Was listening to i-tunes and just changed the rating on one of the songs when my screen turned into a green wavy color and the music started to skip like old phonograph records did. tried esc and then ctrl-alt-del and nothing happened. Shut off the power.
Few minutes later turned on the power and the monitor showed stripes that changed every few seconds then the screen went black. The End.
Am I totally screwed or is it fixable?
Maybe I'll go back to the old phonograph records, high tech is a pain in the butt. But nice when it works. Have 2414 songs on I-tune that I hate to lose.
The first thing the gurus on here will want to know is what machine type and what operating system Norm?
If an Apple, they have known issues with screen vertical stripes. I had that problem and had to get the monitor replaced. However, the screen still worked and did not black out. Pete
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
The company that made the PC for me was Plus Corp. in Australia. It is about 5 years old now and very high tech at the time. It runs XP Pro as the operating system.
Just turned it on again still have the stripes on the screen but the tower has a hot transformer smell to it when it is on. Shut it off again.
It was not a pre packaged system it was put together from components and has been a great computer up to now. Although it sat in a storage container for a year and needed dusting and cleaning before it would start.
Anymore info required I'll be glad to provide if I can.
If you are in BK I know a good firm there that would check your machine out
RICHARD OF LOXLEY
It’s none of my business what people say and think of me. I am what I am and do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. It makes life so much easier.
norm,
Given what you have just posted then I'd agree with buksi and say that your graphics card has got fried. They are normally not difficult to replace but the price varies between under 1000 baht to over 10,000, and it really depends what you use, or might use your computer for as to which one you replace it with. The more expensive ones are normally geared towards gamers though, and you can probably get one for normal uses for under 3000 baht. buksi will be able to give you more advice though.
Thanks Waunderlust, I don't do any gaming with it so don't need anything to fancy there. But spending a few thousand baht on a graphics card seems realistic as it has been a good system and handles what I do very well.
Actually probably overkill for the way I use a computer, I didn't want to have to replace it in a couple of years. It's been just over 5 years now, the warranty just recently ran out. Of course that was a Australian warranty that wouldn't be any good here anyhow.
norm wrote:Is it difficult to recover photos and music from Hard Drive on failed computer? In event I get new computer.
Norm and anyone else non-computer savvy like me, best thing I ever done was get one of these external hard drive storage units. Mines 160gb cost a couple of grand if I remember right, you can get much bigger sizes. Just plugs into UBC ports (gets it's power from your PC) you set-up initial back-up parameters then every time you plug it in you just click 'back-up' and it only saves the files that have been modified or added since your last back-up, so as your not re-saving your whole hard drive it takes literally 30 seconds on mine.
Also doubles up as a portable hard drive, so if you're going somewhere you can plug into a.n.other PC to access your files, exchange data from friends PC's etc.
It sounds like your graphics card is toast then, you may have an onboard one (built into the mainboard) or a separate card - looking at where the monitor plugs in will tell you (vertical plug is onboard, horizontal is card).
Either way you can put a new one in quite easily, have a look here for a rough guide on prices and specs:
Anything under 3 grand is good enough for everyday use, you'll want to spend at least 5 grand if you want to play the latest games at decent resolution. Also you mentioned your machine was a few years old - if this is the case it make not take the latest cards so you may need an older AGP one.
The tips on backup above are also worth taking note of.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
Thanks much Buksida, will check it out. May have other issues also as my USB connectors in the back quit working and so did my keyboard connection so think something is loose back there. But the one in front work fine.
Does that sound like crappy motherboard connections to you? I'm guessing. but it went from working to not working depending on whether it got jarred or shifted around.
I took it into the shop in Cha Am and they looked at it and said it only needed cleaning, since it worked when they were done I didn't argue. 100 baht. he didn't speak any English and I speak even less Thai so it was impossible to discuss the finer points of what was wrong.
