Inexperienced Installation on trouble desktop

I have a Dell Dimension GX270, Intel (R), Pentium (R) 4 CPU 2.53 GHz, 2.52 GHz, 512 MB or Ram. It's older than dirt and currently not working that great. I want to install Zorin OS. Problem is this. When I turn it on, I can hear the fans and junk working, but the monitor just gives me this VGA no signal thing. When I finallly get the monitor to turn on it shows just the background in the center of the screen with a giant blue border around the edges. No commands or prompts work. (CTRL-ATL-DEL or F8 when turn on). I tried just putting in the Installation CD/DVD into the drive, but it doesn't do anything. (No whirring, spinny noises...nothing). I tried plugging in a USB with the program installed, but yet again. Nothing.

Is this computer destined to be a planter box in my back yard, or is there something I can do to install Zorin OS onto it?

**Sorry for my lovely techincal terms like "spinny and whirring"...as you can tell I am not quite a tech genius. I do love Zorin though! I installed it on an old Dell Laptop that I had laying around.**

Geek_in_training wrote:It's older than dirt and currently not working that great.
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No commands or prompts work. (CTRL-ATL-DEL or F8 when turn on)

Those two statements appear to contradict each other. The first suggests it is working (albeit poorly) while the second suggests it is not working at all. Which is it?

The fact that it is so old, and presumably little used in recent times, the problem may be as simple as the battery that retains the BIOS settings has expired.

When turning on try tapping the F2 and DEL keys and see if it lets you into the BIOS setup. If it does there will likely be a setting to load default settings. Give that a try and see if it then boots.

If it does, keep it switched on. Some BIOS batteries do seem to accept a charge. I'm speaking from experience here as I'm also using ZOS to rejuvenate two ancient PC's and had a battery problem with one of them.

Sorry for the confusion. It had been running up until 24 hours ago. It was slow but still allowed me to go into programs and start up. This not loading problem is new. I will try the F2 and DEL keys. If you can think of anything else, please let me know.

Thanks again.