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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: familydar on Friday 19 January 18 14:17 GMT (UK)
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I should have known that my success with increasing the RAM on my old workhorse was too good to last (see earlier post just before Xmas).
I think the HDD has now failed (oh the irony - I considered replacing it with an SSD when I did the RAM and decided I couldn't justify the cost). Thankfully if I can't recover the data I'll only have lost about 3 weeks of updates as I did a full backup to external HDD on 1st Jan and when it started acting a bit strangely yesterday I copied the year's downloads to date to a USB stick.
Currently going through a system restore from DVD which I imagine might take most of the day but I think I'll have to take the plunge and enter the strange world of Windows 10 and a new computer.
I want a desktop and space isn't an issue. I prefer a slimline tower unit but having seen how inaccessible all the internal components are I wonder whether I ought to go back to a full size one. I don't need wifi but it seems this is quite commonplace so may end up with it regardless.
Existing computer is an Acer and it's been reliable over the 7 or so years I've owned it. It has USB ports to spare and four of them readily accessible on the front. I suspect I might struggle to match this.
HP seem to be popular but my past experience of the brand hasn't been good - not my own computer but my father had two in succession because it was a brand he'd heard of and they sold them in his favourite never knowingly undersold department store. The first one failed apparently without warning when it wasn't all that old, the second one struggles on but seems desperately underpowered (I suppose it could be because it IS underpowered, and it's older than mine so perhaps they're not so bad after all).
Before the Acer I had a Dell and replaced it after about 5 years I think when it got a bit cranky. It still fires up OK but doesn't go online because it's XP and probably quite vulnerable. It's useful when I need to use ancient software that won't run on a 64 bit machine.
Anyway, given that I do a LOT of multitasking (see the pre-Xmas post for the sort of things I expect it to do) and I don't have the courage to go for a Mac because that would involve finding too much replacement software, if I'm looking for a Win10 machine is it just a case of going for the highest spec at a price I feel is reasonable, or are there brands I should avoid at all costs? And does anyone have any objective info on processors - my gut says stay with intel because the various alternatives used to run hot and fail, but is this still the case?
This post typed on a desperately underpowered netbook running Linux because it ground to a halt with Win7.
Jane :-)
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Best laptops:
http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/best-laptops-1304361
Best desktops:
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/10-of-the-best-desktop-pcs-of-2015-1304391
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These people will build you a 'barebones' AMD or Intel ... choice of Cases, PSU etc, includes RAM, but not a CD/DVD player - which you will probably need to install Win10
I've had 3 PCs from them since 2005 - only one actually broke ... overall very pleased with the Box & their Support & Service ...
http://www.novatech.co.uk/barebonebundles/
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Update - the restore failed. So definitely looking for a new machine.
I checked out Gadget's desktop link but didn't find it a tremendous lot of help. I'd like to future-proof for as long as poss so min i5, perhaps even i7, and at least 8gig ram with expansion possibilities. Going for an ssd as well as hdd would be a nice to have from a performance perspective but I think a bit too expensive once I start throwing all my other requirements into the mix. I wouldn't consider refurbished.
At the moment I'm seriously considering lenovo 510s in one or other of its guises because of the number of USBs it has and it doesn't look like something that's escaped from a sci fi movie. Anyone bought one recently?
Have just seen Lostris's post, will check that out now.
Jane:-)
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Sorry - meant to say that you could click on a sub-category according to your particular needs - e.g.
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/best-all-in-one-pc-the-top-one-box-windows-8-pcs-compared-1174017
Add - I prefer Apple desktops and there's one there for £735. Laptops, I've always gone for Dell/HP or Apple
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I've been really pleased with our 2 desktop PC's from QuietPC.com (https://www.quietpc.com/systems). Fast and silent.
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Hi Jane,
I hardly dare put in an appearance after helping persuade you to upgrade your old PC :-[
Really sorry it didn't work out :'(
I just wanted to say I have had a PC and Laptop from PCSpecialist and my son has a PC from them too. I bought my PC with XP installed so it's fairly old, but have since upgraded to Win7 and then Win10 with no problems and also added more RAM.
