Computer Geeks Unite! And farging help me!

[Sgt PSN]

Humor me for a moment....

How difficult would it be for someone whose working knowledge of the inside of a computer is limited to adding some memory sticks and a tv tuner?  If it's something that someone with little knowledge can still possibly pull off, then I'd consider giving it a shot just for the learning experience.  My mother board is already starting to go, so it sounds like the need for a new computer is imminent anyway unless I replace the mother board myself.  So about the worst I can do is try it myself, fail miserably and go buy a new PC now rather than 3 months from now, right?  Obviously I'll have also wasted $200 in the process but if that $200 could possibly save me the cost of a new computer (a comparable model to what I have right now will run me close to a grand) then I'd be willing to give it a shot. 

So what all goes into replacing it?  I assume there's some soldering involved?   

[Sgt PSN]

Sarge,
There are a lot of things you can do to troubleshoot the problem, but they are probably going to be a little more involved then you might want to get into.

To start, I'd first remove the side panel, with the power disconnected, and swap the power and SATA connections on the back of the DVD/CD drives. See if the one that's dead powers up, opens/closes, etc, and the one that is currently functioning ceases. That would point to a bad power supply possibly, which have been spotty on HPs. If there is no change, it's not power related, and you just have a dead drive.

This would start a process of eliminating variables until you isolate the problem.

I actually had the power supply replaced last year.  The computer simply wouldn't power up at all.  A local computer repair guy replaced it for like $50.  Both drives were working just fine after he worked on it too.  Of course, I suppose if he did shoddy work, then that might be the problem I'm having now. 

I wouldn't advise swapping the motherboard. A replacement will be damn close to a new PC anyway, and if you aren't a computer guy can be a bit of a crap shoot. Troubleshooting the thing and trying to diagnose and repair it might be more work than it is worth. Since you probably already have the monitor, keyboard, etc., getting into a decent Dell desktop would only cost a few bills.

I've been looking at Dell over the last couple of weeks since all of this started happening and if I do replace my computer, that's probably where I'm leaning. 

[PhillyPhanInDC]

No. No soldering. The worst it really gets is dealing with some thermal paste on the CPU. It really comes down to grounding yourself to the chassis and putting everything back together the right way. If you open it up, and take pictures of everything it should go smoothly.

The thing I would want to do first is verify it is the motherboard and not something else.

Are you familiar with Ubuntu? You can run a "live CD" which will let you put a disk (thumbdrives too) in the drive and boot into a read-only operating system. The idea is you can try Linux without installing over your Windows. We can use this to be 100% it isn't a driver problem. You boot to this, stick your media card in. If Ubuntu reads it no problem, you've got a much easier to fix software problem. Same deal with the DVD-ROM.

Give it a shot, and let me know if you need help:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Trial Ubuntu before you install it.

1. If you're using a CD: Put the Ubuntu CD into the CD/DVD-drive and restart the computer. You should see a welcome screen prompting you to choose your language and giving you the option to install Ubuntu or try it from the CD.

If you don't get this menu, read the booting From the CD guide for more information.


2. If you're using a USB drive: Most newer computers can boot from USB. You should see a welcome screen prompting you to choose your language and giving you the option to install Ubuntu or try it from the CD.


If your computer does not automatically do so, you might need to edit the BIOS settings. Restart your computer, and watch for a message telling you which key to press to enter the BIOS setup. It will usually be one of F1, F2, DEL, ESC or F10. Press this key while your computer is booting to edit your BIOS settings.


You need to edit the Boot Order. Depending on your computer, and how your USB key was formatted, you should see an entry for 'removable drive' or 'USB media'. Move this to the top of the list to force the computer to attempt to boot from USB before booting from the hard disk. Save your changes and continue.


3. Choose your preferred language and click on 'Try Ubuntu'


4. Your live CD desktop should appear. Have a look around!

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

[Sgt PSN]

I'm familiar with ubuntu in the sense that I've heard of it but couldn't tell you what the hell it was until just now.  I'll give that a look and see what happens. 

[Sgt PSN]

Stupid question here, but I guess I'm supposed to download that ubuntu software to a thumb drive and then reboot my computer? 

nm.....the website actually answers that question for me. 

[Tomahawk]

The battery light on my laptop (Dell M6300 if that matters) keeps flashing between green and orange. What gives?

[reese125]

indication light that battery is going bye bye.

time to purhcase a new one

[Diomedes]

cost of a new battery for your two year old laptop >> cost of new laptop

[Tomahawk]

It's a laptop from work so the cost to me would be exactly dollars. I bet it's a lot older than 2 years too...should be getting a much better M6500 soon

[reese125]

i should have been more specific I guess. obviously I meant get a new battery.

[Diomedes]

Google's new, single privacy policy for all google properties goes into effect tomorrow.

Here are two simple measures you can take to reduce Google's view into your online activities.  First link is for google search, second is for youtube (and youtube search)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/how-remove-your-google-search-history-googles-new-privacy-policy-takes-effect

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/how-remove-your-youtube-viewing-and-search-history-googles-new-privacy-policy

[hbionic]

Pretty dope site. Gracias amigo.

[Sgt PSN]

I'm posting this from the Flyers thread because I like having all this info in one place. 

last weekend i dug in the crates of my old flyer games i used to tape when i was a kid to get ready for this weeks playoffs

some of what came out the vault

you need to get one of those converter machines and put that shtein on dvd and online

All you need is a TV tuner for your computer.  You can buy them anywhere from $50-100.  Maybe more if you want top of the line stuff.  It plugs into your USB port and has a coax jack on the other end.  Plug your VCR into it just like you would with your TV, open the software, hit play on the VCR and hit record on your computer.  When it's done you have a nice, tidy video file of the entire game.  You can also run your cable/satellite to it as well and record tv straight to your computer.  Anything I dvr that I want to keep goes on the computer so I can delete it from the dvr to free up storage space.

[ice grillin you]

i have a standalone dvd/vhs recorder

[SD]

On a scale of 1 to 10 how farged am I?

So I recently moved. I go back to my old place to get some of my last stuff and notice my old computer tower is missing. I figure my room mate grabbed it and brought it to the new house because nobody is dumb enough to throw it out on the curb. Well I'm wrong, he put it out on the curb and now somebody has my shtein. I already changed all my passwords, cancelled my banking accounts and all of that good stuff but there is stuff like my job resume and some scanned documents that contain my SSN. There's also a few thousand pictures of my daughter on there as well. On a scale of 1-10 of how pissed off I am I'd rank it as infinity as I can't believe that someone as smart as my room mate would do something so foolish.

The CD rom is broke on the old tower which probably doesn't make much of a difference and I haven't used it in over a year. When my new card comes in I'm going to sign up for Lifelock which is $10-23 per month depending on how in depth you want them to be.

I posted this here and not in the No Hippos forum so you can poke fun at me but some serious replies would be appreciated.

On a side note my pill addict ex neighbor tells me she saw some guy down the street take a few things. I go to the house where the guy lives and knock on his door...some Russian guy with his pitbull come out and start asking me questions. Guy seems nice enough except  his pitbull keeps getting down in attack position and growling at me. Now I love pitbulls and raised 3 of them but this one wasn't nice. So I tell the guy to get his dog who isn't on a leash away from me or I was gonna brick its head. He thought I was kidding until I picked the brick up. Anyways some meth head lady answers the door and says she took the old tv that was out there but didn't see the computer. I said if she had it I'd give her $100 no questions asked. She stuck to her story so who knows if she has it...it was hard to get a read on her because she was so whacked out of her mind.