Or:
Buy a new Win7 desktop.
Transplant your old Blu-Ray and your old TV tuner into the new Win7 desktop.
[Link]
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Stanley Moon  All-Star Member  4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 |  Posted - Aug 6 2016 : 8:18PMI like having two computers--if one has trouble, I can still use the other to work, get on the internet to search for fixes for the sick one, etc. Right now I have a main desktop and a latop, which is my backup/travelling companion. Both run Windows 7. Windows 7 is as far as I go with Microsoft. I've seen Windows 8 and 10 and I loathe them. My desktop is dying. I've backed up everything. Sooner rather than later it's going to go for good. I want to replace it. So what are my options? This is what I've come up with, but maybe I've missed something. * Windows 7 desktop. Still being sold, but so far I can't find one that's got what I already have: integrated blu-ray and a TV tuner. I know I can probably add them, but I hate breaking into systems that I didn't put together myself. And I don't want to make a custom system. I used to do that, but I can't keep up with the variety of options on motherboards and such anymore. * Mac of some sort. Never owned one. Never liked them the few times I've had to use them. Maybe I'd learn to like it if I had to, but I've got an iPhone and I'm not in love with it at all. * Linux box. Never seen one. Don't know anyone who has one, so no friendly tech support. * Chrome. If I read this correctly--it's a version of Windows 10 -- all "apps" from the app store? I hate to give up some of my old software. Am I missing something? [Link] |
| ninja1 Senior Member 2939 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Aug 6 2016 : 11:12PM Or: Buy a new Win7 desktop. Transplant your old Blu-Ray and your old TV tuner into the new Win7 desktop. [Link] |
| dogzcatcher All-Star Member Fat bottomed girls make the rockin' world go round! 1551 Posts 5/09 | Posted - Aug 7 2016 : 11:42AM [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 8 2016 : 4:41AM How you can "loathe" Windows 10 when you're apparently at least willing to continue with 7 makes no sense to me, given how similar the experience of using 10 is to using 7. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 8 2016 : 8:42AM I'm assuming your motherboard is SATA III 6 Gbs, has an HDMI output, and that you have at least one USB 3.0 port. I'm also assuming you already have a second hard drive? BTW, what CPU do you have? I recommend getting the SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 256GB SATA III (SSD) -- and this is the only SSD drive I recommend using -- for your "C" drive, and do a fresh install. If you can handle 16 GB of RAM, you might consider upgrading this, as well. Yes, it will take a couple days to do it, but you do have a second machine on hand. I can walk you through the process -- as I have recently done this exact upgrade scenario with four Windows 7 computers within the past two months. IN PARTICULAR, I can tell what updates to install, and, most importantly which updates NOT to install. The re-invigorated computers are absolutely incredible! Basically, you will get another four years (i.e. until MS extended Windows 7 support ends in 2020) of a great OS for $125-to-$175 dollars. And, you cant beat that  BTW, I'm so pleased with the results, that I already have the new Samsung SSDs ready for doing fresh installs on my two i7 media computers. Porn is such a demanding mistress  Edited by - Goldstein on 8/8/2016 8:51:52 AM [Link] |
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| BlackSix All-Star Member pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 12:52AM [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 7:43PM Problem with getting a new desktop and swapping in the card and Blu-Ray is that I don't know if the new system would take them. I don't know what the current tuner is (I bought it already installed in the system)--don't know if it'll go into the new one, or if I can get software to run it. The Blu-Ray---wouldn't it require a Blu-Ray controller card, and possible conflicts with whatever the system has to start. But still--that's something to seriously consider. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 7:44PM Edited by - Stanley Moon on 8/9/2016 7:55:04 PM [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 7:47PM Current system is an AMD Phenom II 1090T, 8GB RAM, AMD HD 6770 graphics, 2TB HDD, the Blue-ray, the TV tuner, and Win 7 Home Premium. If I have USB 3.0 I don't know it. There's no mention of it on the quick specs. I'll look on the fuller spec sheet (I've got it here somewhere) but I doubt I have it. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 8:09PM You may have an older machine, which may alter my thinking. [Link] |
