 The Ubuntu (15.04) Journey A load of error messages came up, I didn't read them. Changed some bios security things because that's always the problem with these kind of things. Nope. Same errors came up. I've been working on this for too long. Screw this, who needs Linux anyway?.... 0/3 Guess it's going to be an old Dell Optiplex that becomes the 'it won't run in W10' PC instead

Hey all! So I have the disc for RCT3 from when I was a kid and played it on WinXP. I'm now on Win10 and trying to play it again, as I understand that Windows typically has backwards compatibility (I was on Mac between XP and 10, so I didn't know about this until today). I know that if something legacy doesn't work right away, you can try running it in compatibility mode, but I can't even find anything that looks remotely like a setup file that I could use compatibility mode on in the first place! If you guys can put your collective brains together and help me on this, my childhood would be very grateful to you. Thanks!

No, I don't still use Windows XP or something, I use Windows 10, to get that out of the way. BUT I was wondering if anyone has made custom software to either make custom drivers for Windows XP or older, or just trick the drivers to think it is Windows 10. I just was wondering for an experiment if I could somehow get my GTX 1060 to work with Windows XP, and maybe even windows 98. The box clearly reads windows 7, 8 and 10. I know this is a long shot question. Thanks!

Hi, I have this old Toshiba laptop with Windows XP, I want to set it up just so I can install some early 2000s games (the laptop is from sometime after 2006?) and I have installed all the drivers but the sound card. I would install Vista, but I don't have any more DDR2 laptop memory, and I feel like being time-period accurate. I've gone around on Google trying to find the driver but none are working, and the Toshiba page doesn't exist anymore. Any ideas on what I can do or where I should be looking? Laptop: Toshiba Satellite Pro L20 PSL2YA-00K00J Sound Card: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4370&SUBSYS_FF311179 I feel the subsys could be important to this as all the drivers I've found only match other subsys but same vendor and device, editing the .inf files doesn't seem to work.

I've been wanting to revisit Windows XP, and games I used to play when I was younger. My first thought, was to just slap another HDD on my laptop, install XP on that, and call it a day. But, my laptop is too new for XP, that it doesn't have drivers for it. Would use a VM, but it has its own quirks that I'd rather not use it. So, that leaves me to buying a dedicated computer for XP. I needed something to keep me occupied during quarantine, and was browsing on an online shopping site (Lazada), and found that I could get a Dell Optiplex 780 with a Core 2 Duo for about USD 40. So, I pulled trigger on one. Now, I could have gotten a more period-correct hardware for XP, however I have my reasons that I went with this one anyway. Most people has already sold their period-correct XP computers (Pentium 4 and Athlon XP/64) for scrap metal, and for those who still have theirs, and they're selling. Their prices are just unreasonable, like they want $100-200 for it. Second, XP-era computers were made during the capacitor plague, essentially, they're ticking timebombs. Last but not least, a Pentium 4 just inefficient and just as good as a space heater. With where I live, I'd rather not have one. Original specs are Core 2 Duo E7500 @2.93GHz, 4GB (2x1GB, 1x2GB DDR3 1066MHz), 250GB Seagate SATA HDD, Integrate Graphic, DVD-ROM, and no OS installed. Just Windows 7 Pro on the side. Now, I was just going to stick a graphics card, like a GT 210 and call it a day. But, I ended up getting carried away. Guess, I just want something to look forward to, as the parts came in. The ports on the back are a mixture of both legacy and modern ports. This computer would come in handy, if I ever need to plug in legacy peripherals. I spent additional $80-100 for the upgrades. I upgraded the CPU to the Core 2 Quad Q9500 @2.83GHz. I was aiming for the Q9650, but they're going for a pretty penny, so I decided to stick with the Q9500. Besides, the difference isn't all that significant. I upgraded the RAM, by first adding another 2GB stick, to make it 6GB, and to fill all of the open RAM slots. Eventually, I decided to go all the way to 8GB of RAM. For the graphics card. I first went with a GT 210 512MB, which should be enough for XP-era games, but whenever I put load on the graphics card, the computer simply reboots, and gives me the 2 and 4 lights on the front. Meaning, there's something wrong with the video subsystem. After a bit of Google-fu, it turns out that the graphics card was 30W, and the PCIe slot can only accommodate up to 25W for this PC. So, I replaced that with a AMD HD6450 2GB. That card handled all of my games, but for some reason The Sims 2 would either blue screen or reboot the computer. I brushed it off, as that's the only game that does that. I played more resource-heavy games, like GTA 5 (on Windows 10), and it didn't do such thing. So I brushed it off, until the card starting to show artifacts. I ended up selling that video card for parts, recoup some money, and bought a nVidia GT 710. Thankfully the card still works, three months later... The graphics card can run GTA San Andreas at 1200p, very high quality, at about 30-40 fps, and it can pan through the biggest map on SImCity 4 Deluxe, without lagging. Since I now have a more powerful CPU, more RAM, and a modernish video card. I decided to steal the third SSD off my laptop. Ditch the optical drive, and replace it with an SSD (via an optical drive adapter). Then installed Windows 10 on it. While keeping XP on the 250GB hard disk. Eventually, I got a free broken laptop, with a 256GB 850 Pro inside. So, I replaced the original 250GB HDD, with that SSD. Since we no longer have that bulky hard drive, I decided to forego the hard drive caddy, drilled holes on the bottom of the optical drive holder, and then screwed in the second SSD in there. At least, the space where the hard drive used to be, is now open for ventilation for the CPU, GPU, and heatsink. Also, since the drives are now in one location, the cables are now more organized this way. I decided to salvage the HDD fan, and adhered it on the side panel. One, is provide additional cooling to the GPU. It doesn't need it, but I put it in there anyway, otherwise, If I ditch that fan, the computer would bug me that the HDD fan has failed. Doing this, basically killed two birds with one stone. Power Supply is only 235W. Yes, it's on the paltry side, but hey. Considering what it's powering, and you're not going to be putting a beefy graphics card or anything like that here. I said Windows XP, but really. I instead installed Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2, because I can use all 8GB of RAM using 32-Bit, and since I'm still using 32-bit OS, I can still run older 16-bit games that were released during the WIndows 3.1 and 95 era. Though, I had to do some tweaks to get it to behave like a desktop OS, mainly I have to turn on the services to allow me to use audio and themes. And here's Windows 10 installed on another SSD... I don't really have anything interesting installed. Just FireFox and Office 2019. Overall, I like how this computer turned out, and if I get tired of XP. I can re-purpose this computer for other things. Not only this, but it also doesn't take up a lot of space!

