Odd computer behaviour

[UnderOpenSky]

I called a local independent computer shop and ask them first about repairing this machine, he said if it's software related it could be 70 pounds and if it's hardware related it could be more.

Then I asked him how much for new computer perhaps two gig HDD and SSD for Windows and 16 gig RAM and he said probably about 700 pounds.

However he seemed very confident that he could repair my present computer so the question is what is he gonna do and can I do it myself?

I'd suggest, unless it's a very new PC, that you can almost certainly get something much faster and more modern (and Windows 11 compatable) second hand for the similar cost to what you'll pay for a hardware repair. And it doesn't sound like software.

What do you have?

 

[Chz]

And if you're in dire straits, there's nothing wrong with one of those Firebat N100 NUCs off AliExpress. Will Get The Job Done for £120.

Edit: N100 is roughly equivalent to an i5-6400, but sips power and is dead cheap and new enough for Win11.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Here's an example of what £125 will get you from eBay. i5 8500 (6 cores), 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD with Windows 11.

HP 290 G1 PC SFF Intel Core i5-8500 16GB RAM 256GB NVMe + 1TB HDD W11P -Ref | eBay

16GB DDR4 2666Mhz RAM. The following is our current grading system (Subject to change) Grade B- (signs of use scratches/marks, quality will vary per unit see pictures for further detail). Grading Explained.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[UnderOpenSky]

And if you're in dire straits, there's nothing wrong with one of those Firebat N100 NUCs off AliExpress. Will Get The Job Done for £120.

Edit: N100 is roughly equivalent to an i5-6400, but sips power and is dead cheap and new enough for Win11.

I have one of these for sale if anyone is interested.

 

[weltweit]

I'd suggest, unless it's a very new PC, that you can almost certainly get something much faster and more modern (and Windows 11 compatable) second hand for the similar cost to what you'll pay for a hardware repair. And it doesn't sound like software.

What do you have?

How do you mean?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

How do you mean?

What's PC do you currently have?

The chances are that it's probably not worth repairing and it would make more sense to buy a second hand, ex corprate machine like the one I listed above. The intel 8th gen is a sweet spot. New enough to run Windows 11 and feel like very modern machine, but old enough that companies will have replaced them, so they can be had cheaply second hand. I recently got a very small form factor one for my father in law and he couldn't get over how quick it was compared to what he had.

 

[weltweit]

Bit nervous about second hand PCs how can I know the reason for their sale?

 

[Sasaferrato]

And if you're in dire straits, there's nothing wrong with one of those Firebat N100 NUCs off AliExpress. Will Get The Job Done for £120.

Edit: N100 is roughly equivalent to an i5-6400, but sips power and is dead cheap and new enough for Win11.

I have a wee MINISFORUM that I use just as a media player, it was about £270.00 and has a Ryzen 7 chip.

 

[Crispy]

Bit nervous about second hand PCs how can I know the reason for their sale?

Usually big companies refreshing their fleets. I've used https://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/ a bunch in the past.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Bit nervous about second hand PCs how can I know the reason for their sale?

Because most companies replace them every 3 to 5 years. You can tell by looking at the models being sold that they are ex corprate, Dell, HP and Lenovo being the main ones.

If you've got a higher budget, then of course get something new, but I've bought several for various jobs with no issues and I think they're a bargain.

 

[weltweit]

I don't think I can get the hard drive out of this old machine one side of the casing is screwed in and it's quite compact in there and the other side of the casing is riveted.

It is a Packard bell computer which I bought 13 years ago from PC world. Perhaps I should have looked at replacing it whilst it was still working.

Really don't want to lose the data on that hard drive.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I don't think I can get the hard drive out of this old machine one side of the casing is screwed in and it's quite compact in there and the other side of the casing is riveted.

It is a Packard bell computer which I bought 13 years ago from PC world. Perhaps I should have looked at replacing it whilst it was still working.

Really don't want to lose the data on that hard drive.

I can guarantee it was designed to be opened. I'd find the model number and have a look on YouTube.

 

[Chz]

Bit nervous about second hand PCs how can I know the reason for their sale?

For the money, I'd say the HP is the better buy. But if you're worried about used stuff, the NUCs we've discussed are a good deal as well and have the benefit of being tiny.
I suppose you'd need to tell us your usage if you really want new PC advice. If upgrades don't matter to you, the NUCs are pretty good. But you can generally only upgrade the disk in them.

Eg:
103.73ï¿¡ 54% OFF|FIREBAT T8 Pro Plus Mini PC Intel Celeron N5095 N100 Desktop Gaming Computer 8GB 16GB 256GB 512GB DDR4 DDR5 WIFI5 BT4.2 - ~£125 and Fast Enough for N100/16GB/500GB
235.46ï¿¡ 30% OFF|SZBOX Ryzen 7 7735HS MINI PC Windows 11 pro DDR5 4800Mhz NVME SSD PCle 4.0 WIFI6 BT5.0 Triple Display Desktop Gaming Computer| | - AliExpress - ~£290 and Way Fast for 16GB/500GB

 

[weltweit]

Can anybody check this windows stop code.
I can't seem to be able to check it on my phone.

Stop code is: WHEA UNCORRECTABLE ERROR

 

[Chz]

Can anybody check this windows stop code.
I can't seem to be able to check it on my phone.

Stop code is: WHEA UNCORRECTABLE ERROR

Hardware failure, Windows unable to tell you precisely what though. Can be as innocuous as the CPU fan being dead or as serious as MB/RAM/CPU fried.

