Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Gave Mom Computer


lndshrk

Recommended Posts

My office refurbished lots of LAN used computers and offered them for sale. Brought one home and gave it to my Mom who is computer phobic, rather than just using MYMAILSTATION.COM. Worked fine for a couple of weeks, then during the typical booting up process in Windows 98, shows me the clouds background, then blinks out. Any idea what is going on here? Should I stop being a cheap $hit and just buy her a brand new machine (that she will probably never use)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I, myself, grew to be really seriously Win98-phobic after too many freezes, crashes and whatever. If you can afford a new system of SOME kind, I'd do that to avoid the galling tedium of tinkering--unless you're neurotically compelled to do that kind of thing. The first question is, of course, what is the end-user going to DO with this computer...? What do they need it for...? Simple communications and simple documents, or complex, high-end mega-production and file-hefting...?

For her, if her needs are simple, there is no doubt a very inexpensive solution out in the retail marketplace. And if she isn't what you'd call computer-geeky savvy, you don't want her having to bother with a twit of a machine that only works now 'n then. Just examine her needs and go with a complete little system that will do just what she needs and will last awhile. B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How "old" are these systems? Do you know the specs? How handy are you working with PCs, in general.......... if she really only wants to surf the web and do email, then seriously consider wiping the drive, loading up one of the user friendly versions of Linux, and run Thunderbird for mail, Firefox for browser........ even for word processing, you can use OpenOffice, and all of it is free.......just needs a download......

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The system is about 6 years old. I wiped and reloaded Windows and the Update without any improvement. I'm sure I'll just remove the machine and replace it rather than go the Linux route where I have no experience at all. Mom would use it for email and word processing (MS Office loaded), and sometimes surfing the web on match.com looking for a 70 year old hottie to keep her company. Just so wierd how it seems to load up perfectly, then right before going to desktop . . . BLINK and out with no recovery. I thought maybe it was overheating, but fans, etc. seem to be working. Will probably try to donate it to charity with a disclaimer and replace it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once it blinks out, does it reboot or just hang with a black screen?

Personally you could build one for cheap with XP Pro and I would stay away from Linux and firefox et al. if your not that geeky. In the old days , well not that old, fresh install over 98 were common, because troubleshooting that OS was a pain, and most semi-dorks like me would end up throwing the computer through a window....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ANSWER:  Just hangs with a blank screen, can be cold rebooted and goes to the same blank screen again.

Does it get past P.O.S.T.??

Well at least for XP, if you get to P.O.S.T. and it hangs with a blank screen without rebooting it can be alot of things, usually a vid card problem. Now with 98SE, take your pick: corrupted MBR, failing HDD, yada yada yada. If your in windoze or prior to in XP and it reboots on its own, it can be a memory issue. With 98SE, I would just reload the sucker.

How about keeping your case and other periphs like your optical drives and get a good solid Asus board for around $100, a Western Digital 100GB drive or thereabouts for another $60-80, A copy of XP Pro for $140, and some dual channel PC3200 DDR @ 2x512mb, an athlon 64 socket 939 and an OCZ 520W powerstream with SATA connectors for another $100. Tada!! new sys, ugly case ...who cares.

On components alone for all top of the line stuff (without dual CPU's and no RAID) you can get close to $5k. But I like them juicy Lian Li cases in the V1000b mod baby YEAAAAH! and some leds's to shake an bake it, ooooh and the quiet foam lining with some mondo 120mm import and exhaust fans to replace the stock 80mm, keeps it flowin' and pullin and oh so cool......Stop........me.........Sig L........A.......D.........y.......IM........going.........over .........the..........hard.........ware...........edge..................

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...