Dead Desktop - HELP.

[CMF]

The desktop is an eMachine that I got at one of those Black Friday sales a few years ago.

Symptoms:

• There was a dos looking screen a couple of nights ago. I shut down the machine and it restarted just fine. Problem fixed.
• The mouse would not work yesterday. It is a wireless keyboard and mouse set up and I just thought it was getting buggy. But I found it curious that nothing I plugged into the usb ports worked. I replaced it with an old keyboard and mouse plugged into the regular ports(?) and they work(ed).
• No sound today.
• Restarted the PC and the keyboard worked but the mouse didn't. The keyboard stopped working - the NUM LOCK and CAPS key lights were blinking on an off for a while.
• I then shut down the PC and the power button started to blink rapidly followed by a machine gun sounding repetitive clicking.

Any ideas as to what is going on? If it's dead, can I save the stuff I had on the hard drive like pictures? How? If I need a new PC? What's a good one to get? Where do I find the deals?


HELP!


Charles

 

[jerseygirl]

Charles --

I can't help you with the technical side of things, but I've learned the hard way that it's better to store important emails (e.g. those containing reservation confirmations) and all pictures on someone else's server (e.g. Yahoo/Gmail, Shutterfly).

Good luck!

-Jerseygirl

 

[Big Matt]

The clicking sound makes me believe that it's your hard drive. Get everything off of it as soon as it boots up. You may get lucky.

 

[CMF]

It was the mother board.

I took the CPU to Best Buys and they determined that it was the mother board. They are taking the docs and pictures from the hard drive and copying them to a DVD.

Now I need a new desktop? Suggestions are encouraged

This is what I want the machine to do:

• Run pretty sophisticated games [Yes, I'm and old man and I still play the occasional PC game ]

• I want to transfer movies from my camcorder via the RCA cables and edit them.

• Basic computer stuff.

I'm thinking [more guessing than thinking actually] that I need something with a large hard drive, 2 gigs of memory, a dual(?) core machine, an upgraded video card, video inputs, and a DVD burner.

Some basic questions [since the common review sites don't seem to agree on what is the best PC out there]:

• Should I look at Dell, HP, Gateway, eMachines, Lenovo? Other?
• Should I buy from Tiger Direct? NewEgg? The Dell site? BestBuy? Costco?

Thanks!
Charles

 

[Don]

When we were in the market to replace a brand new Gateway (POS), about 8 months ago, we were told by a sales man that Lenovo was an IBM. I also found out that Emachines are made by Gateway. I'm happy with the HP I got as a replacement.

 

[timeos2]

Buy from a local dealer

I took the CPU to Best Buys and they determined that it was the mother board. They are taking the docs and pictures from the hard drive and copying them to a DVD.

Now I need a new desktop? Suggestions are encouraged

This is what I want the machine to do:

• Run pretty sophisticated games [Yes, I'm and old man and I still play the occasional PC game ]

• I want to transfer movies from my camcorder via the RCA cables and edit them.

• Basic computer stuff.

I'm thinking [more guessing than thinking actually] that I need something with a large hard drive, 2 gigs of memory, a dual(?) core machine, an upgraded video card, video inputs, and a DVD burner.

Some basic questions [since the common review sites don't seem to agree on what is the best PC out there]:

• Should I look at Dell, HP, Gateway, eMachines, Lenovo? Other?
• Should I buy from Tiger Direct? NewEgg? The Dell site? BestBuy? Costco?

Thanks!
Charles

Find a local dealer thats been around for awhile (if you were in Rochester, NY I'd tell you to go see Chase Computer - there are many others) and have them build you a custom PC with the features you want. Why? Because it won't come with VISTA (unless you want it - you don't!) and just as important it won't have all the junk that every packaged PC - Dell, HP, Compaq, Lenovo (IBM), Gateway, eMachine - the list goes on - has. You can never really get rid of it once it;s loaded and, in many cases, problems in the future are related to all that junk. You'll get a real Windows CD - not a restore disk - very important for the inevitable reloads every Windows PC is likely to need in it's lifetime.

Finally a local guy (or girl) will be there to answer questions, fix the PC if it should break and will use properly sized parts (no 220W powers supplies when the CPU requires a 350W minimum) if they plan to stay in business. Thats why you want a dealer that has a history of a few years and has satisfied customers.

