PC has / is dying – help please

[Hugh Potter]

Hi Warren,

how much is a standard "off the shelf" pc these days? i got a pretty top end pc (quad core, 3gigddr2, 400gig hdd, big lcd monitor, etc) for about £750 worth of signage at my local shop, total cost to me was about £250.

if you’re not lucky enough to have a shop that needs signage then still pop in there, i recently bought, as a back up (when i needed it!) a refurb’d tower only with 120gig hdd, 2gig ram and dual core processors, it doesn’t have to run a power hungry rip but does all i needed it too for £60!

[Hugh Potter]

ps, blow out and vacuum the tower / motherboard / fans on top of the cpu and heatsinks, if they’re clogged with dust then airflow doesn’t move so well and it will overheat.

i made a makeshift hoover attachment using a pop bottle and a piece of 1/4" pipe for inside the pc, amazing how much cack gets in the fans etc.

[Richard Urquhart]

Warren I have 2 systems. 1 running xp pro for the printer and cutter.
the other an Hp quad core with 4 gb ram running signlab etc etc very fast copes well with massive files and was around £699 in pc world around a year ago. I never like the ones the smaller shops put together as some components conflict with eachother, just think its easy to go in to pc world and get one thats been tested.

[Stephen Morriss]

Should be fine Warren.

I thinks it’s fine with Windows 7, do a quick search.

Make sure it’s got a 32 bit OS though as Versaworks isn’t designs for 64 bit yet.

Steve

[Warren Beard]

Thanks guys

I spoke to Signmaster about 64 bit and they said Versaworks will run fine on it but it cannot be Windows 7 Home, must be Professional or the top one what ever it’s called.

both my local computer shops haven’t got back to me, the one I already have/do a lot of work for but like I said no response and he’s always on the road (although he always phones me late at night when he needs something 🙄 :lol1: )

Am worried that if either I upgrade my current or get a new one built it is going to take days, I have work waiting to be done and need one yesterday 😥 That’s why I was thinking PC World as I could buy one now but also don’t want to waste money or sacrifice on speed etc.

cheers

Warren

[Stephen Morriss]

The Roland site just says Windows 7, doesn’t mention anything about it having to be Pro or Ultimate.

Steve

[Warren Beard]

quote Stephen Morriss:

The Roland site just says Windows 7, doesn’t mention anything about it having to be Pro or Ultimate.

Steve

Steve I’m not sure, all I know is I was told if it’s a 64bit machine it won’t work on home edition, I presume it will work on home edition on 32bit.

does anybody know for sure?

[Stephen Morriss]

Ahh right.

Steve

[Simon Strom]

If the pc is overheating you might take it apart and clean the thermal grease out. Re-apply some Arctic5 Silver Thermal Grease on it. They have some solution that’s suppose to help take off old thermal grease. I just use electrical contact cleaner solution and some cue tips though. I’ve had a few PC’s with overheating issues and that helped. If something has blown on the board it won’t help of course. But it’s a super cheap and easy thing to do.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm

[Simon Strom]

I guess I should have said that the thermal grease is applied between the heat sink / fan and the processor (AMD, Intel) chip. Just in case you weren’t aware of what I was referring to.

😀

[Warren Beard]

well I took the fan out and the big funnel tube thingy and gave it all a good clean as it was very very dirty, powered up first time after a good clean, I hope all the other blue screen issues I was having will go too, time for some more Ram me thinks.

I just can’t believe I approached 2 local computer shop (one I do a fair amount of work for) and none of them got back to me after I told them I need to buy a PC off them, obviously it’s the right business to be in when you don’t need customers coming to you to buy your goods.

cheers

warren

[Alan Wharton]

iv had the same problems of blue screen over and over again which like yours turned out to be dust in the cpu heat sink but a good blast with me air line sorted that and worked great, had same prob again a few months later but it turned out to be the power supply was fried and kept blue screening, new 800w ps all ok again, but pc’s certainly dont like getting hot, there is monitoring software you can put on your pc that gives an alarm if cpu gets above a set temp.