Techies?

[Electra]

Hello Technical Knowing People.

I have taken my graphics system to the shop where I was told dust has caused the power supply, the motherboard and the cpu to all not work (fry). A gentleman that is a technician for Diebold (security systems) said this is highly improbable. I wondered what any of you knew about such a thing as they are asking 300 bucks to fix this issue.

Otherwise, I have taken an older Dell tower to this shop and asked them to gut it and put the necessary parts into the broken system. My processor in the Dell is a lot slower, but I have got to get back to work. This is how I "make a living".

Thank you very much!

[Justin]

Electra,

Sorry to hear that your system went down. I have to agree with the technician that the dust could have caused the issue. There is a lot of heat generated inside a computer case and it's very important to clean it up once in a while because it attracts dust. Usually the power supply is the place where the dust gathers in the system.

Many computers have it set so that you will get a warning if your computer is getting above a certain degree but if it were due to the power supply and there were some kind of electrical failure, then it's possible that the motherboard and cpu may have been damaged.

As far as $300 for a cpu, motherboard, and power supply... wonder what the quality of motherboard they intend on replacing it with? That's important especially when you use your system for graphics. Otherwise, it doesn't seem unreasonable.

Before dumping a bunch of money into it, consider the price of a brand new system. I usually buy all my computers from Sam's Club because they have the best guarantee in the business on computers (90 Days- No questions asked). Besides, you can get a nice system with a 19" monitor for under $1000. The new computers take a bit of cleaning up with all the ads and crap they load on them but once set up properly, their computers seem to run quite well.

Hope I've been of some assistance to you. Good luck with your machine!

[Electra]

Originally Posted by Justin

Electra,

Sorry to hear that your system went down. I have to agree with the technician that the dust could have caused the issue. There is a lot of heat generated inside a computer case and it's very important to clean it up once in a while because it attracts dust. Usually the power supply is the place where the dust gathers in the system.

Many computers have it set so that you will get a warning if your computer is getting above a certain degree but if it were due to the power supply and there were some kind of electrical failure, then it's possible that the motherboard and cpu may have been damaged.

As far as $300 for a cpu, motherboard, and power supply... wonder what the quality of motherboard they intend on replacing it with? That's important especially when you use your system for graphics. Otherwise, it doesn't seem unreasonable.

Before dumping a bunch of money into it, consider the price of a brand new system. I usually buy all my computers from Sam's Club because they have the best guarantee in the business on computers (90 Days- No questions asked). Besides, you can get a nice system with a 19" monitor for under $1000. The new computers take a bit of cleaning up with all the ads and crap they load on them but once set up properly, their computers seem to run quite well.

Hope I've been of some assistance to you. Good luck with your machine!

Thanks Justin. I am shopping around and appreciate your suggestions and knowledge!!!!!!!!!

[linux_user]

Hello!!

When my system went down, I purchased a used P.C. from Ebay for £20, replaced the cpu for less than £15, installed Linux (downloaded for free, of course), and was up and running with my new(ish) system for less than £35!!

Brett.

[Wizzy]

Originally Posted by Justin

Before dumping a bunch of money into it, consider the price of a brand new system. I usually buy all my computers from Sam's Club because they have the best guarantee in the business on computers (90 Days- No questions asked). Besides, you can get a nice system with a 19" monitor for under $1000. The new computers take a bit of cleaning up with all the ads and crap they load on them but once set up properly, their computers seem to run quite well.

SIDETRACK WARNING!
Just have to ask, what laws does you (america) have about guarantees on purchaseed iteams from professionals (stores etc.) too consumers? Just thought about this when I saw that "Sam's Club" have 90day?

In Sweden, the law's clear on that if it's something that the comsumer haven't caused himself (dropping it, spilling something on electric supplys, taking a sledgehammer to it etc.) the store/business have to exchange the product if it's busted or give a cash refund, store credit etc. worth the full payed price up to TWO YEARS! This includes everything but things like food, drinks etc. And for electrical products that often bustdown within two years, this is a great law ment to protect the comsumer from crappy wares...

[Justin]

Wow, that's quite a law. It's 3 days in America. 3 days is generally a buyer remorse period. Anything after that is the choice of the stores. 2 years is a long time... in a computer, after two years it's about out of date so in America, people would take advantage of that and exchange computers due to viruses etc., every so often. After the 3 days, the user can purchase extended warranties on just about anything.

[Wizzy]

Originally Posted by Justin

Wow, that's quite a law. It's 3 days in America. 3 days is generally a buyer remorse period. Anything after that is the choice of the stores. 2 years is a long time... in a computer, after two years it's about out of date so in America, people would take advantage of that and exchange computers due to viruses etc., every so often. After the 3 days, the user can purchase extended warranties on just about anything.

Viruses should fall under the "sledgehammer" category as they'll say that you've been one some strange sites or whatever, as dust probably would fall under the same thing, you should have taken care of it...
So it's hard to take advanteage of it as the product have to have been flawed from when you got it... But ofcourse, sometimes an electrical product will short circuit after a long period and then the law come in handy cause the malfunction have been there all along, just haven't acted up before...

And for "warrenties", don't know if you have it in america but here we have a kind of insurance called (translated) "fumble incurance", probably not the offical name but the common one, that covers pretty much everything you own if you destroy it yourself by accident but cars, houses and other big thingys..

And for the "buyer remorse period", ours is 14days... Ofcourse there's no secret that your country is extremly capitalistic and right-winged, especially compared to our little sausage like country... Your laws are probably meant to favor the businesses while ours are meant to favor the consumer..

[Vasska]

I have seen it happen with many pc's. Mostly this is caused by the "cheaper" power supplies. To keep prices low those are often used.

For the 300 dollar repair, it's a bit high. you can get pc's around the price range of 299 to 499. You won't get cutting edge technology, but who needs that anyway? You of course don't get a keyboard, screen, speakers etc. But you still got those so why replace them if they still work?

As for the system you need, mostly people who don't know much about computers, but just use them (being a lot of people) get carried away by ads saying "3,4GHZ processor!!! FASTER THAN YOUR CURRENT PC AND NOW WITH 2GB OF RAM!!!". In most cases this is overkill for many people, if you can post what your normally do with your pc, we can help you get a few dollars of on hardware and upgrades you don't need.

[Vasska]

Originally Posted by Wizzy

And for the "buyer remorse period", ours is 14days... Ofcourse there's no secret that your country is extremly capitalistic and right-winged, especially compared to our little sausage like country... Your laws are probably meant to favor the businesses while ours are meant to favor the consumer..

Buyer remorse period is different in every country. Our (The Netherlands) is also 14 days for the buyer remorse period. However there are no laws about giving cash many or store credit for it. Mostly companies can choose whatever they want.

As for America, i won't be amazed if the buyer remorse period is different in every state.

[Wizzy]

Originally Posted by Vasska

Buyer remorse period is different in every country. Our (The Netherlands) is also 14 days for the buyer remorse period. However there are no laws about giving cash many or store credit for it. Mostly companies can choose whatever they want.

As for America, i won't be amazed if the buyer remorse period is different in every state.

Ofcourse the laws are different for every country... I know that I was just asking how it was in america, as I know our little nation here way up north's one of the most humane once in almost every catigory while america's peobably the toughest one in what we today call "the western world"

But as The Netherlands are a fellow EU nation, odds are that our laws should be fairly similar