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Posted By: fish5133 New Desktop Spec - 13th Aug 2014 10:34am
My 10 year desk top has ,according to a computer repair shop got to the point of "not economical to repair". Fault was "no signal getting to monitor". Tried couple of online ideas about holding start button etc. It powers up but doesnt boot up. shop thinks its either a graphics card or even a new mother board.Both of which are hard to get due to age of machine. No idea what desktop specifications are these days --main thing i want is to be able to open up all my documents etc that were made using XPHome edition (there spreadsheet a word version).
I know some windows operating systems didnt like opening XP Home docs. Any Idiots Guide to new desktops appreciated.Not sure whats changed in 10 years other than storage space.
Posted By: Gibbo Re: New Desktop Spec - 13th Aug 2014 1:29pm
Processors have got a bit faster, and more memory is also good, but for basic computer work there's no need for anything fancy.

I can't remember how many years ago it was, it must be at least six but I bought a HP dx2000 desktop brand new and its still going strong.

If you want a cheap system then I've got some in the For Sale section.

If you want to take a look at yours free of charge and see if I can get it working with some spares I'm happy to do that too.

First thing I'd try though is replace the BIOS battery. There are some brands of motherboard which will not power up or display anything if the battery is dead or low.
Posted By: TheComputerLab Re: New Desktop Spec - 13th Aug 2014 5:19pm
In regards to a spec mate, if buying off the shelf from pc world it similar, you should be looking at an i3, 4gb ram and 500gb hdd or bigger. Windows 7 or 8 is fine.

Plenty of computer repair shops and enthusiasts like me on here to get advice from. Plus loads of computers in the for sale section.

Any questions just ask. Feel free to pm.
Posted By: Garygadge Re: New Desktop Spec - 13th Aug 2014 5:31pm
I seem to be having the same issue, my PC was shutting itself down when it felt like it or wouldn't boot up, tried a system repair as all was OK in safe mode but it didn't help so used the recovery CD to reload the start up files, now I just get a no signal message on screen, have tried a different graphics card but that did the same and can't use the on board graphics as I don't have a female to male VGA adapter, not sure that would help anyway. Can't afford a new PC or to take it somewhere for them to have a look at it. Its a 8/9 year old median PC that I added the graphics card too a few years later. Use it for photo editing a lot for my recently started business so need it working or a very cheap replacement.
Posted By: fish5133 Re: New Desktop Spec - 14th Aug 2014 9:41am
Just got the hard drive out into a mobile caddy to get my unbacked up whistle data off onto kids laptop. will pop it back in and try the battery --as i seem to remember had aproblem that was simply resolved by taking it out and putting it back in. If all else fails will give you a shout Gibbo.
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