Hi all.
Just trolling along nicely on the computer having got shot of Norton and installed Avast and now ---- total wipeout !!!!!!!!!!!!
Come to fire up in the morning and there's a noise not unlike an engine ticking over and the power lamp rapidly going on and off. Being something of a smarta***e, figure out the power pack is duff. Wander to local shop, man laughs at puny output and I buy bigger one. Plug it in -- turn on --- spark shoots out from back of hard drive, new power pack dies, eerie silence. Have since tried another power pack I had over -- no hard drive activity and something on the back of it getting too hot to touch. Am presently using ever faithful, hundred year old, slow, Millennium back up machine.
Having heard a lot of negative vibes about Vista, rang PC World to see if anything left with XP -- apparently not. Dell however have reintroduced it for the time being due to customer pressure. (Citroen take note ). Apparently Morgan have new kit with XP. Is it worth going for one of these dual core jobs, or won't I tell the difference ?
All I need now is for the cambelt to go on the XM and my weekend will be complete.
Mike.
Full Version Meltdown !
Why not put a new hard drive in?
And don't use PC World they'll rip you off.
And don't use PC World they'll rip you off.
Hi On-The-Cut
Have a look/visit Speedie (www.speedie.co.uk) 104-108 Floodgate Street, Digbeth.
They do secondhand base units from £30 with 12 months warranty. They will almost certainly sort you out a cheap hard drive. The big question is how much of your present drives content is backed-up.
Regards
XMexc
Have a look/visit Speedie (www.speedie.co.uk) 104-108 Floodgate Street, Digbeth.
They do secondhand base units from £30 with 12 months warranty. They will almost certainly sort you out a cheap hard drive. The big question is how much of your present drives content is backed-up.
Regards
XMexc
Hi Guys.
Thanks for the info. I am a bit concerned that if the power pack has produced a load of surges, it may have done other damage. (I'm not into electronics, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm talking you know what).
I used to be in Floodgate Street regularly --- never knew there was a computer place there. Will certainly investigate. Don't think I've lost anything irreplaceable --- it's just the time and all the farting about that seems to go with getting a new machine to one's taste that's depressing.
Must admit I wasn't looking to race to PCW -- the one that's just died was one of theirs (Emachine). THe computer gets a lot of use in the house, so I don't mind upgrading a bit if I've got a load of hassle anyway. Will have a browse later.
Mike.
Thanks for the info. I am a bit concerned that if the power pack has produced a load of surges, it may have done other damage. (I'm not into electronics, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm talking you know what).
I used to be in Floodgate Street regularly --- never knew there was a computer place there. Will certainly investigate. Don't think I've lost anything irreplaceable --- it's just the time and all the farting about that seems to go with getting a new machine to one's taste that's depressing.
Must admit I wasn't looking to race to PCW -- the one that's just died was one of theirs (Emachine). THe computer gets a lot of use in the house, so I don't mind upgrading a bit if I've got a load of hassle anyway. Will have a browse later.
Mike.
Mike there is a computer fair every saturday at the motorcycle museum 10-3pm.
You will get everything you want there at good prices.
You will get everything you want there at good prices.
Hi Dave.
Thanks - will go and have a look.
Mike.
Thanks - will go and have a look.
Mike.
If you get any bits and want them fitting give me a shout.
Buy a Dell or an HP. Work colleague spotted quite a decent spec'd HP with XP Pro for 230 quid plus vat recently, was it at Misco, I forget now. I am not convinced computer fair people etc can compete with the top players in the current market for performance, price or reliability. I get to see a lot of HP kit at the moment and it is well put together.
regards
regards
| QUOTE (onthecut @ May 24 2007, 10:44 AM) |
| Hi all. Come to fire up in the morning and there's a noise not unlike an engine ticking over and the power lamp rapidly going on and off. |
Hi Mike,
At a guess, E-Machines, yeah?
I've fixed / scrapped at least twenty of those machines with that 'pulsing' power supply issue in the last eighteen months, by far their most common fault. What normally happens is the PSU going like that toasts your motherboard as well, and possibly RAM and CPU too if you're really unlucky.
As for needing a copy of XP, I wouldn't worry too much. I can sort you out with that, and its very easy to install, so even if you end up buying something with Vista pre-loaded, and don't like it, its not a problem.
If you just want a machine that you can lay your hands on quickly, then PC World etc, as much as I hate to say that name. You will pay a wee bit over the odds though, but even I have to admit they've improved slightly in recent years.
If you're not too 'into' computers, but want a decentish machine at a reasonable price, then you could do worse than Dell TBH, their offers are quite good too.
As for the dual core processors, they can be beneficial (they basically act like two processors in one, so can have great performance), and the price difference isn't too massive between them and ordinary pentiums etc.
You don't have to get one, but if its similar money to the bog standard CPU, it makes more economic sense.
Try and avoid plumping for a Celeron processor if you can. Perfectly adequete and capable, but they can struggle with heavy loads sometimes due to having less on board cache memory. (If you do get one at a cheap price though, its nothing to cry about).
