Repair/Replace?

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Studebaker

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Repair or Replace?

Right at the moment, I can not afford to replace my computers, and don’t know enough to repair them myself. There appears to be a small repair shop in town that has a good reputation, but I just need to know if they are worth repairing.

#1 is a Dell Dimension 4200. This desktop was bought in 2004 and from what I read online, doesn’t have a great reputation. The power supply is making a lot of noise, and it picked up a virus that AVG can not get rid of. It wiped out my printer access, beeps like a pinball machine from all the virus hits AVG picks up, shuts off if I try Malware program, and will not let me complete the virus scan. Basically, it won’t me do anything.
Windows XP. Other than Word and Excel, all the other programs I need are on line. In the last 3 months I replaced the monitor and keyboard & mouse, so I hate to lose out on them, but I bet the repair shop will hit me for at least $200. Is it even worth fixing?

#2 is a Sony laptop. FS 640. About 2005 vintage. Also XP. The network connection is 54.0 MBPS and varies. Once it drops to 24.0 or below is is stuck in searching mode. I can go to repair mode and it disconnects and reconnects and it is back to 54.0 for a while, then does it again. Very frustrating. Also, I have to keep it plugged in all the time, as the battery has a very short charge life. The repairman I spoke to thought it was a software issue, probably about $100 to fix.
Money is very tight, so I need a cheap fix. Which would you fix?
And if you say fix the laptop, do I cut my losses with the desktop and lose out on the $200 purchase of the new monitor and keyboard/mouse?
 
You should be able to get a good power supply for the DELL for around $40.00. Look at SPI, Antec, Corsair, Enermax...etc.

This is a part you should easily be able to replace yourself.

For your virus issue, your DELL should have come with recovery disks. A re-install of Windows with those disks after wiping the drive will fix you right up. Once infected that bad, even when "fixed" the likelihood of reinfection is much higher due to traces left on the system and in the registry.


For the notebook, a driver update may fix the wireless issue. The other possibility is that it could be your router/access point. Have you tried it elsewhere, on somebody else's wireless to see if the problem happens there?
 
Just had this problem with my Dell 2400,,wiped the drive re loaded windows XP and all drivers/programs and all fine again..
 
Both sound repairable by doing a complete wipe of the hard drive, installing a fresh copy of Windows XP, and applying all the updates.

If the Dell's power supply is noisy, it might be the fan getting ready to go or there might just be some dust bunnies in there. If you need a new power supply, you can find them relatively cheap on Newegg.com and eBay.

The issue is going to be labor. If you don't know how to wipe/reinstall yourself and don't have a friend/relative that can assist you, then you'll have to have a "professional" do it at whatever labor rate they charge. But it should all be much less that buying a new computer.
 
In many cases, there is a restore partition on the HD which will allow you to format the HD and reinstall the factory load.
You'll then need to download all the updates, of course, and re-install any other software.
You'll also lose anything you have stored on the HD.
I've had to do this a few times over the last ten years to get rid of malicious software, but if you do it, it works, and all of the bugs are gone.
Try it.
You can't make things any worse than they are.
 
With the DELL, usually, you just put in the recovery CD and reboot the computer. It should start from the disc. They are normally set to boot from CD.
 
I found a bunch of reinstall discs for the Dell. I am trying to do a scan, and a warning keeps popping up.
TR/PSW.Agent.unon Trojan. if i delete it, it pops up again, multiple times

The laptop- the change in wireless connection varying is just on this computer, and it does it on other wi fi networks in other areas.
 
For the WiFi, under Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager, what does it list as a Wireless adapter under Network Adapters?
 
overkill, is that the latest version of the Intel drivers? IIRC, the 13.5 (or was it 11.5?) version was the last supported version for the 2200 series b/n interface and not included in the latest driver set.
 
On the desktop Dell, I did a scan, twice. Both times it went to 99.8% and froze up. It showed 4 detections, but because it froze up, it didn't take me to the screen where I could quarantine or delete.
 
Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
overkill, is that the latest version of the Intel drivers? IIRC, the 13.5 (or was it 11.5?) version was the last supported version for the 2200 series b/n interface and not included in the latest driver set.


That was whatever was the most recent version for the 2200. I looked it up on their site and linked to it.
 
AVG isn't very good at cleaning your system in my experience. I found that Avira is tops (even if it's the free version only). Download it in a virus-free computer and burn it to a cd. Boot your machine into safe mode (press F8 repeatedly as it tries to boot) to keep drivers (and hopefully even viruses) from loading into RAM and install Avira from the cd. Reboot (if needed) in safe mode, and try to clean the system. I'd also recommend doing an error checking and defragmentation later (Right click on Start -> choose drive C -> Properties -> Tools).
 
Originally Posted By: Studebaker
On the desktop Dell, I did a scan, twice. Both times it went to 99.8% and froze up. It showed 4 detections, but because it froze up, it didn't take me to the screen where I could quarantine or delete.


I wouldn't bother trying to clean it up. Back-up anything that you need from it, and boot from the recovery disks.
 
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