Yeah, the good thing is I don't think I'd need to do it right away, if at all in the next few months. Amusingly, CB is actually reading a bit higher than when I first booted up (back to a more normal level), so at least the bar is green again.
You're like me, trying to fit a Spore Drive on a TOS era ship.
Fan went out again. This time I used Ultair Players Choice Airsoft Silicone Oil. Put a drop inside of the shaft housing inside of the stator and voila. Lag in STO has dropped dramatically, web pages only take around five seconds to load up.
Fan is pushing out cool air and isn't making that annoying buzzing sound.
Its always the cooling fan that causes issues.
A few months ago something went wrong with the hard drive or the OS of my Windows 10 pro Optiplex 7010 tower and it would no longer boot up. Within seconds of starting it I would get a blue screen NTFS.sys error so after about a week of trying to fix it and realising it was hopeless and the repair option wasn't working I put the PC in to storage. Before I did that I took out the old hard drive and checked out the inside of the case to see where I could add more memory and a GPU because I had always got by with the onboard graphics. Apart from games and software all important data was kept stored on an external hard disk connected to the PC and backed up on another hard disk so the failure didn't cause any significant data loss but it's abruptly stopped my gaming pursuits for the last few months. I need to load up Stalker and shoot some zombies.
I'll be adding another 8Gb stick of RAM to double it to 16Gb and buying a mid range GPU so I can try GTA5 which I've never tried before on a PC but what I'm not sure about is how I buy a hard drive and OS as cheap as possible or if I can use the licence key from my dead hard drive.
I bought the PC reconditioned and the sticker specifies the OS as a reconditioned licence but I'm not sure what that means in terms of transferring it to another PC. I can find a hard drive which I'll buy brand new but what is the process for adding an operating system to it once installed? If I'm connected to the internet when I turn it on for the first time will it give me the option of downloading an OS and using the product key from the sticker on my PC?
The PC had been failing for well over a year with random blue screen stop codes but I could never find a definitive solution. I ran AVG and anti malware software which could never find anything yet the reasons I read for all the stop codes I was getting was likely due to malware.
Any advice on how I can get my PC back up and running on a shoestring is much appreciated. I think the rest of it like the system board and CPU is in good condition so I would prefer to repair it rather than buying a new PC.
I'll be adding another 8Gb stick of RAM to double it to 16Gb and buying a mid range GPU so I can try GTA5 which I've never tried before on a PC but what I'm not sure about is how I buy a hard drive and OS as cheap as possible or if I can use the licence key from my dead hard drive.
I bought the PC reconditioned and the sticker specifies the OS as a reconditioned licence but I'm not sure what that means in terms of transferring it to another PC. I can find a hard drive which I'll buy brand new but what is the process for adding an operating system to it once installed? If I'm connected to the internet when I turn it on for the first time will it give me the option of downloading an OS and using the product key from the sticker on my PC?
The PC had been failing for well over a year with random blue screen stop codes but I could never find a definitive solution. I ran AVG and anti malware software which could never find anything yet the reasons I read for all the stop codes I was getting was likely due to malware.
Any advice on how I can get my PC back up and running on a shoestring is much appreciated. I think the rest of it like the system board and CPU is in good condition so I would prefer to repair it rather than buying a new PC.
Transferring Windows from one PC to another depends on the original Windows license. If a computer was purchased new, it has an OEM license which cannot be transferred. If it was a Retail license of Windows, then it can be transferred. The Microsoft Windows sticker with the license key should note what kind of license it is.
A new hard drive will be completely blank. You will need to download an installation image from Microsoft which can be either burned to a disc or setup on a USB drive.
Check to make sure all your fans are working and that the CPU isn't clogged with dust. Both can cause overheating which can make things behave poorly.
Being a Dell it would be an OEM licence and going by the age of the machine (google indicates the 7010 used a 3rd gen core processor) so it's probably 7 years old (4th gen came out May 2014) and would have come with Windows 8.1 (or possible 7) licence that upgraded to upgraded to Windows 10 hence being Pro not home.
Even though it's Windows 10, because it's was upgraded from an OEM version it can't legally be transferred as noted.
However reinstall windows on the same hardware won't be a problem. It will check online see the system has been running Windows 10 and re-activate.
I did that recently. Had to reload a laptop for a client. Did system restore from the oem partition, upgraded to win10, it activated everyone was happy.
So I'd the same in @Malicia's case.
Backup the user data (there's a program call profwiz from ForensIT that will backup the user profile (settings, data the whole 9 yards) and is free to use.
Perform a system restore which will reload the original Windows and upgrade to 10 from there or use the Windows Media Creation tool and download the latest build and transfer it to a USB thumb drive in 1 hit (8GB USB drive required) and then reload all the applications.
