PC crashed

[psbfan9]

I got home from work last night and my wife told that the computer crashed. It's a 5-6 year old Dell Inspiron 580. For a few weeks I thought something was wrong. Odd behavior and crashes. The crash would take me back to desktop, not completely shut down. PC would only shut by 'hard' shut down. I have waited as long as 1 1/2 hours for automatic shutdown before doing a 'hard shutdown' (holding power button for a few seconds, until pc turns off)
Now when I try to start it, I get a black screen with 'Windows did not shut down properly', then options are given to start in safe mode or as normal. I've tried both ways and just get a black screen with the cursor.

Bought an Acer Aspire AXC-605G-UW20 at *sigh* Walmart (it was 10:30 pm) for $259.00, which I'm using now. Seems to be a decent machine, but reliability/longevity may be questionable.

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/DT.SYTAA.001

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883101112

Based on small amount of info I've given, is the other pc salvageable, worth fixing?

Thanks!

 

[Adam]

You should have kept the Mac Mini. But I'm glad that you didn't.

I bet that it is salvageable, but I'll let you resident PC gurus give you the real advice. Did you have any important data on the hard drive that you want to recover?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

sounds like hard disk crapped out. My recommended repair would
a) install budget SSD , like http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAIEF7KZG4SSIJ7QQA&tag=toms_shopping_rev-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00OAJ412U&ascsubtag=[site|thaus[cat|[art|[pid|B00OAJ412U[tid|14343031729124785[bbc|LEPRIX

2) re-install windows using original sticker windows key -

3) Restore the data using gadget like this one:
https://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10315&cs_id=1031502&p_id=8078&seq=1&format=2

With SSD your old PC will likely work faster for most tasks than new Acer

 

[Rickster71]

At the 8 year mark I had the same problem with my Dell XPS.
Swapped the bad drive with a Samsung EVO-840. Boots in 15 seconds.
This Dec will be its 11th year.

 

[psbfan9]

sounds like hard disk crapped out. My recommended repair would
a) install budget SSD , like http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAIEF7KZG4SSIJ7QQA&tag=toms_shopping_rev-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00OAJ412U&ascsubtag=[site|thaus[cat|[art|[pid|B00OAJ412U[tid|14343031729124785[bbc|LEPRIX

2) re-install windows using original sticker windows key -

3) Restore the data using gadget like this one:
https://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10315&cs_id=1031502&p_id=8078&seq=1&format=2

With SSD your old PC will likely work faster for most tasks than new Acer

Ok, thanks BSA. I think Ill get the 500gb drive. Should I also order a sata cable?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Why not

 

[psbfan9]

Why not

Sure.

 

[psbfan9]

I ordered the new drive and some memory for the old rig. Planning to return the Acer.
Is there an app/anything that I can use to 'wipe' the drive without killing the HD on the Acer? Not much personal info, as I didn't register the machine but, I did log into my bank account and email.

 

[lsiberian]

I ordered the new drive and some memory for the old rig. Planning to return the Acer.
Is there an app/anything that I can use to 'wipe' the drive without killing the HD on the Acer? Not much personal info, as I didn't register the machine but, I did log into my bank account and email.

Unless you are hiding info from the FBI you can easily wipe personal info of a computer.

 

[psbfan9]

Unless you are hiding info from the FBI you can easily wipe personal info of a computer.

Hm... Can you share a few ways to do this? Everything I have seen kills the drive, (Dban) then windows needs to be reinstalled. I want clear my personal stuff and return the hd back to factory settings.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Hm... Can you share a few ways to do this? Everything I have seen kills the drive, (Dban) then windows needs to be reinstalled. I want clear my personal stuff and return the hd back to factory settings.

Not sure if Acer has that option, but many OEM vendors do - during boot you may have an option to do factory restore. It will re-image drive with fresh windows.
dban is too nucular (pun intended)

 

[slipperybidness]

dban is too nucular (pun intended)

LOL!

I love that word "nucular". I try to use it instead of the proper word "nuclear", just for giggles.

I'm a scientist by profession, so my friends know that I'm obviously using the wrong pronunciation on purpose.

GW Bush coined that word, I think.

 

[agarwalro]

Hm... Can you share a few ways to do this? Everything I have seen kills the drive, (Dban) then windows needs to be reinstalled. I want clear my personal stuff and return the hd back to factory settings.

Did the Acer ship with a factory restore disc? Is yes, just reinstall the factory image.

 

[lsiberian]

LOL!

I love that word "nucular". I try to use it instead of the proper word "nuclear", just for giggles.

I'm a scientist by profession, so my friends know that I'm obviously using the wrong pronunciation on purpose.

GW Bush coined that word, I think.

It's actually common Texas pronunciation of I heard it long before GW Bush was in office.

As far as wiping a hard drive the modern way is to use the system recovery feature. All it normally does is mark each hard drive sector with a delete flag which is trivial to reverse if someone really wants your information. Modern windows operating systems make the old fashioned methods difficult to do now. I have a hard drive that no longer works in my wife's machine thanks to the Windows 10 security features. In fairness I was using Technical Preview which had a bug that lead to the issue. When it comes to computers you can get an i7 top of the line chip for 750 in a laptop these days. Just head over to best buy and look for the i7 Toshiba around that price point. You use your computer everyday it's worth splurging on it.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Unlike LS, i would rather splash on fastest ssd, ram, video card, cpu - in that order, aka unless you running some specialized computing, cpu is rarely the chock point any more

 

[psbfan9]

Thanks to everyone for all the help. I'm up and running again.

BSA, you were right about this drive. From boot up to surfing, this is like a new machine! Thanks!!

I was a little nervous about doing it myself, but it went surprisingly well.
Having two drives now, I need to figure what new and interesting things I can do.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I'm Glad my advice was helpful. Enjoy the performance of SSD. Keep in mind what you got is nice, but still budget performer. Next pc I expect you will want to go even faster SSD