Incommunicado: Broken 'Puter...

motordavid · #1 08-10-2005, 12:22 PM

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,

NEway, this situ sucks.

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."

MatriX5 · #2 08-10-2005, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motordavid

NEway, this situ sucks.

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by motordavid

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

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.

Juanted · #3 08-10-2005, 12:51 PM

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?

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

Juan

haigha · #4 08-10-2005, 02:19 PM

Sorry about the bad news MD

PM me if you need a legit version of XP Pro Upgrade if your computer is salvageable.

Bavarian · #5 08-10-2005, 04:31 PM

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.

Curious Joel · #6 08-10-2005, 04:45 PM

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...

motordavid · #7 08-14-2005, 02:18 PM

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

haigha · #8 08-14-2005, 07:57 PM

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.

motordavid · #9 08-19-2005, 02:30 PM

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!

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.

haigha · #10 08-19-2005, 03:11 PM

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