Bob S
European
Rainbow Bear
Posts: 2,052
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May 5, 2008 18:20:40 GMT -7
Post by Bob S on May 5, 2008 18:20:40 GMT -7
;D ;D I was in the process os upgrading my PC last Friday when it seemed like everything hit the fan. I installed a beefier power supply and, and; I was greeted with---nothing. My monitor was a blank and i was getting a weird long beep from my computer. I turned my machine off, let it take a rest and made a frantic call to HP and told them my PC was broke and needed fixing. Lucky thing that I had an extended warrenty. I put the PC back together the way it was before and preped it for shipping. In the meantime (I was reading one of my pc magizines and got a clue as to what the problem was. It seems the lonely beep was NOT a sign of disaster but an indication that perhaps a lead was not firmly set or that there was a short somewhere. I checked the inside of my machine once more and sure enough one of the card slot covers had moved enough to cause a short on my modem board. I removed the slot covering AND my computer worked again. For a while I was sweating bullets because I thought that something really bad had happened. I called HP and told them to cancel the repair request because the problem had been resolved. Thank goodness for extended warrentys and great repair techs at HP. The techs there were ready and preped for a repair that was resolved. Today I checked a couple of sites that hosted PC modifications and there were more than a few persons who were going to do a similar mod to PC's like mine. I saw the advice and now I know that I am on the right track. The replacement power supply is 600 watts, has two cooling fans and pretty blue LED lights. I also plan on putting in an upgraded Graphics Card (lower end type but better than what I have). I may start again tomorrow or in a couple of days. ;D
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May 6, 2008 4:09:17 GMT -7
Post by rdywenur on May 6, 2008 4:09:17 GMT -7
Bob....I think they can use you at NASA next time they will be doing lift off. You are brave. I would never even think of doing anything inside my PC. (I did try once under a techs walk through......and was sweating bullets all the way) I have an article tht might come in handy for you. I'll email it after I scan the thing as they only keep it on line for one week then archive it and you have to pay for the article after that. Might come in handy if you are moving or deleting multiple files.
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Bob S
European
Rainbow Bear
Posts: 2,052
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Yikes!
May 6, 2008 7:56:06 GMT -7
Post by Bob S on May 6, 2008 7:56:06 GMT -7
;D Chris. I can understand that you are afraid of your PC's insides and what is lurking in there. However here is one tip you can try, I do this about every three months. I started off by buying a set of artist's paint brushes and canned air. Turn your PC off, disconnect the power cord either from the wall or the back of your PC (safety), let your PC sit for a minute or so ( to discharge any components, once again safety). Open your PC by removing a side panel (directions in your user's manual). Use the paint brushes to take the dust off of every nook , cranny and boards. Pay particular attention to any fans. Use a vacum cleaner and hose to remove the dust. After you have picked up the dust use the canned air to blow out any dirt that accumulates in the fins of heat sinks. The idea is to clean out the inside of your PC to help air flow and keep your componets cool. I call this "preventative maintenance" and it will help to give your PC a longer life. the easiest way to upgrade your PC is to add more memory. Many big name manufactures have web sites that can scan your PC and tell you what you can add. As your confidence grows you can try other modifications to your PC. The important thing to remember is that your PC is only a machine and you are a person. Have fun. ;D
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May 6, 2008 9:05:12 GMT -7
Post by justjohn on May 6, 2008 9:05:12 GMT -7
;D Chris. I can understand that you are afraid of your PC's insides and what is lurking in there. However here is one tip you can try, I do this about every three months. I started off by buying a set of artist's paint brushes and canned air. Turn your PC off, disconnect the power cord either from the wall or the back of your PC (safety), let your PC sit for a minute or so ( to discharge any components, once again safety). Open your PC by removing a side panel (directions in your user's manual). Use the paint brushes to take the dust off of every nook , cranny and boards. Pay particular attention to any fans. Use a vacum cleaner and hose to remove the dust. After you have picked up the dust use the canned air to blow out any dirt that accumulates in the fins of heat sinks. The idea is to clean out the inside of your PC to help air flow and keep your componets cool. I call this "preventative maintenance" and it will help to give your PC a longer life. the easiest way to upgrade your PC is to add more memory. Many big name manufactures have web sites that can scan your PC and tell you what you can add. As your confidence grows you can try other modifications to your PC. The important thing to remember is that your PC is only a machine and you are a person. Have fun. ;D One other thing you can do Bob, Your power supply has a fan inside and it collects dust like you don't believe. Remove the cover and brush off the dust and you'll have a cooler running power supply.
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May 6, 2008 9:50:42 GMT -7
Post by rdywenur on May 6, 2008 9:50:42 GMT -7
Speaking about computers there is a new tool in Google called street view. When you click on map after searching for address in some cases you will see a drop menu for street view and see a live photo that can be manipulated similar to Google Earth features. You can click and drag up and down and around the street as if you were driving a car. Pretty cool I thought. It is in Albany (George are you listening) and can check it out there if interested. (my brother told me about it since he lives there...enter 4 silverside lane,12110 and look for the yellow raised ranch with a skylight in the roof, garbage bag on right and mailbox and lamppost behind it on the left. (for some reason it reads as 8 but is really 4 Silverside Lane...must be the programmers so the only problem is if you don't know the house and looking for it a problem)
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Bob S
European
Rainbow Bear
Posts: 2,052
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Yikes!