| Flash Golden Age Classic 11018 Posts 5/01 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 8:12PM [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 8:30PM Let me know when you have done this, so that I can ask you some questions. Speccy is an absolutely safe free utility, and will not harm your system whatsoever. I've given you the link to directly download it from Piriform (so it will be safe and secure). Be careful to uncheck any pre-checked boxes if you encounter any when you run the downloaded installer :) Among other things, Speccy will tell us the exact make and model of your motherboard (important in order for me to give you the best advice). FYI, I'm assuming your Blu-ray drive uses a SATA connection, yes? Almost all optical drives work with the standard Windows supplied driver(s). So, you could most likely transfer the drive to a different machine should we go that route. So, I'll be asking you to do a few quick and easy things, so that we can thoroughly understand your computer, what condition it's in and make an informed decision. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 8:47PM It's a Foxconn 2A92 (CPU1) motherboard, V1.1 AMD 785G, SB700 southbridge model. Speccy says the Blue-ray is SCSI Interesting little util. Thanks! [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 8:49PM You would recognize USB 3.0 ports, as they have a blue colored plastic in the socket (as opposed to USB 2.0, which would have a black plastic). (Your CPU suggests your system may be as old as 2010.) Speccy will help us with this too, if there's any doubt. Sounds like this was a factory computer. What is the make and model? Also, did your computer come with Windows 7 as its original installed operating system (i.e. you didn't have to perform a "free upgrade" after you bought it in order to get Windows 7)? Finally, if you check this out, it will tell us a lot about the performance capability of your system, as is: Start Menu > Control Panel > System, and tell us what the the Windows Experience Index rating is (it will be a number between 1.0 and 7.9). [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 9 2016 : 8:52PM [Link] |
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| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 10 2016 : 1:38AM [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 10 2016 : 8:25AM (Foxconn 2A92 CPU1 seems to point to these) Foxconn Cinema II Deluxe Foxconn Cinema II Premium Also, do your rear ports look like this:  The make and model of your computer would really be helpful. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 10 2016 : 7:44PM [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 11 2016 : 3:21PM (FYI, I have lots of info links, but wanted to post the above quickie PDF file.) Yes, it seems to only have SATA II 3Gb/s connections (i.e. not the faster SATA III 6Gb/s), but you've also only been working with an 5400 RPM hard drive. I absolutely would consider this machine worth a "new SSD 'C' Drive/complete reinstall" project if you're interested. If you want to proceed, I'd like you to do a few quick checks and tests for me -- which I will describe in full -- before we would start. For beginners, please tell me the Windows Experience Index (WEI) rating, which I explained above. Also, use Speccy, and tell me the brand of hard drive they gave you. After you provide me with this information and that you want to proceed, I'll describe the quick tests I'd like for you to perform. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 11 2016 : 9:17PM Processor is 7.5 Ram is 7.5 Graphics 7.4 Gaming 7.4 Primary HDD: 5.9 The HDD is a 1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EARS-60MVWB0 SCSI Disk Device (RAID) Let me think about the C reinstall solution a little bit. It sounds promising but I'm still dithering. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 12 2016 : 8:15AM The new Samsung SSD I recommend will give you a Primary drive (i.e. "C" drive) rating of 7.9 -- the result giving you an "overall" WEI rating of 7.4 A WEI rating of 7.4 would be an excellent score! [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 12 2016 : 10:40PM [Link] |
| BlackSix All-Star Member pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07 | Posted - Aug 13 2016 : 1:31AM [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 13 2016 : 4:45AM You can get SSDs up to 1 TB now (possibly more), but the 250 GB ones at the moment are kind of in the sweet spot in terms of being comfortably big enough to do what they need to do but not costing too much. [Link] |
