# Setting up my old PC for my son



## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

try Humongous games. (Pajama Sam, Freddie Fish, Putt-Putt, Fatty Bear, etc.)
they should play and are hours of fun for little ones just learning.
we have tons of kid game cds still laying around. from 1 yr to adult.

DM


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

I guess I'll have to setup the wireless connection on the PC to download some stuff
I haven't wired that room yet for a PC
I wasn't really planning on one out there, figured I could use the laptop


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## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

Dave,

The libraries here hold sales a few times a year and usually have tons of kids games for old machines in the mix. The little buddy I thought could get by with an old machine at 3.5 was into car racing programs by 4. I suddenly found myself adding joysticks, new video card, trying to patch in memory, and all kinds of things. Finally just broke down and spent the money on a nice new system by age 5. Be prepared! Good kid though. He loved to play outside as much as he was early addicted to the computer game stuff so never had that battle.


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## bigcaddy (Jun 12, 2009)

http://www.nickjr.com/

My son just turned 3 and he is a wizz on the web games. scary to think what it will be like when he's older.


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## pyper (Jul 1, 2009)

did you try the right-click; properties; compatiblity mode option?


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

Some won't even install...16 year old floppies
I did try the compatability mode....no go
Tried a bunch of settings


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## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

Something to be said about stone tablets. One of the interesting things about data storage is that the technology ages and fades. I even have CDs that cannot be read anymore. I have things I wrote years ago I will never be able to get to again because either the media storing it and or the software just will not work anymore. 

I don't know Dave. I hope you can rescue some machine functionality for the kid but you can pick up a decent gaming machine with a brand new duel core chipset for chimp change these days. Aren't things like Wiis $300 or so on sale too?


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

$300 for a game for a 3.5 year old ?
I don't think so :no:
The computer is plenty fast enough for now
I have an older Pc - PII-300 that I just setup with XP
I was going to set it up w/98 for older software
But I found more memory so I installed XP
There is plenty of free stuff available on the web tpo keep him amused

I still have Zip drives, Jazz drives, SCSI drives & controllers, PCMCIA card for a PC
I actually still had memory for 386 & 486's until maybe last year

I have been going thru my old PC stuff & getting rid of stuff
I may even toss out the 5.25" floppies
My copy of WIN386 I will keep


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

At 3 and a half, in about 3 years he( she) will know more about computers than all of us combined:laughing:


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

Yeah, I've spent 20+ years in the IT field, always changing

On the web: One company they did away with all games on company PC's
Even the President/owner turned over his laptop to have them removed
He gets home & later finds his son playing a game on the laptop
He reprimands him for installing a game on the PC
Son says no - its in the windows directory - I just made a shortcut

Next day Owner brings the laptop back to the IT guy & asks him why his son was able to play a game on his laptop
"Oh, I thought I just had to remove it so you couldn't access it
I didn't know your son used your laptop "

:laughing:


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## piste (Oct 7, 2009)

I'm in a similar situation..but kids are bit older....4 and 7. Had a 2001 HP XP box that my wife used at home that gave up the ghost...so got a laptop to replace...then the HP came back to life. Planned to give to kids....moved all data off and been trying to reimage the thing as it's never been cleaned up since I bought it 8.5 years ago. It would take me an hour to type all the things I've tried but can't seem to wipe the hard drive to reinstall XP. Being as my wife primarily uses the laptop....we dont' have a family desktop in the house. So now I'm looking at coughing up about $500 for machine that I figure will last well into the timeframe that the kids will have their own laptops for school. Being as I'll want to use it for web etc...the bus and processor will be boatloads faster than the old HP XP which DOES help with things as simple as web browsing...not to mention 4 to 6GB memory vs 512MB on the HP XP. So while I wished I could have bought myself a year or two of having the kids use the old machine...it wouldn't have been much longer than that.... and $500 is a fraction of what I spend in 2001 on that old machine and will last as long as I need it and then some. Not to mention leapfrogging two OS's (XP-Vista-7) without having to do any OS install/upgrade....and I'll now have a machine that in theory will be much simpler to maintain...and compatible with anything out and to come...for some time.


