Asus Laptop

[Ariadne]

This morning, my computer was frozen, so I hit the power button. A little message came up telling me that if I turned off the computer, all the other users were also going to be booted off. This was a bit like the message I had a few weeks ago about another user on my machine. Anyway ... my desktop computer is toast. I cannot get it to work. I swapped out the monitor, the mouse, the power cables, checked the breaker, opened it up, did the dust blow thing, turned it on and off, switched outlets ... the machine boots, but there is no connection to the monitor. I can't really function without a machine, so I bought a laptop ... now I have to try to get permission from software companies to re-install software on a second machine ... but that should be manageable. This weekend I'll hopefully be able to solve the problem ... otherwise, I have to hope that I saved all the important stuff to the external drive. Anyone have this problem before?

I got an Asus ... anyone have one of these? I'm wondering whether I should have boosted the memory.

 

[Just the Facts]

Your data is likely still safe on your hard drive and will be easy to recover by a friend who knows how.

I never had an asus laptop but have gone through many asus motherboards. They tend to be OK.

 

[Ariadne]

So far my biggest challenge is figuring out the updated software. I'm used to xp and ... is there a way to switch to the legacy settings? I want my photos to open in photoshop, and I should be able to right click on the image and choose "open with", then select the program. I'm not seeing that option. I'm also not seeing the TOOLS option where I can set preferences for software to open jpeg with photoshop. Any suggestions about where I can find this?

 

[DurkaDurka]

Photoshop files should open fine with XP or 7. If you right click on the .psd file, you can change the "open with" associations.

 

[TenPenny]

As for getting the old data, one 'simple' way is that for about $20, you can buy a cable that will let you connect any IDE or SATA drive to a USB port, so what I've done in the past is open up the case on the old computer, unplug the hard drive, connect it to this other cable, plug the usb into the laptop, and copy the data off the old hard drive.

 

[Cliffy]

If the old desktop is booting but no picture, then it sounds like the video card. If it is not integrated video, then it is easily replaced. I'm not sure if PC motherboards with integrated video also have an AGP video slot. Or maybe find an old PCI video card. Sounds like it might be a cheap fix.

 

[DurkaDurka]

If the old desktop is booting but no picture, then it sounds like the video card. If it is not integrated video, then it is easily replaced. I'm not sure if PC motherboards with integrated video also have an AGP video slot. Or maybe find an old PCI video card. Sounds like it might be a cheap fix.

It's pretty rare to find any computer with an AGP slot these days since PCI-Express replaced it about 5 years ago.

 

[Cliffy]

It's pretty rare to find any computer with an AGP slot these days since PCI-Express replaced it about 5 years ago.

True. The point is that if it is the video card, it is an easy fix unless it is integrated.

 

[DurkaDurka]

True. The point is that if it is the video card, it is an easy fix unless it is integrated.

Yeah, most consumer video cards are easy to replace.

 

[Just the Facts]

Even if it's integrated you shouild be able to add a video card, you just have to know what type of slot is available, and sometimes disable the onboard video in the bios....but often that's not neccessary.

 

[Ariadne]

As for getting the old data, one 'simple' way is that for about $20, you can buy a cable that will let you connect any IDE or SATA drive to a USB port, so what I've done in the past is open up the case on the old computer, unplug the hard drive, connect it to this other cable, plug the usb into the laptop, and copy the data off the old hard drive.

Thank you! I have a lot of stuff on the harddrive ... like 4 years of files; mostly work. I transferred the really important stuff to an external drive, but there's a lot that wasn't transferred. I'm just setting everything up again ... picked up office 2010 pro and installed that ... then the antivirus ... still adjusting to the new interface ... and still can't stand the ribbon. AutoCAD has a legacy interface for people that don't want to adapt to every new interface ... does Office have something similar? I haven't found the option yet.

If the old desktop is booting but no picture, then it sounds like the video card. If it is not integrated video, then it is easily replaced. I'm not sure if PC motherboards with integrated video also have an AGP video slot. Or maybe find an old PCI video card. Sounds like it might be a cheap fix.

It's not integrated ... that much I know. It's some kind of fancy nvidia graphics card; some GTI thing ... I had some trouble with it in the summer when I tried to adjust the setting to be compatible with the photoshop 3D capabilities, but it would not work. When I contacted nvidia, they were pretty useless ... like prima donas. I stipulated that I did not want an nvidia card with this machine because of their poor customer service.

I'll look into what's possible with getting a cheap replacement for the graphics card ... but at this point I don't want to spend much on it ... seeing as how I'm in the process of replacing the system. Everything seems to be okay with the desktop, except there's no output to the monitor.

I'm losing a lot of high end software without the desktop, and really should have made an image of the machine ... thought about it .. but didn't do it.

Maybe I'll have time to look at the graphics card on the weekend - the computer shop should have an old one I could use ... thanks for the suggestions.