How long should a computer last?

Jennie@ifish · 12-01-2002, 05:11 AM

Dangit anyway, my computer is less than two years old, and I keep getting disk errors, and lost clusters, and.... stuff.

Does this mean I am on the road to windows xp and a new computer?

How long do computers last in an office situation? I work my computer pretty hard, I know... but I only do certain things, and it doesn't seem like I should run into this.

I can't afford a new computer!!!

Plus, the hassle of transferring and risking losing data in the transfer.

UGH. Computers...

Elkhunter · 12-01-2002, 05:51 AM

What type of system is it? What type of operating system are you running? Your CPU should last a minimum of 3+ years. You may need to just load a new operating system, this will not effect any data you have stored. I would recommend Win2K Professional. Good luck!

Gus Orviston · 12-01-2002, 07:55 AM

jen, 18 mon-2 years for a notebook, and 3 or more for a desktop. Keyboards sometime can't last 3 years, but they are a dime a doz these days. Sounds like a defrag problem of a Hard disk failure of some sort. The first thing to do is defrag and and repair, if you are still having issues, and all parameters look normal (used space, free space, space empty space between my ears) then I would first do a new hard disk.

gus

The Fishing Geek · 12-01-2002, 08:15 AM

I second the hard drive suggestion.

Keep in mind, however, that most hard drive manufacturers recently changed IDE drive warranty's from 3 years down to 1. Big concern there. With that in mind, if I was using a computer for heavy-business work I'd buy two. One for regular use, and one to receive nightly backups of the primary drive. Sounds like a waste, but drive prices have gone down, backup drive prices to backup large volumes are expensive, and losing data to a bad drive is aggrivating.

Give a shout if you have any other questions.

Jennie@ifish · 12-01-2002, 08:22 AM

Fix it for me, k?
:smile:

TheRogue · 12-01-2002, 08:26 AM

What Gus said.....

He's kind of a computer geek by association!!

TR

Jennie@ifish · 12-01-2002, 10:19 AM

I would have to open the computer to put in a hard drive. I am allergic to that. :smile:

Jen

crabbait · 12-01-2002, 01:09 PM

Installing a hard drive is easy......you could do it no sweat.

If you are using any Windows OS other than XP you must enjoy banging your head into the keyboard!!

fishisabonus · 12-01-2002, 06:50 PM

My computer was just over a year old and started having major problems. It had a virus that Norton didn't catch! I took it in, got that cleaned up, then my hard drive crashed. I am pretty sure the bugs messed up my hard drive and caused it to give up.

Make sure your anti virus software is up to date. Do live updates and make sure you have the current version. After my troubles, I have 2 different anti virus programs to catch the bugs.

My computer is running great now. Really fast, even with my dial up modem!

Kruechief · 12-01-2002, 07:50 PM

Jen,

Imagine your "puter" as a tackle box.

Ok, when you get back from a trip there are a lot of lures, floats, and hooks etcetera that ends up in the wrong bins in your box. This happens in your computer too. So, you must look for the things that are amuck. With a computer you do that with scandisk. Go to start, programs, accessories, system tools, scan disc. Scan disc is going to check files and scan for bad sectors and then correct the sectors if it can. Next, you must defrag it and close up all those gaps. Go to start, programs, accessories, system tools, disc defragmenter. Then when it comes up toggle the settings box and make sure the rearrange files and check drive for errors are checked and then under them check every time

Also, sometimes you accidentally end up with biological yucky stuff, others' tackle, lures you used in tidewater (spinners with salt water on them) etcetera in your "box". So, you must clean or debug it "check for viruses". Go here and follow the instructions for the free scan.

"box cleaner"

Some other tips, keep your cookies, temp files and temp Internet files cleaned out at all costs.

Also, you are right, let a kid into your "box" and only chaos can be assured.

I broke down and bought my daughter a used computer for her room and mine has never ran better

Lo

PS: We got our Compaq Presario in November of 1998!

So, it is four years old and has served us well. But my wife works in the biz and keeps our "box" in good shape. If you need help I'm there for you.

