How old is your Computer?

Be advised all, even though many companies will not let you get a PC with XP anymore (vista or nothing), I've friends that work for the Government DOD, IRS etc, and "They" buy new computers for their people (1/3rd at a time every year) every three years, yet REFUSE to use Vista ! Too many "bugs", crashes, unreliability for sensitive information.

Mine is same as King Tiger's, the kids have new laptops. Figures.

 

Hey Skunk, Vista is finished. Bill is bringing something out to replace it.

I got two, my Win95 is now 12 years old and still going strong. My Dell with XP is about three years old now.

 

Packard laptop, this one is about a year old and will die soon I fear, already had it repaired once. The one before the heating system gave up, before that the power system, not going to bother with laptops again that's for sure!

 

I have an Intel iMac, just over a year old, an 8 year old iMac DV400, a 14 year old Mac Quadra 610, and a 20 year old Mac Plus. A are working but the Mac Plus, put that in a box about 10 years ago (it still worked, just didn't need it anymore).

tom

 

For those who have no computer knowledge (those who built their pcs themselves don't need this) , here are a few things that may help and may save money. This is how you can upgrade your computer yourself:

Switch off the power and wear gloves (static electricity) before touching electronics) . Remove the screws of your chassis, the panels should slide open and you should see the mother board and everything connected to it. It doesn't cost anything to have a look. If you thing it's difficult, you can stop here and put the screws back. If you are readty to go on here are a few tips:



Think of your computer as a construction game or a human body, you need some essential things on which you can add more if you wish.

All computer chassis need a main board which is a flat suqare or rectangular board of the size of your chassis. On this you will add a processor. The main board could be called the "brain", but it cannot work without a processor. The processor (big square chip) gives your computer strenght and speed (the MHZ are clock tours, we could call it the heart).

Then your Random Memory (one or two or more rectangular tablets of the size of a 10inch ruler) allow your computer to do several things at the time at an acceptable speed. If your computer bugs or can't handle enough, then you may want to add extra RAM. Remember things. Beware Ram can only be multiplied in pairs 512 +512 works 1024 + 512 doesn't. Also you must respec tthe MHZ (written on the ram) before your replace them.
If you use a 1024DDR2 of 533mhz then you will need another identical 533mhz (or 2 512mo).
If you respect this you can change your ram yourself. If you have a generic brand it might be useful to buy a brand that is accepted by most motherboards (Samsung and Kingston usually work all the time)

You will of course need a hard disc (memory) for storage and back up purposes. This allows yo to save you data and to recover it. Your hard disc should be 10% empty. (a human would also get a headache with to much to learn) . If you cannot save larges files any longer or if your computer is too slow it may mean your hard disc is full. Yo can buy a new one for a fair price. An external one is hooked to your pc with a usb PLUG, but you can also put it on your mother board. A harddisc is about the size of half a dvd box, the interior s usually metal, external have plastic protection boxes.

These are the basics to which have to be added a graphic card (for the quality of your images). If you buy a brand new game and it won't work, you might want to ypgrape your graphic card. (It should exceed the minumum requirements written on the box of the game.

a sound card (for the sound) , not essential, but without sound you would only have the beeps , so it's a bit boring for games and you won't be able to listen to music etc...

a transformer and a bunch of wires (usually large white strings) + individual wires which are always the same colour and indicated on the mother board. This are usually connected to a plug that goes into a socket in one direction only. If it does not fit, the connection is wrong, if it does, you won't have a short circuit. If it does not work, it means your connections are not complete and you can add others (red on red, yellow on yellow, black on black etc..
With the ram bars and cards things are the same, they can only be plugged into a socket in one way. If it fits it works, if it doesn't, don't insist.

Well now you have the basics of your central unit. You will of course need dvd drivers, engravers, a little fan, etc... but they can be fitted exactly the same way (the red, yellow and black power wires and the white string connecting it to the mother board. It is even possible to get both power and data from a usb SOCKET.


Hope this helps.

 

Don't worry Carl - you're not alone . To be honest, as long as I can switch the damned thing on and it works, I'm reasonably happy......

 

This is why I tried to give an easy explanation. You should give it a try, it's really logical and easy to assemble, just follow the marks and the directions.

 

Hi Martin, Skipper,

Martin heh heh, that which you described was me to a "T." Now if I had the same MacIntosh that I had when I was in Tech College back in the early 90's--I could do almost anything with those. One of my older Brothers has a Mac-which I guess is top of the line and he paid about 3K for it. I tried to just start the thing last time I was there to visit-and had no clue what to do? Laptops are nice sounding-like Portable DvD players--and to me are more like an expensive toy.

Skipper, thanks for your info and im printing it out. You make it so easy that a three-legged Cat can make one and make it work.

 

You're welcome. It's a bit difficult to explain without actually fixing it at the same time, but if it helps some of you to understand their computer a little better then it's worth the trouble.