Need help with starting over. IBM Thinkcentre M51 8141.....I think [ Edited ]

[Adam_J]

Ok, so this is where I am. Working where I am right now we have an old IBM Think Centre that was used for requests and messages and well as managing an old forum.

Me, being a total beginner at computer maintenance, figured there is no better time like the present to learn how to do this then right now. (Please quit laughing at me )

Although not actully being told I can see learning will help me keep my job. Those are kinda hard to find.

This computer ALSO needs to be up and running again.

So my question is. How do I go about totally cleaning out this computer and reloading everything from the start?

Like it just came out of the factory.

I am hoping to both get all of the softwear I need on Disks AND learn how to determine EXACTLY which drivers I need to download on the Lonovo website. (I look at the list and can't tell exactly which to DL as sometimes there are two that seamingly do the same thing.

Any help possible? Or in this case am I out of luck. 

Thank you in advance.

[wramsey73]

you could install ubuntu linux, it usually has all the drivers need.

but if you want to install windows xp. just download one of the drivers and try them out.

in mine whick is close to what yours is m51 8142. i install a 1 tb hard drive and did a fresh install of windows downloaded the drives from the download section and got it up and running.

graphics card is where i had an issue apparently the ibm thinkcentres do not support any of the ati 5xxx graphics card

and i install 2 gb of ram.

you need to look at the spec to see what it can use and go from there.

hope that this helps you

[Mattatola]

I did this to my m51-8143 machine about 9 months ago and working with both xp and 7, they d/led all the drivers automaticially. The only things I had to do was upgrade the bios and d/l the power management drivers, both of which I found here. I did find an immediate need to upgrade memory and video. I also ran into issues getting the video card as because of the proximity of the cpu/heat sink to the pci-e slot I couldn't upgrade to the double thick video cards and had to find a single think one. (I use the 9800gt) I also ran into the memory ceiling for x86 systems. (I have 4gb installed, 3 usuable and 1 dedicated to system). Other than that awesome now!