I bought a new Computer (tower only). When I opened the Box there was no operating system discs supplied (Windows 7 preium).
All the Computers I have ever bought came with the above.

I called the store and was told that Computers no longer come with the operating system discs. (I am guessing that this applys to the cheapie ones.)

So when I returned the computer I was told that there is a program and I could have made my own copy of the operating system.

My question is; is this a program speciffically to copy the operating system or was the Tech speaking of the normal "Back Up" program that computers have?

What happend to my Old Computer: I opened it up to clean it as I have done many times in the 10 years I have owned it. This time I somehow managed to kill it.
Everthing seems to be plugged in properly.
A simple check of the Power Supply has it functioning.

But, when I turn the Monitor on it turns itself of (the monitor is good; I am using it right now on a different computer).
So when the computer is on nothing shows on the monitor.
There is zero beeps from the Computer.
Only the power on light shows; the one that blinks on and off when the computer is processing something is not on.
It will not boot up to a disc.

My initial thoughts were I have an issue with the monitor connector on the motherbhard (maybe it got yanked while I was pulling thecomoputer out). But, when I took out the motherboard it did not appear cracked or damaged.

Static. Maybe I killed my CPU as I cleaned a lot of dust out of the Heat Sink Fins with a Q-tip, Tooth PIck and a squeeze bulb typ thing to blow air.
I have seldom used a Static Strap attached to my wrist and have never had any issue with that before.

Any comments or speculations appreciated.

I forgot to mention that the issue I have with comying the operating system is that I have done a fair share of making CDs and some DVDs and have found sometimes there is errors on them.
If you make a copy of your operating system you will not find out if you have an error on it until you need it!

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I'm not sure what the best windows software is, but I always keep a clone of my entire hard drive on a backup hard drive so I can restore everything back to a known condition is things go south or the main drive dies.

Since Hard drives have gotten so large recently, here is what the manuf's do:

They partition the hard drive - the partition will only be 15M or 1G in size (small pototoes if you have a 250G hd) and the small partition holds a factory disk image, or a compressed version of the same.
When the manuf. gets the computer back to fix, all they do is run a small program that formats the large partition (your C drive), and re-installs the factory windows install from the data on that small partition. it makes 'computer repair' very quick....becuase they dont care if they lose your data or not. Every dell I've seen in the last year ships like this.

The small partition is not usually obvious, unless you know where to look, and since 95% of your HD is available to the user, they never complain about the slight loss of storage space.

As far as I would guess - I'd double check your power supply, they now make 3 or 4 (or 6?) different voltages - all of which need to work for the computer to run. And the switching nature of these power supplies means that it isnt normally testable with just a VOM while disconnected - you need to put a load on each line to make it work properly.

-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

Dell used to supply actual CDs if you called or emailed them. Manufacturers do not tend to include them at all these days.

I agree about double-checking the power supply. I never directly test them. I use a substitute, and see if the computer runs. Power supplies aren't very expensive, but also don't seem to be all that reliable. I go through power supplies faster than any other computer part, except perhaps disk drives.

Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate is the best that MS has to offer for a client OS. The server version is called Windows 2008 R2, and comes in a number of configurations that most people will find just plain confusing.

I don't buy boxed computers at all. I also don't buy operating systems, at least not directly. As an MSDN licensee, I can run 10 concurrent copies of each flavor of MS operating system (plus a whole lot of other MS products). I have no idea what the MSDN license costs, as my work pays for it.

This is exactly right.

I recently was shipped a replacement hard drive from Dell under warranty and it reinstalled windows and all of its drivers automatically without me touching anything or resorting to any of the original discs.

It saved hours of work and trouble.

All good info.
The parts of the Power Source I have checked are the unused connectors. I have the power I am supposed to there.
I have not checked the connector that goes into the Mother Board Yet. In the past I have used Sweing Needles and used them as Back Probes so the connectors could be tested while still in use; so they have a load.
Only today did I find my Computer Book that tells me what Voltages to expect at the Mother Board Connector.
However, I have been holding off on the Back Probing of the Mother Board Power Connector as I have another new Power Source somewhere in my house that I thought I would try first but I need to find it.
If I cannot find that I beieve I have anothe computer that has a good Power Source.

