d/l's time out

Long story, short version. Got a Dell Dimension from like 04', running xp home, IE8, sp3. Anywho I decided to do a restore ( not a couple of dates back, back to out the box back ). Now downloads are so slow they time out and I don't think all of the drivers updated. Other issues are rather small. I've been looking @ the many different sub-forums & my eyes started to bleed, so wheres a good place to start?

 

Is this process called recovery partition, because I don't have the reinstallation CD.

http://www.computerbusiness.com/kb/2007052501.htm

So after this was done, I ran all the updates the system suggested & also ran some utilities to see if anything might be missing.

Too bad I didn't find this site 1st.

 

Didn't know about the 1 time burn. Did use the service tag for some updates. Didn't show any problems in Device Mgr, but some of the utitlities I ran for the drivers said different. Really wanted to see how this stuff works ( take it apart, put back together, make it gooder, you kno ), OS, added 1GB of RAM, set up home network. Transfered my documents from this puter to another, and verified success but now can't find it ( not worried tho ). Use to watch a lot of movies, don't kno if I still can. Guess I'll try a few fixes or maybe start over.

 

Thanks for the knowledge, and whatever course I pursue it's likely I'll be checking back immediately. Really miss the movies. But for now going into more familiar territory, going to install a water pump, check for a busted cylinder head, flush the cooling system on the hoopty. Want to be riding by the after noon.