stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
hi,
i plan to buy a 3G 15G ipod after hearing so many good things about them. i currently have a sony mz-n1 minidisc player but an ipod would be so much better because i can put all my music on it (i have about 10gigabytes of music altogether) instead of having to carry around minidiscs with me.
anyway, i need to know a few things so anybody who can give me any answers to these questions, i would appeciate it a lot.
ok, my pc isn't exactly the most up to date one around so i want to check if i will be able to use my ipod with it. It's about 3-4 years old running windows 98. can i use my ipod with windows 98?
also, i've been reading about all this usb vs firewire stuff and firewire seems to be the best to me but how do i know if i've got a firewire card (where can i check this on my pc...i don't know much about computers apart from mp3's and using the interweb) and if i don't have one will my computer support one ( what does the connection on the back of the computer look like or where does the card go) and where can i get one and which type and etc, etc...all relevant info appreciated.
thanks.
# 1 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
Others will be able to answer in more detail, but just to get you started (and because I'm bored at work today ;) )
If your PC is 3-4 years old and in the original hardware setup you had out-of-the-box, then you very likely do NOT have a Firewire port. So you'll have to buy one and install it. If you're not comfortable cracking open your machine, find someone who can do it for you. The card itself will be pretty cheap, no more than $50. Look for one on eBay.
USB is not an option. Ipods for Windows can work through USB 2.0--different thing from USB. Again, a computer as old as yours does not have USB 2.0, so forget about that. If it's an option between installing Firewire or USB 2.0 ports on your machine, go with Firewire.
Working with Win98: yes, it should. I know I've seen others here and elsewhere say they've been able to work their iPods with Win98 without a problem.
Hope this helps get you started.
# 2 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
are you running windows 98 or 98 SE? firewire is not supported in the original 98, so you would have to upgade the os
# 3 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
Windows 98se is the only one that will work for you.
I have tried it with this and will work if you do not want to use the Musicmatch software the comes with the IPOD. I use XPLAY and it seems to work quite well.
I have installed a firewire card (about 40 or so bucks) after downloading patches from microsoft for windows 98se.
It really works like a charm.
good luck
Z Ipod at 2007-11-15 17:08:08 >
# 4 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
what are the patches i need to download and where can i get them - i have just the regular windows 98. also, what does the firewire port on my computer look like so i can check to see if i have one? if i don't how much does it cost/ how easy is it to install one?
thanks for the help guys.
# 5 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
a fond welcome to ipodlounge to ye, woodland warrior! :)
the patches won?t help you. win98 doesn?t support firewire (as said above ;) ). you can?t use your ipod (or anything to do with firewire) on win98. you need at least win98se.
once you get your os updated, i recommend getting the adaptec fireconnect 4300 card. i have it myself and it?s the best imho. it should be anywhere from $29.99-$49.99. i doubt your computer will be having a firewire port (since it?s a couple of years old).
you can download the firewire patch (for win98se) from the microsoft download section. there are a couple of links to it in the forum database. search up "firewire patch".
m.r.m. at 2007-11-15 17:10:02 >
# 6 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
Hey staring elf,
Just though I'd say I did exactly the same thing, got rid of a MZ-N1 for a new iPod cause I was sick of the hassles and don't regret it so far.
mulgar at 2007-11-15 17:11:01 >
# 7 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
thanks for all the replys so far people.
ok, so win 98 wont work. if i do update my os (i'll probably just go ahead and get xp) you're saying there's still a chance i won't be able to use my ipod on my computer if it doesn't have a firewire port. just so i can check it on the back of my computer, what does this look like??
if i don't have one, am i basically screwed unless i get a new computer? can i install a firewire port?? and if so is this easy/hard/expensive/etc
cheers
# 8 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
You can easily install a firewire card. They are very inexpensive ($20-$40) and all you do is open the computer and slide them into a PCI slot. Just like adding a sound card or a video card.
Then turn on your PC. XP (once you get it) will do all the rest. No drivers to install, nothing.
