[QUOTE=tomoyoafter;2586630]well around a month back i went back to living in my friend’s place after having left there for 5 months and started up the DELL desktop he letted me borrow that wasn’t used nor cleaned at all in the period of my absence.[/QUOTE]
Here’s a problem he hasn’t used it for 3 years and prior to that you don’t have any records of how he took care of the computer or maintained it in working order. He was expecting it to fail and hoping someone else would break it so he would get a new computer.
[QUOTE=tomoyoafter;2586630]the desktop was around 3 years old but still relatively new as he bought it retail as a spare unit/backup. well i didn’t know what happened but when i came back after all those months i fired up the dekstop again and started to install several programs like Office and an Encyclopedia at once while launching Maya to finish up my class project, then all of the sudden the screen goes black and everything went silent. the monitor was not displaying a no signal error, and the pc was still powered on, but was quiet as if it had gone to sleep mode; but it really wasn’t.[/QUOTE]
Running that many programs don’t kill a computer unless it was so bloated or corrupted program or problematic hardware that wasn’t maintained that would cause such a failure.
[QUOTE=tomoyoafter;2586630]at first i panicked and tried switching the desktop off then back again, but when it hums up nothing happens, there was no dreadful series of beeping signals from the mobo to indicate a problem, there was no noises coming from any components in the chasis at all, even the dvd drive did not respond to the eject button, there was nothing but the errie glow of the “busy” signal light remaining constantly on, and as i hammered away at the keyboard and whatever buttons the desktop had in the front i realized i must have broken either the HD, Ram, Video card or the MOBO or maybe the cables came loose.[/QUOTE]
Yes we do panic when someone else computer fails but if your not abusing it or dropping it and it you just used it after a long time who knows what your friend did to it between those times and whom else the friend let use the computer.
[QUOTE=tomoyoafter;2586630]after opening up the chasis everything inside seems to look fine, i didn’t notice any burnt marks or melted wires or sockets. i had the unit brought to HP, but they can’t say how much its going to cost, but they suggested that i get a new desktop alltogether since it could be the Mobo that’s fried and if so all the components in there are surely damaged to some extent and it’ll be “impractical” to fix the machine.[/QUOTE]
Here a big problem why are you taking a Dell to HP to fix??? You should take it to a Dell service repair center HP has nothing to do with Dell.
[QUOTE=tomoyoafter;2586630]well my friend seems terribly expressive and insistent that i fix the machine somehow, in any case he’s quite enraged that i didn’t allowed the pc to warm up first because i was obviously the one not having used it for so long…so i really should have done that yes? i mean warm up the pc and let it sit idle on its own for a few hours before actually start stressing it out?[/QUOTE]
This sounds more like again your friend was expecting it to fail for someone else and then friend would say your broke you fix it. That is no real friend whom doesn’t even take care of his own stuff and letting others use a poorly maintained computer just so they can get a new one.
[QUOTE=tomoyoafter;2586630]and i’ve also decided to fix it myself by replacing the broken components since i rekon it’d be so much cheaper than to let HP monopolizes on me after paying them a hefty just for the check-up fee, but i haven’t a clue as to which part i should replace, and i understand that without the beeping signals from the MOBO it is very difficult to tell which part is malfunctioning, but is there any other way i can check?
current PC condition:
Power supply - ok! can power on and off, all cables plugged to where they should go.
MOBO - no idea, the dvd drive is not responding to eject button, no beeping signals, but on one occasion the dvd drive tray came out on its own without me pressing anything prior.
HD - i can’t hear it spin, its quiet inside.
Display card - well there’s a nvidia geforce8 in there and the monitor is not giving out a"no signal error"…so…?
Ram - no idea if its working or not
turning on that pc is like turning on a toaster; the busy signal light comes on and nothing happens. no noises, no sound nor anything.
well that’s about it, i’d probably have to buy him a new desktop if i still want to live there. thanks for helping me out! cheers~[/QUOTE]
Here a big news why shouldn’t you fix something the friend let go broke and didn’t maintain in the first place?? You should ask the friend that question and whom else has used it since you used it last?? Your friend should take most if not all responsibility for properly maintaining his computer and if the friend doesn’t do that then failure is bound to coming knocking on the door. Which it seems to have done when you used it. So tell your friend proper computer maintenance of software and hardware would be in order to keep it working order. You shouldn’t have to fix what the friend didn’t want to take care of since the friend is the owner of the computer. Tell him if he wants a fix he will have to pay you to fix it or pay you fore replacing his computer and if the friend doesn’t like that then so be it. That tells you the friend lack of responsibility for taking care of anything the friend owns. If you truly abused the friends’ computer then that is a different story altogether but if you just after long time came to use it and it broke the culprit is the friend and the friend has no one to blame except himself for why the computer did what it did and died when you tried to use it.
[B]I have no sympathy for those whom don’t take care of their computer and expect others to fix their problems for them when it fails on their watch. [/B]Another note electronics are bound to fail regardless but it is how you take care of it that will also determine it life span usefulness these problem we can’t predict but proper computer care is one way to decrease the unexpected software or hardware failures or catch the problem before it happens. Which is what your friend is lacking in.
Also @deanimator fishing won’t solve the problem the problem is the friend is being unreasonable and the lack of proper care of the computer is what lead to this problem in the first place.