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## Mr Chips (Mar 23, 2008)

i did this as well, but no matter what i did the kids kept getting in control panels, and other things the second i turned my back.

i found a program called "My Kids Browser" http://www.mykidsbrowser.com/

it was pretty cheap, with a single licesnse i could load it on three different computers in the same house. it allows them to get on preapproved websites only, and they can't get into anything else. i have had a couple issue with websites not reacting correctly, but overall i have been very pleased with this product


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

I actually have a 4th PC that someone gave me - loaded XP on it
Its only a PII, so I'll use it to broadcast my Christmas music
I see no point in buying a new PC right now, what we have meets our needs
The longer you wait the better PC may be available, new hardware/software

When I need a new PC I'll buy one for me (I have a quad core CPU right now)
Wife will then get my old one - 1-2 years from now maybe
Her old one - P4 2.8 120g Raid will then go to my son
Then his PIII PC will replace the PC for my Christmas display


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## rusty baker (Feb 13, 2009)

Why not some on-line games, like club penguin?


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

He's still too young...he has a little portable game with cartridges
I don't even know who makes it
The PC is out in the sunroom, which is colder in the winter - unless sunny
Once weather warms up he'll be out there more
I need to run a network cable out there too


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## rusty baker (Feb 13, 2009)

My grandchildren play some of the facebook games and they are preschoolers. Yahoo also has games for preschoolers.


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## piste (Oct 7, 2009)

Scuba_Dave said:


> He's still too young...he has a little portable game with cartridges
> I don't even know who makes it
> The PC is out in the sunroom, which is colder in the winter - unless sunny
> Once weather warms up he'll be out there more
> I need to run a network cable out there too


Why not go wireless??


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## awoo23 (Mar 31, 2010)

This is a pretty cool looking kids math game site:
http://www.carrotsticks.com/

Kids compete against each other to see who can solve math problems the fastest. then they get points for winning.


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

piste said:


> Why not go wireless??


I very rarely do wireless...its slower


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## Fox (Mar 1, 2010)

Mr Chips said:


> i did this as well, but no matter what i did the kids kept getting in control panels, and other things the second i turned my back.
> 
> i found a program called "My Kids Browser" http://www.mykidsbrowser.com/
> 
> it was pretty cheap, with a single licesnse i could load it on three different computers in the same house. it allows them to get on preapproved websites only, and they can't get into anything else. i have had a couple issue with websites not reacting correctly, but overall i have been very pleased with this product





awoo23 said:


> This is a pretty cool looking kids math game site:
> http://www.carrotsticks.com/
> 
> Kids compete against each other to see who can solve math problems the fastest. then they get points for winning.


Dave, see if you can copy from the floppies to the hard drive. If you can't, the floppies are dead. Nothing you can do about that.

If it just won't run on XP, there's always DOSBOX
http://www.dosbox.com/

Failing all that, I'd go with the quotes above. I highly suggest finding an educational website you enjoy that will not only provide content now that is good for your child, but will permit them to grow with games as they do. Not only that, but a subscription to such a site should provide for new and interesting content for them.

(As for wireless, I agree with you, and avoid it as much as I can, but the new N standard has just recently been accepted, and is fairly high speed.)


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## piste (Oct 7, 2009)

Scuba_Dave said:


> I very rarely do wireless...its slower


Slower for what? local area network wireless capacity is much greater than I believe any and all broadband services which is where the bottleneck will be for internet access. Local speed only comes in to play when accesssing local devices...wireless printers, network drives etc. And wireless G or above should more than take care of that. What requirements do you have that wireless is too slow for?


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## Fox (Mar 1, 2010)

The only time you're going to notice wireless being slower is during large file transfers. These days G is half as fast as wired, and most users aren't going to really notice. N is supposedly 6x faster than 100BASE-T, but I've yet to see it set up in an environment with all four streams used to hit 600Mbps. It can be anywhere from 6 to 600Mbps; I'm not familiar with the common speeds achieved from COTS personal access points.

Wireless is usually also reliable and secure enough for most users, but I tend to be a bit more six sigma than others. (~99.999% reliability)


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