The "How to fix any computer" thread

[Judge]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

I now think it may have been part way through an update when shut down.

Ahhhh....that might explain a great deal of your problem if a bios update. But shutting down during a Windows update can kill a system as well.

Hope you're able to restore or update the bios accordingly. Should be able to as long as you are able to boot the system through a disk, but you may have to do it the old fashioned way with DOS commands. LOL...that's how I did the last bios update on a motherboard, way back in 2003 I think. I know these days the whole process is much more automated, but yeah....if something goes wrong with a bios update ouch!

 

[Warwick C]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

I have had some luck with getting it going.

I tried the idea of removing the battery over night. That reset the bios, I can now get it to start
upto the boot manager comes up asking for the program to be repaired. Only problem is that I dont
have an installation disc. It now can also now read the master disc that it wasnt.

How ever I am working through it and learning

It is just an general interest as I like to know how things work.

Thanks warwick

 

[apt-get]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

LOL, yes, I had Linux once. It seemed like a good idea until I found out how unnecessarily complicated everything was. I couldn't even install software on its own - I always had to have a bunch of other stuff to go with it, and then either it wouldn't even tell me what I needed or there was some unfixable error during installation. In my opinion it's not worth all that fuss just to be less vulnerable to viruses. I'm not very vulnerable to them anyway.

I'm going to have to defend Linux here, since your reply contains common misconceptions about Linux that are highly false, yet still get spread around a lot. Bear with me.

Hmmm, it seems like you were trying to manually build software from source as opposed to using your distribution's package manager. That's the wrong way to do it. Software installation via the package manager is incredibly easy, because the package manager pulls together everything you need for a piece of software to run and all you really need to do is confirm that you want to install the software. It's pretty simple and easy to do.

I'm going to defend the need to install all dependencies to run a particular piece of software as being necessarily simpler than the way programs for Mac or Windows typically is. In Mac and Windows machines, software packages usually ship with all necessary libraries. This leads to highly bloated systems that can easily contain multiple versions of the same library or package. It is far more simple for dependencies be installed separately, so that all programs that rely on dependency X can all just use the same version. Furthermore, since the package manager handles all of this for you for both installation and removal of software, making sure that you have all dependencies for a particular piece of software is trivial.

Here's a comparison of the steps that it takes to install software in Linux vs Mac and Windows.

Windows/Mac:
0. Open a web browser.
1. Search web for particular piece of software.
2. Navigate website for a download link.
3. Windows: Download the .exe/.msi/ file. Mac: Download the .dmg/.pkg/.mpkg file.
4. Open the installer/setup wizard.
5. Click through the steps in the wizard.
6. Software should be ready to use, and if you are lucky, it will run properly.

Linux:
0. Open either a terminal or the GUI software center depending on your preference of CLI vs GUI (your preference doesn't matter, but online guides typically favor CLI over GUI).
1. Use the search function of the CLI package manager or GUI software center to find the name of the package.
2. GUI: Select the package you want from the search results and install it. CLI: Install the software by typing a simple command into the terminal.
3. Software should be ready to use and should run without errors.

I'm confused as to how Linux makes things unnecessarily complicated. To me, it seems as it makes things a lot simpler. Of course, you are always free to use whatever you want to use and I will not hold it against you.

 

[Judge]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

Only problem is that I dont have an installation disc.

Just another reason why I'm still building my own PCs. I'll never get used to major computer manufacturers who put an operating system's recovery files on a hidden partition rather than simply supplying users with the appropriate operating system disk. Although I've heard of some of them (like Dell) sending them to frustrated users with such hard drive problems...

 

[Warwick C]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

I have had a mixed result in geting the computer going. I purchased a copy of windows 7, so now I have an installation disc.
then the hard drive died, so it is good excuse to upate the hard drive. I now hope to get it going mid week.

 

[MoCoffee]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

A few whacks with a goalie stick is guaranteed to fix any computer's @$$ but good!

Wow, as a fellow Canadian I totally relate to this. lol

 

[Judge]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

Wow, as a fellow Canadian I totally relate to this. lol

Good point. I've had my share of "What the puck" moments when it comes to a computer acting out.

Go Sharks.

 

[Warwick C]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

I have finally got the computer going now. New hard drive and now I have my own copy of windows 7. I plan to upgrade the computer over a period of time.

warwick
:smoke:

 

[Soup]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

@Warwick C: Despite buying a new computer (2,actually) I had grown attached to my old Dell Inspiron 630m (yes, a veritable dinosaur). I replaced the battery, the hard drive, the hinges, the keyboard, the mouse buttons & the charger & now it works as good as it did when it was new: except that the battery charge lasts even longer!

 

[umbrellabeach]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

I'm going to have to defend Linux here, since your reply contains common misconceptions about Linux that are highly false, yet still get spread around a lot. Bear with me.

Hmmm, it seems like you were trying to manually build software from source as opposed to using your distribution's package manager. That's the wrong way to do it. Software installation via the package manager is incredibly easy, because the package manager pulls together everything you need for a piece of software to run and all you really need to do is confirm that you want to install the software. It's pretty simple and easy to do.

I'm going to defend the need to install all dependencies to run a particular piece of software as being necessarily simpler than the way programs for Mac or Windows typically is. In Mac and Windows machines, software packages usually ship with all necessary libraries. This leads to highly bloated systems that can easily contain multiple versions of the same library or package. It is far more simple for dependencies be installed separately, so that all programs that rely on dependency X can all just use the same version. Furthermore, since the package manager handles all of this for you for both installation and removal of software, making sure that you have all dependencies for a particular piece of software is trivial.

