Hate to lay this on you folks, but here goes.
Bottom line. I’d rather not buy another computer.
I have three working computers. ( Ah, well, you know what I mean.)
See below.
The newest and ‘best?’ one, is the GENERIC P 3.
For the past year, I have been plagued with mal-functions on the GENERIC.
I took it into a computer shop on three separate occasions, over a four week period.
Each time I got it back with, “OK now, all fixed up.”
On the first visit, the ‘IT tech’ said, “For the way you use a computer, the GENERIC is a good computer.
There is no need to buy a new one.”
On the fourth visit and $$ later, the ‘IT tech’ said, “I can get you into a new super doper machine for around 500.00$.
Retrieved two old computers out of the closet, DELL and GATEWAY, saved all my data to an external HDD, ‘fdisk and partitioned all three, and re-installed all my applications.
The DELL, seems to be working adequately.
The GATE will not stream audio or play system sounds = static. Video - OK, Music CD - OK, audio = static.
I have taken the memory out and reseated it.
I have ‘fdisk’ and re-installed my applications three times.
Swapped speakers, plugged headphones into the sound card - static.
Ran, ‘dxdiag.exe’, no problems reported.
Could hear the sounds behind the static.
The DELL and GATE are networked with a D-Link Router. The router seems to be working OK.
Yesterday, I retrieved the GENERIC from the closet. It’s now on top of the GATE and , although sluggish, seems to be working OK.
I should indicate here, that if the above seems to indicate that I know what I’m doing, I don’t!
I’m just following direction out of a book, using terms that I have no understanding of.
Have no idea where I’m starting from or where I’m liable to end up.
Having said all that, I’d sure like to be able to maintain my own computer.
Since there are a number Canadians on this site, the reason I purchased a computer in the first place, 97/10.
I became aware at that time that I could listen to ‘cbc.ca’ over the internet.
I apologise if I’m breaking any rules by the size of this post.
I’ll blame it all on ‘the other feller’.
MY THREE COMPUTERS
GENERIC NO NAME
Operating System System Model
Windows 98 SE (build 4.10.2222) MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-6337
Enclosure Type: Desktop
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
367 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-6337 5.0
Bus Clock: 66 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 07/09/2001
Drives Memory Modules c,d
28.97 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
27.70 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
ATAPI CD-ROM DRIVE-32X
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")
Generic IDE hard disk drive (8.43 GB) -- drive 0, No SMART Driver
Generic IDE hard disk drive (20.54 GB) -- drive 1, No SMART Driver
Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 [Hard drive] (504 MB) -- drive 2, rev 1.00 512 Megabytes Installed Memory
DELL DIMENSION XPS D 300
Operating System System Model
Windows 98 SE (build 4.10.2222) Dell Computer Corporation Dimension XPS D300
Asset Tag: CNWLR
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
300 megahertz Intel Pentium II
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Intel Corporation AL440LX AA678149-307
Serial Number: IMAL74912043
Bus Clock: 66 megahertz
BIOS: Intel Corp. 4A4LL0X0.10A.0017.P06 11/10/97
Drives Memory Modules c,d
128.43 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
107.51 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
LITE-ON LTR-48246S [CD-ROM drive]
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")
Generic IDE hard disk drive (8.43 GB) -- drive 0, No SMART Driver
WDC WD12 00BB-22GUC0 [Hard drive] (120.00 GB) -- drive 1 256 Megabytes Installed Memory
GATEWAY 2000
Operating System System Model
Windows 98 SE (build 4.10.2222) Gateway G6-300
System Serial Number: 0010344401
Chassis Serial Number: 0010344401
Enclosure Type: Mini-Tower
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
300 megahertz Intel Pentium II
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Intel Corporation AL440LX AA691172-403
Serial Number: IUAL82721405
Bus Clock: 66 megahertz
BIOS: Intel Corp. 4A4LL0X0.15A.0017.P14 03/31/98
Drives Memory Modules c,d
8.43 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
7.43 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
NEC CD-ROM DRIVE:28B
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")
Generic IDE hard disk drive (8.43 GB) -- drive 0, No SMART Driver
Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 [Hard drive] (504 MB) -- drive 1, rev 1.00 256 Megabytes Installed Memory