Computers are greek to me-HELP!!!

You can’t run windows XP on 256 MB of RAM. Try 2 GB (2024 MB), maybe 4 GB if it’s not too expensive. You’ll need at least 2 chips to get maximum speed, so that’d be 2 x 1 GB or 2 x 2 GB. That’s why a lot of times they sell them in 2 packs. When you put the new RAM in take out the old even if you have space b/c it’ll probably just slow down the new stuff. A pentium 4 is pretty dang old so there’s no reason to get fast RAM unless you’re getting another computer very soon and want to re-use it. Just get the cheapest stuff you can find with a reputable brand name. But you gotta have lots of MB of RAM or your computer will try to use your hard drive instead when it runs out, and your hard drive is 100 times slower.

I saw 1 GB of RAM on sale for $7 a while back, and even when it’s not on sale it should be $30. Look for deals at Fry’s or www.newegg.com. Also talk to somebody to make sure you get the right type of RAM. You’ll need to tell them your motherboard model number and stuff. Or Dell can probably help with that just make sure they don’t rip you off and charge $50 per GB or something.

If your computer still starts up slow then you need a new hard drive, which means you’d be installing windows all over again. But that’s it. Unless you want to do video stuff or use photoshop or play games or other fancy stuff you shouldn’t need to upgrade anything else.