You'll be supporting your local economy, you'll be getting a better PC with standard parts - no custom "buy only from us" stuff - and you'll be getting the cleanest Windows install possible to minimize problems. Happy shopping.

 

[DaveNV]

Charles, if you have a Costco nearby, start there. You'll find competitive pricing, a range of machines, and the return policy can't be beat. You can return the machine for ANY reason within ninety days of purchase. Other sellers will give you only a few weeks to return things, and then usually only if it's defective. That ninety-day policy is GOLDEN when evaluating a new computer.

Buy the best machine you can afford, and it'll probably serve your needs just fine. The nice thing about most higher-end desktops is you can add more memory, replace a hard drive, or change out a video card as needed. In fact, your old hard drive should be able to be installed as a slave drive in the new system, so you'd be able to access ALL your old data, not just a few files.

The other thing about Costco is they negotiate deals with manufacturers to get systems that usually have more power (larger hard drives, more memory, faster processors and such) than the normal stuff being sold elsewhere by the manufacturer. So for the same relative money, you can usually get a much better machine. Plus, Costco systems normally include a monitor, where many machines sold elsewhere are CPU-only.

The things you want to do with your machine aren't that unusual, but you will want to get as much bang for the buck as you can. Downloading movies and such can eat a lot of hard drive space, but you can always add an external USB-connected hard drive, to use as a storage device. Dual-core processors are great for gaming, and you should find numerous machines for sale with that feature. Video memory is important, but remember that if your computer doesn't have the video power you need, you can usually change out the video card for one that does what you need.

As for brand names? I don't think they're as important as they used to be, since they'll all contain similar devices (hard drives made by Western Digital or Seagate, for example.) So choose the machine that has the computing power you want, and that has the best warranty, for the best price.

Good luck!

Dave

P.S. I'm a Network Administrator and have been a computer tech for more than 35 years.

 

[CMF]

I'd rather obsess about timeshares.

I did not want to go on a quest to find the perfect PC for me so I went ahead an bought a Dell XPS 410 refurb with a 2 year on-site warranty - a safe bet. Here are the specs [I don't know what half of this stuff is, but do know that there's alot of junk that I don't need here.]

Charles

1. UJ681 13 in 1 Media Card Reader
2. KF274 1394 IEEE Adapter Card
3. HM226 16X DVD RW w/dbl layer write capability
4. F9121 2 GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)
5. UD306 250 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
6. UD305 250 GB EIDE SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
7. DK317 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
8. WH566 48X CD RW/DVD Combo Drive
9. RF255 56Kbps Data/Fax Modem
10. C3509 AOL 9.0 ISP Software
11. K2972 AOL ISP Software
12. K2967 AOL Software Documentation
13. PN548 Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Reader
14. NH274 Assembly Cable
15. TM866 Bezel
16. PR418 Corel Paint Shop Pro XI - Advanced photo editing
17. YW980 Corel Snapfire Basic
18. GF164 Dell Direct Download
19. CJ340 Dell Optical USB 2-button Mouse
20. PR976 Earthlink ISP
21. K1609 Earthlink ISP Software
22. GF166 Genuine Windows XP Media Center 2005
23. NC100 Hard Drive Cable
24. PJ270 Hardware is Microsoft Vista Capable
25. KJ999 Hardware is Microsoft Vista Capable
26. PH652 ISP Search Assist
27. N6174 Image Restore Software
28. MH662 Integrated Card -Includes Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition
29. PN175 Microsoft Works 8.5
30. 54981 No Speakers
31. FF867 Operating System DVD
32. RJ602 Processor Label
33. F6406 RAID 0
34. DH925 Roxio Creator, My DVD LE
35. FK244 Service Software
36. UH324 Shipping Material
37. UX842 Software
38. RG893 Sonic Cineplayer
39. MY288 Support Software
40. PR981 Trial pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo
41. WH971 USB Keyboard

 

[DaveNV]

I don't see the processor listed, but presume it fits well with everything else. That's a fine computer. It'll suit your needs very well. Good luck with it!

Dave

 

[CMF]

It's an Intel Duo Core 1.86 processor with 1066 FSB

I think that will do nicely. The processor speed is not eye opening, but I read during my brief research that it is not as important a factor as many people believe.

Charles

 

[Don]

You have an old version of Adobe Reader. You can now download Ver. 8.0. Also, a correction on my last entry. I saw on last night's news that Lenovo is a Chinese company that bought IBM's computer division.