In case any of you have been wondering where I've been for the last few days..

My computer went sploot. Everything was perfectly normal, and then windows suddenly crashed (which isn't too surprising by itself)... Then I tried rebooting, but as the bios was detecting components, the PC speaker kept beeping constantly, and the process took much longer than usual. The beeping starts right from the begining - before the ram or the hard drive are detected. Then the rest starts loading but it freezes up shortly. The same thing happends everytime I reboot.

I imagine I would've noticed some slight difference in sound if my CPU fan was to blame, but that is not the case. Even if I manage to fix it, seeing how my computer's been performing lately, it's only a matter of days before something like this happends again.

I'll try to salvage my hard drive, but if I can't, that means I've lost all my music, all my software, my entire library of instruments which took me years to build up, and two fairly large JK singleplayer levels that were both nearly finished.

Anyways.. I'll be taking my first dive into the wonderfull pit of financial deficit and buy myself a brand new computer with a load of money I don't have.

Naturally, I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possible. So here's what I need;


(my budget is of approximately 500$ canadian)

I can probably salvage
-sound card
-network card
-monitor
-keyboard, mouse and crap
-floppy and CD drives
-(hard drive)?

What I need

-processor, approx. 1.5 gig
-512 mb of ram
-video card, (geforce II 64?)
-motherboard


I haven't been keeping up-to-date lately on hardware, so I need reccomendations on the exact brand/model/type for the cpu, ram and gpu. Keep in mind that I have a budget of 500$ canadian, that I would prefer performance over image quality and features, and that I should be able to run UT2k3 with good stable framerates.


I'll check back later this week. I can't stay long because I'm on my brother's computer, and his internet connection has limited time. If anyone asks where I am, tell them. I don't have time to e-mail everyone I know. It could be a couple of weeks before I return.

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

good luck, i can't do anything for you, maybe one of these other generous massassian's will

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<Genki> oh, where are you going, with beards all a waggin, no knowin no knowin what bring dear Mr. Baggins, and Balin, and Dwalin, here down in the vally Ah ha!

500 Canadian dollars = 379.40 American dollars

Just for info.

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Snail racing: (500 posts per line)
-----@%

Listen to the beeps. They are trying to tell you something. Count them, short and long, then go here and find out what's wrong or broken.
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

99.99% chance your hard drive is fine. It's most likely a RAM problem or a video card problem.

New comps in Montreal?
http://www.megapc.com/system_dept.asp?dept_id=SD-002

2.2GHz
800MHz FSB
256MB RAM
30GB 7200RPM HDD
on board video with and AGP slot so you can upgrade later.
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$432

8181 Boulevard Decarie, Montreal

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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.

For video cards, I would reccomend an ATI Radeon 7x00... You can get a 7000 w/64MB DDR for $31 U.S. From Yahoo... http://store.yahoo.com/buyxg/gig700064.html

...Google has it's own service, called Froogle... http://froogle.google.com

As for performance, I know that they're quite good enough... The computer I play UT2k3/4 on have a 7500 w/64MB, and aren't that incredible elsewhere, yet I can usually max the settings, and still get almost 60 fps. While they won't support anything requiring pixel shaders (such as Max Payne), they are both cheap and powerful.

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Nes digs around in the trash can.
Nes finds a hamburger!
Nes puts the hamburger in his backpack.

No no no. If you're going to get a cheap, good radeon, I'd suggest the 8500 128 MB edition. I've had this baby since august 2002 and it's never steered me wrong. They're really really cheap too.
I've heard nothing but bad things about the 7x00 series..

But yes, Evad is right. Try to diagnose the problem from the link he gave you, and you might be able to scoot by with only buying one new peice of hardware.

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MadQuack on Military school: Pro's: I get to shoot a gun. Con's: Everything else.
"I'm going to beat you until the laws of physics are violated!!" ! Maeve's Warcry

RIP -MaDaVentor-. You will be missed.

Most likely his old card will suffice. But if not he can get an ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128MB for less than $100 right where he lives.

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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.

Random stuff like that, sounds like ram or power supply.

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http://www.sporkaudio.com

Of course, your probelms shouldn't neccessitate getting a new computer...

You should definitely put your efforts into finding out what component went bad. If you didn't change anything recently (hardware OR software), the component that is most likely to go bad is the power supply, especially if you have a lot of cards/drives installed. The reccomendation, of course, is to always start with the most simple solutions first, then work your way up. Obviously, you've already passed the first question (are all the power switches on?). Surprisingly enough, this solves around 20% of all computer problems...

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Nes digs around in the trash can.
Nes finds a hamburger!
Nes puts the hamburger in his backpack.

I should've mentioned.. it's not the kind of beeps you can count. It sounds more like a constant machinegun fire of beeps, and other odd clicks and sounds as well. I know I could probably fix the computer.. but it's giving me nothing but trouble, and it's very old and obsolete.. it'd be better in the long run if I could just change it once and for all.

what I have currently;
40.5 gb hard drive
667mhz celeron II... runs more like a 366
128 megs of ram
TNT2 32 mb


Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've written a few down and I'll check them out.

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

*bump*

I didn't say stop!!

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.