Doc ...probably the latter.

A screwed SP1 update can mangle a system right royally.

I'll refrain from The IT Crowd's standard response...."have you tried turning it off and turning it on again?" ...;)

Name brand. Emachines model EL1210-09.

Emachines.  Had one once. 

Once.

Well, let's be honest shall we....

A emachine is pretty much a disposable pc. Without digging too deep I see that this model goes for around $300.

I'm assuming that you installed the chipset driver for Win7 ( that's the only driver that shows for that OS on the emachines support site).

It is a very real possibility that this system will not be usable with Win7 SP1. It came with Vista originally didn't it?

I have a Dell Latitude D830 that came with XP. The hardware is completely capable of running Windows 7 but the video drivers will not stand for it in any fashion, and there are zero options for that. So, if I want a usable device I have to stick with the original OS flavor.

If this system came with Vista, put Vista back on it and call it a day.

Yeah I put all the drivers on that I could find for Windows 7. Looks like it is just slow on Facebook, I've been running some tests. Even if I wanted to put Vista back on the machine I wouldn't do it. Vista is a curse, and I don't have any of the original recovery discs for Vista, and there is no hidden restore partition on the hard drive.

I think what I will recommend to my friend is a cheap upgrade of the CPU to a dual core Athlon II X2, video card, and low profile video card. Maybe a bigger hard drive. That should cure all the problems.

Odds are, a PSU upgrade would be needed also. They come with the absolute minimum needed to run them in stock form.

By the time you spend that much on parts and labor, you could buy a much better used unit that would need no upgrades.

.... by the time you've changed all that you are probably better off just buying a new one

Looks like it is just slow on Facebook,

Now wait a minute... I reply #7 you said:

now your saying little faeries came along and made it all better except for facebook? I smell the ass leavings of a male cattle!

And when that doesn't solve the issue will he/she still be your friend? The problem may be elsewhere, like Motherboard. (and will the existing motherboard accommodate the Athlon II X2 , and/or can you even put a non emachines MB in to this system...)

and why the fuck is this quote stuff messed up!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Yeah, nested quotes are a mess on this site.

For an example, locally on Craigslist: $225 will get you a used eMachines with:

CPU-AMD Athlon X 2
RAM- 4 GGigs DDR2
Hard Drive- 500 gig Brand New Seagate
15 In 1 Memory Card Reader
DVD Reader Writer
Windows 7

http://bn.craigslist.org/sys/4086479854.html

$300 from a local repair shop gets you a custom built used rig with:

Processor: Core 2 Quad Extreme 2.2Ghz
Ram: 4GB DDR3
Hard Drive: 320GB
Graphics: 8800GTX
Optical: DVD-Writer

http://bn.craigslist.org/syd/4103096213.html

Use the other rig for a doorstop. You could spend $500 on upgrading it and still have a $200 PC. (if that)

Not my call guys. Maybe this rig has some kind of sentimental value to my friend. Or amybe he is just like me, can't afford to pony up $300 bucks for a new rig and would rather just upgrade this one over time, a part this week, a part next month.

Well, if it was a friend of mine, I would advise him to just use what he has for now and start saving for a better one. If it was a customer that insisted on wasting money on what I would have to tell him would likely be minimal results at best and I was getting paid for it.....break out the wallet.

You can use any Vista disc of the same flavor and activate it with the key on the sticker on the side of the tower.  But yeah, Vista sucks.

You mean what's left of the sticker? LOL, half of it is missing.

From OP:

 Later reply:

Is it your PC, or your friend's?

Pardon me if I'm confused. 

Belongs to a friend, sorry for the confusion. By the way is the hard drive running at 123F good or bad?

Not a problem. Google will tell you that.

Ok, so, I will rephrase....in the original post, you were talking about your machine, now you're talking about your friend's, and when did it change?

oops

The original post was meant for my friend's machine, I just worded it wrong. Nothing wrong with my machine. Runs as it should.

As for the dire Google says it is OK up to 140F. I just think 123F is pushing it, but it is a SFF case.

EDIT: I fixed the first post. I must have been tired when I started this thread.

Replies 15 and 21 also read like it's your PC. A few others as well.  Hmm.

Well what can I say? When I am fixing someone else's computer I tend to get caught up in the moment. Trust me, I'm just fixing it for a friend. It's too slow for my tastes.

Had XP on it. It was my first. Ran good for awhile. That is until I worked the hell out of it. In fact it was the one I used when I first joined WC. Had dial up and everything. My how things have changed. Do I miss it. Hell no! My laptop can run rings around it and then some.

There are proggies that will reveal the reg'd serial for you....so you can write it down somewhere and not have to rely on a vulnerable sticker...;)

So I can install Vista, run this program you speak of and it will tell me what serial goes to the install CD? Assuming I can find a copy of Vista? Or if my friend wants to go back to Vista? I would think on this hardware Vista would be slower than 7.