my computer is **** - Do i sell it and buy a ready-built machine?

do i sell it?

  • YES - Sell it as a whole computer and let someone else deal with the problems

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • YES - Sell it as parts & cut my losses

    Votes: 1 7.7%

  • NO - keep it as a £600 piece of scrap

    Votes: 4 30.8%

  • NO - find problem, fix it, gain good machine

    Votes: 8 61.5%
  • Total voters
    13
K

KGB-911

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Hello,

i want your opinion on this:

I have finnished building myself a computer cositing £500-650 (i cant remember the exact figures)

This computer has had to be reformatted about 8-10 times in 4 weeks (due to it constantly messing up the setup)

It will boot fine one in five times, the rest it will either not get as far as the welcome screen, or freze completely when you try to load the start bar.

It has a completely rubbish 3Dmark scores.

and when it does boot, if you watch a DVD or play a game of any description, once you exit the game, you have to power off at the wall to get the comp to do anything.

I am extreamly annoyed with this computer, as i can never use it. it has spent at least 2 weeks out of the 4 it has been around, in an unusable state (because windows wouldnt install)

I have to go inside the computer at least once a day to sort things out, to unplug things, or to try to get something to work.

It is not a windows problem as i have 3 differant copys of XP (one is a 30 day trial only (it has been activated)) and they all have the same problems

Please give me your opinions, and say what i should do about it

Thanks,

KGB
 
If you tried to sell it you could probably be nailed for the goods description act - meaning you are trying to sell a product which is not fit for purpose. Illegal. Unless you said it was a pile of S**t and then who would buy it? unless it was fifty quid.

You should try and find the problem, and fix it, THEN flog it, and build a rig half decent.
 
christopherpostill said:
If you tried to sell it you could probably be nailed for the goods description act - meaning you are trying to sell a product which is not fit for purpose.
Click to expand...

Your mum will be able to tell you more about that - business studies teacher right?
 
Chris has a good point, you won't be able to sell a machine like that if it has problems. Lets see if we can help fix it though ;)

Why does the PC not respond after gaming/DVD's? Does it just hang or become very unresponsive?
 
kgb dont sell it

take out that s*** harddrvie out i think its causing u the problems
put another harddrive in, take ur harddrive smash the peice of crap with a hammer burn the b****!!!!!!

try this

its def one of ur parts just one of them! ur gona have to investigate
the best way with these problems is trial and error!!!

dont give up just yet my friend there is a long way to go!

psd99
 
psd is right. The likely scenario is that one of your parts is a bad one, and is causing you all the problems, but it could be any one of them. If you have a spare computer (or access to one) then swap ALL of the parts over one at a time to find out which is causing you bother. Sounds like it could be either HDD, memory or mobo though.
 
KGB the guys are right,


Don't sell it, just put a bit of effort into it to find out what's causing the problems, hell my pc, only a few months old now has had many problems.

The main one being what happened a few weeks ago, but i've had problems with graphics myself and the pc freezing when it boots up, but i never figured that one out, still does it now and again.

Computers are fragile things, you need to look after them and to do that with yours you first need to remove excess parts, anything which does NOT need to be there to make the pc run. E.g. tv cards etc... then test the machine without them, if you have a ATA IDE drive, i must say bin it, i've had enough trouble with drives in mine and a IDE one made mine almost unusuable, as soon as i got SATA150 my pc worked like a dream.

Just hang in there man, get it fixed then decide what to do from there.

Chris,
 
How much memory u got in the system? Everything you described sounds like it could be a lack of ram. Another thing is to check that the bios hasn't automatically set your CPU to a base level, well below it's normal speed - a major crash can make your system do this automatically - for example, if it reckons it's being overclocked or something.


You could also run something like Sisoft sandra and do a complete diagnostic - it may well pick some key problems up.

If you decise to sell it, I assume it won't appear in this forum's trading thread?:eek:
 
As the others have said, get to the root of the problem.

It could be, as others have said, memory, HDD or motherboard.

First thing I'd do is run memtest for an hour or so, that will certainly show any memory faults.

