Lawrence wrote:
>need advice on Upgrading a Dell Dimension 8400.>>


What sort of troubles are you running into?  Your system looks pretty good 
to me.

It's amazing how many people either throw away or upgrade perfectly good 
computers when all they need is a reformat and reinstallation of the 
software.  Even removing everything non-essential from startups can work 
wonders.

I'd at least try that first before spending money on upgrades. Reinstall 
Windows (XP?) from a proper XP disk, not a manufacturers "restore" disk, 
which are usually loaded with a lot of proprietary junk. This is often the 
primary cause of poor performance. I'm not familiar with Dell restore 
disks---with luck, you may have the option of installing just Windows alone.

The alternative, if you can't lay your hands on an XP disk, is to use the 
restore disk, then spend some time cleaning out all the junk and 
uninstalling whatever you don't need---try to get the system as clean as 
you can before installing your own software. Particularly eliminate known 
performance drags such as Nortons. Though this will never be quite as good 
as starting out from a clean reformatted hard drive.

Don Penlington
 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

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