Homer Thompson Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Sounds like the hard drive is goosed big time, what were you watching or downloading lolIt does, but the fact that he can't boot off anything or even get to the bios suggests a bigger problem. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Did Miguel ever get anything up on the screen after disconnecting the hard drive? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 42 minutes ago, BFTD said: Did Miguel ever get anything up on the screen after disconnecting the hard drive? No, nothing happened when I did that. I suppose I'll try disconnecting the hard drive again and starting with the Ubuntu stick plugged in 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 3 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said: No, nothing happened when I did that. I suppose I'll try disconnecting the hard drive again and starting with the Ubuntu stick plugged in If you're getting nothing at all on screen with the hard drive disconnected, it's unlikely to help, unfortunately. Can't hurt, though. Are you sure the monitor's plugged in? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 2 minutes ago, BFTD said: If you're getting nothing at all on screen with the hard drive disconnected, it's unlikely to help, unfortunately. Can't hurt, though. Are you sure the monitor's plugged in? Sadly yes, the monitor's fine. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Just now, Miguel Sanchez said: Sadly yes, the monitor's fine. Well, if the worst comes to the worst, you've got a functional monitor to use with a new machine, at least. I don't suppose you're lucky enough to work somewhere with a friendly IT department, are you? They might be happy to do a bit of freelance diagnosis if you ask nicely and don't put any pressure on. If they're really nice, they might even have an old machine they'd be prepared to "mislay". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Just now, BFTD said: Well, if the worst comes to the worst, you've got a functional monitor to use with a new machine, at least. I don't suppose you're lucky enough to work somewhere with a friendly IT department, are you? They might be happy to do a bit of freelance diagnosis if you ask nicely and don't put any pressure on. If they're really nice, they might even have an old machine they'd be prepared to "mislay". No and I don't have any local PC shops and they're all shut anyway because of Covid, remember? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 5 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said: No and I don't have any local PC shops and they're all shut anyway because of Covid, remember? They're open round here...I guess businesses need their computers fixed even in a pandemic. Not that it matters, if you don't have one close by. Just noticed that you can pick up a refurbished version of the same model on eBay for £150. Not particularly recommending that, but it's an option if you fancy it. It seems very similar in spec to my Lenovo laptop, which...I've never been very happy with, and will be happy to punt for another model when the warranty's up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 1 minute ago, BFTD said: They're open round here...I guess businesses need their computers fixed even in a pandemic. Not that it matters, if you don't have one close by. Just noticed that you can pick up a refurbished version of the same model on eBay for £150. Not particularly recommending that, but it's an option if you fancy it. It seems very similar in spec to my Lenovo laptop, which...I've never been very happy with, and will be happy to punt for another model when the warranty's up. Good point about the warranty. Remember when I said it didn't feel new? I checked the serial number on the Lenovo website and it said the warranty ended in October 2018. I bought it in August. I suppose the question I should start asking is what sort of PC (or what sort of OH. I turned it on and left it while I typed this. It was doing nothing, then suddenly it made a noise like the fan or the hard drive sped up and it's started. Just had a notification on screen saying USB Receiver is set up and ready to go - this is for my wireless mouse/keyboard, my phone, headphones and bluetooth speaker are all still listed in the connected devices. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Anyway, as I was going to say before I was interrupted, what do people recommend buying and where do you recommend buying it from? Bear in mind if you tell me to build one myself I will be harrassing you for instructions on how to do so. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Excellent news! Although it does sound like they've punted a return on to you, if someone registered the warranty almost a year before you bought it. Not much you can do about it now. I had trouble with Lenovo a few years back. Bought a laptop from them direct, which they claimed to have sent out, and had proof that I'd signed for. After fannying about for a while, it turned out they couldn't prove that it had been sent at all, so agreed to send out another, then just totally ignored me for a few weeks. So I cancelled the PayPal payment, fully expecting they'd dispute it, but they just kept ignoring the whole thing until the 30 days (or whatever) had expired and I got my money back. Very odd behaviour. While your machine's up and running, you might want to download something (free) like CrystalDiskInfo to check the condition of your hard drive. It'll tell you if any SMART hardware failures have been monitored; if so, you need to back up your shit before the drive fails altogether. If the PC's actually running, it's unlikely to be a problem with your RAM; more good news. Could still be an intermittent PSU fault. Or, maybe it was a one-off event that I've seen happen with these boxes; it might have got stuck