RE: Buying a computer

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firefighterjake

Minister of Fire
Jul 22, 2008
19,588
Unity/Bangor, Maine
Tired of dealing with issues with my existing computer . . .

Tried cleaning it . . . taking out and reseating memory stick, cards, etc. . . . updated drivers . . . ran a memory test . . .

At this point it seems to be freezing up and crashing even more often . . . so I'm thinking of getting a new desktop.

Anyways, this is what I have now . . . HP with AMD 64 x 2 dual core processors 6000 3.01 Ghz and 3.00 GB of RAM.

Any recommendations for something that would be comparable or a bit better . . . either on-line or at a brick and mortar store?
 
Best Buy or if on line goto CDW.com. I have a corporate account with CDW and they are fast, courteous and very helpful with questions.

I told ya the software was doing it Jake. That doesn't sound like too bad of a machine. Reload the software and save yourself some bean pods.
 
My little mac laptop was giving me fits with shutdowns and freezes, then I got a trojan somehow and in the course of trying to rid of that ended up nuke and paving and it has been like a new machine.
 
So how would I nuke the computer or reload the software . . . safely nuke . . . let's just pretend I am a complete computer idiot . . . OK, not such a stretch . . . I am in Maine after all . . . for many of us the Commodore 64 is the bee's knees. :)
 
Did your computer come with a bunch of disks? If so, one or more of them will probably have the original OS and driver stuff.

If it came with no disks, it is possible that it has a recovery partition on the drive. Let me know if you have disks or not and we can go from there.
 
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Jake, Jags is right on. Desktop like that isn't TOO old, so probably a recovery partition, but not guaranteed.
I do this every once in a while if the thing starts getting too wonky or I get bored.
You could always put Linux on it.==c
 
No disks . . . I have done a system recovery . . . that isn't the same thing though, right?
 
Jake, if you are using the computer mostly for internet and email, what you have is more than adequate. What OS did this machine come with? Have you checked the event logs to see what is causing the crashes and freezes? Often this is a driver issue.
 
BG . . . Vista.

And yes . . . mostly internet, some gaming once in blue moon and some word processing.

Excuse my computer idiotacy . . . how do I check the event logs?
 
Do a google search for open Vista event viewer. I copy paste it for you but this iPad is a pita for that simple operation.
 
I bought an Apple imac desktop 3-4 years ago.
Not a single problem, zero, zilch, nada. With me, my wife and 2 kids it gets a workout.
Everything is simple, want a new printer? Plug it in. Plug and play. No driver BS.
Apple sends updates weekly and have never used any anti-virus software or had a virus.
If you use itunes or ipod for music it is seamless.
Iphoto comes installed and is a decent photo editing / library.
Personally will not go back to pc.
 
You could give up beating on yourself and take it into a computer shop. They will charge about $40 to look it over and tell you what is up. Bet you can get it dumped and reloaded under $200. which is a hole lot less than the cost of a new machine. I would make sure you have copied any financial data, then erase that file off the hard drive before you take it in. Same for any other data such as family pictures. I keep an external hard drive and run back ups.
I have had three hp laptop break in the past 6 years. Also two hp desktops. One of those has seized up. I took them in and was told none of them was worth fixing. Now use an hp desktop, gateway laptop, and an IPad. I got a acer laptop and an acer tablet for my wife. For my 2 cents, I will stay clear of hp.
 
No disks . . . I have done a system recovery . . . that isn't the same thing though, right?
Can you contact HP and see if they can send you the discs?
As Jag indicated, I would try to clear out the hard drive and start with the original defaults when the computer was new. (Jags actually walked me through this last year, and the laptop has been good ever since....its a Dell appx 4 years old)
Even if HP has to charge you for the shipping of the discs, it might be worth a try.
 
At a friend's suggestion I updated Windows Vista and Explorer . . . didn't do a thing.

Last night I got one error message after it froze that said 493/493 Machine Registry . . . and then another that said symc8xx.sys . .. attempt to write to read only memory.

This morning it kept freezing . . . only message that showed up said "A clock interrupt was not received on secondary processor within the allocated time interval."

I think at this point I am ready to use the nuclear option if this will fix the problem . . . or barring them bite the bullet and buy a new one or pay a tech to fix it.

I would be very appreciative if someone could give me the step by step directions on how to apply the defibrillator to this computer as it is getting to the point where it is nearly unusable.
 
Try looking up what you want on www.youtube.com. I have found that site very informative. But to get at least a sense of direction. I would at least take it to a shop for diagnostics. Make sure to use a back up drive and run it frequently, or subscribe to something like Carbonite. The one thing I have found is that computers alway fail at some point.
 
Jake - do you have access to this puter during daytime hours??

Nope.

My wife noted that oftentimes it seems to lock up when she is looking at pics or when the games she play have moving graphics. Not sure if this means anything or not.
 
That would fall into the lap of video driver, but that could simply be a side effect of a larger issue. The other errors that you reported go deeper into the OS.

Well - it goes something like this: ya gotta have software to reload your drive with. It can either be in the form of disks or a recovery partition on the drive. A good sign of a recovery partition is when you boot up your puter, when you still have black screen - at the top of the screen it should say something like "For recover press F9" and then a short count down timer.
 
That would fall into the lap of video driver, but that could simply be a side effect of a larger issue. The other errors that you reported go deeper into the OS.

Well - it goes something like this: ya gotta have software to reload your drive with. It can either be in the form of disks or a recovery partition on the drive. A good sign of a recovery partition is when you boot up your puter, when you still have black screen - at the top of the screen it should say something like "For recover press F9" and then a short count down timer.

Hmmm . . . I did notice a screen with three options on the start up . . . one of them was F-11: System Recovery. Could this be it? I feel like such a troglodyte next to you computer gurus . . . and to think just a few years ago I was so pleased with myself in successfully installing a better graphics card (which to you guys must be akin to a four year old being all pleased with himself after learning how to ride this bike without training wheels.)
 
Yes, that sounds like you have a partition. BE AWARE - sometimes that little "prompt" can also prompt for disks.;lol

HP is good for having recovery partitions on most of their machines from the recent past. Recovery is fairly painless if this is the case. "Yes, yes, OK, I agree, continue" is about the most difficult it gets.
 
Give me a little time. I will check with my rep and see if I can confirm a recovery partition or not.
You got a model and serial number?

(just got a call from my rep, he will try to find out.)
 
I have HP laptop, about same age, same OS, has partition....good chance Jake's does too. fingers crossed.
 
no shame in learning something new Jake. I'd assume most everyone who knows this stuff learned it when they needed to, not cuz they wanted to...same way I know how to perform various "home surgeries"....rarely a field medic around when injuries hunt me down.
 
Throw that F'in thing against the wall, go to BestBuy and treat yourself to a new one. You won't regret it a bit.
I used to build my own customs and nowadays, I can get them already made faster & cheaper.
 
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