Computer death

***Brian Turner*** · 04-01-2005, 04:10 PM

After reporting my harddrive acting up, monitor going screwy, and asking whether McAfee might be screwing with Windows XP, my PC locked up for no less than 6 times yesterday - then just less than 24 hours ago there was a noise like something important winding down and stopping.

Without being too tech savvy, it seems to have been a complete harddrive failure - PC would not reboot after, and there was a strange noise when I tried as if the drive discs were something grating or locking together.

My business computer had died.

So I went a-PC-hunting.

To cut a long story short, I couldn't find a single local vendor who offered any serious options on ready built PCs - Curry's and Staples were outright jokes, and everyone else seemed to custom-build only - over a 3-4 working day period. No good.

The only possible solution was at PC World - I ended up there 4 times -

1. First time - massive January sale and only 3 sales staff on the PCs - no chance of getting served and took nearly a quarter of an hour just to drive out of the car park),

2. They closed the tills before I could make a purchase.

Then today:

3. They had run out of the default supplied monitors - I would have to buy a more expensive non-generic brand,

4. Looked everywhere else, no choice, needed PC for business so bought.

Anyway, got a lovely girl here now - 3 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, and 2 x 200 GB harddrives.

I had to get a Windows XP machine in the end, but as there are 2 harddrives on this I plan to dual boot with a Linux distro - possibly Fedora, or similar.

Anyway, for some reason Windows 'feels' more stable on this machine - the previous one was built for Windows 98 and never cared much for the 'upgrade' to XP.

Luckily I had to be away for a few days over Christmas, so I have full backups to a week ago - so not much lost.

A bloody important lesson learnt, though - don't run a business on just a single PC, and if any look like they might be on their way out, then order a custom-spec machine at your earliest convenience.

Oh - and ensure you do regular backups!!

If I hadn't have backed up for going away I would be in serious trouble...

Will look to getting a laptop very soon, for travelling, and also as a backup in case the main machine goes down again.

Anyway, only just set up and online again - get to get back to restoring files and software very soon.

Postmaster · 04-01-2005, 04:56 PM

I've learn't some valuble lessons regarding backing up my data... A few times

Hope all goes well with your new PC, shes sounds like a beauty, I recently purchased a new one, works a charm.

***Brian Turner*** · 04-01-2005, 09:11 PM

Yeah, it's always a case of learning about backups the hard way. I was extremely lucky in this instance.

Postmaster · 04-01-2005, 09:46 PM

Funny thing is, when you start backing up you find to never fall in the trap of needing to use the backup lol

Angelis · 04-01-2005, 10:35 PM

During the summer when it was very warm, my pc started overheating and shutting down. I thought I'd be clever and change the fan and managed to drag a screwdriver across the motherboard while attempting to do it.

Was going to buy a mESH pc, but a friend told me to build my own. With his help I built a AMD64 3800 with 2 x 250GB hard drives, 3 GB RAM, top of the range quite PSU, extra large PC case with extra 120mm fans, 256mb graphics card.

I was amazed how simple it was to build. Got all my parts from www.overclockers.co.uk. I will NEVER buy an off the shelf machine again.

If you have any hard drives lying around, you can buy an external jacket for £40+ which you put the hard drive in. Turns into a back up hard drive.

**bumfluff** · 05-01-2005, 01:06 PM

Building a pc is way easier than most people think. When you've done it once, you'll never buy a readymade again. My first pc was from Tiny, and I got stung pretty bad with that. It blew up one month outside the warranty (and I bought it on a 3 year hp so I had to carry on paying for a duff machine).. when I went to rebuild it, I found that they had hotglued all the drive connectors and stuff in place. It was a nightmare to take apart and rebuild. I'll never buy a premade one again.

Solicitors Mortgages · 06-01-2005, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecentrik

I built a AMD64 3800 with 2 x 250GB hard drives, 3 GB RAM, top of the range quite PSU, extra large PC case with extra 120mm fans, 256mb graphics card.

££ you didnt say how much...and can you build me one?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BRIAN

First time - massive January sale and only 3 sales staff on the PCs - no chance of getting served and took nearly a quarter of an hour just to drive out of the car park)

i didnt realize you lived so close to me.....unless that was a UK phenomena!

Angelis · 06-01-2005, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solicitors Mortgages

££ you didnt say how much...and can you build me one?

Savrow extra large case = £129
2 X Hitachi deskstar 250GB SATA 8MB Hard drives = £212.00
Globalwin Super silent 19dBA 520W ATX PSU = £124.90
NEC Dual layer 8 x DVD ReWriter = £46.50
MSI 52X CD-Writer = £26.60
Creative soundblaster Audigy ZS = £140
Floppy drive = £6.50

AMD Athlon 64 3800
Asus A8V Deluxe
1 GB PC3500 Dual Channel Ram = £672.95

Asus ATI Radeon AX800 Pro 256MB = £257.50
1 GB PC3500 Dual Channel Ram = £199.95

Total: £1,815.90 plus vat

It's probably about the same price as an off the shelf machine, but I've used much better components such as the PSU.

(my mistake in my earlier post. I have 2GB not 3GB of ram).

rtroxel · 30-03-2005, 03:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bumfluff

Building a pc is way easier than most people think. When you've done it once, you'll never buy a readymade again.

