Incommunicado: Broken 'Puter...
 

Hi Faves&Regs,

Our 5 yr old Dell w/Wind 98 2nd ed., took a big dive Monday eve:
it had been very hard to "shut down" lately, and it would not fire
up on Tues am. It goes through a couple of the start up noises, but
some are "missing" and I never get to a normal screen with icons, tool
bars, etc. No ticket, no wash.

I suspect it has crashed, (first time), and I hope my hard drive info is
retrievable. Since this area is not exactly the high tech capitol of
North Carolina, I am having a tough time finding someone to take a look
at my tower and give me a verdict.

I'm shopping for a new Dell, and hanging here at the County Public Library,
on their 'puters. I have to fight the kids off that wanna surf the free porn sites, :bustingup

NEway, this situ sucks. :mad:

Also, this morning, my X's fan decides to goes toes up; thus, no A/C or any fan speed. The final resistor glitch, methinks. I'm still on Warr and also have a month left of the Ext Maint; now I gotta beg Fletcher BMW to get me in and hope they can fix it quickly, (45 mins away and not my fave Stlr.) :(

Other than that, things are fooking poifect here on the mtn...

I'll check back in a couple of days from the PubLib. PM me if ya'll needing to talk. Or, phone is 828-452-3447. Don't call to sell me sumpin'!
Talk and read ya'll, sooner or later.
BR, md

"If something isn't broken or not working, it's a remarkable day."

That does suck. I had the same thing happen on 95, 98, and XP. Now I'm one of the "My computer never crashes because I'm on a Mac" people. :D

:rofl: Good attitude. Have fun at the house o' books. Maybe you can learn us something by the time you get your new tin can hooked up.

Sorry to hear about your situation, MD. 45 minutes away? Might as well come to Charlotte and talk to Hendrick BMW. Their service departmetn is wonderful! Let me know if I can help you there.

As far as your hard drive. Unless you dunked it in a lake, a data retrieval company should be able to recover your stuff. It may cost you a couple of hundred bucks, though.

Dell, huh? :rolleyes:

Good luck, and let me know if I can be of any help.

Juan

Sorry about the bad news MD :( PM me if you need a legit version of XP Pro Upgrade if your computer is salvageable.

ncix.com offers custom built computers at lower prices than Dell.

And if you don't wanna choose the parts, they offer ready solutions, too. :)

And while you're at it, invest in CD burner or a DVD burner to back up those files for future crashes.

I feel your pain, md. My laptop has been VERY unreliable. I bought it last September. In late October, the hard drive went and I lost everything. Luckily I had most of my pictures backed up. Then about three weeks ago something went wrong with the place where the power cord plugs in, and I had to have it fixed. It was in the shop for a week. Then three days after I got it back, I turned it on one morning to find "FATAL SYSTEM ERROR" on the screen. I took it in again, and the hard drive was gone, again. This time they retrieved my pictures, but I lost all my songs on iTunes... And, my iPod broke the day before I got the laptop back, and when I took it to the Apple store, not only did the service SUCK ASS beyond belief, but they couldn't fix it.. I got a free new iPod, but I lost all my songs. So I have to try and remember them and get them again. Ugh...

A lot of PC problems happen because users shut their computer every night or when they are done. An interesting article:

Should You Shut the Computer Down?


.

Here is an even more interesting article. Follow the steps here, and most, if not all, your computer-related problems will cease.

You can thank me later. :D

Juan

Thanks, Juan! :D I plan on switching very soon! Next time this thing crashes, Windows is HISTORY for me! I'm so fed up with Windows.

Alright "Steve Jobs stooge", how much did he pay you for that promo post??? A free iPod? Free Cinema Display? What? What? How about that 6 pack of colored socks that are supposed to be iPod cases? :D

I am actually a huge fan of Apple's designs. Everything they make is so clean, elegant, and simple. My fianceé has a Ti Powerbook and I love the feel of it. There is no laptop out there even close in terms of form factor and design. She also has a new Power Mac G5 with a 20" Cinema display. They are simply stunning. We manage to maintain a relationship despite her devotion to Mac and my being a PC guy.