Ciarán
Hi Ciaran et al,
E Machine -- spot on !! I suppose in a way I'm glad to hear it's not just me ! As a matter of interest, is this 'pulsing' a failure within the power pack, or elsewhere in the machine ? In the long run, are they better just left switched on ( mate of mine from Telecom, going back awhile, reckoned turning this sort of kit on and off impacts on it considerably). Finally settled on a new dual core jobby, which does all I want (which isn't that much, really). Very, very noticeable improvement in speed, so presently, very, very happy. Just got the tedious job of reloading it all.
OK, you can all have a laugh when it goes wrong next week, but in the end I dealt with an Ebay one man band (I guess) assembler. Most impressed (naively, maybe) to actually get the real thing XP disc, not some 'backup' job, plus all the other discs that go with the bits of the machine. Everything has worked as they have been plugged in, so I guess the basics are right. £360, so not too big a hole in the wallet.
Mike.
E Machine -- spot on !! I suppose in a way I'm glad to hear it's not just me ! As a matter of interest, is this 'pulsing' a failure within the power pack, or elsewhere in the machine ? In the long run, are they better just left switched on ( mate of mine from Telecom, going back awhile, reckoned turning this sort of kit on and off impacts on it considerably). Finally settled on a new dual core jobby, which does all I want (which isn't that much, really). Very, very noticeable improvement in speed, so presently, very, very happy. Just got the tedious job of reloading it all.
OK, you can all have a laugh when it goes wrong next week, but in the end I dealt with an Ebay one man band (I guess) assembler. Most impressed (naively, maybe) to actually get the real thing XP disc, not some 'backup' job, plus all the other discs that go with the bits of the machine. Everything has worked as they have been plugged in, so I guess the basics are right. £360, so not too big a hole in the wallet.
Mike.
Hi Mike,
Rgearding the 'pulsing' Emachines issue, its rather interesting in that I have seen it happen both ways. I.e, in some cases the motherboard appears to develop a fault, which somehow damages the power supply, which then in turn can damage any new motherboards that are subsequently installed!
The two faults do appear to perpetuate one another in some cases, an expensive, unfortunate situation for some owners of those machines.
A pity really, as they're not bad computers on the face of it, and were reasonable spec for the money.
The new machine sounds nice, hope its doing everything you want. I'd have no qualms at all buying one from an Ebay seller (have done myself, several times), so long as they were reputable. Quite a few bargain computers to be had on there, as you're hopefully finding
Hope it goes well, and glad you got sorted.
Cheers
Ciarán
Rgearding the 'pulsing' Emachines issue, its rather interesting in that I have seen it happen both ways. I.e, in some cases the motherboard appears to develop a fault, which somehow damages the power supply, which then in turn can damage any new motherboards that are subsequently installed!
The two faults do appear to perpetuate one another in some cases, an expensive, unfortunate situation for some owners of those machines.
A pity really, as they're not bad computers on the face of it, and were reasonable spec for the money.
The new machine sounds nice, hope its doing everything you want. I'd have no qualms at all buying one from an Ebay seller (have done myself, several times), so long as they were reputable. Quite a few bargain computers to be had on there, as you're hopefully finding
Hope it goes well, and glad you got sorted.
Cheers
Ciarán
onethecut, hope your system turns out OK. For 20 quid more u could have had one of these from Dell inc shipping and 17" TFT
http://ecomm.euro.dell.com/dellstore/baske...hs&itemtype=CFG
http://ecomm.euro.dell.com/dellstore/baske...hs&itemtype=CFG
Hi Dr. Tim.
Always a tricky call. One of the key factors was the ability to have it by Saturday morning and get up and running for the coming working week. I've absolutely nothing against Dell; someone else in the family has one of their laptops which has been fine, but the bird in the hand bit was of some importance to me and Dell are talking six days. If I wind up with egg on my face, I'll let you know !
Mike.
Always a tricky call. One of the key factors was the ability to have it by Saturday morning and get up and running for the coming working week. I've absolutely nothing against Dell; someone else in the family has one of their laptops which has been fine, but the bird in the hand bit was of some importance to me and Dell are talking six days. If I wind up with egg on my face, I'll let you know !
Mike.
sure, if you can't wait for delivery...
I am even more biased since a non-techie work colleague had me look at a box his parents picked up at a trade fair for £400. Would unexpectedly switch itself off in anything from 5 mine to 1 day. Was quite a recent ASUS mb and dual core, but no support at all to try and fix the prob, my conclusion was either replace it one bit at a time starting with the PSU or do nothing, impossible to diagnose further. Very cheap and tacky machine overall. especially compared to HP workstations.
I am even more biased since a non-techie work colleague had me look at a box his parents picked up at a trade fair for £400. Would unexpectedly switch itself off in anything from 5 mine to 1 day. Was quite a recent ASUS mb and dual core, but no support at all to try and fix the prob, my conclusion was either replace it one bit at a time starting with the PSU or do nothing, impossible to diagnose further. Very cheap and tacky machine overall. especially compared to HP workstations.
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