Power supply

[Coosbaylumber]

I do not operate on the latest and greatest computer that cost $1-3,000 each now a days, but on giveaways that cost near zero. Got one not too long ago, fired off just fine. Used it for 1-2 years too.

 

More than one month ago, it would not go past some green start-up screen. Seems the power suply was very slowly going sour. Prior to that morning, it had enough poop to run Acad and the modem, and most everything else. Then one day it no longer connected in, two days later and the green screen biz begins, boy is it slow. I guess that if I waited for a while it will be OK and go again. It ran Acad, but would never save the very last file I worked on. Intermittant file saves were OK, but never at the end.

 

With help, I figured it out, and then found no one locally had a replacement PS. I Micky-moused in the wrong one and it took off running like in the olden days. That was the problem alright. Had zero to do with the hard drive, or set-ups.

 

It may not be in your hard drive then.

 

 

Wm.

[ReMark]

While I admire the fact that your rig is held together with chewing gum, cellophane tape and bailing wire and you manage to coax the gerbils each morning to jump start the system I have to wonder about the wisdom of running in such a manner. The uncertainty of the system and the constant need for swapping out failing parts must create a fair measure of anxiety and waste a lot of precious time. Even a modest amount of money these days will get you a better, more stable, more reliable rig and eliminate some of the hassle you are putting yourself through.

 

Jeez, and I just donated a computer to a local zoo. Had I know you needed one I would have offered it to you for the price of shipping alone.

[Jack_O'neill]

Hey Coos...check out TigerDirect.com. They sell a lot of off-lease and reconditioned computers for not much money. Was just looking, they have an off lease Dell GX270 with a 2.8 GHZ Pentium 4 processor, 512mb ram, and a 40GB harddrive for $109. Comes with XP pro so you can still run your older software. If you don't like Dell, they have HP and IBM similarly equipped for about the same money.

 

If you have your own copy of Windows or whatever OS you use, for a little more than twice that money, you can get a refurbished Midwest Micro A44e Refurbished Desktop PC - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4450e 2.3GHz, 2GB DDR2, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, 15-in-1 Card Reader with no operating system.

I've bought about a dozen computers from them over the last couple of years, never had any problems with any of them. Use 2 of them here everyday. The rest are at the last factory I worked for. If your old one gives up completely, you can get in a better one without taking out a second mortgage.

[Coosbaylumber]

Jack;

 

At the electronic swap-meet I often go to is a vendor there selling a K-boodle of late model computers w/o hard drive for less than 1/2 of what you mentioned. All with a 5 year guarantee. For a while had yanked out any extras (like an either-net board) slipped in my old HD and answered the normal 60 questions after the first boot up, then did a plug in of the plotter, tablet, and printer, and was going within ten minutes. Never thought to look in to the quality of the PS.

 

Now only have to lean over the fence, to get a silimar replacement one.

[Jack_O'neill]

Wow...5 year warranty at a swapmeet. I gotta start shopping at better places. You don't get 5 years on brand new machines. You should buy from this guy, set them up, and sell them on ebay. You could more than double your money.

[Coosbaylumber]

JACK:

 

I think the guy offers the five year plan as often it is the HD which eventialy dies quickest. The vendor used to go to ebay, I buy a lot of $1 parts from him, and they work and last for years, but some thing went wrong there after a run couple of years with ebay ago. I think is simplier to buy a $35-45 computer from him than wait until the neighbor hauls over another dead computer without a HD (got several big sized ones now at $7 each) which work OK and load up fast that same Sat. afternoon. I certainly do not need to pay a new or used retailer for yet another $13 mouse or keyboard, or a $40 monitor. Old one still works OK. Am trained on Acad, and currently looking at a stack of six freebie HD with a few either-net cards (via SIIG) on top.

 

Wm.

[ReMark]

You have a stack of six free hard drives. That's nice. And you plan to just plow through each, one at a time, every time a hard drive goes south on you? I admire your spirit of recycling but doesn't this take a toll on productivity after a while? How many times have you had to transfer an OS and all your files to yet another hard drive?

[Coosbaylumber]

Actually, the hard drives are loaded up right now. As the computers that are comng are already H-D free, all I have to do is then open them up, plug in the new/used H-D and am going (except for the 60 questions). Then plug in the monitor cable, the periferials cabling and go, go, go. That is unless the PS is main reason it went bad back when. No Acad formating, no formatting for any other Windows or DOS program, no re-formatting of the plotter, etc. It is usually the default one anyway. If it worked before, it should again.

 

Wm.