Re: Several issues in one
- From: "Hackworth" <NoSpam4Me@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 23:25:57 -0400
"playstation60" <no@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:l_uCg.4249$bN2.208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It strikes me as kind of ironic that the two people beyond myself that
have posted on this topic have both been nothing more than guests.
Ponder the meanings of that.
I felt, and still feel that "Johns" was speaking from an
assumed position of superiority. He belittled my computer "well
obviously this is a junker", "Put the thing in the paper,
and try to find a moron who just wants email. They are out there, and
you might get $200 for it. Use that to convince Pops to buy you a
real computer", practically told me to throw the thing out and
start fresh.
This is not what I wanted in way of help. The entire tone of the
posts was condescending. The purpose of this forum is to help
people, not make them feel like crap because their computer is older
or because their computer is causing problems, whether self induced
due to negligence or not.
If this is the kind of "help" that this site offers, I don't
want it.
OK, now you're just being petulant, and I still think that you are
misunderstanding Johns' motives. <sigh> At any rate, let's start over.
The very first thing I would do is to replace both IDE cables (the flat
ribbon cables connecting your optical drives and hard disks to the
motherboard). You'd be amazed at how often weird drive problems such as
those you're experiencing go away. And think about it... the guts of your
(admittedly old) system were transplanted into a new case, so the existing
cables could very well have been hosed. Finally, even if new cables don't
fix the problems, at least you've ruled out marginal cables and can go
forward knowing that you have fresh new cables to start with.
The next thing is to disconnect the hard disk that your friend gave to you.
A dying hard disk can cause all of the symptoms that you've described. If
your system boots up and all of your other drives are recognized, then
you've found the culprit. At that point, you'd need to buy another hard disk
drive or make do with 40GB. (Note: You could try downloading the disk
utility from that drive manufacturer's site--for example, Data Lifeguard
Tool from Western Digital's site or MaxBlast from Maxtor's site--and run it
to see if it can successfully reinitialize the bad drive for you.)
It's also possible that the old CD-ROM drive is the problem. Try
disconnecting that, rebooting, and then seeing if everything else works.
Fortunately, a new optical drive is cheap, and that's an easy fix. I would
get a DVD-ROM drive or a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive to replace the bad drive.
The prices have fallen through the floor on all optical dirves, even
DVD+/-RW drives, so you'll have to decide what you want to do in that case.
Finally, it could very well be that the power supply in this case is also
failing. It may not be able to power two optical drives and two hard disks
in addition to everything else in your system. After all, the power supply
is old, too. Fortunately, you can get a new one cheap.
For any parts that you may need to replace, check www.newegg.com and
www.pricewatch.com. For your cables, try here:
www.trianglecables.com/idecab33.html
Whatever you do, don't pay retail prices for any of these items unless
there's a huge sale going on at your local superstore of office supply
place. It's just not necessary.
.
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