They allow you to choose the bits you want, but you may have to wait a week or two as they build to order, install the software and then test them for 24 hours. You obviously have a fair idea of what you want and the web site is quite informative about the options:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/
Mike.
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Don't worry about it Mike it's not your fault. The comp was obviously trying to tell me something before xmas and I didn't heed the signs.
I'll check out your link.
Best wishes
Jane:-)
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This is very weird. This morning I thought have one final go at powering it up as it's had all night to cool down and it would be nice to copy things I've updated since the beginning of the year (family tree for instance!) over to a USB stick. I wasn't expecting it to respond in any sort of useful manner, fully expecting BSOD. I switched it on at the wall and made a cup of tea, intending to switch on the computer itself once I'd consumed said tea. Drank tea, had breakfast, emptied tumble drier, put a few pieces in the jigsaw puzzle I have on the go and finally felt brave enough to face the computer.
It was on. It was still going through its boot process but the windows desktop was starting to appear. And I'd not touched its power button.
When it started to act strangely on Thursday the first thing I did was ran two different anti-virus scans plus anti malware and anti spyware - all clean. I also wondered if it needed any windows updates - it wasn't downloading any, that always affects performance, but I wondered if there were any updates it had downloaded which needed installing. There weren't and the history had gone from 7 years worth of updates to completely empty.
I've copied over the files I wanted, desperately trying to think of anything else that might be on there which could prove useful because I don't expect it to "play ball" again. I certainly won't trust it - I've asked the two custom pc builders suggested earlier in this thread to quote me for a replacement - but it seems that for today at least I'm not having to stuggle with the netbook or tablet to speak to you lovely people.
BTW Windows Update history now has three successful updates with installation dates of 18th, 19th & 20th (today).
Jane :-)
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If you restored from the DVD you should now have a clean system which would explain the lack of update history. Sounds like the Hard Disk must be working.
Glad you recovered your files :)
Mike
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ran two different anti-virus scans
From this, do I understand that you are running two antivirus programs? If this is the case you should only be using one as one will conflict with the other and give you problems.
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Mike, I follow your logic but restore attempt said it failed after hanging at just 1% for several hours. The system that eventually presented itself this morning had all my programs etc exactly as before. After a little while it ground to a halt again, I'm guessing something is overheating but at least it stayed running long enough for me to copy the stuff I wanted to usb.
Midase I'm not running multiple av packages, I know that can cause conflict, but I routinely launch mbam, spybot s&d and ccleaner to generally housekeep and hoover up anything that might have snuck past mse or whatever the ms offering is called at the moment.
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I didn't mean to suggest you don't need to replace the PC, just observing the HDD must be working. As with old cars there comes a time when you have to bite the bullet.
I'm sure you'll soon adjust to Windows 10. If you turn off most of the new 'features' it's not so different underneath.
Mike
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Mike, you're right, my initial thought (because I always expect the worst) that the hdd had failed has been proven wrong. And very glad I am too.
Others have said to me that win10 is not so bad/different. Hardly a ringing endorsement! Is it another instance of change not always being for the better I wonder?
Jane :-)
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Jane,
I think much of the dislike of Windows 10 is a general dislike of change ::) We get used to a system and find it inconvenient to re-learn things we had mastered. For my purposes all the frills of Windows 10 are completely pointless so I uninstall or switch off everything I can. This frees up a good deal of system resources from running things in the background that I don't need.
The underlying system seems very stable and has better security than the older versions, and I have found it will run all the third party software I had installed under XP or 7 with no problems. In fact I use almost all third-party programs, such as LibreOffice, Serif PagePlus, Thunderbird, Firefox, PaintShop Pro, RootsMagic, to name a few. I can't comment on Windows Defender because I was already using Norton but some people seem to think Defender is adequate security. I know many people have had difficulties upgrading old machines due to hardware, drivers, etc. but on a new PC this shouldn't be a problem.
My biggest complaint is the Windows Update which seems to have a mind of its own and hogs a lot of the system when it runs. If you pay a little extra for the 'Pro' version instead of 'Home' it gives you more control over such things, so it might be worth researching that :-\ I had the Pro version of 7 so automatically got Pro when I upgraded to 10.
Mike.