Improving PC Performance

Bird · Jan 8, 2002

Mike, I assume (whether correctly or not) that it just depends on the individuals. One of the six I talked to was very good, two were OK, and the other three obviously didn't know what they were doing. And of course, when that last guy came up with a place to download the right drivers for the modem (after assuring me no such thing existed), it was from one of Dell's own support sites. Weird things happen in this old world, and I guess I'd have just been out of luck if I'd paid cash up front for this machine./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

But I'd have to admit I had just as much, if not more, trouble with IBM and the last computer I had. The difference is that it was hardware instead of software. The original monitor died completely in a very short time, and I had quite a bit of trouble getting it replaced. The second monitor also died before the warranty was up, and I had so much trouble getting it replaced, took so long, that I went out and bought another monitor Eventually, I got disgusted with IBM and wrote a letter to the chairman of the board, and while it took a long time, they finally decided to give me a new 17" monitor (to replace the defective 15" monitors) and $100./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Devildog · Jan 8, 2002

You got that right Bird. I looked around a little more today at some other computers(Micron,Compaq,Acer,Sony,etc)and for everything we ordered no one seems to be able to come close to that Price. Im going to check out costco because that is where we got thie compaq we have now. But its kinda hit and miss there/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif it depends on what they have in.
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Take care all, Jim

GlueGuy · Jan 8, 2002

<font color=blue>I know that people tend to not share the good stories</font color=blue>

Well, maybe I oughta. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I just had a relatively painless experience. I have had a Compaq computer for almost 3 years now. Lately, it had been slowing down unexpectedly, for no apparent reason. Well, I installed some new software that required a re-boot, and after the startup diagnostic, I got a warning message: "SmartDisk has detected that you have an imminent hard drive failure". Well, I was totally unaware of it. I checked the event log, and sure enough, I'd been getting 1, 2, 4, 8, 20 "events" a day indicating that parts of my hard drive are starting to go south.

Mind you, I still have the "defective" disk in there and running. However, I now have a new hard drive (about to be installed) to replace the "broken" one. This is slick. In the old days, you just had to scream when the hard drive crashed. Now, it tells you before it happens.

TerryinMD · Jan 9, 2002

Good story.

I purchased my first PC from a small shop at one of computer shows. That was four years ago. At that time, it was the more inexpensive ways to go. About a year later, I started to have motherboard problems, I took it into the shop and the fixed it - no questions asked.

In the meantime, I started to "upgrade" the system. New graphics card, new modems, more memory, another CDROM. I started to build up some extra parts.

About six months after that, the same problem appeared. I started to get a little smarter about building PCs also. I found that I could build my own for a little less than having someone else built it.

One of the things I learned along the way was to buy name brand components - Western Digital, Fujitsu, DiamondMM, etc. About a year after building my new machine, the Western Digital drive got flakey. Since it was under warrenty, I called them up. Needless to say, I had a new drive within a couple of days with the software to recover my old data. They also had an offer to upgrade the 8.4GB drive to a 13GB for a few dollars more. The people were pleasant and easy to work with. With that experience, I won't look at any other hard drive.

Terry

MossRoad · Jan 9, 2002

We have lots of western digital drives and they go out frequently and they replace them with no questions. Great service. I even use them in my home machines.

However, isn't this strange: we all love a company that sells a product that apparently breaks down often/w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif. Just goes to show you what great customer service will do.

TerryinMD · Jan 9, 2002

MossRoad,

Is it a particular model that gives you guys fits or WD's in general?

What drives seem to outlast all of the others? Quantum, IBM, Fujitsu, ??

Terry

GlueGuy · Jan 9, 2002

The drive that is "failing" that I was referring to is a pretty ancient Maxtor 72004 AP. To give you an idea of its age, the capacity on it is 1.84GB. The other drive is an IBM DCAS-34330W.

I have had the best performance from IBM and Fujitsu drives. Seagate is up there too. I have had mised results from Western Digital.

MossRoad · Jan 9, 2002

We have many WD drives of different sizes, 1.2G up to 30G, and they are in use constantly, however, we have had better luck with the seagates. I'm not complaining, I like the WD drives and the service is great, but we probably have around 200 in service and on average replace 1 per week and a half. They have never had a warranty dispute and have always replaced them no questions asked. But the ones that are older than 3 years are no longer under warranty and we have to replace them at our cost.

brewerbob · Jan 9, 2002

Brandon:
Slightly different problem: New Dell 4300 with WIN2000P. New Kodak DC3400 digital camera. The software for the camera is not plug and play. How do I install it? My wife worked on this for a long time, finally got the computer in a loop where it would start up and immediately re-boot. Took her a lot of frustration and time to get it back to where we could use it. I still need to know how to install the software. Anything you can tell us would be appreciated.
Bob

Bird · Jan 9, 2002

Bob, as you may have guessed, these computers confound me. I assume you got a CD with the software with the camera? If not, I've noticed Kodak has <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/software/dc3400/new/dc3400Software.jhtml>this site</A> for downloading the software and it says for Windows 2000, but does not mention XP, although they have something about XP on their home page. Good luck. I'm still trying to figure out how to use Picture It!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif