Took almost eight hours the other night trying to install drivers for the old DSL modem, because it wasn't fully compatible with XP. Found out what I was doing wrong was installing the CD that came with the modem, then downloading and installing the new XP drivers from the BellSouth website and installing them. Had to "remove" the CD installation, and just use the downloaded drivers only. Now, I just need to find XP drivers for my Intel and Alaris webcams. The newer Logitech is already XP compatible(although I haven't re-installed it on the new machine yet).
After I got it home, I got to thinking my old copy of Norton Anti-Virus may not be compatible either. Had nothing to worry about on that front... the new PC came with Norton Anti-Virus 2002! I've also re-downloaded the free version of Zone-Alarm.
Kept having "crashing" problems with the newsreader in the new beta version of the "Opera 7" browser on the 98 machine. So far, no Opera crashes on this one. Sites with streaming media seem to flow a LOT smoother also, not near as "jerky" in motion. Thought at first that the sound was defective on the new machine...could never hear ANYTHING. I had hooked the old speakers up to the new computer. Took the new speakers out of the monitor box, discovered why I wasn't getting sound. The new speakers are the "amplified-self powered" type, the old speakers relied on what power the audio output of the sound card gave them. I now have sound...and these new speakers are a vast improvement in sound quality over the old ones!
Some stats: Compaq Presario 6301RSH, Intel Celeron 1.8GHz processor, 128MB DDR SDRAM-32 MB allocated to video memory, 32x10x40 max speed CD-RW, 48x max speed CD-ROM drive, 40GB Ultra DMA hard drive, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.... just to give you some idea, did not include the printer and monitor in my stats list...
Another thing, Compaq now makes it easy to get into the case to install cards and such. A side panel that removes with just the few turns of a hand screw. Lots of manuevering room also.The old one, you had to fight with several screws, wiggle the fully surrounding cover off the top, and squeeze your hands in to get to anything!