Noob/Beginner Help

[Tom27]

My old PC has recently stopped working (Shitty Packard Bell) and glowing with a red light around the power button.
As soon as it turns on, the red light shows and it auto shuts down.
I'm guessing this is my HardDrive failing/blown ?

I've been out and bought a shabby £20 PC for the time being, but with it being £20 its running very slow.
Is it possible to take the RAM out of my old PC, and simply put it straight into my other one?
Or even any other bits & bobs which may help if possible?

Cheers in advance

EDIT:
I'm aware that the GFX card is absolutely bollox, however this PC will only be used for mir.

 

[Skyline]

May not be just the Hard Drive, usually if it's the hard drive you will get an error message or a blue screen.

In regards using your old RAM is all depends if your current PC's motherboard will take it or not as there's many different types of RAM. Best thing would be to take a stick of ram out of the old pc and check it against what's in the new one.

Not really worth taking anything else out, both PC's probably just use on board graphics.

 

[Koriban]

The power supply / power relay may have gone bust. If it's not getting any power it won't turn on period. Check this first because this is the cheapest option for you.

If not, then your hard drive or motherboard may be old/faulty. In which case, you're probably looking at a new computer. Simply replacing these old products can prove to be more expensive than it's worth doing =/

 

[Tom27]

Compared the RAM sticks, but none of them match at all ;/ Its just 1 tiny slot stopping them having a perfect fit.
The computer does turn on, but shows a red glow around the power button and immediatley switches off.
I have had the screen of death before, but I did a system restore 5-6 times which is why im thinking along the lines of harddrive failure.

I'm kinda dumb in this field so I feel kinda useless xD

EDIT:

Basically all I do is play mir, and like to be "tweaked"
I have 2 PC's (1 broken & 1 super old **** pc)

PC1 (Broken): Packard Bell, QuadCore, Maximum 4GB HDD, Windows Vista.
(Runs mir smoothe, I run a little quick, but tweakers skip alot)

PC2 (Works): Unknown Make, Single Core, Maximum 8GB HDD, Windows XP
(Runs mir with drag/lagg, I run quick to other people & tweakers run normal to me)

What would you do?
1) Fix the broken PC & get windows xp on it.
2) Upgrade PC2

 

[Ardbeg]

When you turn the first pc on, does the power supply fan move at all ?
Do you hear any fan noise or motherboard beeps ?
I suggest you remove the cover, turn it on, see if the cpu fan turns or if the HD clicks at all.
Sometimes the power unit dies but if the motherboard fan or cpu fan is dead the bios can close it all down.
The motherboard battery can also cause a system to appear dead. It could be as simple as changing that.

 

[Koriban]

PC2 (Works): Unknown Make, Single Core, Maximum 8GB HDD, Windows XP
(Runs mir with drag/lagg, I run quick to other people & tweakers run normal to me)

What would you do?

Purely for Mir? I would look into buying more RAM for the PC that works. Find out what RAM it is by looking on the side of the stick. If spare slot, just buy another stick. If no spare slots (only 1 or 2) just upgrade the RAM you've got to a larger size.

That should fix the "drag/lagg" issue I assume you're having. If tweakers are normal to you then you're just as fast as them, which is optimal. This is probably due to the single core and WindowsXP.

I'd then ditch the broken one, maybe try and make some cash out of it if possible.

 

[Karl]

Compared the RAM sticks, but none of them match at all ;/ Its just 1 tiny slot stopping them having a perfect fit.
The computer does turn on, but shows a red glow around the power button and immediatley switches off.
I have had the screen of death before, but I did a system restore 5-6 times which is why im thinking along the lines of harddrive failure.

