CyLowe97

Anyone in the area know a good PC doctor in the Elgin area? Geek squad from Best Buy?



I need help with our Dell desktop PC. F***ing Windows Blue Screen of Death! And now it's not just BSOD, as I can't even get the Safe Mode or any other mode to boot up when selecting them form the Advanced Options Menu. Make the selection, hit enter, and then screen just goes blank. So now I don't even get a BSOD. Just..... nothing.

I'm tearing the house apart trying to find the Windows XP disc that came with the PC (back in 2004), but seeing if there is anything in the meantime.

Yeah, yeah, I know we should get a better/newer/whatever computer, but it would be nice to get back into this one and recover the stuff since the last backup I did a month ago. (yeah yeah.... back up more often.... )

PhilWinIL

I had the same thing happen to me about 2 years ago on my laptop. I was attempting to boot up when I got home one evening, and got the Blue Screen of Death. I had the diagnostic CD's on hand, so ran them and found out the hard drive had crashed. I had to order a new drive and install it, and then pay the price of not backing it up more often. Your best be would be to install a new hard drive and install the OS on it. Once you do that, install your existing drive as a secondary drive. Then you could run the diagnostics on it, and attempt to restore anything still readable on it. You can get USB powered drive cases too and set it up as an external drive. They are cheap and available on the web. Mine was dead in the water when I hooked it up. Nothing more that a ka-chunk, ka-chunk sound when trying to access it.

These days I have an external hard drive at home and at the office, and back it up on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

Psimet2001 

Yup...odds are your HD ist kaput.

John Wilke

Can you F10 it to BIOS ? Does it have a floppy drive? I'm just wondering if you can get it to the DOS prompt.

CyLowe97

Never mind. I took it in to the local Geek Squad and he opened it up and pronounced the motherboard DOA.

Next step... finding a new PC. Recommendations? All it's got to be able to do is get to the internets and print out coupons. No gaming or any graphic designer kind of setups needed.

nietsmas

check slickdeals.net for the next dell deal. there are usually pc's with a 19 or 22+" flat screen for less than $500. or, you should do it right and buy an imac

Jose Perez

If the "stuff" that's attached to your current PC are in fine working order (memory chips, HDD, etc) I'd suggest you look into a refurb computer on eBay or one coming off corporate lease from a company like Pacific Geek. Depending on the age of the now deceased PC, chances are that anything new is not going to be fully backwards compatible with what you had and will require you to buy everything new to get it running right. Picking up a 2-3 y/o PC on the used market extends the life of the gear you have another few years until you get to the point where you can properly plan for a completely new system.

The PC I currently have is a bit over 5 years old with parts dating back even further. Still allows me to do all the stuff you list and runs the programs I need faster than a lot of new PC's that are sold through mass market vendors bloated with all kinds of junk software that will never get used.

My $.02

CyLowe97

Jose, FWIW, the PC is a Dell desktop that was build new in 2004. All I really want are the files off the hard drive that I haven't backed up in the past few months (stupid me). Everything else is gravy.

I may take a trip over to Fry's or Tiger Direct tomorrow and see what they have in stock. Just need something that will get us to the web and be able to rip/burn music. And run MS Office stuff. Excess software is not needed.

John Wilke

I'm an eBayer .. have had good luck with used gear, just picked up a refurbished 2ghz laptop for $300 - works great.

dannwilliams

I second that opinion.

Kenal0

When you get a new computer, take the hard drive out of your old computer,
get an external drive case like this one
https://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...U2-IDE&cat=HDD

Put your old drive in the case,plug into new computer and you will have access to all your files on the old drive. Of course your new computer won't boot off it but all the word, excel etc files are there and in tact.
You might want to clean it up, and keep files on it in the future. Must easier if you want to back up or move next time.

Kenal0

Cycling Jester

+1

The most recent time we needed a PC. I was hearing an alien voice in my head telling me to get a MAC, but I didn't listen. Wishes he had now

cyclpsycho

Just sayin'

John Wilke

Just for the record I was Mac and went PC.

Just sayin'.

stumpsbmwm3

Greetings,
One place to look that should not only yield better pricing, but the option of going over and checking it out before you buy. Saving not only the headache of getting a lemon; because it was bought sight unseen, but also tax and shipping cost too... The site is CRAIGSLIST.COM. Dial it in and specify your local city or cities close by. Since it does not cost the seller anything to advertise the products there is no additional cost added into the price. Many list photos. In addition, since it in your local area there is no shipping cost.

Times, economics wise, has made many sell things to make ends meet. There are, at many times, deals to be made. Sellers list the items, a phone number/email address making it easy for one to contact them, set up a viewing time, and all that is left is the "paper work".

CyLowe97

iMAc. Yeah. You people have seen what I ride out on the roads. Where do you expect me to find the coin for anything that lines Steve Jobs' pockets?

nietsmas

this amazing website called CRAIGSLIST.COM

ColorChange

I just picked up a new laptop on e-bay, will be here tomorrow.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=120389325709

These are hard to find but a great deal for the performance.

nietsmas

CC, that's hardly a laptop, that's a behemoth sized notebook!

ColorChange

17" 1920x1200 and I will make it easy 500gig hard drive addon, total 700 gig storage. Super fast graphics adapter for gaming and much storage for pictures in the field ...

Now here is the sad part, I lost bidding on a used one, 6 months old, sold new for $1,300 and went at $1,125. When in the world of laptops do you get a 15% loss after 6 months? 40-50% loss is typical. Gateway did a great job on this particular laptop.

nietsmas

that resale value sounds like apple products