Has anyone had a pc that just 'works'?
- Thread starter saintdefender
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Hardware is usually fine for me. If hardware does go wonky, it's usually because I have been tinkering with the settings. Software, on the other hand can be less reliable than hardware.
I have a couple of friends who know absolutely zero about computers. When they tell me their "internet screen" size is diminishing. I'll have a look only to find they have unwittingly let software install several toolbars and homepage alterations to internet explorer. All they really had to do to avoid this was read the tick box options when installing stuff.
They have so lttle interest in understanding computers, I am surprised how they manage. But they get by. They usually plod along with an extremely slow pc caused by software issues. They just don't know it could be lots more efficient.
I'd offer improve thier systems but I am always wary of sods law. If I were to fiddle with thier computers and a hard drive failed a week later then I'd appear to be the cause. I'll help when asked though.
I have a couple of friends who know absolutely zero about computers. When they tell me their "internet screen" size is diminishing. I'll have a look only to find they have unwittingly let software install several toolbars and homepage alterations to internet explorer. All they really had to do to avoid this was read the tick box options when installing stuff.
They have so lttle interest in understanding computers, I am surprised how they manage. But they get by. They usually plod along with an extremely slow pc caused by software issues. They just don't know it could be lots more efficient.
I'd offer improve thier systems but I am always wary of sods law. If I were to fiddle with thier computers and a hard drive failed a week later then I'd appear to be the cause. I'll help when asked though.
My Phenom II rig worked perfectly up until the point the motherboard suddenly broke 
Having my new one delivered in a couple of days (faulty under warranty, but I could only get a replacement of the same board) but I will never quite trust that same board again
Having my new one delivered in a couple of days (faulty under warranty, but I could only get a replacement of the same board) but I will never quite trust that same board again 
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Never had and serious issues in the dozen or so ive built over the years. Apart from the odd stupid schoolboy error I have made now and then. Generally allways gone ok but there will always be the odd bit of kit out there with a problem, its the nature of the beast
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The other 7 I built - all working perfectly to this day, including my old rig a mate has now
My rig?:
-Faulty RAM
-Graphics card burns up and shorts PSU with it
-Replacement PSU has faulty fan after few days, RMA for a different one
-HDD fails
-New 4870 dies after 2 weeks
-Second 4870 dies after that
-Samsung F3 dies
-New GFX/Board/RAM/CPU, MSI give me wrong link to BIOS and hey presto, dead board
All down to bad service or low quality parts, the particular model of 4870 and the F3s are known for issues.
Wish I'd gone prebuilt
My rig?:
-Faulty RAM
-Graphics card burns up and shorts PSU with it
-Replacement PSU has faulty fan after few days, RMA for a different one
-HDD fails
-New 4870 dies after 2 weeks
-Second 4870 dies after that
-Samsung F3 dies
-New GFX/Board/RAM/CPU, MSI give me wrong link to BIOS and hey presto, dead board
All down to bad service or low quality parts, the particular model of 4870 and the F3s are known for issues.
Wish I'd gone prebuilt
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The other 7 I built - all working perfectly to this day
My rig?:
-Faulty RAM
-Graphics card burns up and shorts PSU with it
-Replacement PSU has faulty fan after few days, RMA for a different one
-HDD fails
-New 4870 dies after 2 weeks
-Second 4870 dies after that
-Samsung F3 dies
-New GFX/Board/RAM/CPU, MSI give me wrong link to BIOS and hey presto, dead board
All down to bad service or low quality parts, the particular model of 4870 and the F3s are known for issues.
Wish I'd gone prebuilt
You should buy a lottery ticket, im sure your luck has to change soon
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You should buy a lottery ticket, im sure your luck has to change soon
Haha, I must have the worst computing luck known to man, you know your system fails when it has more downtime than uptime
The pcs I've built myself from scratch (including mobo/cpu interim upgrades) have worked perfectly from the off to the finish.
We've got a prebuilt pc downstairs, however, that doesn't just work as you call it, I've been meaning to have a mess about with it!
We've got a prebuilt pc downstairs, however, that doesn't just work as you call it, I've been meaning to have a mess about with it!
Sorry, off topic I know but what is a fruit cooler? I have a rough idea but I would like to know in case I'm thinking of something similar. Was it nice?
On topic, I have never built a rig from scratch but I may do with the next one. I have had very little in the way of problems over the years and generally find I can sort out my own teething troubles. My rigs tend to be very stable.
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First PC I owned the hard drive failed and I lost everything. My asus monitor also broke.
The second PC I owned, (custom built by overclockers) -
- BFG 9800GX2 died. The replacement BFG sent was also crap (and worth about £300 less)
- DVD drive works but wont burn DVDs any more. Fail again!
- My xfx 5770 will fill the screen with weird lines and force me to reboot (it's even done it when I was just browsing the forums now!)
- My corsair dominator RAM just broke last month. The replacement is arriving tomorrow.
Also been plagued by many viruses and had to re-install OS several times.
So you're not the only one with bad luck
The second PC I owned, (custom built by overclockers) -
- BFG 9800GX2 died. The replacement BFG sent was also crap (and worth about £300 less
)- DVD drive works but wont burn DVDs any more. Fail again!
- My xfx 5770 will fill the screen with weird lines and force me to reboot (it's even done it when I was just browsing the forums now!)
- My corsair dominator RAM just broke last month. The replacement is arriving tomorrow.
Also been plagued by many viruses and had to re-install OS several times.
So you're not the only one with bad luck
My current PC (20 months old) has only had one real hardware problem - the GPU fan started being noisy and then stopped working completely. An RMA effectively got me a free upgrade from 512 MB to 1 GB of VRAM.
The motherboard's eSATA port doesn't work, but then that's a common problem with this board, and one of my HDDs needed RMAing last week (didn't lose any data) but with 5 HDDs and an SSD, statistically that's not bad.
The motherboard's eSATA port doesn't work, but then that's a common problem with this board, and one of my HDDs needed RMAing last week (didn't lose any data) but with 5 HDDs and an SSD, statistically that's not bad.
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a bunch of problems I'v had over the years are faulty graphics cards, faulty ram even faulty motherboards (I have had 2 faulty motherboards!) I have also had an SSD fault where I have had to RMA it and also fan problems.
Bad luck pretty much surrounds me and PCS, whilest all the problems mentioined above (and more) have all happend to different pcs over the years, there still hasn't been one PC that hasn't gave me trouble! My new one for e.g, whilest running golden now, I had trouble getting the GPUS to work, however a bit of TLC and cable swapping solved that isssue!
I think however out of all the faults I'v had, the ram by FAR is the most common. It seems that you have a 50/50 chance for a ram stick to work or not, and when you are buying 3 sticks of the stuff , the odds really are not in your favor, consideriing that if one is faulty, you then need to troubleshoot to find out which ramstick it is and sometimes just simply trying them one at a time, isn’t enough you need to do bios tweaks!
But yeah, I hope with my new system, once I have it all finished, by finished I mean new CD ROM drive and Windows 7 being installed on my new SSD which I recently RMA’d, It will be clear sailing from then on, as I don’t plan to upgrade anytime in the near future!
Bad luck pretty much surrounds me and PCS, whilest all the problems mentioined above (and more) have all happend to different pcs over the years, there still hasn't been one PC that hasn't gave me trouble! My new one for e.g, whilest running golden now, I had trouble getting the GPUS to work, however a bit of TLC and cable swapping solved that isssue!
I think however out of all the faults I'v had, the ram by FAR is the most common. It seems that you have a 50/50 chance for a ram stick to work or not, and when you are buying 3 sticks of the stuff , the odds really are not in your favor, consideriing that if one is faulty, you then need to troubleshoot to find out which ramstick it is and sometimes just simply trying them one at a time, isn’t enough you need to do bios tweaks!
But yeah, I hope with my new system, once I have it all finished, by finished I mean new CD ROM drive and Windows 7 being installed on my new SSD which I recently RMA’d, It will be clear sailing from then on, as I don’t plan to upgrade anytime in the near future!
My first ever PC pre-build from the high street bought in c2002 has never had a single problem!!
It's only a P4 but works absolutely fine. (never OCd it)
In it's life I upgraded the HDD for space and the Graphics for newer games.
It's hit the end of it's upgrade possablilities but - 9 years later - it STILL works perfectly fine. I use it to play LAN in Rome Total War (and looking for other old games to buy a second copy of lol)
Have a new self build as my main machine but the old one is still set up lol
I'm a lucky ******* I know
It's only a P4 but works absolutely fine. (never OCd it)
In it's life I upgraded the HDD for space and the Graphics for newer games.
It's hit the end of it's upgrade possablilities but - 9 years later - it STILL works perfectly fine. I use it to play LAN in Rome Total War (and looking for other old games to buy a second copy of lol)
Have a new self build as my main machine but the old one is still set up lol
I'm a lucky ******* I know
Sorry, off topic I know but what is a fruit cooler? I have a rough idea but I would like to know in case I'm thinking of something similar. Was it nice?
I'm thinking a slush puppy smoothie type thing...or a refrigerated cabinet
Dell XPS 450 '99 - monitor went yellow colour after 2yrs, replaced by Dell
Self build '05 - lots of problems after buying RAM not on the QVL, rock solid and still going strong since the RAM was swapped.
Current build (sig) '09 - lots of problems after buying RAM not on the QVL... (fool) now much better! Doesn't boot every time (ASUS 'DET DRAM' error), once it's in Windows it's generally fine but doesn't like waking up from sleep... in general a bit temperamental but handles games very well so I'm still pleased with it.
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I put together an AS400 with a colleague a few years back and did my back in trying to move it, does that count
