Computer Power help

Well lol, after cleaning my dad's computer really good, it got really fast and was doing great, until he started to hear noises from the computer.So he called a computer guy, i don't know why not me, but what ever, and he said his power was dieing and that it wasn't going to last long, so he bought a laptop, and by the way he did not tell me about the laptop also, if he only gets 512 mb of ram again thats his problem, lol. so he does not want the computer anymore so i said ill take it and replace the power supply thing and use it, well these are my question's--)
1.Is it safe to use it until it dies out or should i replace the power supply right away?
2. i have a windows ME(i think) and his computer is a windows xp, can i take the power supply of the windows ME and put it in the XP?
3. IF i have to by another one, which i don't want to do, how much will it cost?
4.Also can i add The ram from the windows ME and put it in the windows Xp also?
5.Also How would i Wipe out all the info on his hard drive out clean and everything else?

Chris thanks in advance:major

 

We'll answer questions by number...
1: replace the power supply as soon as possible! If you let it die while running the PC, you run the chance of burning out other components when it finally dies.
2: yes, you can probably use the power supply from the ME machine in the XP machine. BUT- it's probably not a good idea. Chances are the ME PC is older, and therefore the power supply has more hours on it, and is more likely to die out on you unexpectedly. And it may not have the power to run the XP machine smoothly. The XP PC is newer, and newer PC's generally require more power than the older PC's.
3: buying a new power supply is HIGHLY recommended. You can get a decent one for under $50, probably under $35 if you look for a sale. You probably don't need a top-of-the-line power supply unless you're running dual hard drives in a hi-power SLI gaming rig. 400w or 450w should be OK.
4: whether or not the RAM is swappable depends on if the XP PC motherboard has the same type of RAM configuration. Chances are, it doesn't. The XP PC probably uses DDR or DDR2, while the ME PC probably uses SDRAM PC100 or PC133. To find out, run a tool like PC Wizard (link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/PC_Wizard_d3846.html) or Everest (link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181) These are system information utilities that will list all the hardware specs in a given PC.
5: How complete do you want to wipe the hard drive? Do you want to save the OS? Do you want to completely erase everything including the Windows? Keep in mind, that without an installation disc and a product key, re-installing Windows is impossible. If you have these, simply booting to the Windows CD will give you the option to format and reload the OS....
Feel free to post any more questions you may have

 

ok thanks but i have some more Q's,
1.Well if i do get new power supply, what one should i get?, i'm going to look on ebay, but i don't know what i'm looking for, it is a older windows xp, so?
2.When i get the other computer i will check the ram capability.
3.I would like to keep the os on it but not the info, but if i do keep the os will the info be able to get back, because i want no evidence, also i do have my xp installation discs but i don't know about the registry, i think my dad also had the re installations discs also, so i have two sets ,but not sure about the registry key's, soooo?
thanks