[Scgeeks] Re: Opinion wanted on new PC

[Twayne aka Pop]

Two things, and please see this as an opinion, not a 
condencsion:
1.  The problems you mention don't sound like a good 
reason to get a new machine unless it's not a fully XP 
compatible machine.
2.  They do however sound like a GREAT excuse to go to 
a multiple cpu (you used the term cpus) at 3 GHz and a 
screaming front side buss!
   Caveat:  Try to be sure the CPUs by default are both 
used, not "just" when an app calls for them.  My 
neighbor bought one of those dual Pentiums but his OS 
couldn't take advantage of them; they hardwired to be 
addressed from specific applications only.  I'd think 
it would be pretty unusual to find such a setup 
anymore; I hope.  So I might be making a mountain out 
of a molehill there.

But if it's simply because of your current problems, 
especially since you seem to know enough to work on a 
machine hw and sw wise, it's not reason enough to spend 
on another machine, especially IF the current one, 
running properly, more than suffices for your use.
   Good or bad as it may be, it's like  I won't touch 
Visa simply because I don't see a thing it has that 
would be any advantage to me for anything I do.  I'm 
waiting for Win7 or whatever it's called by that time.

Assuming you're running XP on an XP capable machine, 
IMO, you could better straighten it out and take some 
of the cash earmarked for the new machine and use itf 
for RAM or other niceties.
   I've followed your travails over the last weeks but 
I didn't realize you were drowning; guess I didn't pay 
close enough attention, although I suspected malware a 
couple of times.

Have you spent time on the Microsoft newsgroups for XP? 
There are some MVPs and non-MVPs there that are pretty 
sharp if you get your issue described well.  If not, 
I'll let you know the ones I at least like and who the 
major players are there.
   Assuming you're virus/malware free, your problems 
sound like file corruption and/or contention for 
resources.  File corruption is my first suspicion, RAM 
or a disk drive being a possibility too, followed by 
contention, then hardware.
   Start by going to your drive's Mfr and downloading 
their test sw, test your boot drive.
    Then run memory tests; memdiags is good enough for 
that or you might already have something available.
    Still no joy, backup again and do a clean install 
of the OS, OR if you think it might be cockpit errors 
causing the problems, continue ts'ing just to see if 
you can figure out what went wrong.  But that requires 
being able to spend quite a bit of consecutive time in 
front of the keyboard.

My own capabilities run from Fair to Good in most 
areas, to Very Good in a few others, but the MS groups 
have some pretty close to guru-status folks (and a 
couple dummies too of course).
   So if you'd like to try to get that boat-anchor 
striker, I mean, computer, back to a dancer status and 
would rather save the cash slotted a new machine, I can 
try to assist you here and/or you can go to the MS 
groups for assistance.
  I had assumed you were getting responses to your call 
for help simply because they tended to change around 
now and then; I didn't realize you were only posting 
here to call for help.

  Knock on wood I haven't had a serious problem in over 
a year now.  Mine's a Gateway P4 3 GHz (2.7 GHz 
measured), 512 RAM hopefully 1 Gig by Christmas, 7200 
rpm 360 Gig drives, 500Gig ext USB and a host of 
peripherals, plus I do video editing/rendering which 
uses every ounce of its resources, FWIW.

But it's your decision and no one else's.  If I were 
you, nothing would stop me from the best bare bones I 
could get my hands on!
   BTW, don't dismiss refubished machines; sometimes, 
not usually, great deals can be found.

Hopefully 3¢ worth,

Pop`


indigo wrote:
> Twayne aka Pop wrote:
>>>
>>> Nice thing about the new machine is I can ditch 
>>> over
>>> 1/2
>>> of the peripherals cluttering up my desk.
>>
>> Oh sure, throw THAT in my face!  :-]  Lest I seem
>> jealous; I AM!
>>
>> Sounds like a nice system.  Lots of luck with it.
>>
>> Pop`
>
> It's perfectly fine when it works correctly, which is
> about 50 % of the time. Over the last couple of 
> months
> I've posted here asking for help and most of my 
> questions
> have gone unanswered. I can't even make an emergency
> recovery diskette! Sometimes in gets stuck in POST,
> sometimes it won't power off, sometimes it gets 
> BSOD's,
> sometimes it reboots for no reason.....that's why I'm
> looking for a new PC, but I refuse to get Vista.
>
> The only huge andvantage the newest machines have 
> over
> mine are 3 Ghz CPUs vs my 2 Ghz chip, and bus speeds 
> that
> are four times faster. Not sure I can afford the one 
> I
> really want right now (the HP Touchsmart, no rebates 
> on
> line, it's $1500 everywhere). If I "do" get it (I'll
> eventually cave like I usually do ;-) I'll have a 
> fully
> functional (well, if someone wanted to start from
> scratch) PC, plus I have enough parts to construct
> another one in the basement.
>
> I'm also looking at these, which have various missing
> desirable components...
>
> http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Acer-AcerPower-2000-Desktop-Compute
> r/2666048/product.html
>
> http://www.amazon.com/TouchSmart-IQ770-Desktop-Processor-SuperMulti/dp/t
> ech-data/B000NX1UNU/ref=de_a_smtd?ie=UTF8&qid=1197589442&sr=8-1
> (but geez, a 1.6 Ghz CPU?!?)
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-M8200N-Desktop-Dual-Core-Processor/dp/tec
> h-data/B000VTYKRY/ref=de_a_smtd ( great it the 
> monitor,
> which doesn't come with, fits in front of the case!)
>
> Then there's this bare bones one, doesn't even have a
> DVD, but I got one of those on my desktop....
> http://www.amazon.com/HP-Compaq-Business-Desktop-dc5100/dp/tech-data/B00
> 07WACVS/ref=de_a_smtd
>
>
> Then you got all these refurbished PCs from 
> overstock.com
> http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Dell-Optiplex-3.0GHz-Pentium-4-Desk
> top-Computer/2199685/product.html#moreinfo don't know
> whether to trust them or not....