01-25-2009, 01:02 PM
A friends old Dull had a HDD failure, nothing can be recovered with the usual stuff, so a new drive and reinstall of the OS is in order (trash can is also in order but not an option). It has a Netgear PCMCIA wireless card for which the utility to connect and configure is no longer available on the Netgear site nor, after a lot of Googling, is available anywhere else where I'd care to go and download. W2K will not find wireless signals without using the utility but XP will. So, the question is - am I looking at a lot of frustration on their part with XP so I can use the card or should I have stayed with W2K and got a new wireless card? Basic use of the laptop is eBay browsing - the friend is a coin collector - email and general surfing. No heavy work at all. I don't believe increasing the RAM is an option as I think it's maxed. I could be wrong on that - Inspiron 5000 is the model.
Actually, I've already installed XP after finding that I couldn't use the wireless on W2K, so what I'm asking is not whether I should do it, but if I'm going to get a lot of heat for having done it.
Actually, I've already installed XP after finding that I couldn't use the wireless on W2K, so what I'm asking is not whether I should do it, but if I'm going to get a lot of heat for having done it.