Computer woes... the usual for me.

[cruiseroutfit]

So I have an old desktop that I'm basically using for storage (photos and such, all backed up on drives) as well as some mapping software (don't have disks for another install) and updates to some web stuff using Dreamweaver. Somewhere along the line it lost access to the internet, no worries, I just move things around with a thumb drive which is easy enough and creates some redundancy. The power went out recently and the computer was turned off for a few days, maybe more... I was out of town. Apparently the internal battery is shot as when I turned it on the date was reset to 1/1/2006. Easy fix. BUT now it won't recognize my USB thumb drives... I've tried 3 different ones and it will see them but I can't open them up and see any files... it just shows them as empty. One of the drives will fire an error saying the USB device isn't working.

Here is where things are weird. I'm using a wireless mouse and keyboard, the receiver for those plugs into a USB and that is working.

Any thoughts?

 

[nnnnnate]

Probably seems silly but are you trying to use the same USB port for each of the sticks? Are they on the front of the case or the side or the back? I'd try to use the ones in back if you haven't to see if that does the trick. Basically the ones on the back are connected to the motherboard while the side and front ports are connected to the MB via wires. Sometimes the non direct motherboard USBs aren't pushing enough power to get a USB stick fully up and working like they need to be while also getting data back and forth as well.

Try plugging in an external hard drive with external power to see if the USB ports are working for data transfer.

Have you replaced the CMOS battery? Thats the one on the motherboard that looks like a watch battery that keeps time and whatnot while the computer is powered off.

Hope some or any of this helps...

 

[cruiseroutfit]

That is helpful Nate.

I have 4 USB ports, two on back and two on the face. Your spot on, the rear ones are direct to the board and the fronts are connected via wire. I've unplugged and reseated, all looks well. I have tried a few different ports, no change there. I've also tried an external hard drive I have. The computer will pop up the software associated with that drive (a backup program) but it won't every load far enough to let me see files.

I'll get the CMOS battery swapped, cover is off the tower so that should be easy. I can't imagine that has anything to do with the USB drives though?

 

[rholbrook]

I will be very close to your place and can stop by and take a look for you A lot of times if you uninstall and let windows reinstall your USB drivers they will fix themselves. Also we can look at your issue of not getting on the web with it. I have wanted to meet you and discuss RTTs anyway and it gives me an excuse to. I have a meeting for an hour or so at 9:30 this morning

 

[nnnnnate]

Nope, it sounds like you just have several different issues going on which likely would not be related. CMOS batteries just die when they are old. rholbrook's suggestion to remove the USB drivers and have them reinstall is probably the next step that I'd try too. You'll remove the drivers in the device manager. Your individual USB sticks should have the drivers included already and typically try to launch when you first plug them in. If the computer sees that the driver is already installed it doesn't install, if its not there it attempts to install it. The driver could have corrupted enough that it just doesn't work right but not enough that the driver re-installs when you plug the USB in.

Another thing I'd do is try all this troubleshooting while plugging into the rear ports. The ones up front/side can be very finicky and you want to simplify things as much as possible while figuring out the issue.

To get to the device manager you can hit the windows key then type in "computer management" and hit enter, screen will launch with device manager up top. Drill down through the different items to find Universal Serial Bus controllers. To identify your specific USB that you're trying to use you can plug it in/remove it to see if it appears or disappears from the list. Then just right click - "uninstall." (Another way to get to the device manager is to find "my computer" or "this PC" on your desktop or the file explorer and right click it then select "manage.")

Hopefully this helps you or someone else and that you can get your stuff all sorted out.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I will be very close to your place and can stop by and take a look for you A lot of times if you uninstall and let windows reinstall your USB drivers they will fix themselves. Also we can look at your issue of not getting on the web with it. I have wanted to meet you and discuss RTTs anyway and it gives me an excuse to. I have a meeting for an hour or so at 9:30 this morning

I should be around from from 10:30 to noon. Would that work?

 

[cruiseroutfit]

...To get to the device manager you can hit the windows key then type in "computer management" and hit enter, screen will launch with device manager up top. Drill down through the different items to find Universal Serial Bus controllers. To identify your specific USB that you're trying to use you can plug it in/remove it to see if it appears or disappears from the list. Then just right click - "uninstall." (Another way to get to the device manager is to find "my computer" or "this PC" on your desktop or the file explorer and right click it then select "manage.")

Hopefully this helps you or someone else and that you can get your stuff all sorted out.

That seems to have done the trick. I did these things.

1. Removed the Microsoft Wireless Mouse/Keyboard & USB receiver, replaced with standard wired mouse and keyboard (now I remember why I have been hanging on to them!)
2. Uninstalled the drivers for the USB drives
3. Rebooted

After the reboot the USB drives are all recognizing and files are accessible. I still don't have connectivity to the internet (though it's been unplugged for 3-4 years) but at least I have my map and web software I can export to a USB.

 

[nnnnnate]

For your network issue, is that wifi you are trying to use or a hard wire connection? If its wifi try plugging in a hard wire to see if itll pull any updates that might fix the wireless. If internet will work via wire but still not via wifi you can do the same driver steps that helped for your USBs...delete then do a device refresh in the device manager. Before you delete the driver though try and write down the name of the wifi network card to reference if it wont download up I guess pull it on its own. Further still windows updates ought to recognize the lacking wifi driver and find it but some boxes are stubborn and you have to track them down manually. My dells always have network driver problems on Win7 and i have to get the manually from dells support page.

If you cant get it working via a wired connection look at the back to see if there are blinky lights when the cable is plugged in. No lights could mean a couple different things including a bad NIC (network port is just broke), a bad network cable, or its just not plugged in all the way on one of the two sides.

Maybe start there and report back your findings...

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Russ was super helpful and I think we at least confirmed a few things.

1. There is likely still a virus lingering on the computer. We attempt to open IE and it immediately shuts back down. Chrome & Firefox will open and the network connection shows connected but nothing will move... zero data transfer.

2. It's possible my network card is simply bad and IE has it's own issue?

I am using a hardwire from our router.

PS. Russ rocks!

 

[Brad J]

I have seen viruses set an invalid DNS that prevent any Internet Connections. You could try typing "ipconfig /flushdns" from the command prompt to see if that works. Also "ipconfig /release" & then "ipconfig /renew" might be worth a shot.

 

[rholbrook]

Checked that. I am thinking it has set some sort of a dummy proxy setting in the connections section you can get to in Internet Explorer but we couldn't get to the section.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

All right, the old girl is back on her feet but I'm still not on the internet so I'm basically just using it for storage and some web updates and such. I'm ready to put her out to pasture.

I have a pair of monitors (finally going dual screen) that the Mrs. gave me for Christmas so I need to find a good tower. I don't game, but I store tons of photos and I want it to be fast with internet stuff and such, nothing really special I'm assuming. I've had Dell and HP computers with good luck but I'm open to anything that works reliably. Something with redundant drives right off the bat would be a plus. Any suggestions?

 

[nnnnnate]

Whats your budget? Ballpark is fine.

 

[nnnnnate]

You basically have three options.

1- Buy a budget (consumer grade) box and add an extra hard drive for redundancy and a graphics card to be able to run dual monitors.

2- Buy a fancy box and potentially have the ability to run dual monitors out of the box but still need to add an extra hard drive for redundancy.

3- Build a box from parts and pick what you want. (I could help you piece together some parts if you wanted to go this route. You might spend more money doing this but you'd be able to get exactly what you want and not anything that you don't.)

What size monitors did your wife buy you? Make/Model would be good too. Looking quick at bestbuy the basic desktops come with HDMI and VGA outputs. Depending on the monitor you may or may not be able to use the VGA. This would mean you would need to pick up another video card to get your dual monitors going. Video cards for gamers are super pricey but you could get a basic one for the kind of stuff you will be doing for +/- $20 I'd guess.

I'd suggest at least 8GB ram, more would be better but having the ability to up that later is pretty key. If I found a box I liked at bestbuy I wouldn't pay them to up the ram though, I'd (likely) buy it online for significant cost savings and slap it in which is super easy to do.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Whats your budget? Ballpark is fine.

Sub $1000, $500 range would be ideal. Am I up in the night?

 

[cruiseroutfit]

You basically have three options.

1- Buy a budget (consumer grade) box and add an extra hard drive for redundancy and a graphics card to be able to run dual monitors.

Adding a graphics cards isn't a game ender?

2- Buy a fancy box and potentially have the ability to run dual monitors out of the box but still need to add an extra hard drive for redundancy.

I'm a Land Cruiser owner, not Lexus. I don't speak Fancy hear.

3- Build a box from parts and pick what you want. (I could help you piece together some parts if you wanted to go this route. You might spend more money doing this but you'd be able to get exactly what you want and not anything that you don't.)

What size monitors did your wife buy you? Make/Model would be good too. Looking quick at bestbuy the basic desktops come with HDMI and VGA outputs. Depending on the monitor you may or may not be able to use the VGA. This would mean you would need to pick up another video card to get your dual monitors going. Video cards for gamers are super pricey but you could get a basic one for the kind of stuff you will be doing for +/- $20 I'd guess.

They are LG LED 24" monitors. Model 24M47. That workable?

 

[rholbrook]

My vote is option 1 from Nate.

 

[Cody]

As long as it doesn't have an illuminated piece of half eaten fruit on it anywhere, I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[TRD270]

Built a system that I think would meet your needs on newegg for just under $700 for everything.

1 solid state drive to run programs off of, two 3 TB hard drives to redundantly store photos, videos etc etc. 8 gigs of ram and a decent video card to run dual monitors

 

[nnnnnate]

Adding a graphics card is just a little harder than swapping out RAM sticks. Totally doable, even for you Kurt.

Just took a peak at the monitor on amazon and if the pictures are correct they have HDMI, DVI, VGA, and DisplayPort inputs so based on the couple towers I looked at on BestBuy you may not even need to add a video card. (the BB boxes had HDMI and VGA outputs.) Your lady did good. Had she thought you weren't particularly good last year and bought some squard 19" dells I might have suggested returning them for a single 27" but two 24"s will be good assuming you have the desk space for it. (And if my memory serves you might have to clean up that desk just a little...lol)

Costco Option 1 8GB RAM, 1 TB Hard Drive, Intel i5 CPU, Win10
Costco Option 2 16GB RAM, 2 TB Hard Drive, Intel i7 CPU, Win10

i5 vs i7 is like the difference between v6 and v8. Obviously a v8 a better but for some people a v6 will work.
Ram is your 0-60mph time. 8GB is like your standard run of the mill soccer mom car. 16GB is the car that puts a smile on your face when you push the skinny pedal.
You already know whats going on with hard drives. Depending on how old the ones are in the box that is getting retired you might could throw them into this new box. It would probably be better to go new but it really just depends on if you want to spend the money on it.

The biggest thing about deciding whether to spend the extra $100 on a computer is thinking about how long you realistically want it to be useful. If you expect to go as long as possible spend the extra money now and when it starts to slow down it won't be as noticeable since it was faster to begin with.

Did you say what the purpose of this machine was? Is this going to be for work or just a place for you to look at all the new places you've been at night after everyone has gone home for the night?

And the baller option #3 just for Cody. This is the only acceptable option for luxury vehicle owners.