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Big Oops! Please help a newbie
Hi All!
Well, act in haste and repent at leisure goes the saying. I guess I proved it this month. Bit of a cautionary tale. For two years I had a Celeron 1.8 with 60 Gig hard drive and 256 RAM. I got a quality sound card and a network card. It wasn't brilliant but I was happy. Then we had a HUGE lighting storm over Cambridge and my computer went very funny. Music quit playing, my internet connection was up and down. Then the computer just quit starting up altogether. I needed a new computer or to repair the one I had. My family were about to go away and they were concerned that I would not be able to communicate with them or be able to get the computer fixed without their car. I guess none of us were thinknig too clearly before the holiday. In haste I went with a friend to the local car boot sale. Usually the guy has a good stock of old computers. This time the fastest he had was a Duron 1.2. I bought it. Since I bought my Duron I feel it is a little on the slow side and can't cope as well as the 1.8 Celeron. Music breaks up if another programme is activated. I don't recall that happening with the Celeron. I know little about the mechanics of computers or upgrading but I found out my computer is a socket A. So in a moment of madness I went on Ebay and found another, more powerful CPU which is socket A compatible - an Athlon 2600. Unfortunately, having bought it, I have also found out that it is apparently not compatible with my motherboard. Apparently you need different motherboards for diffeent CPUs. Also memory. I don't know what else. Right at the moment I don't know what to do. I could really use some constructive advice (ie. not just yeah you made a total prat of things). I'm wondering if I should attempt to repair my old Celeron (possible motherboard replacement, seing as we replaced the sound files, sound card and network card and it still collapsed again). Then flog my Duron computer. live with my slow Duron 1.2 and put the Athlon chip back on Ebay and hope to get my money back (I paid £35 for it). go on Ebay again and buy the extra bits I ned to get a more powerful computer (for under £75 cos I'm disabled - poor). Is upgrading a really huge deal? Mum's partner is good at putting sound cards in, etc for me. Is it much more complicated to put in a new motherboard, memory chips? Ebay is awash with chips and motherboards and whatever. Can someone offer any guidance as to what to get and how much I should expect to pay? Is there a good/reasonably priced make of motherboard? Are some memory chips better than others? I gather I would need a motherboard that does at least everything my Duron does:- video to moniter network card my sound card I can bring over 256Meg RAM 2 hard drives (I brought my old one over because the Duron's hard drive is titchy at 20 Gig) 2 CD drives (inc a burner) 4 USB slots If I get a motherboard with more bits do I need to get a diffeent back for my computer? A thousand apologies for my total ignorance. This is all new to me. I bought a box from a shop and if the damned NTL had shielded my network card from the lighting I would have been happy surfing still. Alas all is misery, confusion and expense! Any advice anyone can give would be very much appreciated. Cheers Dave |
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