The Fishing Geek · 12-01-2002, 08:20 PM

A couple of comments from someone who's been geeking on PC's since 1994:

crabbait:

Windows XP STILL has driver issues on hardware older than a couple years old, stuff like scanners, printers, things like that. Stability and driver compatibility are solid in Windows 2000. If you're buying all new hardware (new printer, new scanner, everything) then go with XP.

fishisabonus:

Two antivirus packages? Overkill. Use one good one and update it nightly, no less than weekly. Have it scan your hard drive weekly. Tell everyone on your email list that you are no longer opening email attachments without an email sent beforehand alerting you of the forthcoming attachment, and STICK TO THAT. It's your friends who are most likely to send you computer viruses. Nothing personal, just the truth.

Jennie:

Run the scan disk and the disk defrag as kruechief recommended. If you have more than 5% of your drive in bad sectors, then it is time to replace it. If you want to upgrade to a stable OS that won't force you to upgrade your printer and scanner (or more), then go with Windows 2000. Otherwise, simply reinstall your existing OS and run Microsoft Update to get the most recent patches (let it download overnight, as it's gonna be HUGE).

Give me a shout if you have more questions. I do this for a job, so I'm pretty good at it. And I've been known to do computer work for fishing trips.

The Fishing Geek · 12-01-2002, 11:02 PM

Your son is a geek. Get him to do it.

You can buy hard drives for about a dollar a gig right now, so buying a couple 80 gig hard drives keeps you under $200. You'd have to reinstall your operating system and applications, but you should be able to hook up the old hard drive after all is installed and move valuable files to the new. Or simply burn your valuable files to CD.

You DO have a CD burner, don't you?

Jennie@ifish · 12-01-2002, 11:31 PM

Is that the cup holder, or is that the thing I warm my coffee on?

:grin:

Jennie@ifish · 12-01-2002, 11:35 PM

He may be a geek, my son, but I wouldn't trust him within 5 miles of the inside of my computer... he has some weird gaming computer from Alienware that sounds like a helicopter when he boots up.
It has some wham dammy fan.

Anyway, I suspect that his use of my computer is the reason that it doesn't operate correctly now. I'm careful, he.... experiments!

J

[ 12-01-2002, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: Jennie@ifish ]

Jennie@ifish · 12-02-2002, 04:20 AM

I run scan disk and defrag every week.

good there.

I auto update for viruses twice daily, whether I need it or not. :smile:
I set Norton at the most aggressive.

Some good computer techs have told me my system is not capable of win xp... Others say yes, it's fine...

I have no choice. Pretty soon everyone is going to need xp or later, right? Right.

I run 98 second now, and it's been fairly stable.

Andrew loves his xp pro.

Jen

Jennie@ifish · 12-02-2002, 04:23 AM

May I add one thing that's been hard for me to get out to people?

Sometimes people will send you a note that you have given them a virus.

Klez attaches itself to people's e mail address lists (usually users of Outlook Express.. I use Eudora to escape this problem) and fakes the header to look like it's from someone it's not.

I have no virus. I am sure and certain of that. Yet, still.... sometimes, people who do have the virus, have me in their address book, and occasionally it will use my name in the from field. FRUSTRATING!

You can read more about Klez on Norton's home page.

Jen

The Fishing Geek · 12-02-2002, 06:34 AM

Will you be forced into XP? Depends on what you want to do.

With Microsoft's constant upgrade cycle if you want to experience the latest and greatest of Microsoft bugs and security issues then yes, you have to keep paying them. Personally, I looked at what I have to do with my computer and decided that I can stay with Windows 2000 for the multimedia stuff (video editing and WYSIWYG HTML) and do the rest (graphics work, browsing, word processing/spreadsheet/PDA, etc) in Linux.

Honestly, if I was going to be buying a new prebuilt computer right now I'd be strongly considering an iMac. I'm tired of having to buy a new operating system and productivity suite every couple of years. It's stupid.

As far as XP goes, your computer might be okay but it's your peripherals (printer, scanner, etc) that might have the biggest issues.

Jennie@ifish · 12-02-2002, 07:08 AM

Yip, I'm dreaming of MAC lately too....

I'm sick of this microsoft game.

Printer and scanner are compatible for XP, it's the weather station software and hookups that I'm worried about. I might just keep an old computer hooked up to run the station...

J

foxer · 12-02-2002, 09:22 AM

Fishing Geek, who do you work for? I work for a wholesale pc component distributor here in Beaverton

The Fishing Geek · 12-02-2002, 09:44 AM

I'm one of the Men In Black.