Here's a comparison of the steps that it takes to install software in Linux vs Mac and Windows.

Windows/Mac:
0. Open a web browser.
1. Search web for particular piece of software.
2. Navigate website for a download link.
3. Windows: Download the .exe/.msi/ file. Mac: Download the .dmg/.pkg/.mpkg file.
4. Open the installer/setup wizard.
5. Click through the steps in the wizard.
6. Software should be ready to use, and if you are lucky, it will run properly.

Linux:
0. Open either a terminal or the GUI software center depending on your preference of CLI vs GUI (your preference doesn't matter, but online guides typically favor CLI over GUI).
1. Use the search function of the CLI package manager or GUI software center to find the name of the package.
2. GUI: Select the package you want from the search results and install it. CLI: Install the software by typing a simple command into the terminal.
3. Software should be ready to use and should run without errors.

I'm confused as to how Linux makes things unnecessarily complicated. To me, it seems as it makes things a lot simpler. Of course, you are always free to use whatever you want to use and I will not hold it against you.

When I had Linux it was provided by someone from my old church when he replaced my hard drive. He didn't tell me anything about how to use it and of course my family knew nothing either. Anyway, I'm so used to Windows that I never want to bother using anything else.

 

[Judge]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

I have finally got the computer going now. New hard drive and now I have my own copy of windows 7. I plan to upgrade the computer over a period of time.

warwick
:smoke:

Good deal. Once a hard drive goes bad even resurrecting it temporarily just buys you some time at losing data all over again. I went through this on my Win XP legacy computer and finally just stopped trying. Have another hard drive that works fine, although only 80 gigs. The only thing that really concerns me is the scarcity of EIDE drives these days. All the OTC retailers here locally only sell SATA now. But I can always go to Newegg.com if I have to.

I sure do enjoy using an SSD on this computer though. And with Windows 7 it's good at least to 2020...almost an eternity to me!

 

[Warwick C]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

ditto the idea of windows 7, I don't see any point in changing just for the sake of it.
My mother board has an Ide socket for a hard drive and two Sata 2 sockets, one used
by the CD/DVD drive.
So I can't see why I can not go to a Sata cable hard drive later on and increase the Ram.
I am debating adding a small GPU later on. Based upon the performance index the hold
up seams to be in the graphics (3.2-5.5).

It's a good learning opportunity and why throw out a reasonably good computer.

Warwick

 

[Judge]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

ditto the idea of windows 7, I don't see any point in changing just for the sake of it.
My mother board has an Ide socket for a hard drive and two Sata 2 sockets, one used
by the CD/DVD drive.
So I can't see why I can not go to a Sata cable hard drive later on and increase the Ram.
I am debating adding a small GPU later on. Based upon the performance index the hold
up seams to be in the graphics (3.2-5.5).

It's a good learning opportunity and why throw out a reasonably good computer.

Warwick

On my legacy system it has only EIDE sockets on the motherboard. I could probably scrounge up a PCI adapter to run SATA on it if I had to. Not sure if it would slow down the drive appreciably though.

On this computer I built only a few months ago it has 8 gigs of RAM. Originally I was going to use 16 gigs, but so far I don't seem to need it for Windows 7. But then I'm running a Samsung SSD 840 Pro with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650Ti. With that kind of performance additional RAM would probably be negligible with the apps I normally run.

Yeah with Windows 7 I can still run a lot of my key applications. I go to Windows 8 and I'm SOL. Can't afford to buy expensive apps from scratch. Not to mention that I've never run into a live human being who actually said they liked Windows 8.

 

[Warwick C]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

From what I understand of windows 7 for ram 4 GB is the limit for 32 bit, it just does not use any more.
I am not sure of the upper limit for 64 bit, but it can use more. I only have two slots for ram to increase
what I have available at present (2 GB).

For a hard drive speed increase I would think the restricting factor would be be the plug/socket.
The sata lead would be faster, but what would happen at the motherboard socket?

From what I understand of windows 8 that it is more aim touch screen use.

Warwick

 

[Judge]

Re: The "How to fix any computer" help thread

From what I understand of windows 7 for ram 4 GB is the limit for 32 bit, it just does not use any more.
I am not sure of the upper limit for 64 bit, but it can use more. I only have two slots for ram to increase
what I have available at present (2 GB).

For a hard drive speed increase I would think the restricting factor would be be the plug/socket.
The sata lead would be faster, but what would happen at the motherboard socket?

From what I understand of windows 8 that it is more aim touch screen use.

Warwick

Good point. With regards to using RAM I probably should have mentioned I'm using a 64-bit version of Windows 7 on my latest system. On my legacy computer I have removable hard drives and use both Windows XP and Windows 98SE. Which means running only 1 gig of RAM, involving a minor hack for Windows 98SE.

Yes, using a PCI bus to make a much older motherboard SATA-capable would likely involve some kind of performance hit that would offset improved SATA transfer rates. Of course it occurred to me that if I added such a board just to run SATA drives I'd probably have to make the legacy system dedicated to either Windows XP or Windows 98SE. (My existing removable hard drives are dependent on IDE connectors.) Easier just to buy another IDE assuming they continue to be sold.