GeeBee Tech Support thread - pose questions, get answers

[butters]

20" will be fine, then (21.5" would be even better)

You will likely never find the end of a 1TB drive. It's just that if 2TB is available for less money, why not?

uh huh.

They are neater. But the drawback is they're usually slower. For comparison:

Packard Bell OneTwoS, 1.4GHz, 8GB ram, 2TB hd
£479

HP Pavilion 20-b170ea All-in-One, 1.48GHz, 8GB ram, 2TB hd
£499

I don't think Packard Bell makes desktops anymore, but:

HP 110-052ea Desktop PC, 2.9GHz, 8GB ram, 2TB hd
+ HP W2072a 50.8cm (20") LED Backlit LCD Monitor
£429 + £86 = £515

Dell Inspiron 660 w/ 21.5" monitor, 3.4GHz, 8GB ram, 1TB hd
£579

If it were me, I'd kick in a bit more cash and get a desktop.

No problem!

thanks a lot for all the information. i'm mulling over my rather limited options.

Unless portability is of paramount importance to you, I would recommend a desktop over a laptop. You'll always get more for your sterling in a desktop over a laptop.

i'm not a big fan of laptops, really. i'd not throw one out on its ears, y'understand, but wouldn't rush to buy one as instant first choice. i do kind of like sitting at my desk when writing. gets me in the right frame of mind (usually).

You've linked to two all-in-ones, which are fine, but you should keep in mind that you're going to pay a premium for the design aspect of these desktops. All-in-ones also tend to be a bit of a pain should you want to upgrade/add a component in the future given its space constraints relative to a desktop.

not likely to be messing about adding components - wouldn't know where to start. i want to plug and go! i want simplicity of operation and for it to act just as the frame for whatever is happening on the screen. i'm not at all tech-minded

If it's not imperative for you to replace your current computer tomorrow, I would suggest waiting for Xmas for sales....unless you have your version of Black Friday sales sometime between now and Xmas?

In terms of specs, hard drive space is cheap, so go with a 2TB drive. A new computer today will come with Windows 8, so you'll have to decide whether you'd like to make sure of it's touch-screen functionality - which will require a monitor that has this capability - but this will also increase the cost a bit. In terms of RAM, 4-6GB will serve every need you may have.

Keeping the price down further, I would recommend looking at a manufacturer's online outlet store for refurbished or "like new" computers. These are machines that were either purchased new and returned or returned due to mechanical defect. Either way, manufacturers re-package them/fix them and they carry the same warranty as a brand-new, never-been-used-before warranty, only 10-20% off. Basically, you're getting a new machine at a discount.

all this makes perfect sense but i really kind of want it now. this one is gonna die on me soon, i'm convinced, and i'm loathe to be offline. i work hard for not much money, and my pc is an important part of my entertainment package. now with a new one i'll be able to hear all those sound-links people post!

On the Dell outlet site I find an all-in-one with a 2TB hard drive, 8GB of RAM, Windows 8 64-bit, a very good processor (i7), 23" touch-screen LCD monitor and Blu-Ray/CD reader-burner combo for £549.58/Price Incl. VAT and excl. delivery £659.50

From a performance and component standpoint, the dell is heads above the two you linked and comparable in price to the Lenovo and £70 more than the Packard Bell.

You don't have to go with Dell if you don't care for them. Almost all manufacturers have an outlet store on their websites.

Anyway, that's my recommendation to you. Happy to be of further help should you require it.

i really appreciate the time some of you have spent explaining all this stuff to me.

Chippy, I agree with Iman.

All in ones are nice, but honestly not worth it.

I love the refurbs, dells are good, also look at hp.

I would not get a Lenovo, I support them and they can be pain in the tushes.

Have you thought of a Mac tower?

yeah, i know what he's suggesting makes sense. consider the lenovo abandoned, then. and thanks, too!

 

[Byron In Exile]

No, I understood quite clearly that you missed the point of LTR's post, choosing instead to go off on a tangent of your own.

No, you understood nothing, and chose instead to hump my leg while barking nonsense.

I suggest you let her speak for herself, rather than embarrassing her.

