Computer FUBAR'd

[Luckypants]

My bally PC is up the creek! This has been on the cards for a while TBH but it is very inconvenient that it re-boots every time I use a CPU intensive application. CPU cooling fan is fecked, took the covers off and it is cooked. Disk is almost dead - makes some awful noises, USB ports not worked for about 2 years, certain keyboard keys not working (complete mystery as to why) etc etc....

Just ordered a new one from Dell........

*sigh*

[G]

Computers are a pain, my laptop gets slower and slower until it just stops, then leave it for a few days and its fine again. :rolleyes:

The girlfriends Dad has just donated his old Desktop PC which was nice of him, so want to get that all rigged up and see how that goes.

Can you use a Wireless dongle on a desktop PC rather than connecting it up to the router? My house is strange so it will make connect the office upto the internet difficult otherwise.

[yorkie_chris]

So's mine.

Inspiron 1300 laptop, the battery charging light blinks orange 4 times then blinks green. Won't charge the battery.

I presume this means the charging system is fubar, so we'll just test the alternator output, chuck a CBR reg/rec at it and all will be ..... oh bollox it's not the SV...

Is the PSU on these a seperate thing or is it new mainboard time?

[Luckypants]

Chris is more than likely a FUBUR'd battery. If you know someone with same battery that is good, try that. Having said this, new batteries are not cheap!

The charger might also be a problem, so borrow one of those if you can.

This computer had a new PSU about 3 years ago (is a decktop), blown by a power surge. Now have a UPS with AVR to protect the hardware, as a Surgemaster did not save it. The UPS is plugged into mains via a Surgemaster...

[rigor]

Can you use a Wireless dongle on a desktop PC rather than connecting it up to the router? My house is strange so it will make connect the office upto the internet difficult otherwise.

Yes

[Luckypants]

Can you use a Wireless dongle on a desktop PC rather than connecting it up to the router?

I have a USB one. works on my brothers desktop and on any visitors lappys that have no wi-fi.

[Mr Toad]

. . . it re-boots every time I use a CPU intensive application. CPU cooling fan is fecked,

I think that's your answer. My daughter had the same problem with her pc rebooting after about 5 mins from being switched on. Get a new cooling fan or you'll fry the cpu.

[Luckypants]

I think that's your answer. My daughter had the same problem with her pc rebooting after about 5 mins from being switched on. Get a new cooling fan or you'll fry the cpu.

:cool: I know that's the problem, the cooling fan is fecked and the cpu is pretty cooked too. There are so many other faults on this thing now, it's not worth keeping it going (I think the disk will die pretty soon). I was just having a moan. The thing is only 7 years old FFS! :smt043 do they make nothing to last these days? The LG Flatron screen is also knackered as I daren't switch it off or allow it to go into power saving mode, sometimes it sulks for a day if I do! This is my third screen (although this one was a warranty replacement).

It is time for a new PC.....

[andyb]

So's mine.

Inspiron 1300 laptop, the battery charging light blinks orange 4 times then blinks green. Won't charge the battery.

I presume this means the charging system is fubar, so we'll just test the alternator output, chuck a CBR reg/rec at it and all will be ..... oh bollox it's not the SV...

Is the PSU on these a seperate thing or is it new mainboard time?

As LP said it'll be the battery. The charging circuit thinks the battery is fine and therefore doesn't charge it.

[yorkie_chris]

It runs from the battery fine :confused:

[Luckypants]

It runs from the battery fine :confused: You said the battery won't charge. There is circuitry in the battery that tells the computer of the state of charge. Quite often this is goosed. I take it from what you saying you can charge the battery elsewhere?

[rigor]

It runs from the battery fine :confused:

??

So it's not charging the battery... yet it runs from the battery fine?

[yorkie_chris]

Yup, basically I can remove the AC power (well DC as it goes through a transformer) and it runs like normal, screen dims to power save setting, battery doesn't drop any faster than normal.

But when I plug it back in, the icon on the taskbar changes back to "AC power" rather than "AC power, charging" and the charge indicator stays on whatever it's on.

I think the 4 orange flashes, one green flash is some sort of fault code.

Will try another battery when I can find one.

[TEC]

Dunno what some people do with PC/Laptops :rolleyes: Well aware the battery is fecked on my old laptop (own fault for not charging it properly) but it still works after 8 years and I have a PC thats older and its still ok (though has had a new PSU).

Most of the reasons PC/Laptops start to run slow are simple house keeping, you may delete stuff but thats only half of it, when was the last time you emptied the recycle bin, defragged the HDD and ran a check disc :confused: Taking the lid off PCs and cleaning out all the dust helps fans running (laptops not so easy). Discharging and fully recharging a laptops battery tend to help keep them in better shape. Not downloading gigabites of rubbish from the web helps as well, you may have started with a 100+ Gb HDD but it soon fills up with all the music etc, the operating system needs space to be able to work so if you don't really need to files on the PC/laptop save them off to either an external drive or burn to CD/DVD's, you'll be glad you did when the PC/laptop dies ;)

[therealvw]

Ditto TEC. it's the maintenance of the things that people seem to forget. Would you let your Bike's go unserviced for 7 years?
Some things to watch out for though is downloading things from say Lime Wire, or any other DOWNLOAD site, Napster etc.. Can lead to lots of Viruses, and Adware, SPyware, and other little crappy progs that seem to take up resources. Couple of good programs to download that are FREE are, AD-Aware, by Lavasoft. This will check for spy and ad aware, and also SPYBOT. Also free and another checker for spyware adware. These can search your drive and identify anything that loks to be dodgy. Another thing to do, instead of just deleting the files you don't need, have people checked to see if the program has an UNINSTALL. Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and see if somethings in there are not used and can be UNINSTALLED.
Also, As TEC said Defrag and scandisk of the drivers is a good ting. ALSO, Keep your Virus software up to date. NO NEED to spend lots on Nortons, Symantecs stuff, you can use AVG free, and also FIREWALL stuff too. SYGATE Persoanl Firewall is good, and there is comodo too, that gets good reviews, All free!!!!! Check them out. Symantec stuff tends to be resource hungry too, and there should be a subscription fee too, so I stay away from that!

[Luckypants]

Errr I am a computer geek, it's my job. I am in fact a performance specialist for mainframe systems (amongst my many skills). Keeping my PC in tip top shape is second nature.

Last cleanup? Last week. Last Defrag? Saturday. Hoovering out of dust? Last month Swap file defrag? (why feccking windoze the only opsys that handles paging so badly the pagefile needs defragging and the only one that really realy needs it)...... About a month ago. It's feckered, it's been staggering for at least 18 months

What do I do to my PC? Use the damn thing hard.

[Pedro68]

Laptop power pack has just given up the ghost on me :( So can't use the laptop at the mo. However, I do have a backup PC in the back bedroom :) and just managed to get it all hooked up to the "freshly re-installed" wireless network last night ... in fact, it was so much easier to do that in Linux than it was in Windows (with stepsons PC). In fact, I'm quite pleased with my PCLinux installation, so next time the laptop is in need of a re-install it might be getting a little treat :) (depending on availability of linux drivers) :D

[K]

Just threaten to reprogramme it with a rather large axe - or hit it with a hammer!
Hey - works for me.;)

I mean, I only threw one computer out of one window that was on the third floor! Now they're all scared of me. :twisted:

[Luckypants]

Wow, big up to Dell. My system was dispatched yesterday, the day after ordering. This is despite making certain customisations from their standard build.

K - As soon as it arrives, I'll give it a stern warning about it's future behaviour while shaking an axe at the screen.

[TEC]

Errr I am a computer geek,...
I did sort of guessed that from ....

... CPU cooling fan is fecked, took the covers off ....

;)

My post was a sort of general thing to others who always look in hoping for fixes cause their PC/laptop is starting to do similar things without actually asking for help, we just know they are lurking out there :)

[Luckypants]

I did sort of guessed that from ....



;)

My post was a sort of general thing to others who always look in hoping for fixes cause their PC/laptop is starting to do similar things without actually asking for help, we just know they are lurking out there :)

Yeah sorry dude, I was in a foul mood yesterday. :oops:

[TEC]

Yeah sorry dude, I was in a foul mood yesterday. :oops:
Worry not, we all get days like those ;)

[Luckypants]

ohhhh New computer arrived. Shiny Shiny! Sitting on my desk acclimatising to temp and humidity here before power up. (and I'm meant to be working)

[DoubleD]

So have you gone Vista or are you going to format the factory install and put your own XP back on??

[Luckypants]

So have you gone Vista or are you going to format the factory install and put your own XP back on??

Ordered with XP Pro SP2 pre-installed. This is an upgrade for me, I've been running W2K Pro up to now.

[K]

Now, take the old one throw it out of the window, ideally onto a concrete surface so the resounding crash and tinkle of little broken shards can be clearly heard...

... preferably done in full view of the new one. :twisted: