Need a new computer.. have open credit not filed on...

[ilovemycaitybug]

My computer has all but bit it. It will "sometimes" load up a browser but not always. I tried to reformat it but I can't get the drives to work and I think it's set up on the wrong file system. I do a LOT of things on the computer. All of my billing, etc. is done on the computer. I have open credit cards, and HATE the idea of falling into debt (even though I don't plan on spending more than $500 on a computer) I don't know how long it will take to save up, either. And I can't afford to pay someone to fix this. Any suggestions?

[FilingOnMyOwn]

A computer is a necessity these days. And $500? How about $400? You can pay that off in a month

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5673669

[Spartan]

That Everex system selling for $400 is under powered with a VIA processor. That is a dead end processor.

Visit your local BestBuy and Wal Mart stores. You may find something around $500 that has an Athlon 64 or Pentium D or even CoreDuo processors. Check out Dell site too.

I just got this for $595 at the local Wal Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5684697

As for the original question. If you want a PC and don't ave the cash, then you will have to use credit to get one. Doesn't seem to be anyother way. If you can get a PC w/o paying for it, we like to know how. lol

[oldbaddebts]

It sounds from your post that you are having trouble with the software on the computer, not the hardware. I would recommend asking friends or family about it and see if there is someone around that can help take care of it by reinstalling drivers and checking some of your settings to buy enough use out of it to give you time to save. I used to do tech support for one of the large computer companies, and I saw countless people buy a new system with all the bells and whistles to do very simple things and they only needed minor assistance with what they had.

Hope you can save your puter, I know I'd be lost without mine.

Nick

[brokeinmichigan]

Try your local craigslist...often lots of great used systems there. Or, how about freecycle...lots of people trading and bartering. For freecycle, go to yahoo.com and click "groups" to sign up. I know lots of people who have gotten very good computers on freecycle...and everything is FREE! It's also a great way to get rid of stuff, too.

https://www.craigslist.com

Good luck!

Hoping for brighter skies ahead...

[ilovemycaitybug]

That Everex system selling for $400 is under powered with a VIA processor. That is a dead end processor.

Visit your local BestBuy and Wal Mart stores. You may find something around $500 that has an Athlon 64 or Pentium D or even CoreDuo processors. Check out Dell site too.

I just got this for $595 at the local Wal Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5684697

As for the original question. If you want a PC and don't ave the cash, then you will have to use credit to get one. Doesn't seem to be anyother way. If you can get a PC w/o paying for it, we like to know how. lol

Thanks! How does it work for you? How do you like Vista? I've had Dells for my last two computers and it seems like they're going downhill. I want an Apple but don't want to spend the money for one right now. I have reformatted several times but I just cannot do it this time. Can't get to a DOS prompt on startup, and when I use a boot disk it won't find anything but A... I have 3 CD/DVD drives and none of them will work. I've reinstalled Windows XP but that just overwrote the old info and it's still on the hard drive. Anyway... don't want this to turn into a tech forum.. LOL!

What I have is an American Express Blue card that is still showing active on their website. Only $500 credit line but I could manage cash for the rest. I think I have other cards, too, (somewhere)... RBS is one (Royal Bank of Scotland). I just can't find the card so I'll have to call them for a replacement. My question is, will I get in trouble for using a card? I don't want any hitches before discharge!

BTW- if anyone knows how to get a DOS prompt to format a non-FAT32 HD on WinXP, I'd love to hear it. May have to create floppies of XP... yuk. Please PM the info to me!

Thanks for any info you can give me on the use of current open cards (from pre-filing) before discharge!

Also, does anyone know how b/k friendly Apple is in their financing? I would really like to switch to a Mac eventually but they're so expensive!

[whatamess]

gateway

Our hp blew some months back. The motherboard went along with all my photos and music and files. I was mad. I had no money to replace it, but thank goodness my mother stepped up and bought one! She was so use to having it wround for her sewing projects and Martha Stewart Recipes she didnt want to offline. So this is her puter now although we use it most of the time.
Anyhow, Best Buy had a sale on, and we got a gateway here for $750 with Windows XP, a beautiful canon printer, Windows Vista home edition, 17 HD flatscreen monitor, intel core duo processor..all in all its a nice system. Vista is okay, I prefer XP because a bunch of online games are not yet compatable with Vista. Im not sure also if its the new windows security, or the webroot spysweeper antivirus slowing it down too.


