Need advice on 7 years old computer

[Pesca]

I will try to tell you the long story short:

I have a COMPAQ Presario 1500, so about 7 years old that I now use at my work. I upgraded the RAM to its maximum (1 Gb)and changed the battery.

So I need it to be able to read and create all the Microsoft Office tools (word, excel, powerpoint,etc..) and an old version of adobe acrobat to create PDF file.

My mistake was months ago (when I thought I did not need it anymore) to give it to my wife who first thing, asked one of her IT friend to reset it. I don't know why, but after reinstalling XP SP3 (that part is good, I believe), he decided to install Office 2007 on it (may be not as good, even if the interface is nice).

So now the computer fan is working overtime and the computer crashes about once or twice a day.

I believe it crashes because the video card cannot follow anymore with all these ads on internet pages and usually when I try to see a short video (trailer of movies or Youtube link). It is really slow when I move from Firefox to Outlook for example, and takes few seconds to show the new window.

I read in another thread that moving the computer from XP to Ubuntu could help it as it uses less memory/power to run. Is it the case also for the video part?

Do you think that could help with my problem or my problem is somewhere else?
If I move to Ubuntu, I will therefore use the OpenOffice suite. Will I be able to continue to work as usual on microsoft documents (transparent for my colleagues and clients)? Will I be able to use my old version of Adobe acrobat (6.0)?

Thanks for any help you could provide me.
I hope soon to be able to watch the links you provide ;-).

 

[Volvohead]

Your IT friend should know better.

Office '07 is a bit of a pig. It wouldn't surprise me if it is severely taxing this elderly system.

I am forced to run Office '07 on a relatively new core2duo system with a couple gb, and it even bogs that down from time to time.

OO is lightweight in comparison.

I would just dump the Office in favor of OO. Your system should feel a lot better by doing so.

Otherwise, SP3 is a good thing.

 

[jimvegas]

Anti-virus software using too many resources?
Also may have spyware or a virus.

 

[crw]

If you install OO, for either Ubuntu or Windows, you will be able to work in all of the common Microsoft formats. There is a small possibility that some obscure features that exist in the proprietary Microsoft format won't work in OO, but in my mind, I'd go for it.

If you go for Ubuntu, I'd install version 9.04 instead of 9.10. You could move to 9.10 in a few months... people say it's buggy and most things would be fixed within that time.

My Ubuntu system works great. Once you get it up and running, the system has a very nice update feature. It updates the system automatically every few days.

The only trouble I had with Ubuntu and Firefox was that I needed to pull some tricks to get Firefox to use the Adobe Flash player instead of an open source one... but you can get information on that on the net. There are many, many great explanations on how to do just about anything with Ubuntu on the web.

 

[Familyguy]

OpenOffice rocks. I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 + OO on a 3 year old laptop as I write this (in another window). It works great! 1GB is more than enough memory and OO has a button on the toolbar that will convert the current document to Adobe PDF format. I also use OO occasionally on Windows XP and Win7. Highly recommended.

Best,

 

[bepperb]

Why not take off Office and install OpenOffice for Windows right on the XP sp3 install? At least give that a try, it will take less time and hassle, and XP SP3 is a decent OS.

 

[Pesca]

So, you also believe that it comes from Office 2007?
For some time, I was thinking on going back to 2003, but moving to Ubuntu and OO could be a better move. What do you think?

Yes Volvohead, I was surprised when I saw it installed on this computer. Maybe he did not have the 2003 version or/and he wanted to please my wife, I don't know.

JimVegas, I use Avast. Yes, it slows the system at start up and when it is searching for updates, but other than that, I find it quite powerful (it saved me from one attack of 6 viruses). Does it work on Ubuntu also (forget to ask, I would like to keep it)?
Otherwise, the computer was quite slow from the beginning when I get it back, that is why I upgraded the RAM.

CRW, thanks for the advices. I already started to check on the net, but did not read a lot for now. I will look for the 9.04 version.
BTW, will I be able to run the 2007 office documents with OO (the docx, xlsx, etc...)? I started to do the mistake of saving my work on this format. It is better to reopen everything and save it back in 2003 format?

