by Jack
I’ve been having computer problems, however the fix is near. Sorry I have not be able to respond to many of your comments like I wanted, nor post all the great stories I have been finding. But, that will change soon with a new puter. Seems these addictive toys only last about 3 years now and that’s just long enough to be outdated…I think it’s a big marketing ploy. They want to keep selling us the latest wizziest toys. Anyone have any ideas what’s a good computer these days? I’m told HP is not so good, Gateway is fair, Dell’s just okay.
As I mentioned to you earlier today, I like these guys…
http://www.pcichico.com/featured.htm
Very comforting to know that 1st class service and support are 10 minutes away.
My hunch is that all you need is an OS rebuild, but I have no idea what you are using now for an OS or if you have failing hardware issues. I deploy (at various times) up to 10 XP desktop machines, depending on my energy and time. All of which are based on the long outdated P4 and they work just fine for 99% of what I do. My next custom build will be a dual or quad core Pentium to do high end graphics, CAD, and crunch HD video. 8 of the 10 machines are six-eight year old used HP purchased on eBay. Not a single machine cost over $80 to my door, but I did max them out with the fastest P4 CPUs ($20 or less each) and largest, fastest memory ($80 or less per 2 GB). I also upgraded with 500GB hard drives at various times when I could find a deal. Now even 500GB drives can be had for dirt cheap.
While these HP machines have proprietary features (such as only HP motherboards and power supplies mechanically fit) they are built like tanks.
I am not up on current HP offerings, but I bet their new mid-line office machines would work just fine. Or used ones that are later than the ones I own (and are becoming scarce). I think HP abandoned some proprietary features on later models, but cannot swear to it since I no longer research them as I have more than I need.
In general it is better to avoid proprietary machines unless you know how to tinker and there is a large installed business base being disposed of and auctioned off in whole machines or parts. That is one of the beauties of HP business machines and parts, if you learn what to look for, they are ubiquitous in the used market.
If you want a notebook, I can’t help you there. I hate notebooks, especially working on them. I have never met a notebook I have liked nor have ever encountered one that was not a total FUBAR when it comes to dismantling and re-assembling. But you probably can’t go wrong with an HP or a Toshiba notebook.
Whatever you get, computers are cheap these days if you do some shopping. I advise you to buy two identical machines and mirror them. It takes some effort, but that way you are always up and running. If there is some failure on machine 1, move over to machine 2. This approach requires a vigilant attitude towards back up and file maintenance, but I have found it to be worth it in the long run. While machine 2 is deployed, fix machine 1.
I break my secondary memory into pieces and use a personally customized DOS based form of Norton Ghost to image a small (10GB) OS partition (or drive). This way, even if I get a particularly nasty virus (most virus programs install on the OS partition) and I have trouble solving the problem, all I have to do is restore the latest known good working Ghost OS partition image and voila, problem solved.
Data/large app partitions or drives are backed up separately from the OS by simple mirroring. This approach works well for me because secondary memory parts are easily imaged, mirrored, swapped and restored, but it takes a bit of vigilance and planning.
I don’t know if the above helps, but there is my two cents worth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYqFSaJapBY
Thanks again RHT, I like those guys…guess I’m just comparing prices. They make a good product.
Pie, great info. thanks. I have an older Gateway PC (e-4500s) and it has 4 gigs of ram (max) with a pretty hot INTEL CPU…runs around 3.4 ghz I think, could handle Win 7. It has no hard drive at the moment, but I have an old HD from a dead Dell puter that has 60 gigs of space, not much in todays terms, but enough for my purposes if I wiped it clean and reloaded with a new OS. I wonder if it’s worth buying Win 7 and loading that or I guess I could fall back to XP Pro? I think that would be fine for what I do, which is mostly as a word processor.
Right now I am clunking along with a pretty slow Dell Inspiron 8500 lap top and that’s not good enough. I had a Gateway SX in a slim case, and that was very quick, came with 4 gigs of ram. Cost to factory refurbish is $200, plus ship. I would like to get by until Win 8 as been out for a year and then buy a new unit… oh, what to do??? So many choices.. lol
I have a young college student as my “guru” he said he purchases his computer parts and computers from . http://www.newegg.com.
just passing the info on .
I stopped purchasing new MS OS’s after the Vista debacle and the DirectX and the dotNet lunacy. I stick with XP for which security fixes are still available.
I have no doubt that Windows 7 and 8 have a much larger footprint than XP and are packed with bloatware, but I haven’t done any OS research since I stick to XP, so I can’t help you there.
Of course if you buy a packaged system you usually have no choice of OS. Windows 8 Pro is Windows 7 Pro with some extra features you may never use and with Windows Media Center as an extra cost add-on. The worst thing I see about Windows 8 is the Metro Interface. That looks like resource robbing bloatware that would drive me nuts. The new W8 Desktop mode doesn’t thrill me either. But both may be just the thing for folks to whom the computer is a black box.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/buying-advice/windows/3368956/windows-7-vs-windows-8-whats-difference-between-windows-8-windows-7/
The Intel machines I see on the web from PCI Chico look pretty good, I don’t think you could go wrong with them. They have Cooler Master cases pictured and Cooler Master makes some excellent cases. My favorite case now is the “silent” Nexus Prominent 9 —
http://www.amazon.com/Nexus-PROMINENT-9-Prominent/dp/B004EZI0E0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353088209&sr=8-1&keywords=Nexus+Prominent+9
There must be something in the air. I have a few glitches on my laptop that bug me but don’t interfere with posting to PS…however, I have been fighting some problems on my business machine that have kept me busy trying to fix and correct problems with payroll and opening my accounting windows…grrrrr. There are days when you just want to chuck it all out the window, lol.
My apologies to all also for the failure to post information and articles in a timely fashion. Usually Jack and I can cover each other pretty well but when we’re both time/problem challenged the job doesn’t get done as we would prefer. Thanks to several of you, our good friends on PS, have had help with references, links, and video to post.
There must be something in the air…….grrrrr
Yes there is.
It’s Schwabitis and it attacks computers and all rational, thinking humans….anyone or thing that is logic based.
I am told it will last 4 years, possibly longer.
There is no cure.
Ah, but I have beat the system Joseph!!!
Being the tightwad that I am, I found a used Gateway E4500-S, pretty hot and solid older puter, but no hard drive or DVD player. It sold for cheap on eBay.
I had both hard drive and the DVD from my defunct puter…so I installed them on the E5400, loaded Win-7, which I already had too and now have a pretty decent working computer for $34. If it lasts a year, I am going to buy a new on with Win-8 anyway, so this will work till then. It’s not quite as hot as the one the broke down, but it will do fine. : ) -Jack
Well, good for you, Jack.
Many people toss computers that could still have much life in them.
About a year and a half ago I got a puter someone was going to toss. It turned out all it needed was a hard drive so I got one at Best Buy, loaded up an OS and it was fine. Then I threw in another gig of RAM I got for cheap from newegg, and it’s been running every day since.
And sometimes you don’t even need to go to that much effort. People will toss comuters that have no hardware problems at all because the OS is messed up. Just repair or reload the OS and everything is fine.
People just don’t want to go to the trouble or want the newest, fastest thing on the market.
Well, there you go. You patched up a perfectly good system on the cheap. I have had plenty of bad eBay experiences but for the most part I am way ahead when it comes to purchasing “obsolete” hardware at a good price.
As for New Egg, I usually find their prices to be high, but I have done business there.
For anyone who has computer stuff they wish to donate, here is a good place…
http://www.computersforclassrooms.com/
RHT…it’s also a good place to buy used stuff. I found a DVD caddy there for $4!