| ninja1 Senior Member 2939 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Aug 13 2016 : 5:03AM Edited by - ninja1 on 8/13/2016 5:05:58 AM [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 13 2016 : 8:25AM And, if you decide to do the reinstall with the new SSD "C" drive, we will test (easily done) your current hard drive to be sure it is sound, then perform a complete format and use it as your second drive in an SSD "C" drive/HDD storage drive system. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 18 2016 : 9:27PM It turns out I can't be buying another HDD for awhile, so I'm going to shelve this for the time being. Thank you all, and esp. Goldstein, for all the advice and help. Hopefully I can go forward on this sooner rather than later. I didn't realize there were solid-state HDDs. That explains a lot. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 23 2016 : 11:11AM Start menu > click on All Programs > click on Accessories folder > right-click Command Prompt > click on Run as Administrator Type in "chkdsk/f" (without the quotes) You will receive a prompt. Type "Y" (without the quotes), and restart the computer. CheckDisk will examine your "C" drive and automatically repair any issues it finds. It will reboot the computer, possibly more than once, when it is done. You probably don't have any issues, but it will be good to know for sure :) [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 23 2016 : 11:30AM Now, you should check the integrity of the physical drive itself. Since you have a WD drive, this will be free and easy. I strongly suggest downloading, installing and running Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - DLGDIAG for Windows Data LifeGuard Diagnostic for Windows Click on "WD Software" and then expand (i.e. click the +) the "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows" option. After you install it, run the program and run the "Quick Test" on your "C" drive. This will take about two minutes, and will give you a Pass or Fail result. You can look at the results in more detail if you want/need to. Bottom line: Since you will be sticking with the computer as is for a while, it really is a good idea to check the file structure (CheckDisk) and physical drive (Data Lifeguard) so that you know you have a solid system going forward. AND, if you do have problems with the hard drive (which I doubt), get about rectifying the problem should you have to. Question... Did you set-up a RAID configuration, or did the computer come configured that way? Edited by - Goldstein on 8/23/2016 11:35:13 AM [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 23 2016 : 11:59AM Be careful to uncheck any pre-checked boxes if you encounter any when you run the downloaded installer :) When you run the utility do this: (1) Highlight your "Local Disk (C:)" drive (2) Action menu > Advanced > Check Drive for Errors then (3) Click on Analyze (bottom left) then, after you get your results (4) In the Defrag option (bottom left), click on the triangle and select "Quick Defrag" and let it do its thing Defraggler is a very safe utility -- provided you performed the "Check Drive for Errors" and no problems were detected: "Verify Complete - No major problems were detected" If you run CheckDisk, Data Lifeguard and, then, Defraggler, you will have verified your file structure, verified the physical drive and performed a nice little tune-up  Please let us know how everything checks out. Edited by - Goldstein on 8/23/2016 12:02:42 PM [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Aug 28 2016 : 9:39PM I've tried checkdsk /f last month when I was having so many problems. It would get to the 3rd level and then hang. I've tried it twice at least (possibly 3 times) and it hung each time. Since I was able to reboot the system, I let it go. We'll see if it hangs this time. I think the problem is heat related. I was having these problems when we were having a heat wave and the ambient room temp was pushing 100, and the computer fans were running a lot. I blew out a ton of dust and that helped, but since the local weather hasn't been quite so extreme, things have been stable (also may have helped that I pulled the side panel off to increase circulation). Whether the heat is directly affecting the drive or it's affecting something on the motherboard -- I don't know. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 29 2016 : 6:44AM So, just type in "chkdsk" (without the quotes). The fact that you had problems makes this even more important to root out. FYI, CheckDisk is not processor intensive, and should not create an heat issue, whatsoever. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Aug 30 2016 : 4:09PM Defraggler can also perform a basic CheckDisk test for you!Since you're having problems??? running CheckDisk -- and this really needs to be resolved! -- running the test from within Defraggler would be an excellent first step. Defraggler will either give you the all-clear:OR It will tell you it found issues and refer you to run CheckDisk to resolve them. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Sep 6 2016 : 7:58PM I can't checkdsk the C: drive from Windows, I have to have it schedule a check and run on a cold boot. So did that today. Once again it choked somewhere along the line (I wasn't sitting here babysitting it). I come back to find the monitors black and the fans roaring. Not responsive to anything except the power switch. Another cold boot and Windows comes up without incident. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Sep 7 2016 : 12:53PM At this point, I'm thinking that you have set up a RAID configuration, and that, for whatever reason, Defraggler has a problem with it  I asked you about RAID earlier in the thread, but you never responded about it. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Sep 7 2016 : 7:54PM I never set up a RAID configuration. If the system is running it, that's news to me. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Sep 8 2016 : 10:19AM Question...Did you set-up a RAID configuration, or did the computer come configured that way? OK, so I'm guessing it came from the factory with RAID set up? [Link] |
