First off I have no idea what I'm doing. Second my old xp died 2 months ago. Looked into new computer, and frankly I don't need or want one. How do I go about either rebuilding an xp, or buying new parts to rebuild a new one. I am told (payed someone to look at it) my mother board is dead and also I don't have the right drivers. All I want to do is use office, vlc, pdf reader, and a video game or 2 of which I already have disc for. I don't have internet at home only at work. Is there a guide or tutorial?
I want my old computer back, how do I rebuild or buy new xp?
- Thread starter Kwolb77
- Start date
R
red
hi there
check out your local junk shops or charity shops will normally find an old xp for a fiver or so look through ebay for the same may be a bit pricey there though there plenty of old xp comps about just depend how much you want to spend car boot sale are a great place to get them also
drivers disk can be found on the internet archive under cd rom images or other sources update disk also can be found there ,all are free just ask a mate to download them
building one is easy enough ,but cheaper to buy a ready made one
long live xp
check out your local junk shops or charity shops will normally find an old xp for a fiver or so look through ebay for the same may be a bit pricey there though there plenty of old xp comps about just depend how much you want to spend car boot sale are a great place to get them also
drivers disk can be found on the internet archive under cd rom images or other sources update disk also can be found there ,all are free just ask a mate to download them
building one is easy enough ,but cheaper to buy a ready made one
long live xp
Sometimes Newegg sells older motherboards. Just type in the name and part number of your dead motherboard in the search bar. You might find it. I've done that before. Good luck.
Where do you live (Country)?
What is your budget?
Do you have any experience building your own computer at all?
If you share these things with us I would be happy to spend a little time out of my day to try and find you something that would work for you. If you go Prebuilt computers (Dell or HP) I have CD Disc Images of OEM windows Re-Install discs for both HP and Dell I could send you copies of (For Windows XP). I also have copies of the offline install packages for every Windows XP service pack too I could send you. You could download at work and then go home and install them on the computer via flash drive. This is completely legal as these are the original discs that shipped with the computers when they were new. The CD Keys are usually stored in the hardware and will be read by XP Setup when you install the Operating System again. Also this would be easier to get drivers as these two companies tend to still have the old XP drivers available on their websites today.
What is your budget?
Do you have any experience building your own computer at all?
If you share these things with us I would be happy to spend a little time out of my day to try and find you something that would work for you. If you go Prebuilt computers (Dell or HP) I have CD Disc Images of OEM windows Re-Install discs for both HP and Dell I could send you copies of (For Windows XP). I also have copies of the offline install packages for every Windows XP service pack too I could send you. You could download at work and then go home and install them on the computer via flash drive. This is completely legal as these are the original discs that shipped with the computers when they were new. The CD Keys are usually stored in the hardware and will be read by XP Setup when you install the Operating System again. Also this would be easier to get drivers as these two companies tend to still have the old XP drivers available on their websites today.
I suspect that most computers that came with Windows XP did not have key built into the hardware. For example, my old HP Pavilion laptop had the Windows XP Home product key on a Certificate of Authenticity label. The label was located on the bottom of the laptop. Note the Windows XP Home CD that came with the laptop has a different Windows XP product key in a file called unattended.txt. This is a generic Windows XP Home product key. If the CD is used to install Windows XP it will expire in 14 days. The actual product key from the label must be used to keep Windows XP activated beyond that.
A family member had a Compaq desktop that needed Windows XP Home reinstalled. I used the Windows XP Home CD from my laptop to reinstall Windows XP Home. Once that was done I booted the computer and changed the generic product key to the real one for their computer.
I have the following laptop:
Product number: Pavilion zv5200 (PM005UA#ABA)
Service tag: zv5380us
HP no longer has any support for that laptop including downloads. Fortunately, I downloaded the software and drivers for it when they were still available on their website. I am sure that is true for a lot of old computers that came with Windows XP. That means a person would have to get lucky and find the drivers and other software elsewhere online.