Hi guys I found a 9800gtx+ for €10 near me and have been seriously thinking of buying it to upgrade my retro gaming rig with 2gb ddr2 and a q6600 Should I hold out for a bit and try to find a deal on gtx 280/60 or get the 9800gtx +? Really just want something to play everything from half life to bioshock to gta 4 on at 1080p. Also I have to upgrade my psu with all of those but whatever I'd like to hear your opinions Thanks

A little note is the PC thinks the copy isnt genuine, in like, the way where you did put in the product key but it still isnt genuine. I have since gotten rid of the warnings by deleting the registry key responsible for the pop-up on startup, and the program that's responsible for removing your desktop background and showing the pop up in the bottom right corner. So, yesterday I got myself an old XP machine with Professional SP3. Everything worked beatiful. This morning, I decide to customize it some more and stuff. I install AVG, and perform a scan. It tells me some performance things that could be improved, so I let it do the trick. It did some fixing registry and stuff. I also created another user profile. After switching to it, I noticed I was locked into Windows Classic theme. I think whatever. Well, I rebooted, and the computer now boots up for 5 minutes before even getting to the user selection screen. After I choose a user, it takes at least a minute to get into the desktop, and then another 30 secs to load explorer. And now the chaos begins. The taskbar basically stopped working altogether, no longer displaying active tasks at all. Some programs cannot be run whatsoever, as after opening, nothing happens. This applies to browsers as well. I am using a TP-LINK wireless network adapter, which worked fine before this, but now it screwed up. After more testing, the taskbar disappeared altogether! Desperate, I tried going into safe mode, which didnt work at first but it worked later. Viola! Everything works like normal. I go back to normal mode, the taskbar is back, but everything is still slow and broken. I think "Maybe, the new user is the problem!". So, off to User Manager I go. Except... it's just a blank screen with the Back and Home buttons that do nothing! I'm freaking out what happened at this point. I don't at the moment have a cd big enough to fit an XP install. It managed to install drivers for my flash drive, and that is my only way of accessing this PC from elsewhere right now. Oh yeah, and also a 500MB CD. So uhh... I was trying to fix this all day and still have no freaking clue what to do. Can anyone please tell me if there is anything I can do besides literally reinstall the OS? I have tried chkdsk, it returned fine results. sfc /scannow doesn't want to work at all because it can't connect or something.

So I'm trying to help out a friend and get his old windows XP machine back up and running so he can get any personal files off of it. I've replaced a few parts for it and I cant get it to post at all. If you need any more specific info let me know and I will get back to you. Thanks in advance

Hello, I got a laptop from a friend and he wanted to know how to change his save drive for the (C:) drive to the (D:). The (D:) drive has more storage than the (C:) drive and that's why he wants to change this so it saves to the D drive rather than the C drive. I've tried looking up ways how to do it, but his laptop is running windows xp and I couldn't find a way to do it, if there even is a way.

Aside from my current mac i also have an ancient dell computer with windows xp. If I get a new hard drive and SSD with windows 10 pre installed would it be able to run it or would i have to upgrade some of the parts in it? (I dont know what parts are inside it the plate is stuck and i have been trying to get it open for almost 20 minutes now)

Hi! It's my first time posting something on the forum, so probably this won't be seen by many users. I have the original disk of LEGO Rock Raiders and LEGO Stunt Rally, and I want to play those games on my new PC. So I try to install it (like a normal disc game). The installation proccess of both games goes smoothly, no problems arrise and everything seems normal. However, when you try to play the game (either of them, the same problem happens with both games) the game seems to start, but it just gets stuck and comes back to the launcher. I do not have very extensive knowledge about computers, so I haven't tried more advanced options. I can provide extra information (screenshot and more) as long as you help. Thank you very much for your help!

Recently got ahold of an old E Machines computer and I'm trying to find a card to add HDMI support, but the only cards I've been able to find while shopping around have been GPUs for full size PCI-E slots. I just don't know what to search for to find what i want.