Re: irritating problem - suggestions?

ric wrote:
Hi All,
Got an elderley couple's PC in at the moment to fix, and it's turning
into a bit of a mare. I'm doing this as a favour, and it's turning
into one of those mithery ones.
It's an old Packard Bell, running WinME. Nice.
As they don't have the install disks for any of their software, I
suggested a clean up and me upping the RAM from 64meg with a couple of
spare sticks that I had lying around, as they didn't want to spend
much money on it, and I didn't mind doing this for nowt. All well and
good so far.
I've had it on the bench after a spyware removal session and patching
and it was fine for hours - ran Prime95, memtest etc all without
errors. Dialled up to the internet - all ok.
Take the PC back, and as soon as I dial up using their BTOpenwoe
account it bluescreens instantly and repeatedly. Argh. Cue sad
elderley faces. Otherwise all stable...
I'd plugged in their usb printer and usb mouse, which is different to
what I'd had at home whilst testing, I guess.

I'm thinking iffy PSU at the moment crapping out whilst under load
from modem, maybe - anyone any other suggestions? I suspect this
favour is one that's actually going to end up costing me money...sod's
law says it'll be something irritatingly weird like their electrical
supply at their house!
I don't really want to hand it back saying "sorry: I've had it for a
week and it's still broken" either...


Could well be a PSU. My guess is that it's the printer taking the juice.

These:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/20083
.... are so cheap I keep a couple in stock. Just fixed odd problems with one machine using one of them today!

I know how it feels to be faced with someone who hasn't done anything right - no backups, no CDs, data in a foul tangle - who looks at you with big eyes hoping you'll be able to fix it for beer money. Too soft, some of us...

PH, London
.

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