What do these two cpu's need before I give them away?

I'd say go to a gig of ram for each...rams cheap now and at 13 and 15 they'll want to do stuff that will need the power imho.....


is the one that's slow to start apps the low memory one?

 

If you are not worried about saving any data, I would re-install windows (choose complete install) and then the other software from the original CD's. Once this is done apply all the updates (this is a very lengthy process). This will "clean-up" everything from a software prospective and make the PC run much faster. 1 gig is the the way to go. You PC will feel like a new one

 

Yes. 224 MB is.... not much. Be sure to find out which type of ram you need (SD-Ram I guess), as it might be hard to find nowadays, and how much the computer can take at all.


Edit: flash32 mentions that you should reinstall Windows - I second that, and you should format your hard drives before doing so.

 

step 1: Ensure everything you want off them is backed up
2: boot from your windows install cd
3: when windows asks you which partition you want to install windows in delete all partitions on the destination drive
4: create a new partition
5: continue windows install
6: ???????
7: PROFIT!


DELETING PARTITIONS IS FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES IRREVERSIBLE.........IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT ANYTHING RECRUIT HELP

Your local geek/friend will be more then willing to help you, it's a very simple matter if you're simply blowing everything away

 

I agree with others, up to a gig of ram and reformat the drive(s) and reinstall windows. That will fix your pause before the browser opens which is most likely caused by some spyware that was picked up somehow and also give the new owner a "fresh" slate to start on.

And perhaps a porn filtering software for the 15 year old if he is a male

 

try this link

http://www.pcworld.com/article/129977/how_to_reinstall_windows_xp.html

also has a video

 

The upper line ("Pentium 4 CPU 2.00 GHz") is what the processor tells the OS about itself, the second line is what the OS actually measures.

 

here is another site you may want to read ( allparts) ..this is for Windows XP home but I beleive most of the steps are the same

 

1GB is okay if you're sticking with XP. It's not really enough for Vista.

On the other hand, you already have enough RAM for Linux.
(244M might be a bit thin if you want a Beryl desktop -- depending on what video card it has and how much display memory is on that.)

 

hmmm...so you change the BIOS ..

Try hitting pf-12 (or whatever key to enter boot sequence/bios) on boot-up

 

Linux has come a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG way.....

but it's still for power users and those that are familiar with computers.....


If you're interested in trying linux you can download a linux "live cd" that is run the same way you run those xp install discs but doesn't make ANY changes to your computer and allows you to try out the operating system.....feel free to PM me for more information

 

are you pressing the "any key" when it asks you if you want to boot from cd?

My CPU will give me the message "press any key to boot from cd" if I press nothing it will bypass it and boot to the next device.....

 

Not to question your intelligence (I hope it doesn't come accross that way).

But are you sure you're set to boot fromm cd? Are you exiting the BIOS and "saving changes" if you're not sure, there should be an option to "exit and save changes".....

if you don't do that you may think you're set to boot from cd when you may not be.... :/