A person might have better luck with a non-oem computer. That is, a computer made with non-propritory parts. For example, I have a couple old computers non-oem motherboards. The motherboard are ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe and ASUS A7V400-MX. Some drivers are still available for these motherboards. Note, ASUS no longer provides direct support for these motherboads from their website. For example, doing a google search for "A7V400-MX drivers" will find the ASUS web page for the downloads for that motherboard. I suspect support for other old motherboards from other manufacturers may be found that way.
Drivers for many old video cards with chipsets by nvidia and ATI are still available. For example, for the twenty year old nVidia GeForce3 Ti 200 video card nVidia has this driver:
Version: 93.71 WHQL
Release Date: 2006.11.2
Operating System: Windows XP, Windows 2000
Computers made between 2001 and 2006 are guaranteed to support Windows XP. ALthough most computer made in 2007 came with Windows Vista some computers were still available with Windows XP for a year or two after that.Computers with non-oem motherboards may support Windows XP several years after 2006. For example, I bought a motherboard in 2011 that still had drivers for Windows XP.
All this shows is that with a little knowledge and persistence the drivers for many old computers running Windows XP are still availble. Unfortunately, a person has to do more work now since the drivers are getting harder to find.
The drivers part I was unaware of. I see HP did drop support (and driver downloads) for all of their old machines recently, that's sad. But on the cd key part: I have multiple XP-Era machines here. A gateway desktop, HP laptop, Dell laptop, and a Compaq convertible tablet drawing laptop. All of these machines I have been able to install XP from their related OEM discs and activate them online without entering any CD Keys in the system at all. XP automagically finds the key on it's own. Either through some on the CD's or it's in the hardware, I don't know. But I activated them years ago and they have run for several years with no issues and no entering any CD Keys. In fact I activated this compaq tablet machine just a few months ago online with XP Tablet Edition and it works flawlessly. I know first hand that this works and will continue to work for a long time once activated.
I just had to reinstall Windows XP Pro on a computer I first built over 15 years ago. I had the driver files for anything the Windows XP didn't install. I tried online activation but that failed. I was forced to do phone activation. I hate that because it is a pain to do.
I use the following for networking: Linksys WMP54G v4 Wireless-G PCI Adapter
For the driver I use the one for a Ralink RT2500 Wireless LAN Card. This driver works for both Windows XP and Windows 7.
The biggest problem with Windows XP is software. For example, all the anti-virus software I tried would not run on my computer. The computer has an AMD Athlon XP2400+. This CPU does not support SSE2 which has become a requirement for a lot of software.
The two computers I powered up for the first time in over five years had three hard drives between them. Even though they all passed chkdsk they were either slow or crashed. The Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital diagnostic programs I ran on them shows all three had sector errors. One of the drives has only a few errors so a low level format fixed the drive so the errors could be bypassed. The other two drives had too many errors so I had to replaced them with one larger drive. Note all the drives are stable for now but they are probably close the end of their lives.
All hard drives have spare sectors that can be used to replace bad ones. You have to use special software to find the bad sectors and replace them with spare ones. Unfortunately, once the spares run out there is nothing that can be done to save the drive.
One of the old computers is running Windows XP Pro while the other is running Windows 7 Home. I can't believe how much better Windows 7 is than Windows XP. There is no comparison.
I use the following for networking: Linksys WMP54G v4 Wireless-G PCI Adapter
For the driver I use the one for a Ralink RT2500 Wireless LAN Card. This driver works for both Windows XP and Windows 7.
The biggest problem with Windows XP is software. For example, all the anti-virus software I tried would not run on my computer. The computer has an AMD Athlon XP2400+. This CPU does not support SSE2 which has become a requirement for a lot of software.
The two computers I powered up for the first time in over five years had three hard drives between them. Even though they all passed chkdsk they were either slow or crashed. The Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital diagnostic programs I ran on them shows all three had sector errors. One of the drives has only a few errors so a low level format fixed the drive so the errors could be bypassed. The other two drives had too many errors so I had to replaced them with one larger drive. Note all the drives are stable for now but they are probably close the end of their lives.
All hard drives have spare sectors that can be used to replace bad ones. You have to use special software to find the bad sectors and replace them with spare ones. Unfortunately, once the spares run out there is nothing that can be done to save the drive.