| ninja1 Senior Member 2939 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Sep 8 2016 : 4:30PM Something strange about that. SCSI is high-end high-speed high-priced HDD technology, which is extremely rarely found on a consumer-level computer. Also, WDC WD20EARS-60MVWB0 translates to a SATA drive. A given HDD cannot be both SATA and SCSI. Which kinda makes me question the RAID thing, just because. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Sep 8 2016 : 8:42PM [Link] |
| Magician9 Member 14 Posts 8/12 | Posted - Sep 19 2016 : 9:54PM Good luck. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Sep 22 2016 : 7:49PM Back to the thread at hand: I'm hoping to get the new drive maybe around Xmas. In the meantime, I'm finding a collection of things that won't run anymore. I launch something (iTunes is a good example) and get the dreaded iTunes has stopped working Windows can check online for a solution to the problem. > Check Online for a solution and close the program > Close the program \/ view program details None of which do me any good at all. Is there a good diagnostic/repair utility Out There? [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Sep 23 2016 : 4:15AM You have too many weird things going on to keep playing whack-a-mole. And, I guarantee you that there is no single problem and/or solution. Be sure to backup everything that matters to you before your computer dies  [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Sep 23 2016 : 7:56PM I'm up to date on backups. The beauty of a slow collapse. [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Oct 25 2016 : 10:54PM [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Nov 1 2016 : 4:59PM [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Nov 2 2016 : 10:07PM Looking at this, which I think is probably a better fit for me. Seagate 2TB SSHD [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Nov 3 2016 : 10:53PM If you were going to be cloning your existing hard drive, using a new one that is as big or bigger makes the process more straightforward, but for a fresh installation of Windows (which would seem to be a good idea in this case), that isn't an issue. [Link] |
| jayo All-Star Member 2117 Posts 7/04 | Posted - Jan 8 2017 : 6:18PM Edited by - jayo on 1/8/2017 6:19:01 PM [Link] |
| Stanley Moon All-Star Member 4 Wishes Left 346 Posts 8/15 | Posted - Jan 8 2017 : 6:19PM I installed the new drive and did a factory reinstall, and have been slowly trying (with mixed success) to reinstall all my old software. A couple things (namely Adobe Photoshop) don't to run, but everything else so far has taken. Today I noticed I had a bunch of optional Windows Updates--sixty some. I didn't want to do all of them at once, so I chose the half-dozen that didn't simply say "windows update" and actually had a real, somewhat descriptive title. They looked okay. I installed and rebooted. Back from the reboot and immediately got "iTunes" and "iCloud" failures on startup, which is what I was getting back before I replaced the old drive. I restored the system back to where I was this morning and rebooted. I'm fine. Coincidence? Maybe--maybe not. Now I'm wondering if the problem wasn't the hard drive, but a bad update that fucked up the OS. At some point apply updates again one at a time and see if I can determine which one is bad. But this is time consuming and I don't feel like pressing it today. [Link] |
| LPee23 All-Star Member Better to be pissed on, than to be pissed off. 248 Posts 1/15 | Posted - Jan 8 2017 : 11:04PM [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Jan 9 2017 : 8:33AM There were a slew of bad updates and intrusive updates, over a period of 1-1/2 years, that were being thrown at Windows 7 as part of Microsoft's attempted forced "free upgrade" to Windows 10. Many of them would have gotten installed during the upgrades for of a fresh install -- if someone didn't know the troublesome updates to not allow to be installed. As for the much older updates, most of them don't get installed during a complete fresh re-install done today. Windows 7 machines, that had over time accumulated 400+ updates, will typically wind up with about 200-to-250 updates after a complete fresh re-install performed today. I've personally done complete re-installs on about 10 Windows 7 machines over the past 6-to-9 months, all without issues, and this is one area in which I really know what I'm talking about. [Link] |
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