I'd say go for it. Folks here will help you, we're fond of elves. ;)
Adam
# 9 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
well then that is what i will do. i reckon i'll go with the 4300 adaptec card - it's been reccomended to me in one of the posts abouve and it seems pretty popular. and i'll have to get xp as well. is it much hassle upgrading from win 98 to xp does anyone know? i'm thinking i might format my whole harddrive as i do this because it needs a good clean - there's loads of crap and partially uninstalled stuff and whatnot. any tips on doing this. i like this forum. it's good.i usually get mocked for being an elf in other forums.
# 10 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
would this be a suitable purchase for me do you think. is this what i need (apart from the upgrade to an xp OS)?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3425109114&category=46320
anyone?
# 11 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
that?s exactly the card i have. can?t tell you whether to buy on ebay or not though.
upgrading from win98 to xp ought to work out fine. just make sure you uninstall pretty much all the software you?re running. this isn?t a necessity, but i found that i had to reinstall most of my programs after upgrading anyway. some programs were found to be problematic by win xp, work fine after reinstalling though. microsoft offers a diagnostic program running from the website to check if there are any problems you need to get rid of before installing. this checkup is on the win xp cd as well. in that sense a full format may be a good option, as far as you?re comfortable installing windows from scratch. xp is really nice once you?ve gotten used to it.
m.r.m. at 2007-11-15 17:16:06 >
# 12 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
I would recommend that you do a fresh install, if at all possible. I don't think you can do that if you only buy the update though. If you have two hard drives, just move the stuff to the slave drive. Or you could save stuff on CDRs. It will work if you just install over it, but it isn't as good as XP installed on a blank slate.
I had 98SE, then I upgraded to 2000, then to XP Pro all on top of each other. It worked fine, but I still wanted the clean install. So I went out and bought a second hard drive that I needed anyway, moved all my files to that, then installed XP fresh on my first hard drive.
BigIzz at 2007-11-15 17:17:15 >
# 13 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
If your computer is 3-4 years old, you may have problems running XP. Make sure you have at least 256 MB of RAM. A Firewire port looks like this - http://www.macgear.com.au/images/photos/fw_pci_3.jpg. Also, make sure you have an open PCI slot. They are the bottom rear of your computer and look like this. The computer in this picture has three open slots. http://www.ocaddiction.com/reviews/sound/acousticedge/ae8.jpg.
# 14 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
my pooter has only 64 mb of ram. would win xp work with this? if i do need to upgrade how easy is it to do so (bearing in mind i know zero about computers people) and how would it cost?
# 15 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
If your computer is really old and you know jack all about computers it would probably be easier for you to buy a new computer. If its from a shop that builds them (ie: not pre-built systems) then you may be able to ask them to recycle some of the parts from your old computer, but if its really old it is not going to make too much difference as the majority of the parts will be bin material...
I think the lowest I have seen XP run on was about a celeron 400mhz with 64meg of ram. However, this was for a simple server machine to perform some small tasks, it would be fairly hard to use and very slow so generally wouldn't recommend running XP on a system that old.
mulgar at 2007-11-15 17:20:16 >
# 16 Re: stupid neewbie questions...go easy on me
Originally posted by staring elf
my pooter has only 64 mb of ram. would win xp work with this? if i do need to upgrade how easy is it to do so (bearing in mind i know zero about computers people) and how would it cost? I think it may boot up but it would be next to unusable with 64 MB. It should only cost about $30-$40 for a 256MB stick of RAM (I'm assuming your computer uses PC133, but please check). Adding RAM is relatively easy, but I have also seen some computers with some wack internal layouts, especially if your computer is small.
Now, if you're spending $30-$60 on a Firewire card, and $30-$40 on new RAM, you may want to just buy a new computer altogether. Check http://www.techbargains.com for some good deals. Dell has specials all the time and you can buy a 2Ghz+ computer for about $500. Just make sure that you buy a computer which includes Firewire. Message me if you need any computer advice.