I agree heartily. The PC I'm using now I built in 1999, and it's still running smooth. I'm using the same ASUS motherboard, and it purrs. I've upgraded only the hard drives and the OS (Windows XP), plus I've added more memory.

I'll be building a new one this year, but will retain this one as my Linux machine.

image Man · 08-06-2005, 09:56 AM

I use a maxtor one touch external hard drive to back my work up. Whenever I finnish some 3D work that I don't ever want to do again I just push the button and it takes ten seconds to back it up.

I found buiding my first PC without a manual or any info easier and less stress full than using the PC I had built by Time computers.
Was it a PC or a big games console? It was as upgradable as a Nintendo 64.

04-01-2005, 04:10 PM	#1 (permalink)
*Brian Turner* Business Guru Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Near Inverness, Highlands, Scotland Posts: 7,933	Computer death After reporting my harddrive acting up, monitor going screwy, and asking whether McAfee might be screwing with Windows XP, my PC locked up for no less than 6 times yesterday - then just less than 24 hours ago there was a noise like something important winding down and stopping. Without being too tech savvy, it seems to have been a complete harddrive failure - PC would not reboot after, and there was a strange noise when I tried as if the drive discs were something grating or locking together. My business computer had died. So I went a-PC-hunting. To cut a long story short, I couldn't find a single local vendor who offered any serious options on ready built PCs - Curry's and Staples were outright jokes, and everyone else seemed to custom-build only - over a 3-4 working day period. No good. The only possible solution was at PC World - I ended up there 4 times - 1. First time - massive January sale and only 3 sales staff on the PCs - no chance of getting served and took nearly a quarter of an hour just to drive out of the car park), 2. They closed the tills before I could make a purchase. Then today: 3. They had run out of the default supplied monitors - I would have to buy a more expensive non-generic brand, 4. Looked everywhere else, no choice, needed PC for business so bought. Anyway, got a lovely girl here now - 3 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, and 2 x 200 GB harddrives. I had to get a Windows XP machine in the end, but as there are 2 harddrives on this I plan to dual boot with a Linux distro - possibly Fedora, or similar. Anyway, for some reason Windows 'feels' more stable on this machine - the previous one was built for Windows 98 and never cared much for the 'upgrade' to XP. Luckily I had to be away for a few days over Christmas, so I have full backups to a week ago - so not much lost. A bloody important lesson learnt, though - don't run a business on just a single PC, and if any look like they might be on their way out, then order a custom-spec machine at your earliest convenience. Oh - and ensure you do regular backups!! If I hadn't have backed up for going away I would be in serious trouble... Will look to getting a laptop very soon, for travelling, and also as a backup in case the main machine goes down again. Anyway, only just set up and online again - get to get back to restoring files and software very soon. __________________ SEO specialist.

04-01-2005, 04:56 PM	#2 (permalink)
Postmaster Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 843	Re: Computer death I've learn't some valuble lessons regarding backing up my data... A few times Hope all goes well with your new PC, shes sounds like a beauty, I recently purchased a new one, works a charm.

04-01-2005, 09:11 PM	#3 (permalink)
*Brian Turner* Business Guru Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Near Inverness, Highlands, Scotland Posts: 7,933	Re: Computer death Yeah, it's always a case of learning about backups the hard way. I was extremely lucky in this instance. __________________ SEO specialist.

04-01-2005, 09:46 PM	#4 (permalink)
Postmaster Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 843	Re: Computer death Funny thing is, when you start backing up you find to never fall in the trap of needing to use the backup lol

04-01-2005, 10:35 PM	#5 (permalink)
Angelis Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 222	Re: Computer death During the summer when it was very warm, my pc started overheating and shutting down. I thought I'd be clever and change the fan and managed to drag a screwdriver across the motherboard while attempting to do it. Was going to buy a mESH pc, but a friend told me to build my own. With his help I built a AMD64 3800 with 2 x 250GB hard drives, 3 GB RAM, top of the range quite PSU, extra large PC case with extra 120mm fans, 256mb graphics card. I was amazed how simple it was to build. Got all my parts from www.overclockers.co.uk. I will NEVER buy an off the shelf machine again. If you have any hard drives lying around, you can buy an external jacket for £40+ which you put the hard drive in. Turns into a back up hard drive.

05-01-2005, 01:06 PM	#6 (permalink)
bumfluff Super Moderator Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: London Posts: 1,338	Re: Computer death Building a pc is way easier than most people think. When you've done it once, you'll never buy a readymade again. My first pc was from Tiny, and I got stung pretty bad with that. It blew up one month outside the warranty (and I bought it on a 3 year hp so I had to carry on paying for a duff machine).. when I went to rebuild it, I found that they had hotglued all the drive connectors and stuff in place. It was a nightmare to take apart and rebuild. I'll never buy a premade one again.

08-06-2005, 09:56 AM	#10 (permalink)
image Man Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: UK Posts: 42	Re: Computer death I use a maxtor one touch external hard drive to back my work up. Whenever I finnish some 3D work that I don't ever want to do again I just push the button and it takes ten seconds to back it up. I found buiding my first PC without a manual or any info easier and less stress full than using the PC I had built by Time computers. Was it a PC or a big games console? It was as upgradable as a Nintendo 64.

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