Computer building, maintenance and repair for the financially challenged..

[Fumesucker]

I've been doing this for a while since I've been financially challenged enough for it to influence my choice of a screen name here on DU, my post today is prompted by what I did yesterday..

Computers have been around long enough that they are showing up in thrift stores in large numbers, a lot of the computers still have usable parts in them. Case in point, I realized a few days ago that the 80 gig hard drive I had my OS on was headed for that great bit bucket in the sky so I had my eye open for a replacement. Wandering around a thrift store yesterday I saw a few computers, some of which didn't even have the covers on so like the born scrounger I am I looked to see what drives were in the open ones. To make a long story short I got an old case that had a 160 GB Hitachi Deskstar 7200 rpm drive and a DVD burner for $2.00. My OS is now happily humming along on the new drive after I restored a disk image to it from a DVD backup I have. That's about 12 cents per gigabyte of pretty quick storage and I have a backup DVD burner for the eventuality that my current one and the first backup succumb to the tender mercies of Mr Murphy, I got a working power supply also although I don't have as many problems with them as with disk drives and DVD burners.

I get the impression there are a lot of us on DU who are having financial difficulties, a little scrounging and ingenuity can often save you considerable money or possibly having to do without your computer.

[BlueJazz]

1. Yeah..Good post. I forgot those thrift-store units might have some goodies in them.

:)

[Syrinx]

2. thanks for the post

That's some good stuff. But the thrift stores around here, fundie-run for the most part, suck the good stuff off and sell it on ebay or some such, I'm convinced. But I will heed your advice, and take a second look. Hidden gems are meant for those who find them. :)

And I'm always needing new drives and things.

[Fumesucker]

3. Thrift stores vary a great deal..

I have two Goodwills fairly close to me, they are basically useless for computers or parts, I know they get a lot of them in but I never see any on the shelves, there is also a Salvation Army thrift store and it's not much good for that either, it seems to me that both those organizations have found some outlet for getting rid of computers that doesn't put them in the stores.

The one I like to frequent is pretty much a bit of a dump although they have cleaned and organized it a bit lately, the staff is older women (I'm sixty and they're older than me) and they don't care at all about computers, I'll note that it is a religiously affiliated store but I've learned to chat up the staff in places I frequent a lot so I get good deals because they know and like me.

Yard sales are also a good source of old computers, Craigslist can be also but that will depend a lot on where you are.

The computer I bought was a real mess, the case was badly scratched and the side cover was gone, there was no memory, no one would have gotten anything for it on ebay, I sell a good bit there and know that market. Indeed, buying at thrift stores, Craiglist and yard sales and then selling the stuff on ebay is how I'm surviving right now.

[Syrinx]

8. thanks once again

You are giving me ideas. :hi:

[lpbk2713]

4. Just a word of caution about eBay ...

I found out the hard way that "untested" really means "I know it's a piece of junk".

Saying that just gets the seller off the hook. I bought several hard drives that turned
out to be paper weights before I learned that lesson.

[BlueJazz]

9. Amen....I bought 2 motherboards that turned out to be fine anchors.

:(

[hobbit709]

10. I bought a lot of processors once that were "untested"

all of them were obviously blown. Visible crater on surface of each one. When I gave him a bad rating he tried to give me "you should have known what 'untested' meant"
I replied that to me untested means untested not visibly damaged. I've sold stuff untested myself but it at least passed a visual inspection.
I reported him to ebay and shortly thereafter he was no longer on there.

[Paper Roses]

5. I envy those of you who know what they are looking at.

This old lady does not know ram from gigabyte.

I was just given a new laptop from family members. It has Windows 7. I paid to have a whole wireless thingy set up. I'm afraid to try W/7. I think my old XP worked just fine. I really don't like the difference in these systems but have no choice but to plod along.
Why is everything so complicated?

I read your post...good for you to get something at a bargain. I have no idea what you are talking about but then again, this old granny is way behind the times.

[Old and In the Way]

6. You can make a lot of changes to how Win 7 looks.

It wouldn't exactly end up looking like XP, but you might find tweaks that make your usability experience better.

Start -> Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization Try stuff out....you can't break it.

[Occulus]

7. 1) do NOT be afraid to play with it. 2) Find a friendly guru (in the family?) to help you.

Do NOT spend money on computer repairs. You'll get soaked and, most of the time, they won't be doing anything you couldn't do with five minutes (okay, maybe more than that) and the knowledge. I actually get angry hearing about how much people pay to get their computers fixed, mostly because I could save them quite a bit of cash just by showing them how to learn about their machines and apply fixes themselves that would cost them, and a-dearly.

You're new to Windows 7. That's okay! I used Windows XP forever. Lots of us did! Nearly everyone, in fact; the USPS still uses XP and even Windows 2000 on their machines, so I guess you could say I still use XP (and earlier versions of Windows) every day. I do love my Win7 machine, though, and you will, too, once you learn how to use it.

I'm sure you've already figured out that the Start button is in the same place, there's still a "Recycle Bin", and so on. It looks quite a bit different, but most of the features you're used to are still there, just in a slightly (sometimes drastically) different place, or in a different form.

Please PM me if you have a question about "how to do it" in Windows 7; I'll be happy to help you. Read some Windows 7 beginner's guides online, or maybe buy a Windows 7 book or two. I've found it to be a very stable and fast OS- moreso than XP, by far- and certainly one of the best Microsoft has produced since Windows 98.

A few tips:

+ Turn on Automatic Updates if they're not on (Google the term if you don't understand me)
+ Download Microsoft Security Essentials (virus software that actually works very well)
+ Turn on your Windows Firewall (I think it may be on by default)
+ Read about using Windows 7
+ Ask us questions about what you read
+ Don't worry if you can't find an immediate fix if something's wrong but your PC still works (or even if it doesn't entirely)- this is how you learn about the nitty-gritty, and it's a process I'm continuing right up to today. See my post from today in this very forum for what I mean.

I love solving problems with these machines. Please, feel free to ask me questions; I've been building computers for myself for a long time now.