Saturday, January 23, 2010

Computer repairs

We now have a new motherboard and double the memory in our Gateway desktop at home (Media Edition 2005). Sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning our electricity went out. When I got up Thursday the computer was off. I didn't think anything of it, but when I tried to turn it on it did nothing. Bummer. I messed with it some, but it seemed to be dead. At first the little green light on the back (where the power cord plugs in) was off. I unplugged it and plugged it back in a couple of times, and then the green light came on. So I left it plugged in for awhile and tried it later. Still nothing. Then I unplugged it and waited awhile. Still nothing.

Fortunately we have a guy in our church who works on computers for a living. I had posted something about it on Facebook and he said he would take a look at it that night. We both thought it was just the power supply, because 1) My mom has a Gateway almost identical to ours and hers just went out; and 2) Adam says that is a common thing. So he brought over a power supply that night and tried it and it still didn't work. He surmised it was the motherboard. So he called and ordered another one.

Of course they don't have any just like what was in it. We had the old printer with the 25-bit pin (an HP 722), and we couldn't get a motherboard that had that to fit our computer (they're almost all usb or wireless now). Plus we had to upgrade the memory to 1G (which was helpful anyway).

It turns out, he got the parts the next day, changed the motherboard, and it STILL would not turn on. It was apparently both the motherboard AND the power supply. So he left his extra in and has ordered another one, then will swap them out when it comes in.

So it really didn't turn out that bad: we only went a couple days without the desktop (we still had my laptop from work), we have a new motherboard, and double the memory. And it only cost us $120 (for parts and shipping). But we do have to buy a new printer. I think we're going to get an HP C4680 all-in-one. It is on sale at Best Buy for $69. Daughter Carrie just bought one herself.

I am very thankful for Adam being able to do the repairs and updates and make all the phone calls and stuff. I would have just taken it to Best Buy and told them to do whatever. Who knows how much that would have cost. It's almost like we have a new computer now!

3 comments:

Jim L said...

Might I suggest a UPS (uninterrupted power supply, or backup battery), too? You can get one for $39 at Wally World and they are far better at conditioning power and keeping surges away from your computer than normal surge protectors. Also, they can make sure you get to shut down gracefully (or the computer can be set to do it for you if you aren't there when an outage happens) instead of just getting powered off while the OS is still running (which isn't a good thing to do).

dan said...

Seems I remember him saying something about some such thing. I don't speak you guys' language though (other than understanding Wally World). I think everything is coming from Tiger Direct though. :)

Jim L said...

Tiger Direct is a good place, I use 'em too. Between them and NewEgg you will get the cheapest prices.

Hopefully he's ordered you something like this or this.