I'm kinda dumb in this field so I feel kinda useless xD

EDIT:

Basically all I do is play mir, and like to be "tweaked"
I have 2 PC's (1 broken & 1 super old **** pc)

PC1 (Broken): Packard Bell, QuadCore, Maximum 4GB HDD, Windows Vista.
(Runs mir smoothe, I run a little quick, but tweakers skip alot)

PC2 (Works): Unknown Make, Single Core, Maximum 8GB HDD, Windows XP
(Runs mir with drag/lagg, I run quick to other people & tweakers run normal to me)

What would you do?
1) Fix the broken PC & get windows xp on it.
2) Upgrade PC2

PC2 has an 8gig hard drive, this is definately going to be DDR1 memory, really expensive now and likely you're gonna get next to nothing.

Repair PC1 imo.

 

[Shady]

The power supply / power relay may have gone bust. If it's not getting any power it won't turn on period. Check this first because this is the cheapest option for you.

If not, then your hard drive or motherboard may be old/faulty. In which case, you're probably looking at a new computer. Simply replacing these old products can prove to be more expensive than it's worth doing =/

forspinki's desktop stopped working and this happened , a new power supply fixed it but then again it could be alot of things.

 

[Tom27]

Purely for Mir? I would look into buying more RAM for the PC that works. Find out what RAM it is by looking on the side of the stick. If spare slot, just buy another stick. If no spare slots (only 1 or 2) just upgrade the RAM you've got to a larger size.

That should fix the "drag/lagg" issue I assume you're having. If tweakers are normal to you then you're just as fast as them, which is optimal. This is probably due to the single core and WindowsXP.

I'd then ditch the broken one, maybe try and make some cash out of it if possible.

Atm in this PC there is 4x 512MB RAM sticks in, but the PC does run slow-ish.
Any idea on how much 4x 2GB RAM sticks would cost?
Also, I think the GFX card is super old on this, would that help if I bought a new one?

PC2 has an 8gig hard drive, this is definately going to be DDR1 memory, really expensive now and likely you're gonna get next to nothing.

Repair PC1 imo.

Same answer as above

====================

PC has gone into the shop yesterday morning to be fixed.
The guy said he would ring me the next day (Today) to tell me whats wrong with it, and how much it will cost to be repaired. However; He didn't ring me, and I had to ring him.
He told me he would ring back in 30 minutes and tell me whats wrong, however he didn't.

More delays from **** PC repair shops I guess ;/

Would it be possible to put Windows XP over a Windows 7 using a xp disc?
If so, how? I have the disk ready xD

---------- Post Merged on 23-08-2013 at 11:03 AM ---------- Previous Post was on 22-08-2013 at 09:14 PM ----------

This PC shop is taking the piss!
I put my PC in a shop on tuesday for repair, its now friday and hes only just looked at the PC. He replied with: its not the motherboard, its not the harddrive, its not the power supply, its not the CPU. I'll ring you back at 12 and tell you whats wrong with it.
If it isnt one ofthose things, what the **** is it?!

Kinda thinking he doesnt know what hes doing tbh.

EDIT:
Hes now telling me that it "May be a motherboard problem" and hes "testing it now".

 

[DevilsKnight]

Take hard disc out of pc2 put in pc1 see if it boots. Eliminates one problem.

If it boots, format hard disc, install chosen operating system, install mir. Play.

If it doesn't even get to the bios screen its likely to be the motherboard that has **** itself.

 

[Tom27]

The PC has now been fixed. Windows XP professional x64 has been installed.
I'm now in the process of trying to find out a list of services what can be disabled as I have over 40 running.
Hopefully I'll be able to get them down to around 10.

If anybody knows any disable able services please let me know ty

 

[CraZyEriK]

The PC has now been fixed. Windows XP professional x64 has been installed.
I'm now in the process of trying to find out a list of services what can be disabled as I have over 40 running.
Hopefully I'll be able to get them down to around 10.

If anybody knows any disable able services please let me know ty

http://www.jasonn.com/turning_off_unnecessary_services_on_windows_xp


you can have a look on this!

 

[Tom27]

Thanks erik, I managed to find a website which listen every single service that I had.
My services went from 45 ish right down to 19/20, which has helped a fair bit

Cheers anyway, that website looked pretty similar to what I had used.