Pain is....

[LostMyMind]

Well, maybe 64MB straight off the CD. But after service patches and updates. 64MB minimum it ain't.

[Talon]

I just experienced pain today. 2 calls, 2 old people, both in a ROW. 60 minutes of explaining and re-explaining the concept that a cable goes out of their receiver and in to their TV. A whole hour of my life I'll never get back

[RichS]

Just a QUICK note for everyone (having just studied installing and running XP chapter in my A+ book and passing the chapter test today ) Windows XP requires a MINIMUM of 64MB of RAM to run, BUT to get acceptable performance, it is recommended that one have AT LEAST 128MB - 4 GB of RAM

From my experience, yes 64MB is the lowest amount of RAM XP needs to install. Believe me, it's a total pain in the behind (see post about the Compaq), but it can be done.

128 MB is OK, but still system performance is sluggish and slow. That's why I've hated to work on early systems with XP - the manufacturer usually put only 128MB in the system.

That's why our custom systems used to have a minimum of 256MB. Now RAM is cheap enough that we've boosted that to 512MB using 2x256MB for dual channel performance.

Personally, I haven't run XP on less that 1GB (2x512mb, dual channel), but then I'm either recording or editing video with my system.

[dispatch]

pain is getting back from 6 months in hawaii working in hell, and being introduced to the frankenstein of computers. I dubbed it frankenstein because my father decided he wanted internet so he grabbed whatever worked out of a stack of 4 year old CPUs he had killed previously and looted some things from my stash since I was away and wouldn't mind, then he had me take a look at it because "it ran slow"

he was running-

XP with SEVEN user accounts (including one for the cat)
Norton
Windows antivirus
G-force video card

apparently on 64 mb and he couldn't figure out why outlook wouldn't work, this was in january, I still can't beat through his, or anyone else's, head that $50 at best buy will get you a gig and a half and solve a few problems for you

and they can't figure out why I want to get my own PC on a seperate internet connection when there's a "perfectly good computer right here"

I swear I'd have better luck trying to get an apple 2 to run broadband than de-bugging that thing because in the already mind numbing crawl pace I have to work at gets screwed when a popup comes in (I'm pretty sure the spyware has written itself into the bios, no joke).

[technical.angel]

... the 64 mg machine COMING BACK!!!!!!!!!!!

Jenni

[LostMyMind]

short out the motherboard, put it out of it's misery.

[technical.angel]

I'm trying to convince Bossman to let me give it a 6 shotgun salute.

The thing has been trying to install SP2 since oh... 9am this morning. Two and a half hours later, we're a little over half way.

Jenni

[Tejas]

pain for me - using windows. i love the goodness of OS X - at the moment i'm running the Dev Version of leopard. it's awesome

[JustADude]

This was a couple years ago when I built my tower, but pain is...

...opening up your finger while trying to get the MoBo screwed down

...a defective packet of thermal paste that gets over everything on the table.

...droping the old case you just salvaged some parts from on your shin AND foot.

...finding out that not two weeks later the graphics card you bought just droped $60.

[MacPrince]

pain for me - using windows. i love the goodness of OS X - at the moment i'm running the Dev Version of leopard. it's awesome

Cool. I won't ask how you got it.

...finding out that not two weeks later the graphics card you bought just droped $60.

That's why you buy from somewhere that's got a 30 day price guarantee. ("Our price on an item drops within 30 days, come back and we'll give you the difference")

[trunks2k]

T

...opening up your finger while trying to get the MoBo screwed down

A few years ago I was assisting my friend in putting his computer together. I was trying to get a slot cover off of one of the drive bays, but I couldn't get it off. So I pushed REALLY hard on it with a screw driver. Suddenly, it gave way and my hand shoots through the bay, with my finger catching the edge of the case. I had to get 5 stitches.

[Crosshair]

There is nothing as beautifull as a well tuned Windows 98 setup. It is very stable and fast on computers that are well obsolete by modern standards. (Pentium 166MMX, 80 MB of RAM setup I have works great.) I always use Norton Ghost to save the install so if I FUBAR it I can just have the original install in 2 minutes. I have some old HP systems now that I'm gona put 98 on. (833 Mhz, 256 MB RAM, 10 Gb hard drive. )

[technical.angel]

THE 64MG PAVILION IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!

Jenni

[LostMyMind]

Wow, and it only took you a week to install it

[repsac]

You want to talk pain? My first laptop cost me fifty buck, the HD didn't fit in it right, it had only two colors (funky brown and black) and ran windows 3.1.

This was in 98. Don't even ask about it's connection speed.