WAM

[Spartan]

Thanks! How does it work for you? How do you like Vista? I've had Dells for my last two computers and it seems like they're going downhill. I want an Apple but don't want to spend the money for one right now. I have reformatted several times but I just cannot do it this time. Can't get to a DOS prompt on startup, and when I use a boot disk it won't find anything but A... I have 3 CD/DVD drives and none of them will work. I've reinstalled Windows XP but that just overwrote the old info and it's still on the hard drive. Anyway... don't want this to turn into a tech forum.. LOL!

What I have is an American Express Blue card that is still showing active on their website. Only $500 credit line but I could manage cash for the rest. I think I have other cards, too, (somewhere)... RBS is one (Royal Bank of Scotland). I just can't find the card so I'll have to call them for a replacement. My question is, will I get in trouble for using a card? I don't want any hitches before discharge!

BTW- if anyone knows how to get a DOS prompt to format a non-FAT32 HD on WinXP, I'd love to hear it. May have to create floppies of XP... yuk. Please PM the info to me!

Thanks for any info you can give me on the use of current open cards (from pre-filing) before discharge!

Also, does anyone know how b/k friendly Apple is in their financing? I would really like to switch to a Mac eventually but they're so expensive!

I have always been using Windows 2000. I have never used XP. Naturally when I got Vista, I was pissed as everything that is on Windows 2000 has been rearranged on Vista. My gf uses both Xp and Vista. She said Xp and Vista are almost identical.

After a couple days of initial resistance, I found Vista to be very accessible.


The Acer Aspire has been working fine so far. You may want to get a set of external speakers, as the embedded speakers on the LCD panel really suck. I just plugged my old speakers in and they are working fine.


BTW... Check out Circuit City. This week's Sunday advert has some nice offering around that price range...

I had an Acer many years ago and I swore never to buy another Acer ever... Well, and here I am using an Acer Aspire.. It does seem that Acer has gotten their act together and produces decent offering. Usually when you buy a PC, it comes loaded with junk trial software and other garbage the hog resources. This Acer Aspire does not have any of those garbage apps. The utility that Acer put there, is rather handy.

It has a Pentium D 925 dual core processor. 1GB mem. 250 G SATA HD. DVD burner. Expansion slot for PCI-Express (when you have spare cash, you can add in a nice video card and go high end gaming etc)

When I contacted tech support, the answer came in email the next day. That beats talking to some guy with an Indian accent, whom I can never seem to comprehend correctly...

[anonymuse]

If you think it's the hard drive going, try spinrite

[SinkingFast]

Son says,..............

Before doing any of the following make sure to have complete backups of all important data (portable hard-drive $60 Wal-Mart) because 3 things in this life are certain: death, taxes, and data loss... Guess which just happened.

Also prior to doing any of the following make sure to download the drivers for your system to your portable HDD. This will comprise: Chipset, VGA, LAN, Sound Card, any PCI cards like a dial-up modem, any external hardware like a cable modem, and any peripherals that you need drivers for.

If you have the original Win XP disk available, do the following:

1. At bootup enter the BIOS by either pressing F2 or Delete.
2. Find the boot order menu in the BIOS and disable all devices from the boot order except the CD/DVD ROM drive. Set the CD/DVD ROM as the primary boot device.
3. Save and exit from the BIOS. The system will reboot.
4. After the BIOS boot, you'll receive a screen that says "Press any key to boot from CD." You'll then get a blue screen with text about Windows blah blah blah. Continue onward to the screen that asks you whether you want to repair or install a fresh copy of XP.
5. Select fresh install of XP. You'll be informed that you'll need to format the disk in the NTFS format. Select format in NTFS. Do not select Quick format as this leads to problems.
6. Now depending on HDD size this could take anywhere from 30min to 1.5hrs.
7. After Windows formats the disk it'll load all files necessary to install the OS. Depending on the size and speed of both your CPU and RAM this can take anywhere from 10min to 45min.
8. After Windows loads all of its files you'll see a flashing red/blue screen informing you that the system will reboot in 15 seconds.
9. After the system reboots, enter the BIOS. In the BIOS re-enable the hard-drive and set the hard-drive as the primary boot device.
10. Save and exit the BIOS. The system will reboot.
11. After the system reboots you'll see the Windows splash screen with a "Please wait" message below the XP logo. Then it'll proceed to a load screen with more crap about Windows. Only things you need be concerned with are the CD-Key Prompt (if you have a Dell with disk you won't be prompted for it), Computer name, and # of users. Use all of the XP default settings, don't change anything even if you can. Just select "Typical settings" or "Default" when asked.

If everything goes off without a hitch you'll be at the Windows Desktop after a final reboot.

If you don't have the original XP disk, you'll need to do the following:

1. Buy a copy of XP. Home costs $200. Here's the link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16837116193

2. Follow all steps listed above.

Now that you're at the Windows Desktop, time for the install process. During this time make sure to keep your PC disconnected form the net.

1. Install chipset drivers. Reboot.
2. Install VGA drivers. Reboot.
3. Install LAN drivers. Reboot.
4. Install sound card drivers. Reboot.
5. Install all PCI card drivers. Reboot after each driver is installed.
6. Install all external hardware drivers. Reboot.
7. Install all peripheral drivers. Reboot.

Now you're ready to install security software on your PC. Prior to formating your PC you'll need to download all these programs to the portable HDD. This is a field where you don't need to pay an arm and a leg for software. In fact you can achieve Fort Knox security on a PC for free. Install the following software in the order that its listed.

Firewall:

ZoneAlarm 7.0

http://www.download.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4-10039884.html

Anti-virus:

AVG Free 7.5

http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html

Anti-Spyware:

Windows Defender

http://www.download.com/Microsoft-Windows-Defender/3000-12771_4-10598014.html?tag=lst-0-1

Ad-Aware SE

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html

Spyware Blaster

http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022_4-10486084.html?tag=lst-0-1

Now that you have your security software installed, connect your PC to the net and download all the updates for your software. Install your favorite word processor and your good to go.

Assuming this doesn't help and your current PC dies, some words about HDD bug hunting and buying off the shelf PC's:

Don't bother with bug hunting the HDD. That is quite literally a crap shoot IMHO. From what I've read programs like spinrite or other HDD recovery tools are about 50% effective and can sometimes result in further dataloss. The only way to be sure is to download the HDD manufacturers diagnostic software, set it up on a floppy, and run the diagnostic. That is the only way to be sure without risk of data loss.

Don't go into ANY STORE and I mean ANY STORE and buy an off the shelf PC. That is the quickest way to buyers remorse. Secondly don't buy a PC with Vista on it. The amount of problems that OS has are so numerous many people think it should have the label of BETA on it. Its slow, takes almost a half hour or longer to boot sometimes and in general it just sucks. Finally any name brand PC like a Dell will be loaded with "Crapware" that will just annoy the hell out of you.

To help you out I found a PC that will serve you well:

An HP with XP Pro SP2 and no "Crapware" for only $550.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107252

Now it comes without peripherals but you'll be able salvage those from your current PC if it goes down the tubes. Its fairly balanced: AMD 64 3500+ CPU, 80gb HDD, Dual Layer DVD Drive, only drawback is the integrated graphics and 512mb of DDR2 667 RAM. Otherwise a fine PC.

SPARTAN-117 out.

[SamanthaJones]

Do you want to take on a debt prior to your discharge?

That seems to be the base question at this point...

[Spartan]

"....Don't go into ANY STORE and I mean ANY STORE and buy an off the shelf PC. That is the quickest way to buyers remorse. Secondly don't buy a PC with Vista on it. The amount of problems that OS has are so numerous many people think it should have the label of BETA on it. Its slow, takes almost a half hour or longer to boot sometimes and in general it just sucks. Finally any name brand PC like a Dell will be loaded with "Crapware" that will just annoy the hell out of you...."


I heard about the same thing. But surprisingly, the Acer Aspire I got from Wal Mart (right, no self respecting tech savy guy would buy a PC from Wal Mart.. ), has Vista Home Premium on it. It has no crapware besides Norton Utilities Trial. I deleted it. It boots super fast. And so far, I have not one glitch (knock on wood). I used to think that Windows 2000 Professional is the PERFECT operating system. But I my experience with Vista has been nothing but positive. It could be that Acer has done all the tweaking and made it work superbly well.

[CindyLou]

back to the original question: if you HAVE to use that credit card, you would be better off using it for gas, groceries, electric bill, etc. and using the cash you would normally use for that stuff to buy the computer. I'm not saying its what you should do, but I don't think the computer would fly on the BK right before filing. But you have to eat, get fuel, and pay the electric bill...just a thought.

[Spartan]

The OP has already sailed through the 341. So, this isn't a pre filing situation.

This day and age, and for a lot of us, a computer and internet connection, is very much a basic necessity.

[CindyLou]

oops, yep...I totally missed that. Yes, I agree a computer is as much of a necessity these days as transportation!