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any computer gurus on here?

rushworks graphics

rushworks graphics

New Member
well...........thanks to the advice from several on here i got it working! awesome........... now, what do you guys recommend i do now incase it happens again? is there something i should either check, replace or something as it happened i guess for a reason.

basically i went in and did the chkdsk r commend promp, then the fixboot and restarted the computer.

should i do some precautionary fixes?
 
rushworks graphics

rushworks graphics

New Member
oh and one more question....i back up the files onto disk, however i want to back up the files onto a portable/external backup device. when i go to plug it into the usb port, as its an old computer it uses v1 and the external backup will only except v2 for usb.
any ideas how i can get around this?
 
SignBurst PCs

SignBurst PCs

New Member
rushworks graphics said:
oh and one more question....i back up the files onto disk, however i want to back up the files onto a portable/external backup device. when i go to plug it into the usb port, as its an old computer it uses v1 and the external backup will only except v2 for usb.
any ideas how i can get around this?
Click to expand...

I am not sure I understand but USB 2.0 is backward compatible to USB 1.0. If you use a USB 2.0 extrernal device in a USB 1.0 slot, it may tell you that is ill run slower, but it should run.
 
rushworks graphics

rushworks graphics

New Member
when i plug in the external backup it says something about a high speed port or something like that and its not compatible. i clicked on a help icon and then it took me into something that alowed me to do the connection as you say at a lower rate of speed.

thanks again for the advice.....
 
choucove

choucove

New Member
The V1 USB should still be able to run and recognize the external drive as you pointed out it will be at a slower speed.

Given that you are starting to see checkdisk errors and startup issues with a Windows XP machine, and you stated it is several years old, replacing the hard drive would be a top priority as it is possible you might have a hard drive starting to fail, and drives are cheap.

However, that being said, you pointed out that this computer only has USB V1, running Windows XP... At this point I can only really recommend a new computer, as just replacing the hard drive isn't going to prevent inevitable failures elsewhere in the computer as it ages. I don't like to be the one to tell people they have to spend more money, but really it is the only solution if you don't wish to end up with a terrible mess and a headache by trying to run a computer system well past its lifespan or capabilities and begin to see failures. Spend the money now while you still have a working system and you can still save your data and switch over. Otherwise once it all does die you may be down for days and may not be able to transfer over your existing data and will still have to spend the money on a new computer anyways.
 
Custom_Grafx

Custom_Grafx

New Member
That sounds right, it will let you use it but it is much, much, much slower. Then again, if you're not backing up hundreds of mb's or gb's it's still not that bad...

As for precautionary measures, I would suggest getting a new computer or at least new RAM/HDD.

I had a strange intermittent blue screen problem a couple of years back which I couldn't for the life of me isolate. As a last resort, I found a free online tool from microsoft.com which creates a boot floppy disk to check your RAM before your computer even starts booting and does all sorts of fancy checks on your RAM and tells you if there are any problems. To my surprise, there were quite a few errors popping up!

Changed the RAM which is cheap, then while putting things back together again, noticed the fan wasn't working on the back of the machine! Turns out, fan stopped working, memory probably overheated, and fried? I'm just guessing there, but highly likely. Sometimes one small $10 problem like a fan, can cause more, and so on.

So, I got myself a new fan as well. For around $100 pc went for another 2 years without a glitch :)

Hope it doesn't happen again - you should probably talk to someone about getting a new hdd at least... if the chkdsk fixed it... it's pretty much a hdd problem??
 
SignBurst PCs

SignBurst PCs

New Member
Both posts above are good points. I was just hoping that you would be able to get the computer up, at least temporarily, in order to make it easier to transfer your data and to deactivate software such as Adobe. In any event, good luck.
 
OldPaint

OldPaint

New Member
i have an old cable from pre usb days. connects to lpt-1 and on the other end it connects to a hard drive. we used to transfer hard drive files from 1 drive to another this way.
 
jiarby

jiarby

New Member
HDD's are so cheap now that you would be foolish to not have a spare or two sitting around.

You also need (EVERYONE) a disaster recovery plan specifically for how you will recover from a few of the common computer failures:
-Lost O/S HDD
-Bad Power Suppy
-Bad Mobo

For the cost of some backup software (such as Acronis), a spare drive, and extra HDD storage for you disk images you would have been back up and running from a HDD failure within an hour.

I keep a spare P/S on the shelf, several HDD's, and even a spare PC with RIP & design software ready to use in an emergency. If my RIP crashes I just plug it in (have a spare set of cables ready on my Belkin switch box), move the dongle. Back in business in 15 minutes.

The point is this: Mechanical & Software failures WILL happen. They are common. You need to have a plan. You need a good backup system. You need to know how to implement your plan. You need to test it and make sure it works. A lot of people do backups but have no idea how to restore them.