in some kind of loop when going through POST. Sometimes they just work their way out of it after being left on for a while, and you'll never know what was going on. Fingers crossed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 (edited) 11 minutes ago, BFTD said: Excellent news! Although it does sound like they've punted a return on to you, if someone registered the warranty almost a year before you bought it. Not much you can do about it now. I had trouble with Lenovo a few years back. Bought a laptop from them direct, which they claimed to have sent out, and had proof that I'd signed for. After fannying about for a while, it turned out they couldn't prove that it had been sent at all, so agreed to send out another, then just totally ignored me for a few weeks. So I cancelled the PayPal payment, fully expecting they'd dispute it, but they just kept ignoring the whole thing until the 30 days (or whatever) had expired and I got my money back. Very odd behaviour. While your machine's up and running, you might want to download something (free) like CrystalDiskInfo to check the condition of your hard drive. It'll tell you if any SMART hardware failures have been monitored; if so, you need to back up your shit before the drive fails altogether. If the PC's actually running, it's unlikely to be a problem with your RAM; more good news. Could still be an intermittent PSU fault. Or, maybe it was a one-off event that I've seen happen with these boxes; it might have got stuck in some kind of loop when going through POST. Sometimes they just work their way out of it after being left on for a while, and you'll never know what was going on. Fingers crossed. I found a video on youtube of a guy opening one of these up when it wouldn't power on at all. One of the comments said they had the same thing and they fixed it by unscrewing then rescrewing the fan/heatsink and getting rid of the dust around it. I tried that last night and it was what happened the last time (December 19, no problems since then) with nothing, but I gave it another go today and... here we are. I feel as if you're trying to punish me for my comments about Japanese video games with your link to that disk reading thing (Ed - I've now done this and it doesn't seem to be setting off any alarms), but I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to spend the day backing up around 800GB, apparently. That's a lot of porn! Edited March 31, 2021 by Miguel Sanchez 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 32 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said: Anyway, as I was going to say before I was interrupted, what do people recommend buying and where do you recommend buying it from? Bear in mind if you tell me to build one myself I will be harrassing you for instructions on how to do so. There'll be folk more up-to-date with the best entry-level PC parts than me, these days - I'm sure they'll be along presently The main consideration is whether or not you're prepared to use a machine without a Windows licence. The main (possibly only) benefit from buying a box from one of the big manufacturers is that it'll come with a Windows 10 Home licence, which can set you back about a hundred quid. But there are...other options. This article seems pretty decent: https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/get-windows-10-free-or-cheap,5717.html Building your own PC is easier than ever. Just remember to take anti-static precautions if you do as, even if you don't kill the components while building it, I've been told that static electricity can reduce the lifespan of integrated circuitry. Doesn't hurt to wear a wee cheap wristband when handling your bits. 2 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said: I found a video on youtube of a guy opening one of these up when it wouldn't power on at all. One of the comments said they had the same thing and they fixed it by unscrewing then rescrewing the fan/heatsink and getting rid of the dust around it. I tried that last night and it was what happened the last time (December 19, no problems since then) with nothing, but I gave it another go today and... here we are. I feel as if you're trying to punish me for my comments about Japanese video games with your link to that disk reading thing, but I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to spend the day backing up around 800GB, apparently. That's a lot of porn! That would make sense - if the heatsink isn't attached properly, the processor will instantly overheat on startup. Some machines will go off like a car alarm, others will give you a visual warning, while some just sit there and do nothing, which is always useful. Didn't occur to me that it might not be attached right, sorry. Well done on fixing it yourself. No idea why the CrystalDiskInfo folk have started going nuts for anime; I swear it looked like a professional tool last time I checked. But yeah, back up your stuff anyway, as all it takes is a power surge and that's all your "important business documents" lost. Your hard drive's probably fine now that you know the issue, but it only takes five minutes to check anyway, so it's worth doing. We could go into installing a cheap Solid State Drive to make your PC start Windows and programs much faster, but you'd need to reinstall everything again...definitely worth looking into for your next computer, though. Big difference in speed. And you can re-use your old hard drive as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
