your computer - the living beast...

[redrooster]

This is no question for support, this more is a story I want to tell you about what all can happen to your precious computer(s)...

I´m living with Personal Computer since ages, starting with a XT/16 to a 286 to a 386/DX25 to a 486/SX to a 486/DX50 with a co-processor to a 486/DX2 66 to a pentuim I, pentium II and so on until todays generations, atm I have two AMD Athlons X2. And I am / was always modifying them with additional or upgraded hardware.

The last one with Vista runs well, but the previous one using XP what is my main computer atm has been causing problems for a long time...

Every 3 months I have to clean it completely pulling out and re-inserting every cable connection, all cards (video, DVBT) and the processor as well because of dirt caused by dust and smoke. After cleaning the PC runs well again. Another time the battery was empty so that the BIOS was out of function, another time an USB-HUB caused some problems and shut down the complete PC, it had to be replaced too, today as a peak I wanted to play an AVI file and the OS tried to access a DVD-RW device ending in completely shutting down the whole system and flames coming out of the power supply (400W). I had to buy a new one and chose a 570 W unit with silent noise and two fans. Now everything is o.k. again, lets wait for what happens next...

How many PCs have been thrown into trash as people thought they were unable to be repaired or other people like repair services staff have told them...

 

[yasushi7017]

I have a laptop, I chose one precisely for avoiding these problems with the desktop, my old Pentium dual-core died because a problem with the power supply, now I have a laptop with 250GB internal and 1TB external hdd, connected to a monitor 24 " with mouse and keyboards also external, video card with 512MB of RAM, enough to run BF2 and source, ask me if I still want to return to the desktop... plus my environment is very quiet now, not need as many fans as on desktop.

 

[fr0stbyte]

I can relate to such stories.

Most of the people I know aren't PC-savvy. They'd resort to total overhaul or complete replacements when their PCs run up into some unwanted trouble. Repair services said that their PCs were beyond repair. I've already salvaged 3 hard disks (worth 420GB+) and 5 CD/DVD-ROM drives (one had Light-Scribe, sweet!) from my friends' computers. Talk about wasteful spending.

If I were to visit to all of my friends who had broken or unwanted computer parts, I can probably set up one or two complete set-ups, with hard-disks to boot.

 

[handyman]

...today as a peak I wanted to play an AVI file and the OS tried to access a DVD-RW device ending in completely shutting down the whole system and flames coming out of the power supply (400W).....

:rofl:

Now that's Rock'n'Roll!

 

[ZeroX24]

I have a tendency to pick up computers I see on the street. Alot of the times, its something trivial that people don't wanna fix. It makes more spare parts for myself even though I can't use those parts myself because I built a brand new computer during December. But I can at least use them for when i fix iother ppl's computers.