OT: HELP pelase, WinXP

[clare]

Even ONE bulged cap on the board can cause the issue - and you most likely have either 4 or 6, depending on the board design.. IF you can find a board that uses the same chipset the hard drive will plug on and run the system just fine on the new board - otherwise you will need to do some re-installing of the OS and drivers.

More likely you will also need to replace the CPU and RAM because you won't be able to locate a compatible board. ASUS uses a lot of solid caps now - which are supposed to be better than the old electrolitics

- but even the ASUS P5QPL-AM board I installed on a customer's system the other week had 6 electrolytics in the power section - where they usually blow - and the solid caps are touted as 5000 hr in the voltage regulator module (I assume at 105C - the temp rating of the caps)

Don't know about you, but 208.33 days doesn't sound like long life to me.

If they run at 65 degrees instead of 105, the lifespan should be closer to 50,000 hours - which is a bit over 5.5 years. - which is respectable but not exemplary life.

[Puckdropper]

Zz Yzx wrote in news: [e-mail]:

*snip*

*snip*

Many of the online retailers still have older boards. They're usually quite inexpensive, between $20-100.

Two that are worth checking out are NewEgg

and Computer Geeks I've dealt with both multiple times, and am usually satisfied.

Puckdropper

[Swingman]

Sorry, bad choice of words "boot". You're right about that, my intention was see if the BIOS still returned error beeps or would complete POST ...

At least one (and for some

BIOS is usually stored in ROM and, depending upon the design of the system, will indeed "run" without RAM ... the BIOS is what determines an error is present and returns the beep.

Granted most modern systems do these days, but not all load BIOS into RAM. IIRC, some AMD chipsets do not.

That's the point ... beeps, or no beeps, is what provides the clue of what to check next.

I'm still leaning toward it being an OS issue and not hardware ...

... and, BTW, ... PC RAM chips have been called "sticks" for years.

[Larry Jaques]

I just paid a shop $129 to fix my XP disc. He ended up having to salvage data, reformat, reload XP, and reload data. I got most of it back. He told me that several virii and a trojan had gotten through my vigilance, anti-virus, and anti-malware software. He said "Never, under any circumstance, use the X to close a popup window for an unknown or fishy site. Always use Ctrl-F4 or reboot, period."

I was very happy to have paid only $129 for data recovery. He's a keeper for computer problems.

-- We're all here because we're not all there.

[Swingman]

A few months back my Dad's XP HD went South and eventually required a data recovery service to the North of $500 to recover 20 years of race horse records and genealogy data.

Obviously worth it to him.

A back up freak from admining upwards of 20 servers in two locations in the nineties, and beaucoup digital recording sessions where trying to rebuild the wheel would literally cost hundreds of thousands, I've now gone to using Carbonite for my scaled down personal office needs.

When working on kitchen designs lately Carbonite has come in handy quite a few times when I've overwritten a file I was working on with a newer design version that didn't quite work. Being able to go back and retrieve a previous version with the same file name saves a ton of work.

And the data being backed up off site, even if it is on the "cloud", however long that concept lasts, is comforting for now.

FWIW ...

[dadiOH]

Always use Ctrl-F4 or reboot, period."

That's ALT + F4

[Puckdropper]

"dadiOH" wrote in news:gZxbo.98937$KP3.41712 @hurricane:

Maybe not. CTRL-F4 closes a window while ALT-F4 closes the application.

Puckdropper

[Han]

"DGDevin" wrote in news:yNudnVsJGLRDVPPRnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

I have had good experiences with Newegg, except for a computer case that had a dead powersupply. It took some time, but it got all straightened out. I have and will use them whenever there is a good deal I can use.

[Josepi]

I have, also had good luck with newegg.ca (Canada brother) but not had any problems so everybody is always nice until you want something. Would use again, so far.

"Han" wrote in message news:Xns9DDAA2A8FC8F8ikkezelf@207.246.207.190... I have had good experiences with Newegg, except for a computer case that had a dead powersupply. It took some time, but it got all straightened out. I have and will use them whenever there is a good deal I can use.

[Han]

"Josepi" wrote in news:8cBbo.90611$ [e-mail]:

Mine was partly a shipping problem. The case was probably either not packaged well enough, or thrown around too much, and arrived in a state that it would really close well. What exactly was wrong with the power supply, I don't know, but it didn't work.

I've ordered many times without any problems from Newegg.

[Josepi]

Usually these online services will jump through hoops to keep the nervous market buying from them.

I've ordered many times without any problems from Newegg.

"Josepi" wrote in news:8cBbo.90611$ [e-mail]:

[notbob]

I was gonna order from newegg, once, but backed off. I forget why, but reading their website reveals they charge a restocking fee on too many returns. Hey, you ship me crap and I got pay a fee? Screw that.

nb

[DGDevin]

I can see a restocking fee if I just change my mind and want to return something for no particular reason (and if their return policy was clear when I purchased). There is such a thing as the returnaholic customer and I figure stores can have policies to discourage that behavior provided they make those policies clear. But demanding someone pay return shipping on a

*defective* product is way over the line IMO.

[Larry Jaques]

Ctrl-F4 closes the window/tab. Alt-F4 closes the program. Choose carefully, grasshoppa.

-- We're all here because we're not all there.