I have a desktop PC that's on its last legs. I'm convinced that I either cannot fix it or it's not worth fixing. It used to be my Ubuntu 8.04/Amarok jukebox PC. I bought it from geeks.com as a no-OS debranded HP. It was later pressed into service as a tri-boot, Windows 7, Windows XP, and Ubuntu PC when my old XP machine took a dive.
Last year my Ubuntu drive crashed, leaving the computer as only a Windows one. I use it mostly just to run my Magic Jack phone service and to burn DVDs. Here's what it's doing. You'll be using it and all of a sudden the mouse will freeze up. It gets stuck on the screen for a while and then after a little bit, it will move again. The keyboard freezes in the same manner. When I boot it in safe mode, it doesn't do it.
I figured Windows picked up some kind of malware that was not detectable by Kaspersky, so I reinstalled Windows 7, wiping out the XP install. Same problem with a fresh install. So I installed Puppy Linux on it, which as you probably know, is a very light-on-resources distro. Under Puppy, the screen resolution was the same dreadful 800x600 as Windows 7/safe mode. In similar fashion, under Puppy I did not have the same freezing problems. So I decided I would just make it a Kubuntu PC and not worry about malware. I wiped Puppy and installed Kubuntu, using a good screen resolution. However, I ran into the identical problems with the mouse and keyboard periodically getting stuck.
So I knew for sure now the problem was not malware. I wiped Kubuntu and put Windows 7 back on it. I noticed when I keep it at the crappy 800x600 resolution, it gets by, even if not in safe mode. I need this thing to run my Magic Jack phone service. That resolution is terrible, but at least MJ works. I have noticed I can sometimes temporarily restore a quality resolution and work with it for a while. Sometimes I think it's done with its problems, but they always return. Yesterday I was on Magic Jack call with the screen resolution normal when the bleepin' thing froze on me again. MJ did not keep running; I was kicked out of my call and I had to hard reboot the machine.
I have noticed sometimes the freezing starts when I put a device such as a thumb drive into a USB port. I'm thinking this PC's problems either have something to do with the video card or perhaps the motherboard is just dying. What do you think? If it's definitely the video card, that would be a simple fix by just replacing it. However, if it's the motherboard and I shell out the bucks for a video card, I've just flushed money down the toilet.
In any event, if someone has a fav place to pick up a no OS PC, I'd like to know about it. It seems geeks.com doesn't do so many of them anymore. I could hunt around at pawn shops for decent low-price desktops, but those usually don't have warranties. A 90-day warranty would be nice. I'll likely put Windows 7 on there with my current license
and dual boot with Kubuntu. I just need to run my Magic Jack and a DVD burning program named ConvertXtoDVD. Then in Kubuntu I'll probably only use Amarok and K3B – and perhaps LibreOffice.
Last year my Ubuntu drive crashed, leaving the computer as only a Windows one. I use it mostly just to run my Magic Jack phone service and to burn DVDs. Here's what it's doing. You'll be using it and all of a sudden the mouse will freeze up. It gets stuck on the screen for a while and then after a little bit, it will move again. The keyboard freezes in the same manner. When I boot it in safe mode, it doesn't do it.
I figured Windows picked up some kind of malware that was not detectable by Kaspersky, so I reinstalled Windows 7, wiping out the XP install. Same problem with a fresh install. So I installed Puppy Linux on it, which as you probably know, is a very light-on-resources distro. Under Puppy, the screen resolution was the same dreadful 800x600 as Windows 7/safe mode. In similar fashion, under Puppy I did not have the same freezing problems. So I decided I would just make it a Kubuntu PC and not worry about malware. I wiped Puppy and installed Kubuntu, using a good screen resolution. However, I ran into the identical problems with the mouse and keyboard periodically getting stuck.
So I knew for sure now the problem was not malware. I wiped Kubuntu and put Windows 7 back on it. I noticed when I keep it at the crappy 800x600 resolution, it gets by, even if not in safe mode. I need this thing to run my Magic Jack phone service. That resolution is terrible, but at least MJ works. I have noticed I can sometimes temporarily restore a quality resolution and work with it for a while. Sometimes I think it's done with its problems, but they always return. Yesterday I was on Magic Jack call with the screen resolution normal when the bleepin' thing froze on me again. MJ did not keep running; I was kicked out of my call and I had to hard reboot the machine.
I have noticed sometimes the freezing starts when I put a device such as a thumb drive into a USB port. I'm thinking this PC's problems either have something to do with the video card or perhaps the motherboard is just dying. What do you think? If it's definitely the video card, that would be a simple fix by just replacing it. However, if it's the motherboard and I shell out the bucks for a video card, I've just flushed money down the toilet.
In any event, if someone has a fav place to pick up a no OS PC, I'd like to know about it. It seems geeks.com doesn't do so many of them anymore. I could hunt around at pawn shops for decent low-price desktops, but those usually don't have warranties. A 90-day warranty would be nice. I'll likely put Windows 7 on there with my current license
and dual boot with Kubuntu. I just need to run my Magic Jack and a DVD burning program named ConvertXtoDVD. Then in Kubuntu I'll probably only use Amarok and K3B – and perhaps LibreOffice.
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