May 6, 2008 11:35:40 GMT -7
Post by Bob S on May 6, 2008 11:35:40 GMT -7
J.J. I did open my power supply and cleaned it out too. That little warning tag on the outside of the power supply is like that little tag on mattresses and pillows; pay it no mind. Chris. If that camera ever catches me, the lens will probably shatter. In the meantime I am visiting that site that I told you about. Its fun to watch TV stations from Poland, Germany and other parts of the world. ;D
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Bob S
European
Rainbow Bear
Posts: 2,052
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Yikes!
May 7, 2008 13:30:38 GMT -7
Post by Bob S on May 7, 2008 13:30:38 GMT -7
;D ;D Today I put in my upgraded power suply and so far my PC is running OK. Lots of Blue LED lights and I suspect that my PC will really look good at night. The only minor problem I ran into was were to put all the large, long extra leads. The one thing about those consumer computers is that the power supplies and other things are just marginal. With the increased wattage of the power supply, my PC should run easier and further upgrades can be made. ;D
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Bob S
European
Rainbow Bear
Posts: 2,052
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Yikes!
May 9, 2008 20:23:56 GMT -7
Post by Bob S on May 9, 2008 20:23:56 GMT -7
;D ;D Today I swapped out my old video card for a new one and gave my PC the "smoke test"; no smoke........yet. Now that wasen't so hard, was it? and my computer is running a lot better.
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May 9, 2008 22:23:22 GMT -7
Post by kaima on May 9, 2008 22:23:22 GMT -7
Bob, I got this report on you from customer service. Can't hide any more! How many Bob's are there anyhow?
Tech Support: "I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop".
Customer: "OK".
Tech Support: "Did you get a pop-up menu?".
Customer: "No".
Tech Support: "OK. Right-Click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?"
Customer: "No".
Tech Support: "OK, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?".
Customer: "Sure. You told me to write 'click' and I wrote 'click'".
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Tech Support: "OK. In the bottom left hand side of the screen, can you see the 'OK' button displayed?"
Customer: "Wow. How can you see my screen from there?"
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Bob S
European
Rainbow Bear
Posts: 2,052
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Yikes!
May 10, 2008 7:51:09 GMT -7
Post by Bob S on May 10, 2008 7:51:09 GMT -7
;D ;D ;D That sure sounds like me, Kai. I have one rule that I always (or most of the time) works; "when all else fails, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS". One other rule is, "Never begin a vast project with a half-vast idea". LOL ;D ;D ;D
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Jun 2, 2008 6:42:23 GMT -7
Post by justjohn on Jun 2, 2008 6:42:23 GMT -7
;D ;D Today I swapped out my old video card for a new one and gave my PC the "smoke test"; no smoke........yet. Now that wasen't so hard, was it? and my computer is running a lot better. Had a wonderful weekend with my PC !!!!Thursday my HDD started to crash. Was able to back up my financial data and quick books data. Went and bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB HDD. Tried to clone the rest of the data and my ole HDD finally was laid to rest with out giving up its secrets. Have installed everything to make the PC operate including Win XP SP3 updates. Bought a new Video card. GeForce 6200 and also a 2.5" / 3.5" SATA HDD USB Docking station. This will allow me to use SATA drives by just plugging them in to the docking station. Now I am going to make my old HDD a slave and see if I can extract some of the info. Evan though I can't get into the boot sector I may be able to extract directories and files through DOS. Wish me luck.
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Jun 2, 2008 19:46:10 GMT -7
Post by Jaga on Jun 2, 2008 19:46:10 GMT -7
Hi John,
I hope your computer will work well again, especially since you bought so much new stuff!
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Bob S
European
Rainbow Bear
Posts: 2,052
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Yikes!
Jun 2, 2008 22:09:03 GMT -7
Post by Bob S on Jun 2, 2008 22:09:03 GMT -7
;D That is a very big project John and I bet you got to know your computer a lot better. A while back I used a freeware program to rescue some deleted photos on my machine. I was only trying to retreive photos on my "C" drive and the problem was that the program ran for about 2.5 days but it did rescue the photos. I am sure that the program would rereive all the files and folders on your hard drive but the process would probably take a month or two. On the other hand I heard that there were some paid programs that were very, very good. As a last resort, you could farm out the project but this costs some BIG bucks I tried to put an upgrade video card into my PC and it did work at first but than I was greeted by a bunch of warning beeps. The techs at EVGA and I came to the conclusion that the card had a defect. Shipped the card to EVGA and now I am waiting for a replacement. EVGA does have a lifetime warrenty on it's cards. ;D
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Jun 4, 2008 10:08:54 GMT -7
Post by justjohn on Jun 4, 2008 10:08:54 GMT -7
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Jun 4, 2008 10:12:06 GMT -7
Post by justjohn on Jun 4, 2008 10:12:06 GMT -7
Welllll - - I have a registered copy of Microsoft Office 2000 Professional. It is an upgrade rather than a straight install. To install this it needs to see my old office disk, and guess what? I can't find it. Well, it seems that I need some good single malt scotch to contemplate my computing future. I have found this. enOffice.org 2 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. It is Microsoft office compatible. Anybody hear of it?
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