 

[weltweit]

Thanks Chz

 

[weltweit]

So my options seem to be buy either a new or used computer and then get the hard drive out of this old one so I can copy across the data.

I would have to get the hard drive out anyhow because there's lots of personal information on the computer which I don't want to share.

 

[weltweit]

However if it fails to boot which currently it does will I be able to copy data from it?

 

[AverageJoe]

I use https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Laptops?sort=price+ascending

 

[UnderOpenSky]

However if it fails to boot which currently it does will I be able to copy data from it?

No. And even if you manage to get it to a state where you can start to copy, I'd really rather not try and copy important data from a failing machine if I had any other option.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I use https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Laptops?sort=price+ascending

I wouldn't wish those sub £200 windows laptops on my worse enemy.

 

[weltweit]

No. And even if you manage to get it to a state where you can start to copy, I'd really rather not try and copy important data from a failing machine if I had any other option.

Do you mean even if I get the hard drive out and onto our caddy connected to the new machine, even then you wouldn't recommend it?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Do you mean even if I get the hard drive out and onto our caddy connected to the new machine, even then you wouldn't recommend it?

No, that's what I'd want to do.

What I wouldn't want to do is use the existing computer to copy files if you manage to make it boot. My worries would be data corruption or drive failure.

 

[weltweit]

I have been browsing computer websites on my phone they don't always work very well on such a small screen.

I was looking at one quite nice tower only to realize that I was on PC world USA and everything was selling in dollars.

I see quite a lot of PCs with only an SSD and no HDD at all. Most interesting one so far has a 512 SSD and two TB HDD.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I have been browsing computer websites on my phone they don't always work very well on such a small screen.

I was looking at one quite nice tower only to realize that I was on PC world USA and everything was selling in dollars.

I see quite a lot of PCs with only an SSD and no HDD at all. Most interesting one so far has a 512 SSD and two TB HDD.

Yes. Most people just don't need that much storage. When SSDs were tiny it was pretty common to have both, but tbh a 256 or maybe a 512 covers most people these days, especially with cloud storage. Unless you really need a lot of space there's no reason to run a big noisy HDD anymore. I'd even argue that 2TB is a bit small for a HDD, if your bothering with spinning rust get something bigger, if not pay a bit more for a 2TB SSD. I've just ordered a 14TB HDD for example and have 2TB drives in a draw as they aren't worth the space in a PC.

Maybe it's worth a new thread with your requirements as its sounds like you don't want a typical of the peg machine? And then also think about how your going to do backups...

 

[Chz]

Or possibly go for one of those NUCs (the AMD one can go to 1TB) and take the savings to budget for a cheap spinning rust NAS to hold media. The advantage there being that your TV or stereo can stream directly without the PC being booted.

I'm assuming the extra space is for media there, of course.

I mean, if you want to game or something that's a whole different kettle of fish. FWIW, I get by with 1TB+512GB on the pc and have a NAS with 3TB for all audio/video. And I am a gamer.

 

[weltweit]

Yes. Most people just don't need that much storage. When SSDs were tiny it was pretty common to have both, but tbh a 256 or maybe a 512 covers most people these days, especially with cloud storage. Unless you really need a lot of space there's no reason to run a big noisy HDD anymore. I'd even argue that 2TB is a bit small for a HDD, if your bothering with spinning rust get something bigger, if not pay a bit more for a 2TB SSD. I've just ordered a 14TB HDD for example and have 2TB drives in a draw as they aren't worth the space in a PC.

Maybe it's worth a new thread with your requirements as its sounds like you don't want a typical of the peg machine? And then also think about how your going to do backups...

Thanks and you have been a great help so far with my computer odysseys at the moment I would quite like to keep it on this thread just so it is all easy to find.

My main storage requirements are for photos and a raw image at the moment is 30 megabytes. I would like to be able to back up to the cloud but my broadband connection is far too slow. At some point a faster connection fiber will become available but I don't know when and how much it will cost. So at the moment I have to use external drives. When I had the problem a year ago I bought a one terabyte drive and backed everything up to it. Trouble was I put the drive back in my drawer and didn't do it again!! So I stand to lose a year's worth of photography and the years worth of notes files accounts etc.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

What's your budget? Going forwards I think you need at least two copies of all your data. Ideally one on the PC and one on network storage that you never have to think about, but is always backing up. For accounts and notes you could use the cloud in addition, as it doesn't need much bandwidth. Media never leaves my house, but my really import files are also in Google Drive.

If you can afford it, storage on the PC should all be SSD. I'm not a photographer, but working on 30meg files from anything is going to be so much nicer that way.

Chz is on the money saying a NAS would be worth looking at. It's a like an external enclosure with a very low power computer built in with two, four or even more drive bays. All your files can be backed up 24/7 from any device in the house.

Appolgies if any of this is patronising and you already know it

 

[weltweit]

I don't really have a budget because I haven't planned really to replace this computer. After the trouble I had with it last year it seemed to go on doing what I need so I didn't think about it again.

However I know that I shouldn't ignore the idea of a pre-owned computer because for example my photography equipment is all used / secondhand. And it is giving me good service.

That said I want to get this sorted so I might head off to PC world to see what they have. The local computer shop might be open in the morning and if so I will ask them what they have second hand because he made a point of saying if I wanted new it would be 700 pounds implying that he could supply used.

 

[weltweit]

I think I could be up for a NAS, and given where some of my problems might have come from I might be up for a uninterruptible power supply ups also.