Fried Pc

Hey guys, I'm back! Lots of good advice and comments above. Thanks. I'll be reading them more in depth this weekend. (Drat, top of the page again)
Quick overview. My PC is a hand me down, CompaQ, Windows 7. The other morning, when fired up, it would not "power-up". The tower had power, and showed it, and the monitor too. But usually it goes through some computer processing B4 entering the password page. The screen only showed black, (even tho the power lite was on). I won't bore you with my troubleshooting methods, but will end saying the "Geek squad" at Best Buy, came through big time. The young service rep, tested, pulled prodded, explained, and finally got lucky, (and admitted it), when all he did was remove a couple long narrow circuit boards, looked at them, put them back, and "Viola"! Power to the people!" Appeared to be a dirty connection, on whatever one or two of them that was causing it. It didn't take more the 6-7 mins for the whole operation, and he wouldn't take any money. I'll be sending the website his name and an "at-a-boy" for his expertise and bed-side manor.
I was sweating bullets, cause an expense of a replacement processor, couldn't have come at a "least" opportune time. I will never buy new, because in just a few years they always become "antiquated", and I have a hard time throwing something "new" away, even tho it's only a few years old. something serviceable in the $200 range is my budget for these things. Anyway, I'm "up and running", and hopefully haven't missed too much. (Now to check out my "belated" Email list.)

The new computers are way over powered if you need one to do basic stuff like surf the web, pay bills or keep a calendar on or whatever. If you need to do heavy processor intensive stuff live video editing or video conversions, things along that line, you need a powerful computer.

The tower I currently run is 6 years old, and unless it completely fails, I don't see any reason I need anything better, faster or heavier duty.

scoobydoo wrote:

Doby wrote:Toshiba makes strong running laptops problem with them is they preinstall so much unnecessary software and most users don't know how to disable and it can bog things down, don't get me wrong hp does some as well and dell limits it

I reformatted my niece"s Toshiba laptop once.With all the extra preinstall programs,it took much longer to reinstall the operating system than any other computer I've ever formatted.

yes I have worked on several these same thing ans alot of that software is running in the backround slowing things

all he did was remove a couple long narrow circuit boards

That was the ram also known as memory sticks he reseated them and them and the thing came to life, that is something that is usually tried when diagnosing

Well there you have it Rick. Better watch out. We'll be bothering you for technical advice.

Doby wrote:

all he did was remove a couple long narrow circuit boards

That was the ram also known as memory sticks he reseated them and them and the thing came to life, that is something that is usually tried when diagnosing

Mine doesn't have enough memory to print and stumbles on everything. Is that RAM?

coaledsweat wrote: Mine doesn't have enough memory to print and stumbles on everything. Is that RAM?

That's what I would do to mine, if it did that. "RAM" (it with my truck) get it? Ram? (Never mind)

Coaledsweat,

Possibly but it could also be the program that your printer uses leaking memory or to many programs running at once, if you restart the computer and go right to what you want to print will it print then? If so then that indicates you have to many things running at once possibly back round programs you are unaware of. Try this and report back

Also tell us the brand and model number of the computer, number should be on a sticker maybe on the rear if this is a desktop.
With this info I can look it up and see what the computer came stock with.

you can set up windows 8.1 to be better than windows 7 .. like having 2 desktops really...

Doby wrote:Coaledsweat,

Possibly but it could also be the program that your printer uses leaking memory or to many programs running at once, if you restart the computer and go right to what you want to print will it print then? If so then that indicates you have to many things running at once possibly back round programs you are unaware of. Try this and report back

Also tell us the brand and model number of the computer, number should be on a sticker maybe on the rear if this is a desktop.
With this info I can look it up and see what the computer came stock with.

It's a Dell tower. No it won't print on a restart and nothing else is running. It won't print two words. It has XP and is no longer supported. I have had a few of those "blue death" screens so it is going, I can't see trying to save it because I know it will die right when I need it. It is old.

David, the more I read about 8 the more I think it is time to step up. At some point 7 will get the axe too so I may as well get used to it now. It does have some fancy pants features and some clumsy operational issues. Just not sure, I would like to fiddle with it first to see what it's like.

Yea its not worth fussing over, keep in mind if the printer is old it may not work with windows 8 and need replaced to.

When your ready let me know, would you consider a laptop? The right one is just as good these days and mobile no need to be tied to cords.

You'll be happy with 8 once you learn the ropes its fast, I can recommend a decent computer depending on whats available at the time but expect to pay in the 3 to 4 hundred dollar range for something that will last 5 to 10 years and not become obsolete, trust me theres some real junk out there. Chrome books and the like, yea the'll get you on the net for 200 bucks but you can't save hardly anything to them unless you subscribe to the cloud for a fee after 1 year, for a bit more you have a real computer