Despite what some people may think, I am not on Apple's payroll. :D

I simply admire elegant, easy-to-use design -- especially when coupled with great engineering. This is why I own a Mac. It's also why I own a BMW -- a company, by the way -- after which Apple prides itself to compare against. (This, of course, is helped by the fact that I am fortunate enough to afford said design and engineering.)

And, I have not even touched on the fact that I can use my Mac without any of these fears:

- Decreasing performance (This simply does not happen on a Mac. I still have an old PowerMac from 1997! And yes, it's usable! Before iTunes came out, I was using it as my MP3 server.)
- Viruses
- Crashes
- Incompatible application drivers

Yes, I give up an occasional application (Access, Visio, for example), and games. Thankfully, I am not a gamer, though. If you ARE a gamer, the Mac is not for you. The Mac computing experience is simply so much more superior, elegant, and safe. It's cliche', but the Mac simply works.

</getting off my pedestal, now> :)

Juan

Jes'checking in from the Waynesville,NC PubLib.

I gave one of the skinny HS age kids my best Dirty Harry look and he finally got off one of the 'puters so I could slide in, :p (These kids need a summer job; hanging out looking at free skin sites and bsing w/their friends on the cell phone is not conducive to good future work habits, imo. :rolleyes: )

The local 'puter maven hasn't even gotten to my "box" yet, so it will be a few more days before I know the diagnosis...in meantime I'm shopping hard for a new Dell. Yes, JK, I know Mac is more better, etc., but I'm gonna stick w/Gates's demon.

A quick glance at the "New Posts" list shows I'll have to take a week off from retirement and do a lot of catch-up reading when I get back on daWeb.

Other than that SSDD, here in hillbillyheaven, though I did burn an 83 yesterday and won a few quid.

Thanks for the PMs and the posts w/info...I appreciate them.
Read ya'll again in a day or, three or, 5.
BR,md

Sunday afternoon...
The 'puterXpert still hasn't gotten to my box, as of late Sat.
Have new Dell ordered:
9100 series, 3Ghz processor, 512 dual chan. ram, 160 G hard,
DVD/CD trays, 19" flat monitor, etc. I skipped the extra gamer/graphics
media stuff. $1200 del. inc. new keyboard, mouse and "free" color printer, etc.
Not like they pull the sucka off the shelf: delivery is about 22 or 23 of Aug.

Hope I get my ol'tired box back in meantime, as I'm suffering Web withdrawl, lol!

I have come to realize how much time I really spend on the fooking 'puter; maybe, too much, though theCEO said I've gotten some TTD stuff done around the house, lol!

Over&Out from the PubLib 'puter bank.
BR,md

Your new computer will scream compared to your old one. I recommend getting the minimum RAM config (256) and upgrading to 1 GB via newegg.com or a similar site. But you'll likely be fine with 512. Longhorn (Windows Vista) will require a good graphics card to run at optimum performance but that's something you can add later.

I'm Back in the 'Net Saddle!
 

Got our new Dell box and screen late yesterday and TheCEO got it fired up this am, while I was at the BeamEr Stlr getting stuff done to the X.

A couple of teething glitches, but the new 'Box runs like a Ferrari! :thumbup:

Also, finally got my old 'puter back yesterday from the local maven; all my
data is intact, harddrive-wise, but Outlook Express is not working. Keep getting error message on old box, when we open OutExpress...we are trying diff. stuff to resurrect and resucitate all the saved emails and email address book. Not good, so far. :(

I may ask for any tips on grabbing the old Outlook Express stuff and dragging it to my new machine...

NEway, good to be back on the WWW. I'll pour through the multitude of new posts and try and get caught up.

Experienced an anomaly this am, too: a good experience, service-wise, from Fletcher BMW Stlr in Asheville. Will post on that later.
Good Friday to all.
BR,md "I'm Back, back in the NewYawkGrooooove", as Kiss sang.

Welcome back MD and congrats on the new 'puter. :thumbup:

Welcome back MD. For getting your old files from the old machine look at the File Settings and Transfer Wizard. It's a new feature on XP but it will gather your files from your old machine. It will also bring along your OE files and hopefully they're salvagable.

Some links:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../mgrtfset.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...ovember12.mspx

http://aumha.org/win5/a/fast.php