54_and_counting Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 2 hours ago, Mr X said: 3 hours ago, 54_and_counting said: Sounds like the hard drive is goosed big time, what were you watching or downloading lol It does, but the fact that he can't boot off anything or even get to the bios suggests a bigger problem. The fact his laptop wouldnt boot up with the hard drive connected as an external storage device makes me think something in the hard drive is corrupting whatever its plugged into Hence the question of what porn he was downloading so we can all stay away from they sites 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 34 minutes ago, BFTD said: There'll be folk more up-to-date with the best entry-level PC parts than me, these days - I'm sure they'll be along presently The main consideration is whether or not you're prepared to use a machine without a Windows licence. The main (possibly only) benefit from buying a box from one of the big manufacturers is that it'll come with a Windows 10 Home licence, which can set you back about a hundred quid. But there are...other options. This article seems pretty decent: https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/get-windows-10-free-or-cheap,5717.html Building your own PC is easier than ever. Just remember to take anti-static precautions if you do as, even if you don't kill the components while building it, I've been told that static electricity can reduce the lifespan of integrated circuitry. Doesn't hurt to wear a wee cheap wristband when handling your bits. That would make sense - if the heatsink isn't attached properly, the processor will instantly overheat on startup. Some machines will go off like a car alarm, others will give you a visual warning, while some just sit there and do nothing, which is always useful. Didn't occur to me that it might not be attached right, sorry. Well done on fixing it yourself. No idea why the CrystalDiskInfo folk have started going nuts for anime; I swear it looked like a professional tool last time I checked. But yeah, back up your stuff anyway, as all it takes is a power surge and that's all your "important business documents" lost. Your hard drive's probably fine now that you know the issue, but it only takes five minutes to check anyway, so it's worth doing. We could go into installing a cheap Solid State Drive to make your PC start Windows and programs much faster, but you'd need to reinstall everything again...definitely worth looking into for your next computer, though. Big difference in speed. And you can re-use your old hard drive as well. I have no idea what the license status of this machine is. Don't feel bad about the heatsink, I had jiggled that already before I started posting here, in fact I think I tried it twice. Maybe it is just that. To answer @54_and_counting's question, I haven't downloaded anything from any new sources recently. The last new thing I did was on Sunday when it was last on, I was using the SD card reader and had to try a few times before it registered me inserting anything. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Thompson Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 That would make sense - if the heatsink isn't attached properly, the processor will instantly overheat on startup. Some machines will go off like a car alarm, others will give you a visual warning, while some just sit there and do nothing, which is always useful. Didn't occur to me that it might not be attached right, sorry. Well done on fixing it yourself. No idea why the CrystalDiskInfo folk have started going nuts for anime; I swear it looked like a professional tool last time I checked. But yeah, back up your stuff anyway, as all it takes is a power surge and that's all your "important business documents" lost. Your hard drive's probably fine now that you know the issue, but it only takes five minutes to check anyway, so it's worth doing. We could go into installing a cheap Solid State Drive to make your PC start Windows and programs much faster, but you'd need to reinstall everything again...definitely worth looking into for your next computer, though. Big difference in speed. And you can re-use your old hard drive as well.You can get a windows 10 Pro license for £10—£20 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 46 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said: I have no idea what the license status of this machine is. Don't feel bad about the heatsink, I had jiggled that already before I started posting here, in fact I think I tried it twice. Maybe it is just that. To answer @54_and_counting's question, I haven't downloaded anything from any new sources recently. The last new thing I did was on Sunday when it was last on, I was using the SD card reader and had to try a few times before it registered me inserting anything. If it came from the manufacturer with Windows already installed, it'll be fine (you'd hope). You can't transfer the licence to a new machine though. 36 minutes ago, Mr X said: You can get a windows 10 Pro license for £10—£20 Legit, or from one of the key sites that say they bought them in bulk from someone? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Thompson Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Legit, or from one of the key sites that say they bought them in bulk from someone?Both, I imagine.I've bought a few licenses from key sites without any problems. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 5 minutes ago, Mr X said: Both, I imagine. I've bought a few licenses from key sites without any problems. Aye, same here. I know they work but, if I'm going to use a pirate licence for something, I'd rather not have to pay someone for the privilege 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Thompson Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Aye, same here. I know they work but, if I'm going to use a pirate licence for something, I'd rather not have to pay someone for the privilege [emoji14]They're not pirate licenses. With online verification pirate licenses are really difficult to find.These ones activate Windows without any issues, so they are as legit as you need. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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