Yet! More! Computer! Trouble!

[brigdh]

Okay, so the current problem with my computer is that, given that I bought it used, it didn't come with a Windows CD. Therefore when I reinstalled Windows, I did it with a friend's borrowed CD, but it was for a different brand than my computer, and it hasn't been working right. The biggest problem being, whenever I tried to activate Windows, it'd crash.

In the month of time before I had to get it activated, I was trying various Windows CDs borrowed from other people or scrounged from the recesses of my parent's basement, but they inevitably had the same problem, or would simply refuse to load, protesting that "this is not the appropriate computer". No one seems to own a plain Windows CD; it's inevitably for HP or Gateway or Compaq or some other brand that develops problems interacting with my Dell hardware.

And now we've come to the point where I can no longer log onto my computer without activating it (even though I was supposed to have another five days, argh), which it still will not do. I am not about to buy Windows at the price it sells for. At least I haven't lost anything, since I knew this was coming and had saved everything on the harddrive to CDs.

I know that there are free OSs available for download on the internet. Have any of you ever used any of them? Would you recommend them?

Comments

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hugs are nice.

And yeah. If macs didn't bug me so much whenever I used one, I think I'd have switched long since. Although to be fair, my PC had been working perfectly for over a year until I did the stupid thing I did that started all of this, so it's not entirely its fault.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

I'm insufficiently geeky to know about open-source OSs (the shame! that I should be insufficiently geeky in any context!), but as it happens, my father recently acquired a new laptop that I believe is a Dell. I can check and see whether it came with a Windows CD, if that would help.

I am, of course, assuming that having bought your computer with Windows in the first instance, you are already a legitimate licensee, needing only a copy of the disk that the first owner of the computer managed to lose along the way. As you would also assume, and have assumed, in borrowing any stray Windows disks that might have come your way. Right? Of course right!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

the shame! that I should be insufficiently geeky in any context!

Hee. I was mortified a few weeks ago, when I succumbed and went into a computer store to ask a few questions. How could I not know everything myself! But while I was waiting a woman came in who, when asked if she had anything saved on her harddrive, started to read off a list she'd written down that consisted of "My Documents, My Computer, Solitaire, a Recycle Bin..." and then interrupted herself to say, "Well, those were the things on the desktop, I don't know if they were also saved on the harddrive" and I felt much better about myself.

Right? Of course right!

*laughs* Looking back, I should have made a bigger fuss at the time over not getting a Windows CD, as it's fairly standard that the OS crashes often enough that everyone will need to reinstall it at one point or another, but I'd been counting on using one of those stray Windows disks that accumulate.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. Those people always make me feel better about the things I don't know, too.

But seriously. Is there any point in my checking to see whether that disk is available, or is it so likely to be model-specific, or somehow keyed to a single user, that it's a waste of everybody's time for me to go chasing it?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I would have said that the disk should work, but I've spent so much time over the last month trying disks I thought should work that didn't, that I hate to make you chase it down when it seems the chances are fairly high that it'll also be somehow wrong. Thank you for the offer, though.

[katsue_fox]

I think your best bet might be to buy Windows for a vastly reduced price from somewhere like Amazon. If I remember correctly, I managed to get a new and totally functional version of Windows XP from a seller on Amazon for under £100.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005MOTF/104-3714858-2237524?v=glance&s=software

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! That's better than the prices I've seen, yes, though it's still a bit more than I'd really like to spend.

[b-hallward.livejournal.com]

I asked my IT-guy roommate and he said Linux is pretty much your main option, and that you can download it free, but there are so many different versions, figuring out which to use is a headache. He didn't seem to recommend it, but then as an IT guy he hates Windows, too. And Macs. And basically all OSs.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm trying Ark Linux at the moment, because it advertises itself as "the Linux designed for Windows users". Which is probably code for "the OS for idiots who can't figure out the other ones", but at the moment I don't care as long as it works.

It's taking forever to download, though, so I've yet to see how it reacts to my computer.