One of the old computers is running Windows XP Pro while the other is running Windows 7 Home. I can't believe how much better Windows 7 is than Windows XP. There is no comparison.
I have the following:
CPU: AMD FX8350
RAM: Ripjaws X 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
MBD: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 (rev. 1.0)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB
O/S: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit / Windows 7 Home 64-bit
SSD: Samsung 870 EVO 2.5 Inch SATA SSD (1TB)
HD1: WDC Blue (1TB)
HD2: WDC Blue (1TB)
OPT: ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVD-RW (24X)
I bought the motherboard in 2011 and installed Windows 7 Ultimate on it. There are Windows XP drivers available for it but I never considered installing Windows XP on it. I have three other computers that started with Windows XP but only one still has Windows XP on it. The other two were upgraded to Windows 7.
I have some questions:
- I assume you are using Windows XP Professional x64?
- Why Windows XP 64-bit? It was never distributed retail and had limited support. It only makes sense if you have a special need for it.
- I assume you are booting from a hard drive. How are going to use a M.2 SSD when there is no support for it? Also there may be a problem with any SSD since Windows XP does not support TRIM.
- Do have the Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional? If so, will it work with 2400mhz RAM?
- Why SLI? SLI is only useful if you have a game that specifically makes use of it. Otherwise the second GPU is unused.
Yes I'm using xp64 pro.
I have CAD software for it.
No. I'm booting from an m.2 ssd.
Not the pro. And yes it works with 2400mhz ram.
The support for sli in xp is actually implemented at the driver level so there is some benefits even if the game isn't explicitly written for sli.
I see you have the Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer. It supports up to DDR3 2450. I also see that it has an M.2 socket. I never knew that any 990FX motherboard supported M.2. Did that motherboard come out in 2016? If so that would explain its M.2 support. Did you have any problem installing Windows XP on the M.2 SSD.
I built the successor to my 990FX board in 2017. By that time the 990FX chipset was obsolete with the launch of the AMD Ryzen. I bought a AMD Ryzen 7 1700X CPU with an AMD X370 chipset motherboard.
My gaming computer has these specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
MBD: ASUS PRIME X370-PRO
RAM: DDR4 2666MHz 16GB (2 x 8GB)
GPU: Nvidia 3060-Ti (8GB)
SSD1: M.2 NVME SSD (2TB)
SSD2: M.2 NVME SSD (2TB) *
O/S: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
* mounted in M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter
A couple years ago I had planned on building a new computer by late 2021 or early 2022. With the delays of COVID-19 I have decided to wait for AMD's Zen 4. Last I heard AMD is trying for a September 2022 launch. Hopefully, I will have my new computer a year from now.
Last edited:
That is a nice Ryzen build. I am also waiting for the new AMD cpus to do my next build. Waiting to see if they overtake Intels 12th gen. Not really excited about the weird design of the 12th gen. I do plan on buying a 3070ti soon for my current build.
And no I had no issues with the xp install. I have a thumb drive with the install and all drivers and software for the 990fx fatality build.
With current prices you have to be patient. I have the ASUS ROG Strix NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti V2 OC Edition. Last October I got it for $650. I got it for a good price because I got on a waiting list. The same card on a buy now online was $1000-$1100 at the time. I see my card on Amazon now is $670-$870. At lease for some cards the price has come down. I would like to have gotten a RTX3070 or RTX3080 but I am not willing to pay over $1000 for any card. Some people say they will not buy a card until it drops to MSRP at launch. In reality the MSRP is whatever the going price is.
There are no details yet for Zen 4 but since launch is possibly six months away we should be seeing something soon. My biggest holdup is price. A CPU, RAM, and motherboard could top $1500. I will probably pull the RTX3060Ti and move it to my new build. My current build will get its GTX1060 6GB back.
Of course you shouldn't have any problems with XP on a 990FX system. AMD's 990FX platform is completely supported with full WindowsXP Support for all onboard devices on all motherboards. It's an extremely slow of a system in actual performance. But it is supported.