My NEW computer

Framar

WOW Framer
Joined
Jul 24, 2001
Posts
26,420
Loc
Buffalo, New York, USA/Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
Tuesday morning I am going to lug my old system back to my computer guy (he may be able to unload it for me!) and I am going to pick up my brand new computer with the 20 gig harddrive and the CD burner (internal-LOL!) and the cordless mouse. Picture me going from Win 95 to XP!!!!

I just hope I can log back onto the Grumble in a timely fashion. I have stored all my stuff (including my address book) into "My documents" so he can transfer them to the new system, and I have to reinstall various programs (actually may be getting Photoshop 7!).

Anyhow, wish me luck and I hope to rejoin youse soon.....
 
Framar, I am so jealous. I need a new one very badly. the one I have at home I bought used and that is the last time I do that.

Enjoy it! You know you earned it.
 
Mar, congratulations! My Gateway Boat-Anchor has XP. Didn't know how I'd like it at first, but I like it ALOT! Kinda similar to NT, which we had at work. Lotsa password protection. But, that's a good thing.
My next computer, unless it's cost prohibitive, will be made up by a friend of mine who does that since he retired from Fone Co. Otherwise, I'll be inclined to go for a Compaq, or a Dell.
Also, my friend told me to avoid MS Explorer, ver 8 like the plague! Apparently it has lotsa bugs in it.
 
O NO!!!! We've had this discussion before, havent we? Dell??? Gateway??? Gateway??? Delll???

Looked at both, but Gateway's giving me that no payment 'til 2004 thing and I need three new computers, two for home and one for store. Dell would onlygive me a 60-day finance thing.

But what I really love is the fact that Gateway has a store two blocks from my store. I ASSUME that I can get service locally, wich I don't think I could with Dell.

Is Dell really that much better????? I'm looking at the 700X Gateway with the RDRAM insteadof SDRAM 'cause my computer genius said the "RD" ws betterthan the "SD. HUH???

Is gateway really a "boat anchor?" I have several boat anchors, from one fora dinghy to three for my ex-mistress, the 36' trawler. DOn't need another one, thanks.
 
Michael, email me for the complete horror story.
Not only did the Gateway NOT do what it was supposed to, but I was purposely misled by their support 'team' until the 30 day, free replacement warranty had elapsed. Only THEN did I find out that Gateway has 3 tiers of tech support, and you have to complain, threaten and cajole to get beyond the first. I guess that's what you get for trusting a company to do the right, straight-up and honest thing.
As I said, if you really want the whole sad, sordid story, email me and let me know
 
Michael, it seems to depend on who you talk to.

There was a local story here this year about a guy up on charges 'cause he marched into the local Gateway store with his computer and smashed it into a million pieces with a sledge hammer in front of some startled customers. Apparently he was not a fan of their customer service. Other people love Gateway.

Dell has a reputation for excellent support (mostly over the phone,) but it isn't hard to find someone who's unhappy.

The only thing I can tell you with some certainty is this: Don't buy an E-Machine.

But you knew that.

Congratulations, Framar. Hope to see you back here soon.
 
Originally posted by CharlesLowry.:
Also, my friend told me to avoid MS Explorer, ver 8 like the plague! Apparently it has lotsa bugs in it.
Now I'm feeling stupid. What the heck is MS Explorer ver 8? Windows Explorer? You get what comes with your operating system. Internet Explorer? I think ver 6 is current.

Help me out here, Charles.
 
My computer, when it works, has XP, and its web browser, by its own admission is MSN Explorer.

Ron, I watch TV a lot. It is flooded with ads featuring this guy dressed up as a butterfly, 'protecting' a Mom and her kids.

MSN Explorer, unless I'm totally wrong, is Microsoft's web browser.

I've had at least 3 friends who tried it, and 2 of the 3 said it crashed their system. And these guys build computers for a living.

You know how much I know about computers! I just know about my personal experience with Gateway and what I've heard about MSN 8

See: MSN 8
 
I built my computer at home and at work... run windows 98 SE on both.

Building a computer is easy and if you shop smart on the net you can get better components for a cheaper overall price using only the elements you think are important... all I do is read online reviews of hardware before making a purchase -- don't rely on your own knowledge because the computer landscape changes so quickly that only people who get paid to watch it can keep up.

Jason.
 
Thanks, Charles. So MSN 8 is Microsoft's internet service. You're right. I haven't heard good things about it.

The MS browser is Internet Exlorer 6. The ISP is MSN Explorer. And the file manager is MS Windows Exlorer. (Microsoft is very big on explorers.)
 
I don't know anything about browser problems. I guess I haven’t had any yet. I had a local computer tech build my last 2 machines. One with ME, which was unstable, and the last one with XP. The XP is a dream Machine. I like to give my business to the local computer geeks, because, they are always there if I need them. My XP is so stable, I don't think it has ever locked up. I recently upgraded my ME to XP myself. This machine is now rock solid.

You have two choices on how to set it up. You can install XP over Windows, or completly reformat the machine as XP NT format. I did the the full install, as I was told is was the most stable. Maybe a geek can explain this process and the difference.