Since I am a little bit of a schrounger the computer I am using right now is one someone dumped out on the curb. A Compaq Deskpro 5133, CPU Pentium 133 with only a 1.2 gig Hard Drive.
They also dumped a 486 Computer, 2 monitors and a Printer (I left that).
I have no idea what people do with a 486 these days. It has a 5-1/2" Floppy Drive and a regular Floppy Drive on it.

I have an Old Laptop with a Pentium 223 (233? can't remember) that would do better on the internet but the CMOS Battery is dead and it is permanent on the Mother Board. I know on the old Desktop Computers that had the CMOS Battery mounted on the Board they use to wire up another Battery and leave the old one. But, do not think there is room to do the work or room to put another battery.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I do 1/2 of that. I save stuff to a remote USB Hard Drive. But, I Have the 5 CD set to restore the operating system; when the Computer was working.
Looks like I will need to change how I do things.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

10 year old computer? Seriously? That thing should have been retired years ago! Computers do not last forever. Just about anything could have failed with it being that age.

New brand-name PC's generally come with the re-install media in a secondary partition on the hard drive, usually it is about 4-6GB in size and will work with their system boot setup to do a factory or repair restore if you choose.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Since you did a lot of cleaning around the CPU I would make sure it's still seated properly.
If a different power supply doesn't fix it I would try a video card if you have one around instead of using the motherboard video.

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1985 300D Turbo
"Evolution is God's way of giving upgrades" Francis Collins

Someone might say the same about fixing and driving an Old Mercedes.

The 10 year old Computer was totally adequate for what I used it for.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Unfortunately the Video Card is built into the Mother Board.

That reminds me of another question I forgot to ask.
If the Built In Video card is no good if I installed one in a PCI slot would it work.

I found out I installed the new powersource in another Computer. So I will pull it out of that tomarrow and put it in the questionable Computer and see if that does the Trick.

The CPU is still securely clamped down. I had always unscrewed the Fan off of the Heat Sink when I did the cleaning.
I would like to not blame myself and believe it was just a coincidence that it died.

I also took the sheet metal cover off of the Power Source and blew it out with air from that squeeze bulb thing.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I have a 10+ year old Gateway that only had video on the motherboard. I added a video card in the PCI slot for better video quite some time ago. IIRC (and I might not be remembering correctly) the connector on the video card worked right away without installing a driver but with just minimal colors (maybe 8 or16 bits). But it allowed me to install the video card driver. I'm guessing that the motherboard BIOS or maybe the video card BIOS will get you running. Then you can download the driver for better video performance. Somebody with more knowledge will have to weigh in. So I think you can just add the PCI video card

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1985 300D Turbo
"Evolution is God's way of giving upgrades" Francis Collins

Yes - adding a video card will work in the absense of a functional mobo video port. the only caveat is that you **may** have to go into the BIOS and tell it to output video to the PCI (AGP?) slot instead of the onboard video. Usually it'll autodetect though.

good luck.

-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

I agree (and disagree)!

A ten year old computer running any MS product will not perform well especially if you want to connect to the internet. The best software for the hardware is unlikely to be supported anymore and if it is the updates will slow the thing down to a crawl AND anti-virus software will finish it off...

However, by switching to LINUX you could quite easily get many more happy years out of your computer so long as you're not into video games.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

After overcoming my reluctance to have to burn my own Recovery Discs I want back to Best Buy; but a different store and bought the same Compact Prsario CQ550Y with Windows 7 home Premium on it.
I also bought a USB Dial Up Modem.
I was unable to get the Dial Up Modem to function properly and ended up grabbing a PCI type Modem from my Drawer.
The short story is so far I have not been able to get the internet to function properly. I have updated done the updates from my ISP Peoplepc.com but after about 30 minutes it tends to lose the connection with the server.

Also I am not liking some of the features that were changed with Windows 7. It could be a learning curve issue.
Also while I was inside of the Computer installing the PCI type Modem I found 2 Brown or Black Slots I have never seen on a Motherboard before. They look like a PCI Slot but they are only about 2 inches long and they line up with the back of the computer in a manner that makes them look like some sort of card is supposed to go in there so something can be plugged into the back of the Computer.

While it did not come with a Floppy Drive it appears to have the Connector for one on the Mother Board.
If no one can identify the mystery slots on the Mother Board by the description I gave I may pull the cover when I have time and take a Pic of it.

The Instruction manual that came with the computer apparently covers several models and is not specific as to what slots are in my exact computer.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel