I have an older Gateway with an AMD Athlon 1000MHz and 128MB of memory. After about 5 years of use with little or no problems (Windows ME installed) by manufacturer, it is starting to act up by slowing down, failing to properly start etc. I plan to reinstall the system to see if I can clear out the cobwebs and am asking for advice. I will be using the three system restoration disks furnished with the original system. do I need to reformat the disk first or what should I do before starting restoration or is as simple as just puting in the disks and following on screen directions. This is not the prime computer and is used primarily for playing simple games, surfing the web and some printing and letter work by various family members. Any suggestion apprecieated, I might even be able to go as far as adding a bit of memory and puting Windows XP Home on it if that is advisable. thanks, rodney

If ME worked for you fine for all these years, then stick with it, as it's better for gaming anyway. Save any personal items that you want to an external drive or by burning to CD. And yes, it's as simple as putting in the restore discs and following the instructions. Most restore sets format the drive and restore the system to the same condition as it was when you bought it.

Jim's advice could be well heeded and you may never have any further problems but ("I might even be able to go as far as adding a bit of memory and putting Windows XP Home on it if that is advisable") MS longer support Win ME.

XP SP2 and IE7 are fully supported and should be a safer online experience. Good luck.

Bill.

There are still thousands of systems running fine out there without Microsoft's support - Windows 95, 98, etc. I'll bet there are still quite a few Windows 3.1 systems in use today (we have one at work on our gas logging system). MS's support has gotten so ratty, I won't even update my XP install anymore. It runs fine as it is with nothing more than the SP2 upgrade. Just because something isn't 'supported' doesn't keep it from working. Good firewall, anti-spyware and A-V programs will take care of the 'bad boys' trying to get in. But, as I stress quite often, a good full system backup is still the best insurance.

Jim, "Just because something isn't 'supported' doesn't keep it from working." Well, it will do eventually!

I fully agree and see your point, I'm a believer in 3.1 (I used it too long not to love it!). Actually, Rodney should put Vista on it and have a lot of fun!

Bill.

That system is far from being able to handle Vista.

"Consumers looking to take full advantage of Windows Vista, including its new advanced user interface called Aero, will need more powerful hardware. A 1GHz processor, 40GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM are required at the base level, as well as a modern DirectX 9 graphics card with at least 128MB of video RAM. 256MB of video memory is required for higher resolutions."

A big chunk of RAM upgrade and a good video card may get it going.

The purpose of reporting a post is if it is violation of SAF guidelines.

As for your sound issue, you will need to reinstall the drivers for your audio card. Download them from the manufacturer website.