Anyone know any decent computer companies?

[sonicyouth]

I'm having a nightmare with this new PC stuff, ordered it three weeks ago and had to send it back for testing a couple of days after I receieved it because I couldn't get it to work, they've sent it back telling me there's nowt wrong with it and I still can't get it to work. I don't want to waste my money sending it back again and they won't give me a refund for it, so I'm stuck with it.

Basically, does anyone know of any companies that would be willing to come out to visit me who deal with maintaining and upgrading PC's? I'm convinced I'm not doing something right and would like somebody to come out and deal with it instead of sending myself insane.

Help me please, I've spent over £800 that I'll never see again unless I get it working :(

[Man of Steel]

Do you really live in Oxford?

Camlab in Swindon on Faringdon road/fleet street are fucking superb. The bird in their knows everything there is to know about computers this side of a mac.

If you are going to the game at the weekend it would be well worth dropping it in to them. They can be a bit pricey, but she doesn't half know her shit.

I remember your problem, i expect an XP upgrade would solve your phantom conflicts, as 2k uses acpi as well, but is rather more poor at runnning it correctly. Or so i'm led to believe.

[Titch]

what exactly are the problems you are getting?

[kizz]

I would recommend Camlab too... I went and bought a whole system just after New Year and it has been the poodles noodles!

I think the birds name is Maria or Marie, whatever it is though she does know her stuff!

[sonicyouth]

Thanks lads, I'll try and pop in next week sometime as I won't have the chance tomorrow. I don't live in Oxford itself, I'm from west Oxfordshire.

This is a full account of what I've done and what the problem is. If anyone wants to come out and help me, I'll pay your travel expenses and whatever. I'm going fucking insane.





This is going to be quite long but I implore you to read it and help me, even if it's the most obvious thing that I've not mentioned. I am going insane and I'm stuck with this stuff and will lose a considerable amount of money if I can't get it to work. Please help me.

I'll start off with a bit of background, my original set up was a P4 2Ghz,  1GB PC2100 DDR RAM, Epox 4BDA2+, GeForce 4 Ti4200, iiyama VMPRO 413, 360W PSU, 1x 40GB Seagate Barracuda, 1x 60GB Seagate Barracuda, 1x Lite-On CDRW, 1x LG-DVD-ROM, 1x FA311/312 PCI Network card and a SB! Live sound card. I built this system about three years ago and it's served me well but new game don't run so well, so I ordered the following:

AMD 64 3500 Winchester
ASUS A8V Deluxe
1GB Corsair XLPT 3200 DDR RAM
Leadtek Winfast A400TDH GT (Geforce 6800GT)

Anticipating it's arrival, I got all excited and set out to build it a couple of weeks ago. I gutted my case and rebuilt entirely from scratch, following the instructions in the motherboard manual and CPU manual. Once I got it all sorted I went to boot up and had a loud screech from the case, after a bit of investigation I narrowed this down to my stupidity in overlooking the fact the new 6800GT would need power via the molex cable. In the meantime, the original 360W PSU went and with no other means of getting one I went into town and picked up a Jeantech 500W PSU and fitted it that night, once again gutting the case entirely to start from scratch the following morning.

After an early start the following day I set out to build it and within an hour or so I had it all sorted and went to boot up, no screeching this time and I could hear what I can only think is the POST beep. However, my monitor showed nothing but a plain white screen. I consulted the monitor manual and this is the iiyama self-diagnosis screen, according to which it means the monitor is fine and the computer itself is at fault. I took out my new 6800GT and fitted the GF4 Ti4200 and the monitor still showed a blank white screen as it did before. I thought this might be a dodgy cable, so I shot into town and bought a new one, came home and fitted it to the GF4 Ti4200 that was still in my case and booted up. It worked! I saw it POST, it went through it and asked me to press any key to enter the BIOS to set up. Thinking I'd solved it, I turned off the PC and put the 6800GT in and turned it back on. Blank white screen again. I spent the next hour or so switching between the two cards, making sure it was seated properly and didn't get anything but the blank white screen again.

Subsequent to a consultation with technical support, I tried reseating the RAM, also trying my old PC2100 instead with no difference. I reseated everything, making sure it was all seated correctly and followed a Haynes Build Your Own Computer book I'd picked up out of desperation. Still nothing. Finally, I gave up and sent it back for testing and receieved the exact same goods yesterday with a note saying no fault found. With concern aforethought, I set about rebuilding the PC with the new hardware once more. Exactly the same problem still, yet according to the where it was tested it worked absolutely fine. I know for a fact the 6800GT works fine as I am using it right now on my Epox 4BDA2+ / P4 2ghz system without any problems whatsoever. The improvement in performance over my Ti4200 isn't huge but the RAM is bottlenecking it as far as I can tell.

I've slept on it last night and I can only think that I've forgotten to do something blatantly obvious or I'm not doing something right. I can't afford to send it back for testing again if there's nothing wrong with it, so please help me. Any suggestions are welcome, however simple they may seem to you. I am by no means anywhere near an expert on computers. I'm considering getting somebody out to build it for me so I don't have to deal with it as it's sending me insane.

Please help me before the men in white coats drag me away.

[oxford_fan]

sonic, if you can get down the cowley road easily enough then there's 'computer assistance' who do repairs and all sorts, they're damn good and in the office where i worked last year if the head i.t. guy couldnt do it himself (he was a fucking genius and knew everything, not just comp stuff) he'd take it down there.

linkage:

http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/guide/computer.html
http://www.oxfordshire.co.uk/data/020327.html

[sonicyouth]

cheers mate.

[ron dodgers]

I had a prob booting xp sp2 on a 64 bit AMD - just a long shot!

[Reg Smeeton]

For some reason I found myself giving more thought to your posting Ron, than to Sonics essay

[sonicyouth]

Using Win2K here.

[sharper]

Dell are good!

[jim]

Using Win2K here.

Just as I thought - you're a complete win2k'er  :mooney

[sonicyouth]

Thanks for the help jim!

[jim]

Thanks for the help jim!

Sorry - but (and don't get mad) why did you buy the bits and do it yourself - sounds perverse to me.  The PC is essentially a commodity now, just like a fridge - and you wouldnt build yourself a fridge now would you.

For not much more than £800 you can get a decent PC with a warranty and (if you dont mind India) tech support.

[Whits]

send it to my house, i'll leave it in the garage pretend i've looked at it and send it back in a week saying it can't be fixed but you will have a £200 bill