Death of a PC?

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> Death of a PC?

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Death of a PC? - 12/11/2004 12:44:31 AM

KG Erwin

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From: Cross Lanes WV USA
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Two days ago, my trusty old Win 98 machine suddenly decided to shut itself off, for no apparent reason. I had had some problems with the power switch, and if I shut it down, it took several tries to get the thing turned back on. This time, though, I can't get the switch to work. I DO have a newer Dell Win XP machine, so I did the physical trading out of locations, and now I'm online with the Dell. The thing is, much work I did on the old PC over six years is now lost, and SPWaW, while operating normally, displays differently. It is VERY bright, something that my old machine didn't do. I can't blame the OS--it is the 2.2 gb Celeron processor and built-in video/audio adapters that are the culprit. The jungle is supposed to be dark, dammit! No more. Everything is crystal clear, even when in-game visibility is only 1 or 2 hexes. It just doesn't look right.

This was one of two reasons I hung on to that 400 PII machine--my two favorite games, SPWaW and SHII, played well on it. The new machine doesn't get along with SHII at all.

I knew it had to come sooner or later, but I wanted to put the formal transition off for as long as I could. This is like junking that favorite old car of yours, which you were comfortable with, even if it wasn't the speediest or neatest-looking on the highway. You took care of it, and tried to squeeze every last mile out of it.

Guys get sentimental about cars, and I guess PC geeks get the same attachment. I'm gonna try to get it repaired, but I'm prepared for the worst.

< Message edited by KG Erwin -- 12/10/2004 5:46:13 PM >

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RE: Death of a PC? - 12/11/2004 12:59:27 AM

omegaall

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The work on the old PC should not be lost unless the old HD has crashed also.
Its a simple process of take out old HD, put in the new PC as a second drive and copy all necessary material over. If its a Warranty issue, get the official dealers to put the old HD in the new machine.

I do this on a regular basis when I swap PCs or want to transfer huge ammounts of data quickly.

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RE: Death of a PC? - 12/11/2004 1:30:12 AM

minefield

Posts: 289
Joined: 3/25/2004
From: North Carolina, USA
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Well if you think it was just a power issue then you may just need a new power supply. There are basically only two types and all modern PC's basically use the newer one.
If I don't get this transposed, the older AT style power supplies would cut off the system when you press the power switch regardless of what the system is doing. The newer ATX power supplies send a signal to the OS that tells it to shut down when you press the power switch unless you hold the button down for X seconds.
You can tell real quick which it is since they use different connectors to the motherboard. If you are brave you can take the power supply out of the new PC and hook it to the old PC (no need to mount) and see if the motherboard / PC are ok. Alternatively you can go to circuit city or best buy and pick up a power supply there ($20 - $45 maybe). If that isn't the culprit just return the power supply. There really is no compatibility issues with power supplies except for wattage (it's ok if you go over but under and you'll have problems).

In short, it sounds like a power supply problem which is not half as bad as a motherboard or CPU going out. Could even be the switch. I would have to look at your power button to actually take a SWAG, but you could probably jump it (should be just a relay so there shouldn't be a risk of electrocution) and see if it is the switch or power supply.

on a side note, if you want to make your game darker, you should have a gamma / brightness option on your monitor. Not the best fix, but it might ameliorate that one issue.

< Message edited by minefield -- 12/10/2004 6:31:19 PM >

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RE: Death of a PC? - 12/11/2004 11:26:46 PM

KG Erwin

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Thanks for your advice, guys. I adjusted the brightness and gamma settings on the Dell, and SPWaW now looks much better. There are several advantages with this system--one is that I can now have my Generals' Edition installed in its entirety, without regard for using up HD space. Another is the speed of artillery bombardments--my old machine was dreadfully slow, even with the delay set at 10. Now, it looks right, and even more terrifying for the poor bloody infantry. The more familiar I'm becoming with this PC, the more I'm liking it.

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RE: Death of a PC? - 12/12/2004 7:39:58 AM

KNomad

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From: Buffalo, NY USA
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quote:

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

... Another is the speed of artillery bombardments--my old machine was dreadfully slow, even with the delay set at 10. Now, it looks right, and even more terrifying for the poor bloody infantry. The more familiar I'm becoming with this PC, the more I'm liking it.

You actually use Live Fire Delay ?!

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Fire at Will (or Wesley)!

