Tom_ZeCat
04-18-2008, 08:09 PM
This is a follow up to my post, "Clunker Junker as a Juke Box."
My Clunker Junker that I'm going to hook up to my home entertainment center is a Pentium III maxed out at 256 MB of RAM and a 17 gig hard drive and an a second hard drive that is 90 gig. It's sole purpose will be for playing MP3s. It's a dual boot machine with Windows 98 and Windows 2000.
I fired up the old machine and did a massive uninstall of programs I wouldn't need and files I didn't want. I've transferred all my MP3s (about 23 gig worth) and have installed MediaMonkey.
So here's the snag I've run into. I've never been able to get sound to run on this computer under Win 2K. I simply could not find a driver that would work. I therefore decided to give it a go under Win 98. Unfortunately, MediaMonkey could not do the job under that OS. When I first installed it, MM complained that it could not run without a particular Access component. So I installed Access, and that took care of that. MediaMonkey would boot up fine. However, when I tried to play MP3s, all of them grayed out. MediaMonkey couldn't play a one of them. Then when I exited MM, I got the "crash" sound and the message, "This program has performed an illegal operation and must be shut down."
So I decided to see if I had better luck with WinAmp. No luck there either. The program refused to install on the grounds that it doesn't support Win 98.
So, the way I see it I have these options:
1. Stay with Win 98 and find an older version of MediaMonkey or WinAmp or some other program that supports it.
2. Do what I couldn't do before and find a sound card driver, then run MM or WinAmp under it. WinAmp specifically said in its error message that it supports Win 2K.
3. Find a sound card that supports Win 2K and install it -- go with win 2K.
4. Upgrade the machine to Windows XP. I think my hardware is adequate, albeit not ideal for Win XP. I wonder if I'll have the same sound card problem that I had with Win 2K -- or maybe XP has a better collection of drivers than Win 2K and I won't have to go sound card hunting. Of course, to do this legally means buying a copy of XP -- and the point of doing this was to get some use out of an old PC that's collecting dust. (Or I could find a crack for it, but that's not legal.)
5. Go with Ubuntu Linux. What I like about this idea is the fact that the OS is free and doesn't use a lot of resources. The big question is whether I'll be able to find a driver for its sound card. I don't even have to get either of the two CD drives to work or its floppy drive (which doesn't work). It has a working USB 1.1 port on it with which I can use a thumb drive to put new music into it.
6. Go with Ubuntu Linux and buy a new sound card that supports Linux.
I'm leaning toward junking Win 98 since it's the most buggy of options here. Its plus is the sound card already works with it. On the other hand, it seems to me the chances are good I could find a sound card driver for XP pretty easily -- XP may already have something that will work. Its down side is its activation and the fact that I'd have to either pay Bill Gates' company money or resort to an illegal cracking of it. My copy of Win 2K is a legal one that doesn't have to be activated -- that's its plus. However, back when I originally set up Win 2K in it, I spent hours and hours trying to find a sound card driver for it -- big minus. I like the Linux idea if I can find that elusive sound card driver and good MP3 playing software.
The computer I'm talking about is an HP Pavillion 8570C.
What do you guys think?
My Clunker Junker that I'm going to hook up to my home entertainment center is a Pentium III maxed out at 256 MB of RAM and a 17 gig hard drive and an a second hard drive that is 90 gig. It's sole purpose will be for playing MP3s. It's a dual boot machine with Windows 98 and Windows 2000.
I fired up the old machine and did a massive uninstall of programs I wouldn't need and files I didn't want. I've transferred all my MP3s (about 23 gig worth) and have installed MediaMonkey.
So here's the snag I've run into. I've never been able to get sound to run on this computer under Win 2K. I simply could not find a driver that would work. I therefore decided to give it a go under Win 98. Unfortunately, MediaMonkey could not do the job under that OS. When I first installed it, MM complained that it could not run without a particular Access component. So I installed Access, and that took care of that. MediaMonkey would boot up fine. However, when I tried to play MP3s, all of them grayed out. MediaMonkey couldn't play a one of them. Then when I exited MM, I got the "crash" sound and the message, "This program has performed an illegal operation and must be shut down."
So I decided to see if I had better luck with WinAmp. No luck there either. The program refused to install on the grounds that it doesn't support Win 98.
So, the way I see it I have these options:
1. Stay with Win 98 and find an older version of MediaMonkey or WinAmp or some other program that supports it.
2. Do what I couldn't do before and find a sound card driver, then run MM or WinAmp under it. WinAmp specifically said in its error message that it supports Win 2K.
3. Find a sound card that supports Win 2K and install it -- go with win 2K.
4. Upgrade the machine to Windows XP. I think my hardware is adequate, albeit not ideal for Win XP. I wonder if I'll have the same sound card problem that I had with Win 2K -- or maybe XP has a better collection of drivers than Win 2K and I won't have to go sound card hunting. Of course, to do this legally means buying a copy of XP -- and the point of doing this was to get some use out of an old PC that's collecting dust. (Or I could find a crack for it, but that's not legal.)
5. Go with Ubuntu Linux. What I like about this idea is the fact that the OS is free and doesn't use a lot of resources. The big question is whether I'll be able to find a driver for its sound card. I don't even have to get either of the two CD drives to work or its floppy drive (which doesn't work). It has a working USB 1.1 port on it with which I can use a thumb drive to put new music into it.
6. Go with Ubuntu Linux and buy a new sound card that supports Linux.
I'm leaning toward junking Win 98 since it's the most buggy of options here. Its plus is the sound card already works with it. On the other hand, it seems to me the chances are good I could find a sound card driver for XP pretty easily -- XP may already have something that will work. Its down side is its activation and the fact that I'd have to either pay Bill Gates' company money or resort to an illegal cracking of it. My copy of Win 2K is a legal one that doesn't have to be activated -- that's its plus. However, back when I originally set up Win 2K in it, I spent hours and hours trying to find a sound card driver for it -- big minus. I like the Linux idea if I can find that elusive sound card driver and good MP3 playing software.
The computer I'm talking about is an HP Pavillion 8570C.
What do you guys think?