Advice needed please - where to take my pc?

N

Nikki Nina

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Location
Cape Town, SA
Hi - I am based in Cape Town and really need some good advice from you experienced people out there. Have old (7 years) Mecer pc which is giving problems. I think it is hardware but cannot be too sure. Runs Windows XP, has 384 Meg RAM, good enough hard drive size - it is only used for us to access the Internet from and to print off.

Have had limited success with certain vendors for fixes on other pcs - hardware stuff and really need some recommendations on where to take the pc to be checked out.

I realise that you may not be at liberty to give out names but if I am not breaking any rules I would appreciate advice.

Thanks so much ahead,
Nikki
 
Hi Nikki and welcome to the forum. Some places that offer repairs and upgrades to PC 's are Computer Mania, Claremont or Canal Walk, Chao's computers Kenilworth or Kenridge and Café Viva/Java in Claremont.
 
Yep. Welcome Nikki Nina,

1. Where in CT are you based, so we can give you a place close to you.
2. Is it really worth saving a 7yr old PC? Maybe the time for an upgrade has come...
 
It may be 7 years old, but the components could be up to 10years old, depending if the company that sold you the pc ripped you off or not.

With that in mind, some parts for older pc's are hard to come by as some are completely obsolete.

If its something simple like software that's mis-configured, then its a matter of re-setting up your pc, and ofcourse backing up your current data first.

If its Hardware... Depending on how severe the problem is, it may be better to just buy another pc.

If you're just into simple Internet Browsing and the odd Document printing, a new Puter won't set you back too much. ITs not like you're needing a super fancy pc for cutting edge gaming!

My 2c worth.
 
Thanks for responses.

Ja well, hear you on the issue of fixing the old one. I guess it depends on what the problem is with it. If it is something smallish, will go for it as the pc is just for internet access (school projects, printing etc). We recently bought a new gaming pc and a laptop which are great specs but don't want to put the gaming pc on to the internet, so I guess fixing the old one would be first prize.

I'm in Mowbray - have tried Chaos Computers in Kenilworth, sorry to say but pc came back with a couple of viruses!!! Yup, not too pleased about that and it's also a bad experience waiting around for their invoicing system to do it's bit. Don't mean to be a moaner. So if someone that I feel confident with tells me "no go", I'll take it to heart! Thanks so far, much appreciated.
 
Last edited:
True ... I bought a system last week for similar tasks. I didn't need a monitor or keyboard, and the box was R1689 for a Celeron D 1.6ghz, 256Ram, 80GB drive & DVD writer. I upgraded to 512MB RAM & a 320GB HDD for R700 more.

Good system at an inexpensive price!
 
hi nikki,Did you ever think that you could sell or trade that pc in at a second hand dealer and by something newish.If you have a monitor and a k/board and mouse then it will be easy.Internet will be a bit faster and docs will be done in a flash,Get something in the range of 1500 for the box,
there are many places that sells pc,s for office use only,no fancy stuff.
 
I highly doubt she will be able to get R1500 for the box ... you can easily get a basic Celeron PC which will probably be faster for under 2k. She might be able to get around R500-R750 ... maybe a bit more. Still I'd sell it and buy a new one considering it can easily cost R100 - R200 per hour to repair a machine.
 
What specific problems are you having? If you don't have anything of value on the machine, a reinstall of XP will get rejuvenate to a small extent.

As you have 2 new fast machines, suspect that the real problem may just that of comparing the old machine to these. It's amazing how much a machine can slow down when placed next to a new fast one!
 
Hi - the box gotta work in order to sell in any event. I'm a little attached to this particular pc as it has been a work horse for years, no probs excepting replacement of graphics card. It's fast enough, it's actually quite fast cos it has so little on it maybe.

Problem has come on over past few weeks. No viruses or spyware, running Bitdefender, Adaware and Spybot. Machine would suddenly just freeze up, go to black screen with monitor light flashing. It then started giving a message to boot from the floppy disk. Then it came right and was ok for a week. Three days ago, can't start up, just blinking monitor light but nothing else although one can hear everything load.

From what everyone has been saying in this thread, and after sleeping on it, and seeing as though we have nice new monitor and keyboard etc for this box, your advice is probably the soundest after all. What do you think about a last ditch effort at trying to re-install XP (nuthing on box to even back up), if no go, then box goes ...?

So, next question, sorry to put you all so on the spot, but where would you guys go to buy a box for the basic purpose I have?

Mega thanks
 
well, 1st off it sounds like your RAM has gone south. Either that or the mobo. Both are pretty much non-replaceable on a box that old.

Secondly, the best place to get a new box is on here. Try etai2001 at www.digitaladdiction.co.za or Take2 at take2.co.za. Also, maybe check the classifieds section of myadsl for a 2nd hand solution. Take2 is Cape Town Based, as is www.micts.co.za, so you can arrange pickup if you want. but shop around, see who comes in cheapest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X