1. My opinion, the more times you screw with something, break and fix, the better off you are. I've messed up my laptop and a few desktops only to revive them and learn from my mistakes.
2. OEM's usually purchase hardware in bulk and can offer those discounts to the end user. You usually pay the $$$$ for customer service. I don't think current PC makers (E-Machine, Gateway, Dell, Sony, HP) use those crap componets anymore. These days those hard drives are the same as buying retail and the same with processors and video cards.
OEM's usually outline the soundcard or have it as intergrated pc parts. Motherboards are the same but slightly tweaked so end user doesn't accidently mess with BIOS and ruin their computer.
3. As said OEM = buying Custom Service but building your own is a sure fire way to upgrade anything you feel is slow.
Example:
most computers come with intergrated video with no option to upgrade the video. not good if you decide to run play a game and your videocard is non-upgradable.
most OEM cases are puny and small. Want to add that extra hard drive cause you a running out of space. Have fun, the cases are usually small to be attractive and hard to manuver. Same goes with add / replacing optical drives.
4. if you can add an optical drive and a stick of memory .. you are literally 3/4 from finishing a complete computer build. All you have to do is add the risers to the case, to keep the mobo and steel case from grounding out, add the cpu + heatsink and boom. add the hard drive, stick of memory and CDRW and you're done.
Yeah, basically you guys see my point now ;) As much as it would be great to build my own or have someone do it with all this spiffy stuff, I'm a sucker for a manufacturer's warranty. It's very similar to a car....I won't buy a car without a warranty, especially if someone just built it. I tend to keep my computers for several years, as well as cars :mrgreen: Although I do add things occasionally, like the RAM stick and CD-RW.
Even if they use crappy parts and it goes, they replace it for free, at least in Gateway's case. My warranty just expired in August, so my computer is 3 1/2 years old and it's still going. I luckily have not had any parts replaced. I've only had to reformat and reinstall Windows once, and that was just in January (I think). I don't tend to call tech support very often, but I like it to be there just in case. Even after the warranty expired, I have lifetime tech support access. The best time that came in handy was when my computer no longer booted into Windows just a couple months back. I was able to tinker with things and get it booted to back things up before having to reformat.
I've actually learned a few things from having to call tech support occasionally when things go awry (usually Windows related :mad:). I'm always suspicious of them to a certain extent, but they do come in handy. If I were on my own in that situation, I would NOT have known how to get it booted so I could back things up before reformatting because my burner doesn't work in safe mode....so I would have probably lost everything unnecessarily. So I have learned how to do it just in case :mrgreen:
I'm not a techie or anything, but hopefully I'm not computer retarded :hehe: At least I don't think I'm that bad, hehehe. I probably know basic stuff, or a little tiny bit above basic knowledge, in addition to some maintenance. If I or a friend built it for me, I'd be afraid to call and drive them nuts because I ask too many questions before listening to instructions, LOL.
If Gateway figures something out for repairs so I wouldn't have to send the computer out on my own, great! I'd probably go with Gateway again especially because I was considering an eMachines before they merged, and Gateway has been great. Other than that I'll be looking pretty hard for other options.
thetenken wrote:Just get an eMachines and the CompUSA warranty? That way you just bring it into CompUSA and they fix it for you...
Thanks :) It's also something I'm considering as well, like CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. I'm not sure if I have a CompUSA in my area. I would think so....
KouSeiya315 wrote:Thanks :) It's also something I'm considering as well, like CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. I'm not sure if I have a CompUSA in my area. I would think so....
I know you're not a big fan of Dell, but I hear their customer service is very good, as is their repair network... And Dell isn't gonna disappear off the map anytime soon, so that should give you piece of mind...
RedRum wrote:What is the "Aux" voltage? I have no idea what voltage it is. [image]
not sure but it looks like its measuring the +3.3v rail...
for a better voltage/temp reading, u might want to try MBM5. It has a feature to shutdown ur PC when the temp reaches a high/low limit you set. I use it since i usually leave my pc running 24/7. just a thought...
Ya thanks. I already use MBM5 but just wanted to try nvidia's program.
But the problem is the voltage reading is red so I'm kinda worried. I've already read through the manual http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_9367.html
and it says "Red: Danger - Will result in system instability under continuous operation" but I still couldn't find what "aux" is from the manual.
groink wrote: Matter of fact, when my mom asked me to teach her how to use Microsoft Windows, I sent her to CompUSA and paid them to train her. Then after the training, I bought her an over-the-phone support contract with CompUSA. That way, if she has problems, there's an 800-number for her to call, and I can go on gawking over Noriko-chan posters.
*sniff *sniff..
I learned this the hard way. Had to teach my parents how to rip and copy cds and dvds.
I used to work for gateway before I was downsized :mad: :mad: sorry to see they'er in so much trouble. they treated me very well while I was working for them and they gave me a very nice seperation package. sad to see a good company like that go under.
bmwracer wrote:
I know you're not a big fan of Dell, but I hear their customer service is very good, as is their repair network... And Dell isn't gonna disappear off the map anytime soon, so that should give you piece of mind...
Regardless, good luck! :D
Speaking of Dell... First off, I love them!!!! I buy all of my servers from them, as well as the Department of the Navy.
Second, if you know of anyone in the Navy or Marines... See if they know of any used computers being sold within their command by Electronic Data Systems or EDS. EDS is the owner of the contract running the Navy/Marine Computer Intranet or NMCI network. What's happening there is that EDS bought up all of the Pentium 4 machines from what we refer to as the "quarantine" network, and they're converting the users to new Pentium 4 machines to be used under NMCI.
This past month, I bought five Dell Pentium 4 systems for $325.00 each. Included in each system are: Pentium 4 1.7GHz processor, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard disk, ATI Rage AGP video, USB keyboard and mouse, and 17-inch tube-style monitor. Best yet, it still has 1.5 years of warranty still left on everything (Department of the Navy buys 3-year warranties for all systems purchased). I'd imagine there are several Navy and Marine ports in your state, so I'd check this source out!
groink wrote:
Speaking of Dell... First off, I love them!!!! I buy all of my servers from them, as well as the Department of the Navy.
Second, if you know of anyone in the Navy or Marines... See if they know of any used computers being sold within their command by Electronic Data Systems or EDS. EDS is the owner of the contract running the Navy/Marine Computer Intranet or NMCI network. What's happening there is that EDS bought up all of the Pentium 4 machines from what we refer to as the "quarantine" network, and they're converting the users to new Pentium 4 machines to be used under NMCI.
This past month, I bought five Dell Pentium 4 systems for $325.00 each. Included in each system are: Pentium 4 1.7GHz processor, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard disk, ATI Rage AGP video, USB keyboard and mouse, and 17-inch tube-style monitor. Best yet, it still has 1.5 years of warranty still left on everything (Department of the Navy buys 3-year warranties for all systems purchased). I'd imagine there are several Navy and Marine ports in your state, so I'd check this source out!
Ok, this is gonna be hard to explain, but I'll do my best. I notice lately sometimes when I burn CD's, they end up having some problems or glitches. In the recent past, this normally happened with only copying VCD's, so I would usually write that off as a glitchy VCD. Then I got paranoid when burning trades and would check every single disk I burned before mailing more thoroughly, but there's only so much that I can check without watching the entire disks (who has time for that??).
However, recently I was making a music CD, that was partly from a CD and partly with mp3's from my hard drive. Well....it seems the songs that came from the CD had blips on the new CD when I played it later in the car. I'm wondering if I'm having a problem with the disk being read by the CD-ROM when burning. Now this scares me because I don't know how long this has been going on, whether it's the CD-ROM or the CD-RW or both, nor do I know the possible causes or if it's fixable.
Specs if needed:
~Using Nero 6, buffer underrun protection always activated, buffer is *usually* good @ above 93%.
~My computer has a history of locking up (such as it'll stop, you click the mouse a couple times and it comes back to normal). It has 256MB RAM, only the necessary programs are running. I have not been able to fix this problem.
~Burner is 16x
~Used a CD-ROM lens cleaner (dry) the other day.
Any suggestions or advice on what to check? Any recommendations on how to clean the lenses well?
Also, another off topic question about car CD players. I was wondering how to or if I need to clean the lens. My car CD player is a Sony 10 disk changer (one where you put a magazine with your disks in it). It plays fine....it can play any scratched-up CD with no problem even if my computer or home CD player has trouble. But since it was kinda expensive and it's 2 years old now, I want to take good care of it.
How fast is your cd rom drive? maybe its because your cd rom drive cannot keep up with your burner. What you might want to try is to rip a cd to your hd through your cd rom drive... if all the songs come out good, then its your burner.
About the 10 disc changer.... i think you can use the lens cleaner on that too... im not too sure tho :mrgreen: I never had one of those :hehe:
Thanks ;) I'll give it a shot....ripping to the drive, I mean :hehe: As for the original CD-ROM read speed not being fast enough, I don't think that's an original problem because this has only occurred recently. If that's the problem now, then something would be interfering with the read.
Yeah...I have no idea about the disk changer either...I don't think I should put a CD-ROM cleaner in it though :sweat: I'm gonna Google it again and see what I may find...
vibius wrote:I've heard that burning at slower speeds is less likely to give problems. Something about pit-length. Maybe try burning at 4x and see how it goes.
I think Groink said something like that a ways back... Oddly, I have some CDRs that refuse to burn at slower speeds: the dreaded "medium speed error"...
I wouldn't say that the cdrom isn't able to rip fast enough as the problem, but instead, I would say the problem is that either 1) the audio cd has scartches that the cd-rom can't correct, or 2) the cd-rom is getting old and is having problems reading cds. Most likely from what you've said, I would bet on #2. Ripping the cd to the harddrive would definitely help, but only if you rip the cd to the HD at a lower speed. Probably around 4x or so should be safe. Actually, to tell you the truth, I would use the cd-rw to rip the cd since typically cd-rw are better at reading.
vibius wrote:I've heard that burning at slower speeds is less likely to give problems. Something about pit-length. Maybe try burning at 4x and see how it goes.
Maybe back in the old days yes, but nowadays, not very likely. This is due to the fact how the cdrs that're manufactured now are optimized for high speed recording, and chances are, they would actually perform worse when burned at lower speed. Burning at lower speed does affect pits, but what's actually affected is how deep and distinct it is burned. There are certain burners that can change the pit-length, and the only ones that can're the Plextor Premium and the Yamaha 24x, 32x, 44x. However, with the Plextor, they shrink the pit length so you can fit more data on the cd, but can cause read problems. With the Yamahas, they increase the pit lengths, to increase the quality of the burn, but in turn, sacrifices the amount of data. It's called AMQR if you're interested. Had a CRW-F1 and I would always use AMQR when I could when I burned a Audio CD, VCD or SVCD since those lack the extra error checking that regular data cds're provided with.
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