Actually I work for the federal government as a Systems Administrator. P3 933's running NT4 on a token-ring network. We be steppin' on up to a state-of-dee-art ethernet network any day now.

They had to send me to the Smithsonian to learn about the whole token ring experience: CAUs, LAMs...felt like I needed to show up wearing overalls.

Of course, with the privatization of the federal government becoming final here shortly I'll probably be displaced... :depressed:

sinker · 12-03-2002, 03:24 AM

Jen,
You don't need a whole new computer.
Back all your files up on a cd.
Format the hard drive to wipe it clean.
Re-install everything.
Your PC will run twice as fast afterwards and without the errors.

Windows tends to get lost and confused after a while. When I ran 98 or Me I used to wipe my hard drive clean every 3-6 months.
I used to run Win2k Pro, that ran great, no problems at all. Never got errors, or lockups. Running XP now and it seems good so far.
As far as 98 and Me goes, they can keep them. Couldn't give me a copy now.

jet · 12-03-2002, 07:15 AM

Jen, I get the same thing. about 20 notices a day saying that i sent a Klez virus. Actually it is somebody else and the response comes back to me.

Anybody kow how to get the responses to quit.

Jet~~~

lost_sailor · 12-03-2002, 08:32 AM

1. All disks will fail eventually

2. Microsoft sucks

Windows eats hard drives, invest in a good defragmentation program ("Diskkeeper"). Failed hard drives are not the least bit unusual. They are also pretty cheap.

Many of your geekier friends from ifish would gladly assist you I'm sure. A new drive would be the perfect time to upgrade the OS. It's unfortunate that Micro$loth has such a monopoly with such shoddy products, but we're all in the trap together! :tongue:

The Fishing Geek · 12-03-2002, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jet:
Jen, I get the same thing. about 20 notices a day saying that i sent a Klez virus. Actually it is somebody else and the response comes back to me.

Anybody kow how to get the responses to quit.

Jet~~~

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">You could have one of the people send you the text of the email they received without the attachment. You could then look at the header info of the original email and see who it REALLY came from. At the very least it will show you what ISP the email originated from. That'll give you an idea as to who it might have came from.

The Fishing Geek · 12-03-2002, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by lost_sailor:
1. All disks will fail eventually

2. Microsoft sucks

Windows eats hard drives, invest in a good defragmentation program ("Diskkeeper"). Failed hard drives are not the least bit unusual. They are also pretty cheap.

Many of your geekier friends from ifish would gladly assist you I'm sure. A new drive would be the perfect time to upgrade the OS. It's unfortunate that Micro$loth has such a monopoly with such shoddy products, but we're all in the trap together! :tongue:

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">While having a good defrag program is a good idea, keep in mind that defragging too often is hard on the hard drive and could actually reduce the life span of the drive. Unless you delete and write a LOT of files regularly (much more than normal) I wouldn't recommend doing a defrag more than once a month. That's just me, though.

Actually, I'm glad that Microsoft has a monopoly on shoddy products. We don't have to keep buying them, though.

12-03-2002, 09:40 AM

:shocked: If Microsoft sold cars would the brakes work? :shocked:

The Fishing Geek · 12-03-2002, 10:14 AM

Who would need brakes when it crashes all the time anyway?

There's an oversent email that goes into depth about if Microsoft made cars. It was funny the first couple times I received it.

skrimmy · 12-05-2002, 09:04 PM

Jenn, run the defrag, make sure all files are moved from any bad clusters if any. Then go to Frys, get a good deal on a hard drive and buy a copy of "DriveCopy" (about $30) It'll clone the old drive to the new drive. Then remove the old drive and make the new one the "master". The family geek there should be able to do it pretty easily.

Cool Texan · 12-06-2002, 02:01 PM

My Compaq is almost 4 years old...and I just ordered a new one today from Gateway. Went cheap last time....$900...this time...$2,200 with 18" flat panel. I love new toys!!

Anyone want a 450MHz Compaq with 15" monitor??

sinker · 12-06-2002, 03:16 PM

The best computers are ones you buy yourself or have a local small computer shop build you. You get name brand components and it allows for future upgrades without any hassles.
The problem with the HP's, Compaq's, Dell, IBM, etc. are that they use proprietary design. Power supply goes out and you end up paying 3-4 times as much for theirs than a standard one.