My husband bought a computer off ebay a few months ago for less than $50 because he wanted to have his own computer in the bedroom to tinker around on. It is a nice computer and in great shape, but it has ME on it. The memory was pretty low, but I took memory cards out of a worn-out computer and put them in it so it now has about 500MB RAM. What else should we do to the computer to ensure it will run XP well when we get around to installing XP on it? It is an emachine, by the way.

I would look up the specs on it and see what the maximum amount of memory it is capable of using and then put that much in. XP does require a lot of memory and processing power. What is the processor on the machine?

I would definitely look into getting rid of as much "junk" as you can on the computer (software you don't want/need). You can also try to optimize your virtual memory to help it run smoother.

Chris

Nothing wrong with an emachine.. my roommate had one for years.. it could easily run Xp. but I don't think I would convert(upgrade). I would do a clean install of a full version of Xp then run it in 98 mode. (essentially xp that looks like 98. they call it "classic" mode in the control panel. You have a choice between performance or beauty.)
That way you could gradually add programs until you see a performance drop.
remember
pentium 3 500 mghz minimum
128 mb ram minimum
20 gb hd. minimum.

And that's just if you want it to run. if you want it to run well... More is better.

i have run xp in a compac machine 450 MHz with 512 MB of ram, so i don;t think you will have any problems to run xp in your machine. Just do a clean install, or get a new hard drive and use the old hard drive as a secondary hard drive and have dual boot if you want to use me (i doubt it).

after installing xp, disable all the services you don;t need, and if you can disable the appearance options, also try to use 16-bit color for the monitor. A tweak program could help you too, window utillities, TweakNow WinSecret (free) etc. some registry cleaners might help ya too COMODO Registry Cleaner, Registry Mechanic, etc.

Download belarc advisor and check your system config

Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit