What Should You Do With Your Old Computer?

Keep your aging machine from becoming a doorstop; find the source of Windows' error messages; silence your modem.

If you use the wise advice in this month's Buyers' Guide issue to find your perfect PC, you may wonder what to do with your old system. You can't trade it in, and selling it may be more of a hassle than it's worth. If you throw it away, you may actually have to pay someone to take it. Is a three- or four-year-old PC really worthless? Not at all! Here are some ways to extend an old PC's usefulness.

Why Not Keep It?

A smooth transition to a new system isn't guaranteed. A corollary to Murphy's Law states that the day after you delete a file, throw out a software manual, or give away an old computer is the day you desperately need it. Your old system may not be suited to high-speed graphics or fast-paced games, but if it's sporting a Pentium II CPU or better, it's probably more than adequate for word processing, Web browsing, and other basic tasks. New home networking products make sharing a high-speed Internet link cheaper and easier than ever. Check out Home Office: Going Wireless? Consider Cost, Security for more on home networks.

If your old computer is too slow, consider adding more RAM. Upgrading your PC's memory is easy and still relatively cheap (though not as cheap as it was a few months ago). It's often an effective performance booster, especially if your old PC has less than 128MB of RAM. Point your browser to Upgrade Guide: Install RAM modules step by step for more on memory upgrades.

Another way to breathe new life into an old system is to reinstall Windows and your applications. Over time, Windows accumulates bugs and glitches that slow performance. After the reinstall, be sure to download all patches available for your OS from Microsoft's Windows Update site.

If your PC has to go, consider donating it to a charity that accepts computers. To find a local one, search the PEP National Directory of Computer Recycling Programs.

Here are a few donating tips:

Make sure your PC is wanted. Any system with a Pentium processor or better should be suitable for donation. Call first, however, to find out if any restrictions or rules apply--and be sure to ask about delivery instructions, parking, pickups, and so on.

Include everything. Package the keyboard, mouse, manuals, and software disks with the PC. A total system is easier to process and much more useful than a partial one.

Clean it up. Giving your PC's exterior a quick wipe-down is a welcome courtesy. Also, remove all your personal files. You can do this with a program such as Norton SystemWorks 2002, or you can simply reformat the hard disk. If you reformat, be sure to reinstall the operating system. Otherwise the organization may have to pay for a new license.

Get it in writing. For tax purposes, get a receipt from the organization to confirm your donation. Make sure it has the date, the make and model number of your PC, and the make and model number of all other equipment you donate. The IRS allows you to deduct the fair market value of your PC, not the replacement cost or the purchase price. See Publication 526, Charitable Contributions, on the IRS Web site.

A Green Machine

If no one wants your old PC and monitor, don't just throw them away. A monitor contains as much as 8 pounds of poisonous lead, and PCs also have small amounts of mercury, lead, and cadmium.

Do yourself and every other living thing on the planet a favor: Take your worn-out computer equipment to a certified recycler. Hewlett-Packard and IBM have recycling programs, as do some Best Buy locations. To find a recycler near you, visit the Environmental Health Center's list of electronic equipment recyclers. Recycling old equipment may require a small fee, but when you consider the environmental damage you'll avoid, it's a bargain.

Before you cart your old PC off to the glue factory, defray your costs with a little beneficial cannibalism. Several PC components are easy to remove, and they may come in handy in the future.

Why not install your old hard drive in your new system? It's the easiest way to transfer your old files and folders to a new computer. (Migration software packages can do the same thing without having to open the PC's case, but they're a bit pricey for a single move. Note that Windows XP can handle many migration tasks itself.) Your old hard drive can also serve as a very fast backup platform. Head over to Upgrade Guide: Install a Bigger, Faster Hard Drive for step-by-step instructions on installing and removing a hard drive.

Hang on to your old computer's graphics card--if it has one. (Many budget systems put their graphics chips on the motherboard.) In a pinch, a spare graphics card can be a lifesaver. And as we describe in Step-By-Step: Double Your Screen Space, a second card may allow you to connect two monitors to your new machine.

You may want to retain your old system's modem as well. If you use DSL, cable, or another high-speed Internet connection and your new system doesn't have an analog modem, installing one to serve as a backup in case your high-speed service goes down could be invaluable.

Such spare components as network interface cards, sound cards, floppy drives, and CD-ROM drives are less likely to be useful for the casual or the very busy PC user, but holding on to these components can save you some money if you ever decide to build your own computer.

Play PC Detective

I upgraded my system with new components, new software programs, and more RAM. Now I get error messages when Windows launches and see all kinds of quirky behavior when programs run. One of my new additions must be the cause, but which? How can I isolate the problem without uninstalling everything?

Ian Moore, Billings, Montana

A handy tool called System Configuration Utility simplifies identifying buggy or incompatible hardware drivers and software. In Windows 98, Me, and XP, click Start, Run and enter msconfig to open the program. The Startup tab lists programs that launch automatically when Windows loads (see FIGURE 1). Unchecking one keeps it from doing so.

To find the source of your problems, start by disabling all the programs that automatically launch at Windows' start-up. Under the General tab, uncheck Load startup group items or Load Startup Items (see FIGURE 2), depending on your version of Windows. Reboot your system, and if the problems end, then you know one of these programs is the culprit.

To isolate the offender, recheck your Load startup option. Restart, reopen System Configuration Utility, click the Startup tab, and enable one program at a time by checking the box next to its name. Reboot after re-enabling each program; when the problem starts to recur, you've found the source of your conflict.

If this process of elimination doesn't work, follow the same steps with the listings under the System.ini and Win.ini tabs. These settings are holdovers from the dark, antiquated days of Windows 3.1. They're rarely used now, but some old hardware and software may affect these settings. And if they do, they're prime candidates as troublemakers.

Muzzle Your Modem

Sometimes I have trouble sleeping and go online in the middle of the night. When my modem logs on, the screeching sound wakes up everyone in the house, especially my dog. Is there any way I can get my modem to shut up?

Peter Hall, San Diego

Judging from the many e-mail messages I get on this subject, lots of people--and dogs!--are being slowly driven crazy by the nerve-jangling mating call of analog modems. Fortunately, there's an easy way to silence most of them.

Many modems let you set the volume level. In Windows 98 and Windows Me, open Control Panel and double-click the Modem icon. Click the Properties button and select the General tab. You may see a sliding bar that adjusts your modem's volume. If you use Windows XP, open Control Panel's Classic View, click or double-click Phone and Modem Options (depending on your system), choose the Modem tab, make sure your modem is selected, and click Properties.

If your modem properties lack volume controls, set Windows to enter the AT command string that silences your modem automatically each time it connects. (The AT command set is the de facto standard for controlling modems.) To do so in Windows 98 and Me, open your modem properties as described above and choose the Connection tab. Now select the Advanced button, and in the 'Extra settings' text box, type atm0 (that's a zero, not the letter 'O'). In Windows XP, click the Advanced tab in your modem properties and type atm0 in the text box under 'Extra initialization commands'.

What's in a Name?

Everything, if you've got an unmarked modem, graphics card, or other piece of hardware and you need to find a driver to run it. Most hardware manufacturers have the drivers for old hardware available for download, but you have to know what you're looking for. Fortunately, you may be able to unmask your nameless hardware via its FCC identification number, which is printed on many different types of devices. Look up your mystery metal in the FCC identification database.

Send your hardware-related questions and tips to kirk_steers@pcworld.com. We pay $50 for published items. Kirk Steers is a PC World contributing editor.