My only complaint is, XP has a lot of patches (big security one). If you don't have broadband, make sure you get the latest release, or spend the $10 for the patches on CD, available from MS.
 
Any day now, we should be recieving our 6th computer. :eek: We have been fighting for time all summer on our main digital imaging machine so it's time we got a new one. The old digital imaging computer will go out to our house so we can work out there and get at least part of our life back. The monitor for the new one is set to arrive today from our digital supplier in Milwaukee (he is delivering it). It's a LeCie, considered the best for color management and imaging puposes. The computer is a Dell, 1.5GB, 2.40GHz. We needed something big and fast plus we bought an external hard drive to attach to it for Photoshop 7 to 'scratch' to. Photoshop is constantly saving and resaving things as you work and unless you have a seperate place for it to do that (external drive, partitioned harddrive, etc.) it will mess up your system. Also have a second WACOM graphics tablet on the way. Many of the tools in Photoshop 7 are designed for use with pressure sensitive tablets.
 
For the past 18 or so years i've always assembled my own clones, but with the prices today it is actually CHEAPER to just buy a pre-made machine. On top of it being cheaper, they throw in all kinds of free software worth almost as much as the machine itself. (Microsoft Word, Office XP, etc)

Dell has Office XP equipped systems starting at $399 (2 ghz, 30gb, 128mb, dvdrom, net card, speakers, 56k modem, free shipping. add $10 for cd burner) http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/17692

Gateway has similar deals but their stock isn't doing as well and I hear a lot of complaints about the service.

Ron is right on the money. Stay away from those E-MACHINES. (Didn't they go bankrupt last year or get absorbed by Best Buy?) They have poor quality boards and very small power supplies that tend to be insufficient. I did a network a couple years ago for a chain of frame shops and they had power supply issues with the e-machines.
 
Framar,

Before you scrap your old machine consider this:

On January 3, 2002, my old machine fried itself. (It smelled like a waffle iron). It was totally gonzo! Luckily I had backed everything up to 20 or so ZIP disks one day earlier.

I got a new G4 within a week and while I was thrilled with all the new bells and whistles, I had night sweats thinking about transferring all the data over from the old one. Since the old machine was at this point a paper weight, I took its hard drive to a data recovery place and asked them to transfer the data to CDs which I would then be able to read more efficiently on the new one.

The techs agreed to take my money to do it, but since I needed to install a SCSI card on the new one in order to use my scanner anyway, and the card I needed had an auxiliary bus connection, they suggested that I just load the old hard drive into the new computer.

At that point all I needed to do was drag the files from my old 2 Gig drive onto my new 60 Gig drive without going through the contortions of loading and ejecting multiple ZIPs and/or CDs. And, now I have 62 Gigs of disk space on two volumes.
 
I'M BACK!!!!

After a few snags, my guy (Small local store, 4 miles away) has me up and running!! He transfered my files for me and got me all set up. I am just trying to get used to this smaller keyboard. I may have some interesting typos for the next few days...

This guy (who is to computers what I like to think I am to framing) even offered to come to my house to make sure everything gets connected ok. I still have to reinstall the software for the scanner and the printer, and I am looking fondly back on all the fonts I used to have, but overall I am thrilled. In Canada, it costs $140 to ship a Dell, and I need a friendly human for my tech support (plus this poor guy lives a mile from my house -he may be sorry he told me that! -and I was pleased with the price.)

Love the wireless mouse!!!

Now I have to go customize my settings. Fun!!!

 
Have fun with your new computer Mar! Mine has arrived too, but my computer guy (my husband Gary) has been too busy getting last minute orders out the door. We did move the computer at the house from the dining room to my daughter's bedroom last night. She gets to take it with to college next year. It doesn't have a modem, but most colleges provide internet access to their students free. Our old digital imaging computer now goes home so there is no need to stay at the studio late to get things done and nobody is waiting to get on a computer to do their work.
 
I have to post this behind dark glasses. Bill, I am so jealous. (Double extra heavy sigh!!!) A G4, no less. Picture me turning very green with envy. Drooling, even. And over something that Bill Henry's got!


However, I do have an excellent HP(Don't laugh. It gets the job done.), with a huge hard drive, a 17", flat screen LCD monitor, running Win ME. Oh, the monitor is a Dell. In fact, we run 2 HP's around here. "Himself the Elf" also has an HP on his desk. (My old one.) We have a Gateway laptop. As you may have noted, we just don't function very well without a computer handy. As for customer service, my HP came from one of those traveing computer shows, supposedly factory reconditioned. Came with a 3 month warranty. Got it home, and with one thing and another, did not get it set up for almost 2 1/2 months. When I did, it didn't work correctly. A number of emails back and forth, and phone calls back and forth, and, finally, shipped the tower back to HP. They sent the box with all of the packing, p/u ticket, everything. I had it back in 5 days from the time it left with a new CD-RW, motherboard, and harddrive, all at no charge to me. No real questions asked. Just a copy of my sales ticket that I made on my fax machine. Been running like a champ ever since.
 
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