Otherwise, It has been few years that I did not play on computers so, just to confirm: After downloading and burning the Ubuntu disc, do I have to format my hard drive before installing Ubuntu, or can I just overwrite it? Do I have to save all my work on an external drive and installing back after all the installation is complete? How about all what is in Outlook (contacts, calendar, messages)?

Last question, for now: Your thought on Xubuntu, since it seems to be even lighter? Could it be a good choice for my old computer?

Thanks again.

 

[Familyguy]

Originally Posted By: crw

The only trouble I had with Ubuntu and Firefox was that I needed to pull some tricks to get Firefox to use the Adobe Flash player instead of an open source one... but you can get information on that on the net. There are many, many great explanations on how to do just about anything with Ubuntu on the web.


No tricks needed. In the update manager, just choose Adobe Flash "nonfree" or whatever it's called these days and you'll get the binary install of the Linux flash plugin. Point and click.

Best,

 

[Pesca]

So consensus is to get rid of 2007 on this laptop. Point taken.
What about the 2007 documents with OO?

And should I stay with XP SP3 or move to Ubuntu (or Xubuntu)?

 

[Familyguy]

Originally Posted By: Pesca
So consensus is to get rid of 2007 on this laptop. Point taken.
What about the 2007 documents with OO?

And should I stay with XP SP3 or move to Ubuntu (or Xubuntu)?


OpenOffice will read MS Office 2007 documents just fine and can save in pretty much any format you can imagine. Try it on XP first and if that's not working for you, "upgrade" to Ubuntu 9.10.

 

[tmorris1]

This doesn't sound like a problem with Office 2007. Why would it crash when you are not running Office. Sounds like a video card driver was changed or it is overheating if the fan is running like mad. Check all the fans and heatsinks. I have run Office 2007 on a PC older than yours and it ran just fine.

 

[Volvohead]

Office '07 taxes the entire system so that rendering calls from the GPU can't be adequately handled. On a system that old, I'm sure the CPU is lending a heavy hand on some video tasks.

The current OO will deal with .docx files just fine.

This system will not be a burner even with OO. But while anyone would load it up with Office '07 is beyond me.

I think XP SP3 just fine and there is no need for Linux here, although I'm sure that will annoy the Ubuntu groupies.

 

[PandaBear]

Check for bad fans, capacitors, power supply, memory, etc.

It shouldn't crash just because a different office is installed. Also check for virus and malware.

At 7 years old, power supply and CPU fans are long overdue.

 

[adam123]

If it crashes just because the application is using higher cpu, then it has just uncovered a Physical weakness in the system. You need to determine what is causing the problem, physically (if you're sure it's not software based), before permanent damage occurs, to the overall system.

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: adam123
If it crashes just because the application is using higher cpu, then it has just uncovered a Physical weakness in the system. You need to determine what is causing the problem, physically (if you're sure it's not software based), before permanent damage occurs, to the overall system.


I agree. Try running Prime95 or something that is a stress test on the system and see if you get crashes. Any PC that is physically healthy and setup properly should not crash from high CPU or GPU usage. Office isn't that taxing anyway. We have Office 2007 on many PC's of that vintage and they all run fine. They are not as fast as the newer Core2Duos but they run fine once running.

 

[youdontwannaknow]

Originally Posted By: Pesca
I don't know why, but after reinstalling XP SP3 (that part is good, I believe), he decided to install Office 2007 on it (may be not as good, even if the interface is nice).

So now the computer fan is working overtime and the computer crashes about once or twice a day.

I believe it crashes because the video card cannot follow anymore with all these ads on internet pages and usually when I try to see a short video (trailer of movies or Youtube link). It is really slow when I move from Firefox to Outlook for example, and takes few seconds to show the new window.


after 7 years wouldn't be bad idea to just format the hard drive and resintall things one step at a time.

What kind of graphics card/chip does this computer have ? I highly doubt that things like ads and video can make the cpu heat up or the graphics to crash.

Look in the task manager and see what's consuming the most cpu when its slow and how much of the 1GB memory it has occupied.

Ofcourse you could try uninstalling Office'07 but that may not neccessarily be the problem. Could be something else. Have you tried cleaning up your computer with utilities like CCleaner or Advanced System Care ? Defrag the harddrive ,etc..?

 

[Pesca]

Thanks to all the advices.

I talked to my wife and she was the one requesting Office 2007. I was suggesting putting 2003 which was previously there.
At the time, it did reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything (it was long due).

From what I remember, on this computer, the RAM is shared with the video card (or something like that). I don't think there is a dedicated video RAM like on newer computers.

I will try to run Prime95 to test the computer. Do you think it could be due to the fact I move the RAM from 500Mo to 1Go? The upper left part of the keyboard where the memory is is usually really warn, almost hot, and that is this fan which is working overtime.
I know when the computer is going to crash: The video slows and jumps from frame to frame, the mouse pointer disappears, then a pause and nothing anymore.

One of my BIL is a IT guy, so I will call him to get some advices (and he is a Linux fan from what my wife tells me).

Anyway, I am more and more inclined to move to Ubuntu and OO (they look to be really cool, kinda like Mac but cheaper in price since they are free), but I still need to understand why it is crashing from time to time.

If you have more advices/ideas, do not hesitate.
Thanks again.

 

[Pesca]

Originally Posted By: tmorris1
Originally Posted By: adam123
If it crashes just because the application is using higher cpu, then it has just uncovered a Physical weakness in the system. You need to determine what is causing the problem, physically (if you're sure it's not software based), before permanent damage occurs, to the overall system.


I agree. Try running Prime95 or something that is a stress test on the system and see if you get crashes. Any PC that is physically healthy and setup properly should not crash from high CPU or GPU usage. Office isn't that taxing anyway. We have Office 2007 on many PC's of that vintage and they all run fine. They are not as fast as the newer Core2Duos but they run fine once running.


OK, so I tried Prime95. The problem is that the computer crashed before being able to tell what was wrong (I used the blend test).
Is there a way to see what is going on in there?

I cannot reach my BIL. With the nice weather over there (and here too), he is probably hiking somewhere (and I should too).

I would like, at least, install OO on the computer this weekend, but not sure how to do this without losing all the Outlook data (emails, contacts, calendar: That is my work computer).
Do I install it on the computer, ask the "equivalent Outlook" to import everything from Outlook, and after remove the Office suite, or do I uninstall the Office suite before installing OO ?

Also, I made a bootable CD copy of Ubuntu. Was I right to make it bootable?

Thanks for any help.

 

[OVERKILL]

Try using small FFT's. That tests the CPU specifically. Large FFT's test RAM.

 

[tmorris1]

It
Originally Posted By: Pesca
Originally Posted By: tmorris1
Originally Posted By: adam123
If it crashes just because the application is using higher cpu, then it has just uncovered a Physical weakness in the system. You need to determine what is causing the problem, physically (if you're sure it's not software based), before permanent damage occurs, to the overall system.


I agree. Try running Prime95 or something that is a stress test on the system and see if you get crashes. Any PC that is physically healthy and setup properly should not crash from high CPU or GPU usage. Office isn't that taxing anyway. We have Office 2007 on many PC's of that vintage and they all run fine. They are not as fast as the newer Core2Duos but they run fine once running.


OK, so I tried Prime95. The problem is that the computer crashed before being able to tell what was wrong (I used the blend test).
Is there a way to see what is going on in there?

I cannot reach my BIL. With the nice weather over there (and here too), he is probably hiking somewhere (and I should too).

I would like, at least, install OO on the computer this weekend, but not sure how to do this without losing all the Outlook data (emails, contacts, calendar: That is my work computer).
Do I install it on the computer, ask the "equivalent Outlook" to import everything from Outlook, and after remove the Office suite, or do I uninstall the Office suite before installing OO ?

Also, I made a bootable CD copy of Ubuntu. Was I right to make it bootable?

Thanks for any help.

You mentioned earlier that it gets really warm. Try cleaning out the fan and heatsink. I do this on my laptop a couple times a year. They get plugged with dust and lint. The fact that it fails Prime95 shows that the problem is not Office 2007 itself. You need to fix the overall instabilty problem before worrying about installing or uninstalling a software. If you recently added RAM, it could be a bad RAM module too.