 

[butters]

i've not been able to run Combofix for over 9 months. everything i tried was defeated. it was my 'goto' programme for sorting out my pc where other stuff failed to make much difference. today, i was able to run it! considering i know very little about computers, this was blind stubborn digging, trial and error:

hidec.3XE

i found this little thing a few days ago that wouldn't let me change or remove it. on searching deeper today in hidden files, i found more, of the same thing, but the first 2 got sent to the recycle bin which i emptied straight away. re-searched and found none. it was a little hide prompt (or command or whatever you call it) which has managed to prevent me from running combofix past the opening text. since deleting that, i've managed to run CF and this thing (so far) is running smoothly again! it seems to be still hidden in there somewhere as there's some little entry still linked to startup and on trying to run CF that shows spybot telling me a command has been deleted (ok or not) so i ok it, then it pops up as being added and to allow or deny it so i deny it. then things run as intended.

end of my current problems? i so hope so! will i still be getting a new computer? yes, most probably - call it my xmas x birthday present to myself - which then frees this one for no3's room.

if all works well, this means i can wait till 4th december for the package that has been suggested to me as best value for money. if it all goes pear-shaped again, i'll order something that'll get here faster.

thanks, guys, for all your help

 

[islandman]

end of my current problems? i so hope so!

How is it going so far?

 

[lovetoread]

That's like saying a Toyota Corolla is defective because it doesn't perform like a Corvette.

It wasn't designed to.

Bah, no it's not.

I don't have wireless setup on any of my consoles, you don't need it to be connected wirelessly and why would you if you are gaming?

 

[islandman]

Bah, no it's not.

I don't have wireless setup on any of my consoles, you don't need it to be connected wirelessly and why would you if you are gaming?

^^^Another leg-humper.

 

[Saint Peter]

I miss my super bad ass box.

 

[islandman]

I miss my super bad ass box.

Hang on, let me transfer you to Level 198 support.

 

[thør]

Hang on, let me transfer you to Level 198 support.

That's cardboard, eh?

 

[islandman]

That's cardboard, eh?

The only thing that comes to mind is Nirvana's Heart-shaped Box.

 

[lovetoread]

^^^Another leg-humper.

Hey now, leg humping can produce major orgasms.

 

[pink]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with leg humping.

 

[butters]

How is it going so far?

worked beautifully for all of about 9 hours, then something else started being a pain instead and, once again, refuses to let combofix run. i'll go on another bughunt over the weekend, i expect.

at the moment i have avg (used to run avast but it got too intrusive with asking to be upgraded and doing things that stopped other stuff happening); i tried looking at windows antivirus stuff but it seems the copy this pc runs on (i got the pc secondhand) cannot be verified as genuine so that's a no-go.

pretty sure i'm going to order the asus package; i can probably struggle with this a while longer and have been doing defrag and other things to get it running more smoothly.

 

[islandman]

worked beautifully for all of about 9 hours, then something else started being a pain instead and, once again, refuses to let combofix run. i'll go on another bughunt over the weekend, i expect.

at the moment i have avg (used to run avast but it got too intrusive with asking to be upgraded and doing things that stopped other stuff happening); i tried looking at windows antivirus stuff but it seems the copy this pc runs on (i got the pc secondhand) cannot be verified as genuine so that's a no-go.

pretty sure i'm going to order the asus package; i can probably struggle with this a while longer and have been doing defrag and other things to get it running more smoothly.

Not sure which windows anti-virus program you mean, but the one linked below is excellent and free. Would recommend uninstalling what you have and replacing it with this one.


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

Also, I looked into ComboFix and that .exe problem you were having seems to be endemic to the program. I've never used it myself, but from what I've read, it's not something I would routinely use as part of my computer's maintenance schedule.

 

[butters]

Not sure which windows anti-virus program you mean, but the one linked below is excellent and free. Would recommend uninstalling what you have and replacing it with this one.