It's like driving around in your car without a spare tire!
 
rushworks graphics

rushworks graphics

New Member
very good point. i back up all my files onto an external 500gb drive, however, i don't have a backup plan as you suggest, so that is something i really need to do! i have 3 computers running my machines so.......i need to really get something sorted asap just incase!
 
jiarby

jiarby

New Member
some saturday just unplug your O/S HDD and say "kaboom" to yourself and then start the stopwatch///

See how long it takes you to get back up and running. Then just pull out the tester drive and plug in your original.
 
LoneRanger01

LoneRanger01

New Member
If you are running three or more computer here is something you may want to give some thought to. When replacing your computer have them all replaced with the exact same computers. I have several customers that run three or more computers for their business and as a added service I keep a spare HHD at my shop so if their system does crash for what ever reason I simply replace their HHD with one of the backups with their OP system already installed. As for your old hard drive with your files on it just change the jumpers on the old HHD to slave and plug it into the extra plugin on your new computer. this allows you to copy and paste all your old files to the new hard drive with out any effort or problems. Something else you might think about is when buying a new computer have an extra HHD installed in it as drive D. Instead of saving your files and work to drive C that has your software on it you save your work and files to drive D. Should you ever get a virus or software problem you will NEVER lose any of your work. It's just an idea....

I've designed several computers for sign companies and with each one of them I have built in at least four internal Hard drives . Drive c for software programs only, drive d for saving work and files, drive E for just saving fonts,and drive F just for clip art. By doing it this way my customers do not have to deal with putting in all the different cd;s with clip art and fonts on them and it does not slow down the computer. And by saving their work and files to a hard drive that does not have an OP system installed on it they NEVER loose any of their work. Just an idea.....
 
LoneRanger01

LoneRanger01

New Member
And an added thought....Should you ever get the "blue screen of death" again just restart your computer and go into the bios setup and where it says boot from, change it to boot from cd. this will alow you to insert the win XP disc into the cd and reinstall it to drive C.
There are several things that can cause the "blue screen of Death". A bad video chip, memory stick that is starting to fail. Even new software of hard ware that is not compatible with each other will cause the "blue screen of death". An example would be using a ausus motherboard with SiS video chip and using the software casmate. Back in the day something as simple as using win Mellineum and trying to install 1 GB of mem would cause the problem.....I personally haven't seen the "blue screen of death" since 2003. (nor have any of my customers) Just sayin, not braggin (well just a little). The important thing in buying a new computer is making sure both the software and hard ware are compadible and play well together. Gueuine Intel mother board, Intel CPU, Kingston mem., and an ATI video card are a very safe combination for running all sign making software and hardware. While real Intel parts cost more than say Giga byte mother boards it pays for the over cost by not breaking down costing you time and money....just some proven advise...
 
jiarby

jiarby

New Member
hardware standardization is always a great idea!

About 2 years ago I found a biz clearing out leased Dell GX-280's for $50 each... I bought a few of them and converted two of my "side machines" to them and one hot spare. My side machines are controllers for the laser engraver and one for the sublimation printers. They are interchangeable and have identical images. If they crash I am up and running in as long as it takes to swap out the PC's

The design and rip machines are pretty specialized and duplicating them to have just a spare would be very expensive (design machine costs $2700), so for them I just plan for HDD and P/S failures. If I lose a Mobo in my design PC then I start designing on the RIP PC while I fix it. Same thing for the RIP machine. Just move the dongle to the Dell spare PC and rip away. It will be slower, but I will stay up and running whil I get real machine fixed.
 
LoneRanger01

LoneRanger01

New Member
I wish I sold my machines for 2700. The first thing I do when some one wants one of my computers is to determine if I like the person. Why sell something to some one you don't like.....too many head aches down the road. The second thing I find out is what they are going to do with the computer. Sign making computer are set up way different than say a computer that would be used for sound editing or playing video games. I think the most expensive machine I ever built sold for around 1600. And it had all the bells and whistles. Every machine I have ever built had 2 Hdd's and 2 cd/dvd recorders. You having the set up that you do have is a smart move.
I kind of get a chuckle out of computer and today's kids. When I started to learn how to write software and build computers it was on an Apple 11E. They didn't even have hard drives we saved our work on 5=1/4 floppies or on to a cassette tapes. I remember if you had a computer with 32k of ram you had a super computer......ha,ha,ha.
 
rushworks graphics

rushworks graphics

New Member
excellent advice guys! my 2 newer computers are running my printers. i bought a $2000 custom built machine to run my vp540i before i got it. and my other computer runs my edge fx, again, its a good quality one, just not custom built.

i checked the bios setting yesterday after someone told me i could go in and change it, and sure enough the cd was set in the 3rd row boot so i changed it up to the top so it would boot first.
 
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