New Computer

Yesterday I purchased a new computer from Alex Marquis for $70. I installed the DVD burned from Uncle Mike in it with no problems (except for that the audo cable wasn't long enough so I had to reposition the drive, no biggie). Well, OK, there were problems. Here are a few:

• My old floppy drive cable wasn't long enough to mount the drive in the new box properly. But I felt that I needed to have a floppy drive available if need be. So I installed the drive in a position closest to the floppy connector and pushed it back in the bay until the cable would reach. Then I screwed it in place . When the outside case is installed, you can't see that the drive is there. But it is. If I ever need the drive all I have to do is enable the floppy in the BIOS and take off the front panel. the floppy disks will insert just fine, but my hand will have to go into the case.
• The drive wasn't partitioned or formatted when I got it and I had to create some new Windows 2000 boot disks before it would install. Then it worked fine.
• The video card in the box, an ATI Radeon 7000, isn't properly recognized. So Windows only shows 16 colors. I tried to download the ATI drivers but ATI's download website was down last night for maintenance. Windows "ATI compatible" driver didn't work.
• The ATI TV card in the box is conflicting with the video card I think. I'll remove it until I get the video card working. I'll need drivers for that, too.
• Sandy uses Mozilla Thunderbird for E-Mail. I haven't figured out how to properly migrate our Mail folders and settings from the old machine to the new one.
• I can't figure out how to uninstall the games that get installed.
• The case is a full tower and doesn't fit in our computer cabinet properly. I'll have to drill some holes in the back (there's a use for the wood hole saw I mistekenly bought to install a deadbolt on our metal clad door) so that the cables can be recessed and the door can close.
• While I'm at it I should probably drill other holes in the cabinet for better airflow.
• I haven't even tried to install a printer driver or a scanner driver.

In spite of these issues:

• The machine boots and goes into Windows flawlessly.
• The modem works.
• E-mail works.
• I moved the hard drive over from the old computer and that was recognized and can be accessed perfectly.
  

Now I just have to wait to get the disks from Mike for the DVD player, and I can install the DVD burning software.