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

Also, I looked into ComboFix and that .exe problem you were having seems to be endemic to the program. I've never used it myself, but from what I've read, it's not something I would routinely use as part of my computer's maintenance schedule.

that's the one i tried to download - i went through the motions and then it tried to verify my copy of windows was genuine but failed to do so and therefore wouldn't do the do.

over the years my pc has suffered from various crap. the ONLY programme that has ever restored my pc to a relatively happy working unit was combofix. i only used to run it when there was a persistent problem. it might have all kinds of stuff in it that shouldn't be there, but it worked for me.

when i get my nice shiny new windows-genuine&verified machine these problems won't exist. and i'll make sure i have the windows download you suggested that i wasn't able to use on this machine.

byron found me the exact same bundle for £399 but it was on another site that wouldn't permit the 12 months thingy for new customers.

i've stopped some of the programmes from kicking in on start-up and will pm you if nothing's helping, k? thanks

 

[islandman]

that's the one i tried to download - i went through the motions and then it tried to verify my copy of windows was genuine but failed to do so and therefore wouldn't do the do.

over the years my pc has suffered from various crap. the ONLY programme that has ever restored my pc to a relatively happy working unit was combofix. i only used to run it when there was a persistent problem. it might have all kinds of stuff in it that shouldn't be there, but it worked for me.

when i get my nice shiny new windows-genuine&verified machine these problems won't exist. and i'll make sure i have the windows download you suggested that i wasn't able to use on this machine.

byron found me the exact same bundle for £399 but it was on another site that wouldn't permit the 12 months thingy for new customers.

i've stopped some of the programmes from kicking in on start-up and will pm you if nothing's helping, k? thanks

Happy to help where I can.

 

[islandman]

Chrome users:

Tired of having to manually refresh websites such as twitter? Don't know userscripts well enough to automate the process? Then Auto Refresh Plus is for you!

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...aajkapbpancpelijih?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon


Simply open the page you want to auto-refresh, click on the Auto Refresh Plus icon, set the time interval and click start. Easy-peasy.

 

[islandman]

Chrome users:

Tired of having to manually refresh websites such as twitter? Don't know userscripts well enough to automate the process? Then Auto Refresh Plus is for you!

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...aajkapbpancpelijih?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon


Simply open the page you want to auto-refresh, click on the Auto Refresh Plus icon, set the time interval and click start. Easy-peasy.

Seriously, this is the best fucking app EVAH!

I now how half a dozen sites auto-refreshing....it's so liberating!

 

[Phelia]

Hola Unblocker, for anyone outside of the US who's sick of the "this content is not available in your region" message or mourning their limited Netflix selection. Dead easy and works right out of the box.

 

[lovetoread]

Seriously, this is the best fucking app EVAH!

I now how half a dozen sites auto-refreshing....it's so liberating!

IE does it without any extra work, just saying.

 

[islandman]

Tech humour:

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Q0zAtqvuubHLxB3_Tgq9jw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE4NztweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz02MDA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ucomics.com/dt131106.gif

 

[lovetoread]

What is this Skype?

 

[glynndah]

One thousand kisses if you can solve my problem.

I was reviewing old flash drives and came across one I used to transfer files from one computer to another via Easy Transfer. Somehow that profile from a long-dead and forgotten computer was downloaded onto my laptop. That wouldn't be so bad except long, long ago, said dead computer was set up with a password. Soon afterwards, I clicked the option to allow it to open without a password. Since this was all years ago, I have no idea what that password was. Now, that profile is suddenly the default profile on the laptop and I can't access the "real" one. I'm pretty sure it wasn't deleted; the other one is just blocking it.

I've tried to use that same flashdrive to undo the damage to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Windows 7 Home Premium.

 

[islandman]

I was reviewing old flash drives and came across one I used to transfer files from one computer to another via Easy Transfer. Somehow that profile from a long-dead and forgotten computer was downloaded onto my laptop. That wouldn't be so bad except long, long ago, said dead computer was set up with a password. Soon afterwards, I clicked the option to allow it to open without a password. Since this was all years ago, I have no idea what that password was. Now, that profile is suddenly the default profile on the laptop and I can't access the "real" one. I'm pretty sure it wasn't deleted; the other one is just blocking it.

I've tried to use that same flashdrive to undo the damage to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Windows 7 Home Premium.

Try the following:

START>Control Panel>User Accounts and Family Safety>Add or Remove User Accounts

Once there, are you able to find the offending user listed? If so, delete it and then reboot.

 

[islandman]

Don't you have an issue with coal dust clogging the keys when you stoke it?

This is still the best post in this thread.