My computer is dying...

[Keith Heitmann]

Seems like my trusty old Dell is beginning to self-destruct.

A few weeks back my floppy drive became inaccessable. The system won't recognize it. Happened after I shut down for an approaching storm and rebooted. No power surges though, I had the system unplugged during the storm.

Next, my deskjet printer stopped printing properly. I figured it needed a new black ink cartridge, but with the new on installed the HP printer software tells me that the cartridge is installed incorrectly.

Then today, I had a lockup and rebooted, and as soon as I hit the power button the system began to buzz. Sounds like an alarm. I thought my fan had stopped and my power supply was overheating or the CPU was too hot. I called Dell and opened up the system, the power supply seems fine and the CPU and heat sink is barely warm, and fan is running. Dell thinks its a bad power supply or one about to go bad.

So if I disappear for a while it's because my computer finally up and died on me. I've been contemplating a newer system, one of the new "hot rod" Dell XPS comptuers, supposed to be better than an Alienware game computer system.

I just hope nothing else happens for a little while at least. Now I've got to lear to ignore this stupid buzzer, thankfully it's not too loud.

[Keith Heitmann]

Well, I called it. It got worse.

I can't run anything now. I either get trapped in a maze of blue screens or I get illegal ops messages even in the safe mode.. It now won't even recognize my parallel port zip drive as valid.

So I have to use my wife's laptop for the time being. Looks like new computer time after I get my old one running again.

[Redbirdy]

Sorry to hear that Keith...

Still, the prices on the new machines are really cheap compared to even one year ago. Still going to go with Dell or are you planning on trying a new flavor?

-J

[Keith Heitmann]

I'm going to stick with Dell. I'm looking at their new "hotrod" game system that supposed to be as good as or better than Alienware's. They recently came out with a new Dimension XPS system, P4 3GB, 800 frontend bus, hyperthreading, and a lot of nice features and hardware.

I'll keep my old (1 year) monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and just get the base computer system itself. They start at $2199, but I swear I saw it on the Dell site a few days ago fro $1799.

My 5 year old Dell XPS R450 P2/450MHz with scanner printer, etc. ran me about $3500 at the time. I think the computer alone was about $2800.

I've got a Dell tech coming out to replace my powersupply this coming week and to run a diagnostic. I may have to call Microsoft afterwards to fix some Windows problems. Then I'll get my last 2GB of files off the HD and start seriously looking at the new computer.

[PUFF88]

sorry to hear that as well, i just bought new parts for a new pc cept the video card and monitor. i have yet to put it together. yeah the system u mention does not sound that bad. dont know anyone that has one, but dell has been getting better lately.

[Keith Heitmann]

Well, the Dell tech came out yesterday with a new power supply in hand but left with it. The buzzing sound was coming from the dead floppy drive motor and it went away when he disconnected the power and floppy cables from the drive.

The blue screens seem to be more of a Windows problem and it may have been just coincidental that they started popping up at the same time the buzzing began. So looks like after I replace the floopy drive with a new one I'll be spending a little time on the phone with MS tech support. Something I did about two years ago. I spent 4 hours with a rep Christmas Eve afternoon getting my browser working so I would recognize the internet connection and I could surf the web again.

I ordered a replacement floppy drive from Dell this afternoon and should have that shortly. Then I'll concentrate on getting Windows straightened out.

After talking things over with the wife we decided that she too needed a updated computer system, as this Gateway laptop is getting a little old and slow, even though it is still quite functional. She's due.

So while I was on the phone with Dell this afternoon we picked her out a whole new system, Dell Dimension 4600 and ordered it. I also ordered that Dimension XPS system I mentioned, sans monitor and mouse since I am going to use my current ones. So in a little while or so I'll be blazing along at 3.06Ghz and finally able to get some of those games I've not been able to run this past year.

I got a free 1GB memory upgrade, a free 4x DVD / CD burner upgrade, free special XPS tech express service. I opted for Win XP Pro and the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro over the standard Win XP Home and ATI Radeon 9800.

I'll keep my old Altec Lansing AC495 surround sound and subwoofer speaker system and hook them up to the SB Live Audigy 2 sound card in the XPS. Hopefully without problems there.

There are two drive bays and the DVD burner will be in bay 2 while the regular 16xDVD Rom drive will be in bay 1.

Then it's going to be a matter of recovering my files from my old system. If I can't get Windows running on it, I may try installing the HD from the old system as a slave on the new one and see if Win XP Pro can let me move them over without having to deal with the problem Win98 on the old HD.