Upgrading a PC including replacing fan etc

nicki_2

I have a Compaq Presario SR1000 which I want to overhaul so my daughter (aka DD) can use it when she goes to secondary school in September rather than buying her a laptop! I'm on a pretty tight budget (basically whatever I can raise selling stuff on ebay, maybe an extra £20 or so here and there) and am expecting this to take me a couple of months to complete which is why I'm here.

I know that I'll need to put in additional memory so it'll run faster as its painfully slow, I think I need to replace the fan and hard drive as well. This is within my capabilities but some help would be appreciated so I don't end up breaking it completely or wasting money on something with incompatible specs! There are also programs on the hard drive I've paid for when downloading but no longer have the installation files/CD any more so I'd like to save those and if possible install them not only on the new hard drive, but also on my laptop

I was quoted £200 to just get the information off the hard drive by the local repair shop so I want to see how much I can manage to do myself for that amount. I'm not a complete computer novice, but this will be my first time upgrading a computer on my own as my ex did all the computer stuff until he went.

I need this computer to run whatever windows possible (its currently running XP), it has office 2007 currently on it which DD will be using although I think I may have reached the licensing limit, there is one installed game on it but I don't mind buying that again as its about £4 (if I can avoid it though ) and she will NOT be having internet access at all. If she wants to get on the internet she has to ask permission to use my laptop and she has to stay in the same room as me with it, no free-reign on the web here!

So where do I begin? How do I find out the specs I need for the new (bigger) hard drive etc and where is the best place to buy them? I'd prefer new if possible so 'surprises' are kept to a minimum.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. After paying £700 for this one in 2006 I'm not about to let it go off to the great scrapheap in the sky just yet lol

Niv

With respect on where to begin. Can you provide the current specs of the machine if you know them (processor, RAM, Hard drive size etc) as this may help. Why do you need to replace the Hard drive? If it is to get more hard drive space in a new bigger hard drive. I would suggest that you buy a second hard drive and keep the current one for the OS and office etc because if you do not have the 'uninstalled' version of them it will be difficult to get the programmes on a new hard drive, most programmes cannot be 'copied and pasted' from one hard drive to another.

Niv

esuhl

What makes you think you'll need to replace the fan? And which fan are you talking about? A case fan, GPU fan, or CPU fan?

As for the hard drive, that's probably not going to affect performance too greatly. You're probably better off formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows, rather than replacing it.

To re-install the software you use, you will (almost certainly) need the original installer files. Did you pay to download the files themselves, or (as is often the case), did you download the software for nothing and pay for an "serial key" or some kind of code...? If so, you may be able to identify the serial key from your current installation, which you can then use when you later re-install the software.

XP is probably fine -- I can't see any point in shelling out on a more recent OS (unless you have a specific need)... particularly since you won't have it connected to the Internet.

Missli

I completely replaced everything in my case for approx £250 mark. I wouldn't bother getting the old programs back if the disks had been lost, just start again, or re-download if possible.

You can back up all your personal stuff yourself.

esuhl

Looks like this is the spec:
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00716364&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=2512431&prodTypeId=12454

Running XP with 2GB RAM should be fine. It might not break any speed records, but if the machine is just going to be used as a basic office machine, I doubt it would be particularly cost-effective to upgrade the RAM...

Reinstalling Windows will probably make a big difference to performance. Maybe upgrade to 4GB if performance is still a bit slow.

If you've run out of MS Office licences, you might want to have a look at the open source (i.e. free) alternative, LibreOffice.

nicki_2

Thanks for the advice so far.

I'll grab the exact specs later on, got to go out to work er...ASAP and the computer needs to be assembled before I can get them. The ones eshul posted look familiar but I don't know how accurate they are for my particular one.

The reason I stopped using it was I was getting errors constantly including the blue screen of death a few times, and the hard drive (or one of the fans) was rattling A LOT like a pneumatic drill and got so loud at one point I remember not being able to hear my mobile ringing. All in all it had become pretty much useless and unreliable after crashing repeatedly while I was trying to do uni work. That's why I'm looking to replace the parts as ideally I'd like this to last DD until she's finished her GCSEs as it'll take me that long to save the money up to buy her a new laptop!

The fan(s) might not need replacing, maybe they might just need a really good clean. Done this before, but I think this time around I'd need to get one of those pressurised air cans so I can do a better job. The problem is its 'sticky' dust so more difficult to get rid of. Last time I wasn't confident to unscrew things whereas this time I'll happily disconnect/unscrew stuff as computers don't scare me any more now I've done some courses in ICT lol

The software is a computer game (Masters of Olympus - which I've found on an auction site for almost nothing so thats not a problem and I'd actually like the security of having the CD!) and microsoft money which is no longer available to buy. I think it was a download & a serial number put in but it was that long ago I can't remember plus my ex never let me do things like that on the computer, that was 'his job'. I did try to download it onto my laptop from a website, but I remember having problems with it as I didn't have a key at the time. If I can find the correct code I'll be very happy lol

I already have all the documents that are on it on my laptop as I transferred them all over when I got the laptop. Took me hours due to the computer crashing so much!

I'm happy leaving it on XP, if something needs a later OS I have windows 7 on my laptop. She's only getting her own computer as I use mine for work (I'm self-employed) and I've already nearly missed deadlines due to her using my laptop for her homework and she's so much slower than me its painful. The last time I ended up taking over to get the homework finished (she watched and I explained as I did it) and I JUST met my deadline with literally a minute to spare.

It was running extremely slow so ideally if I can increase the RAM it would be a good thing as DD is not the most patient of people.

Right I have to run to work (or at least get ready to go out the second the England match finishes) but I'll get the specs later on.

Thanks again.

santer_2

Some say to stick a pencil in the fan while using an air can so the fan cannot spin beyond its limits

esuhl

nicki wrote: »

...and microsoft money which is no longer available to buy... I did try to download it onto my laptop from a website, but I remember having problems with it as I didn't have a key at the time. If I can find the correct code I'll be very happy lol

This Microsoft page explains where you might be able to find the serial key:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941425

Or, apparently you can run this program (haven't used it myself) to list the serial keys used by various installed programs:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/gr/keyfinderthing.htm

If the hard drive is performing badly, then any pagefile access could be really slow... And if you have lots of software and junk installed (particularly programs that run on startup or as services) then a reinstall (on a new hard drive!) should really speed things up.

closed

Instead of spendng money on it, clean the software up - the reason machines go slow is because of what's been added at startup since you bought it. If it cost £600- £700, it should have enough ram already.

Replacing ram or a fan isn't going to solve a blue screen, a fine layer of dust is harmless

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

Have you backed up your data?

nicki_2

Dragging this up again as I've hit a problem. I've not used the computer for a while as my DD has broken her knee so I've been too busy to look into anything.

Anyways, I've just come to boot it up and the monitor is not getting any signal. After a closer look one of the fans has stopped working. After a bit of googling I think its the graphics card fan thats stopped working. Would this cause this fault? Or do I need to look at replacing the whole board?

Info on the red board is:
Griffon-1.0-M02
MS-v047B0603136574
HP P/N : 5188-4289

What info do I need to fix this problem?

Pics of the board:






Its the fan on the lower image that has stopped working. No idea whats happened to the pictures, I have edited them but the edits are not working :mad:

Any help to fix this will be appreciated.

Jamie_Cortez

Sounds like the card/card slot/Motherboard may be dead.

Does the computer have a little speaker device attached internally? Do you get any beeps when turning the computer on?