Dell Optiplex 745 USFF model
Dell Optiplex 745 USFF model
I recently purchased this machine from a Craigslist ad for $20 USD just to experiment with it. It came with a functional monitor and stand, but lacked a hard drive and operating system. To proceed, I used a 500 GB HDD from eBay and an XP installation disk because the original system still displayed the old XP license sticker. This setup was intended to test whether the computer could boot and connect to the internet after installing Ubuntu. Since I plan to give it to my four-year-old daughter, I’m seeking advice on fixing the internet connection, possible component upgrades, suitable games, and whether switching operating systems would help. Please let me know if this post went to the wrong forum—I was unsure about the right place. Thank you all in advance!
Set up the network card drivers. Ubuntu likely includes them, whereas Windows might not. Dell specifies in this spec sheet that the card is a Broadcom 5754, and you can find the drivers here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/ro/ro/...45/drivers. Clicking "View more" at the bottom will show a Broadcom 57xx driver file (~5 MB). Check the Device Manager for any devices that aren’t showing up correctly, then download the corresponding drivers from Dell’s site. Consider installing Intel Chipset drivers as well—they boost performance and may be newer than the default Windows setup, and the sound card drivers could also be useful (Analog Devices ADI 198x Integrated HD Audio, v5.10.x.7265, A02).
Original version: Classic issue. Yeah, with a working computer, download the driver and put it on a USB drive. Everyone always says "throw away all driver CDs and just get them from the internet!", but I always say 'keep the network CD or put it on a flash drive' for obvious reasons. If USB drives don't work... Then you need to move the HDD itself to a different machine... Or burn a CD - I've had to do that to a few PCs.
It’s necessary to either save the files onto a USB drive or burn them onto a CD or DVD. Before USB became standard, people could use floppy disks or connect computers via null modem cables using serial ports, achieving transfer speeds of about 15-20 KB/s—similar to floppy disk performance. You'd place a small file application on the disk (a few KB) and then move the larger files using the application. Another uncommon method was infrared (IrDA), though it was rarely used because not all motherboards had the necessary connectors. Software compatibility also varied widely. There were clever alternatives too, such as using a sound card or speaker to convert audio signals into data for transfer, though these methods offered very slow speeds (typically in KB/s). Such techniques were mostly impractical except for very old systems with limited storage options.
Great idea! I’ll give it a shot tomorrow. I’m counting on the USB working since my custom-built PC lacks a CD/DVD drive and only has USB ports. If it doesn’t, I might need to get an external one.
I managed to download the drivers using USB, but I’m still struggling to get online. I’m leaning toward trying a USB Wi-Fi dongle, though it displays the cable connected and data transfer active, yet I can’t access Google or even open a browser.
Well, click right-click on it, then properties, navigate to TCP/IP settings or similar, ensuring IPv4 is listed under the name. Verify the option to automatically obtain IP and DNS from your router or cable modem is enabled—this might have been disabled by default. Open the Control Panel and go to Windows Firewall (or click Change Windows firewall settings, refer to the image). Confirm the firewall isn’t blocking any apps by default. From the image it seems drivers are installed, a cable is connected, and communication is established—indicating a connection was made. This doesn’t necessarily mean the computer asked for an IP address to reach the internet. I haven’t used Windows XP recently, but you can also check if the network card received an IP using the built-in command tool: click Start, run "cmd", type "ipconfig /all" and press Enter. The output will list network cards; look for your card and see if it gets an IP address. If a DNS server is detected (needed to translate names like google.com into IPs), that’s a good sign. Please paste the text from the application you’re referring to, and we can assist further.
Thank you for your assistance. Your feedback is very helpful. It seems the system was identifying the DNS server, yet connecting to the internet remained challenging. I tried booting it in Windows 10 after previous attempts on XP or Linux didn’t succeed. Switching to a 32-bit ISO resolved the issue and allowed me to access the internet smoothly. I’m concerned about this older machine’s hardware limitations for running a 64-bit OS, but so far everything is working well.