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RE: Death of a PC? - 12/14/2004 12:23:31 AM

Belisarius

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From: Gothenburg, Sweden
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quote:

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

Thanks for your advice, guys. I adjusted the brightness and gamma settings on the Dell, and SPWaW now looks much better. There are several advantages with this system--one is that I can now have my Generals' Edition installed in its entirety, without regard for using up HD space. Another is the speed of artillery bombardments--my old machine was dreadfully slow, even with the delay set at 10. Now, it looks right, and even more terrifying for the poor bloody infantry. The more familiar I'm becoming with this PC, the more I'm liking it.

Good for you Gunny!

I don't really get this aversion people have for switching 'puters. They stick with their antiquated stuff forever despite having a new rig sitting next to it collecting dust. Sure, it takes a while getting used to but the thing with computers is that they actually do get better all the time.

About your old PC, looking at your first post it sounds like a power switch issue, possibly a glitch? Open it up and see where the power switch connects to the motherboard. Now find a "spare" switch, almost anything with a circuit breaker will do, and wire it in instead. A friend of mine had this exact problem years ago and some home wiring did the trick.

Anyway it sounds like your HDD is undamaged (hopefully). I'm not sure about brand machines like Dell, but otherwise you could just take it out, change jumper settings and plug it in the other machine to extract data, but I guess the Dell guys won't be too happy with warranties if you open it?

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RE: Death of a PC? - 12/14/2004 4:48:19 AM

KG Erwin

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Bel, I thought about taking out the old HD and installing it as a second drive on the Dell, as it is a DVD-ROM. The Dell has a CD-ROM only. Now, the old HD is formatted for Win 98, while the new PC uses XP. My thought was to extract the DVD codecs and software into the new HD, then reformat the old one to XP and reinstall WinDVD and the necessary codecs into the old (secondary) HD. Will this work? There's no way for me to run the two OS together, is there?

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RE: Death of a PC? - 12/15/2004 5:00:57 PM

omegaall

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quote:

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

Bel, I thought about taking out the old HD and installing it as a second drive on the Dell, as it is a DVD-ROM. The Dell has a CD-ROM only. Now, the old HD is formatted for Win 98, while the new PC uses XP. My thought was to extract the DVD codecs and software into the new HD, then reformat the old one to XP and reinstall WinDVD and the necessary codecs into the old (secondary) HD. Will this work? There's no way for me to run the two OS together, is there?

Unfortunately you can not just bung teh old HD in the Dell and run '98. Firstly if the Dell people set up the machine it will be formatted as NTFS. Win 98 can not read NTFS disks. So the '98 setup could noyt read the new HD.

Also to have a dual system you need to start with Win98 and then add XP. This has to be put in a seperate directory or better different partision of the total system. Still if any thing has been formatted NFS the Win 98 will not be able to read it. Everything will need to be formatted to FAT32.

Getting complicated ?

If you really want to just run Win 98 and not access the XP drive there is a simple way, but that assumes you are able to set the start drive from the BIOS. If this is possible it means you can run the computer either as an XP or Win 98. Again Win 98 still will not be able to read the disk with XP.

You mention a DVD ROM. I presume that you mean your old machine had a HD and also a DVD ROM. Well ther is nothing to stop you putting the DVD drive in the Dell.

One thing though it seems strange that your Dell did not come with a DVD/CD RW drive. They are really cheap. Here a DVD/CD RW drive is about $100. That's about $US70.

One small concern you might to consider is taht Win 98 may not have the necessary drivers for the Dell's hardware. '98 is rather old and I doubt there are driver updates for it to run new equipment.

Someone else may have some better thoughts. In my opinion I would just scrounge what is useful from teh old Pc bung it in the new one and just run it all under XP. I assume its XP Pro not XP Home.

have fun.

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RE: Death of a PC? - 12/15/2004 9:05:11 PM

plloyd

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From: Colorado, USA
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The first and easiest way here is make your old drive a slave on the new system. XP home and pro will recognise and use a FAT32 file system. Make the drive in the Dell the master, the plug the old drive on the same cable. I assume your Dell has 2 IDE ports. Your DVD is is likely on the secondary IDE port, the boot HD will be on the primary. An IDE port can operate 2 devices, hard drives, CD-ROM or DVD drive. When there is only one drive on a port, many people, like at Dell, will set it up as cable select. This means that the drive is both master and slave as the computer chooses. The jumpers on the back of the drive will let you choose the mode you want the drive to run in. On the drive should be a diagram showing which positions are master, slave, and CS. It makes more sense when you see it.

Option 2 is a new power supply or switch, depending on the problem. An AT power supply is $6-7 plus shipping. A switch is $1, plus shipping.

If you need some help, PM me, I will give you a call this weekend, if you are in the USA.

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