Download the free edition of SisSoft Sandra 2005 and run diagnostic checks.

Flash motherboard Bios to latest.

If desperate, try a substitute Hard Drive. If you're using SATA, try a cheap low size IDE disk, if that's the prob, the IDE disk will always find a use, even if just for storage.

Would you mind listing full specs of the machine again? And let us know how you get on with your tests and stuff.

Be patient, as I recall you have the makings of a good machine. If you sell it, even as seperate parts, you'll lose a lot of money.

Good luck, and keep us informed, we're here to help :)

PS: You can get SiSoft Sandra from Here
 
christopherpostill said:
Your mum will be able to tell you more about that - business studies teacher right?
Click to expand...

ok, how do you know that?
--

I am about to run those programs on it (if i can get it to work)

The only thing i am having my doubts about is the processor. That is the ONLY seccond hand thing in this machine, i couldnt afford a new one.

the rest is brand new.

here are the specs:

P4 2.8GHz (bought from ebay) (with new heatsink & arctic silver)
80GB IDE HDD
512MB RAM
128MB radeon gfx (i know it is rubbish)
500w PSU (jeantech)
DVD+/-RW Drive (samsung)
Floppy Drive

What do you think about the processor?

i wish i did have another pc to test all the stuff in... i only have the laptop.

KGB
 
CPUs are the sort of things that work or don't work - you'd have to be very unlucky to get a faulty CPU that works most of the time.

Test the Ram like Floppy said, and try a new HD if possible. After that, I'd look at the motherboard and powersupply. Not much help unfortunately, but its a slow process of elimination :)
 
With memtest, you boot from a floppy or CD, so it should run on your machine anyway.

If you're having trouble getting that far, then it's certainly a hardware problem, rather than Win XP.

Jeantech 500W PSU is good, plenty of power for your system. Unless it's faulty, of course, which I think is unlikely given the history of this machine.

We still don't know what motherboard you have or what Bios version it's running.
 
KGB - I took the liberty of adding an option to your poll, hope you don't mind ;)

Now look, don't lose heart, don't give up, you can solve this thing.
 
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-8S655FX-L

I dont know the BIOS version, but i know it is the latest one
 
Here is latest Bios for Rev 1.0 of your board: Bios

And here is for Rev 1.1: Bios

It may be worth checking you have latest update, and also finding out which revision of the board you have, there should be a label on the board somewhere.

You ran that memtest yet? ;)
 
I am testing other hardware... it freezes on the BIOS screen for ages

Wont detect the HD i have put in
 
Anyway... enev if i do fix it, i dont know if i would want to keep it

i built my first computer... but everything has been a pain in the backside.

I may sell it anyway.

KGB
 
KGB-911 said:
ok, how do you know that?
--

I am about to run those programs on it (if i can get it to work)

The only thing i am having my doubts about is the processor. That is the ONLY seccond hand thing in this machine, i couldnt afford a new one.

the rest is brand new.

here are the specs:

P4 2.8GHz (bought from ebay) (with new heatsink & arctic silver)
80GB IDE HDD
512MB RAM
128MB radeon gfx (i know it is rubbish)
500w PSU (jeantech)
DVD+/-RW Drive (samsung)
Floppy Drive

What do you think about the processor?

i wish i did have another pc to test all the stuff in... i only have the laptop.

KGB
Click to expand...
Going on what is happening when you boot up, it really sounds like your MOBO?
Had same problem myself on a build a few weeks ago and previous builds? Exactly as you described,
As was previously pointed out the CPU Either works or not, if it were your HDD
It is more than likely that the system would NOT recognise it on the initial boot.
The RAM would shut the unit down if it were not stable IE: the screen would go blank; the GC 128MB radeon gfx would not cause much of a problem if any.
And I might add does the bleep [speaker] work on boot up?
 
KGB-911 said:
I am testing other hardware... it freezes on the BIOS screen for ages

Wont detect the HD i have put in
Click to expand...
It must be MOBO since it freezes on the BIOS screen for ages
 
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