Anyone know a lot about Windows ME

Vegasgustan

Vegasgustan

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Sep 3, 2004
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Lost Wages, Nevada
Hello,

So get this. I am a Mac guy. Tried and True. However, since Civ 3 Conquests is not available on the Mac and never will be, I got a PC. I got the thing for free. Straight up for free no strings attached. Well, except for the fact that it is an old Dell L600R that is running on Windows ME. :cry: :cry: :cry:

Anyway, the darn things freezes up randomly. And when I say freezes up, I mean Ctrl Alt Del will not work. No mouse. No even shutting the power off on the tower. No, I have to pull the plug literally. There is no rhyme or reason to the freezing. It just happens. I finally got Civ 3 to start up and it worked for about an hour and then *boom* freezes. I hope it auto-saved, but I can't even no that because now when I turn it back on the damn thing gets to the desktop and is frozen. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance. :goodjob:
 
The Person said:
Well, everybody who has ever used Windows ME has thought it's crap, as it's the most buggy release of Windows ever. My friend had it, and it froze every half hour. My solution: Get another OS.
Click to expand...

New OS, huh? Those are a couple hundred bucks right? Great....
 
Yeah, the price is a big hindrance. And I don't know if Civ3 works very well on Linux...

But the sad truth is that ME is the most buggy Windows release ever. (No wonder the comp was free; the former owner was probably just happy to get rid of it.)
 
Well, I just looked in to Windows XP and the upgrade to it from ME is only $99.00. I guess that is a little bit better. Or do you think I should wipe the damn thing clean and buy the whole XP for $200?
 
I don't know, as I have no experience with upgrade packages. But if the upgrade has all the features of the full version, then go for it. It'll be worth it. Words can't describe how much better my friend felt when he upgraded to XP.

But purchasing the full version can be a good idea, since then you have a guarantee in case you have to format your hard drive. You're pretty screwed then if you only have the upgrade package.
 
I see. Well, I just don't know what to do. I just think spending $200 on XP just to play CIV3C is a little insane. I mean I have Vanilla on my Mac, but damn I like all the little fun things that come with Conquests. If I did spend the $200 I should get some sort of award for being the most freakin' fanatic fanatic there is!
 
Ditto, I never had any experiances on upgrading from one OS version to another.
 
Do you have an install disk for ME? If so, then upgrading would work as follows:

Reformat the entire hard-drive.
Put in the XP upgrade disk. It will prompt you that its an upgrade, and you need to insert youyr ME disk to verify that you qualify for the upgrade. Do this.
Continue and install XP.

I think that upgraded like this, using a win 98 disk I had - you might be able to get win98 cheap on Ebay to use as the upgrade-enabler! Note: you'd need a "FULL" win 98 version, not an upgrade version (and you'd do best to check to comfirm that Win98 allows the XP upgrade as well)



The other option if you don't have an install disk for ME is to simply install XP over-the-top. That's really not ideal, as it might leave you with some legacy ME 'issues'.

Are you doing any academic studies? If so, you might be able to get an academic (full) version of Xp - which would be a bit cheaper.
 
Ainwood: Thanks for all the great advice. Apparently though this computer will not handle XP...too slow and old. At least that is what I was told. I think I should find a full copy of 98 and just uninstall ME and install 98.

homeyg: My boss. It was one that was sitting around the office collecting dust when they bought all new ones with XP Professional and Flat Screens etc.

MarineCorps: Thanks for that. I am now trying to find a copy of 98 for cheap...

*edit* Well, I just did some research of my own and the processor is fine, but it looks like it will need more RAM. Well, RAM for that old guy is nice an pricey...about $75.00 for 256 and that is all I could find.
 
if u cant install XP get 2000.. ANYTHING is better than ME....even mac ( i HATE mac) but i know you can pick up a full licenced copy of 2000 on ebay, my lil bro just did for like 60. Ram is there also, cheap, Also go to canadacomputers.com, and they always have GREAT prices. but u can always find some cheapparts on ebay.. heck i might have a 256 or 128 stick of ram here at the house, PM me with what kind of ram it is and what specs the pc has,if I have it lying around ill send it yer way for a small fee.... you might also want to check into wether the hdd needs to have a virus scan and a spyware scan, usually old office computers need it bad. I got one from my old work 500 spyware on it. but lemme know what u need and i can usually find stuff like that REAL cheap.
 
ME was really really bad. LOL. I'm surprised there hasn't been a class action lawsuit against Microsoft for it ... or has there been one? I know there was a lawsuit against Ultima Online.

98 is better than ME except that games in the future may be incompatible with 98 sooner than they are incompatible with ME.
 
cierdan said:
98 is better than ME except that games in the future may be incompatible with 98 sooner than they are incompatible with ME.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt that. if Microsoft had it's way then ME would be purged from the history books.;)

@Vegasgustan: $75 for 256MB? Geez thats a rip off. Cheaper memory
 
Personally, I would suggest going to XP. ME is not a very good verson of windows. I had it for a while, Very buggy, and it hated my video card drivers.
 
Thanks again to everyone. I have checked the computer for spy ware and viruses and there were none found. I did notice one wierd thing and I can't seem to figure it out. When I do a Ctrl+Alt+Del it shows that Explorer is running and will not respond. THIS COMPUTER IS NOT HOOKED UP TO THE INTERNET! I tried to make it force quit, but then it just shows up again. Any thoughts on that?

I still want to install XP or 98, but for XP I would need more RAM at least another 128 but 256 would be alot better.
 
Yes ME is about the worst thing ever to happen to me, nevermind that the automatic update function keept crashing the pc, It also gave me a BSoD regularly. If you don't want to upgrade your hardware, you might seriously want to look at win2k. I have had very positive experiences with it. Pretty stable and reliable, something a Mac user might apreciate. There is also a version of Linux that alows you to use windows executables, although I do not remember the name of the distribution, it is probable that you need a system with more oomph to efectively run that.
My advice: get a cheap version of 2000 and don't do any updates, they will bog down your system eventualy.
 
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