08-07-2018, 09:19 PM
Hello all,
I recently acquired some old hardware for free. I'm taking the A+ exam soon and was just wanting a system to mess around with for some hands on experience.
The station is a Dell Dimension B110 with these specs:
CPU: Intel Celeron 2.53 GHz
RAM: 256 MB DDR SDRAM @333 MHz
BIOS Version: A01
Not sure on the motherboard model. (If someone could tell me how to find it, I'd really appreciate it!)
It came with an 80 GB HDD, however after listening for awhile I quickly learned that it was shot. So, being that Windows XP was on that hard drive and I don't have access to an install CD I found Linux Lite. I downloaded Linux Lite 3.8 32-bit from the linuxliteos website under the "Linux Lite 3.8 Final Released" thread by Jerry. I burned the .iso file to a 32 GB USB drive using a software called Etcher, creating a bootable drive. Popped the USB into my older machine and booted into the Linux lite installer. Started the install, but after the yellow feather splash screen it displays a bunch of code that I don't understand. https://imgur.com/KuCFRRW
Some threads I saw suggested the USB port and/or the system itself isn't getting enough power: I moved it to 3 different outlets and tried every USB port in the front and back and still the same thing. Oh, and the only things I have plugged into the motherboard is a USB keyboard and a VGA cable. I also ran memtest86 and the tests came back clear, tried running it in safe mode and it just goes in cirlces between the installer and Dell splash screen, and I've tried 2 other stations of similar specs and the same thing happens. The common theme between all of them is that none of them have hard drives.
I was thinking maybe since the system doesn't have a hard drive, the OS doesn't have anywhere to install to. So I went and bought a second 32 GB USB drive in hopes that the OS would install to it but alas; it still persists. Does every computer require a hard drive to install the OS to? I would prefer not to have to get another hard drive, so if there's a way around it that'd be awesome.
I recently acquired some old hardware for free. I'm taking the A+ exam soon and was just wanting a system to mess around with for some hands on experience.
The station is a Dell Dimension B110 with these specs:
CPU: Intel Celeron 2.53 GHz
RAM: 256 MB DDR SDRAM @333 MHz
BIOS Version: A01
Not sure on the motherboard model. (If someone could tell me how to find it, I'd really appreciate it!)
It came with an 80 GB HDD, however after listening for awhile I quickly learned that it was shot. So, being that Windows XP was on that hard drive and I don't have access to an install CD I found Linux Lite. I downloaded Linux Lite 3.8 32-bit from the linuxliteos website under the "Linux Lite 3.8 Final Released" thread by Jerry. I burned the .iso file to a 32 GB USB drive using a software called Etcher, creating a bootable drive. Popped the USB into my older machine and booted into the Linux lite installer. Started the install, but after the yellow feather splash screen it displays a bunch of code that I don't understand. https://imgur.com/KuCFRRW
Some threads I saw suggested the USB port and/or the system itself isn't getting enough power: I moved it to 3 different outlets and tried every USB port in the front and back and still the same thing. Oh, and the only things I have plugged into the motherboard is a USB keyboard and a VGA cable. I also ran memtest86 and the tests came back clear, tried running it in safe mode and it just goes in cirlces between the installer and Dell splash screen, and I've tried 2 other stations of similar specs and the same thing happens. The common theme between all of them is that none of them have hard drives.
I was thinking maybe since the system doesn't have a hard drive, the OS doesn't have anywhere to install to. So I went and bought a second 32 GB USB drive in hopes that the OS would install to it but alas; it still persists. Does every computer require a hard drive to install the OS to? I would prefer not to have to get another hard drive, so if there's a way around it that'd be awesome.