There are programs that will also allow you to transfer all the user applications as well as the user data. One I've used is EaseUS PCTransfer (about $US35, not sure on the UK price). It beats the headache of re-install all the applications. You can chose what you want to transfer. Can go between the two computers or back to an external hard disk and then restore.
Not sure what storage is currently in use but I'd suggest a Solid State Drive (500GB maybe 1TB). Plenty of room for the games to be stored. Want to make sure it's a good one though. Samsung Evos are the bees-knees but had a price premium. Crucial BX100 are a decent drive (have one in use in my server).
Need over 1TB and then the most cost effective option would be say a 120GB SSD to boot and then a HDD for the rest. Over 1TB and spinning rust wins on price for capacity,
Thanks for the info and that makes it a lot clearer. I work in IT I should know this kind of thing but I've been at a loss on what to do. I've never been the kind of person that invests in a high end rig and before the PC I had that broke a few months ago that cost £250 on Amazon the PC I had before that cost £125 and despite being second hand it lasted about six years and I would open it at least once a year to clean out the fans and heat sink. Despite being very cheap compared to the average gaming rig they did everything I needed them to do with gaming and music/video production.
Cleaning the fans made a big difference and no doubt that extended the life of the machine. It makes me wonder if large companies that have offices with hundreds of computers would save money if they had an annual clean out of all the machines where a team of engineers open and clean the interior of each PC. Maybe the disruption alone would make this out of the question for a large business who just replace hardware when it fails but it could be a money saver and they could upgrade at the same time like replacing the RAM. Better for the environment as well.
But if they've got a standard operating environment and deployment mechanism it can still be quicker and cheaper to break out a new system and deploy it than worry about the disruption of having a team go through and clean out the computers.
Plus for a well heeled corporation they would dispose of the computer once the 3yr warranty is up (or the lease expires which is often 3 years anyway).
Then again there computers that I deal with that don't get cleaned out and it's a wonder they don't fall over more especially considering the systems are well over 10 years old (they're running Core2Duos!!). Extra ram and solid state drives would be lovely and it wouldn't take 5 minutes to restart the point of sale system.
System fails and it will get swapped out with once that's been services but they never seem to worry about the power supply fan.
I've always built machines myself and they all still work.. the oldest selfbuilt machine is a Pentium 233MMX, it is from the late 90's and still works, computers can last loooong, I do clean mine from time to time though.
I've been given machines that were phased out by the companies that used them and yeah, occasionally one had a 2cm thick dust carpet about everywhere, was an IBM PS/2 Model 30 and yes.. it still works.
I've been given machines that were phased out by the companies that used them and yeah, occasionally one had a 2cm thick dust carpet about everywhere, was an IBM PS/2 Model 30 and yes.. it still works.
never had the space to keep my old systems (plus components would) get re-used in the next build.
The old PS/2s were built like tanks so yeah that's not suprising.
Probably comes down to original quality. Buy something that's quality and there's a good chance it will keep ticking over for a long time to come.
My older piece of computer equipment is a WD Raptor 30GB drive that was still going strong when I shut it down last year (need the SATA port for another drive that held a bit more).
After that it would be the power supply in my server case (a 2RU supermicro rackmount). It's been in service since August 2012 and has generally run not stop ever since.
Oh and have an iPad2 that I got in 2011 that's still going but come it's 10 anniversary in April it will be replaced - the thing is just too dam slow for most websites. In comparison 7 years my mother has gone through 2 Samsung tablets that both failed.
On the other hand these days we don't know how long things will last because people always want the latest and greatest yet there was nothing wrong with what they had.
Have remarked to a number of clients over the years that as long as their computers fulfill their needs it's not obsolete.
Thanks for your advice and it's given me a lot to think about. I was thinking of buying a new hard drive to put in my old PC so in that scenario I would be able to re-activate Windows and then get a GPU and extra RAM later on but to throw a spanner in the works I just connected to WIFI provided in a new flat I've just moved to and the average speeds I'm getting using online speed tests is consistently over 300Mbps downstream, 15Mbps upstream and 10-12ms delay. Maybe it's because my laptop is just a few metres away from the shared WIFI access point but if I can get those speeds I'm now thinking of a new PC instead of buying components for my current PC.
There can be many ifs/buts/whys when it comes to speed tests but generally PC performance isn't one of them (though onboard wifi can be or the pc is really old).
Your current PC will handle a 300/15 connection just fine and if it's just you in the flat unless you're downloading you're download or play on the net while streaming a 4K video from netflix you're not going to really notice the extra speed (unless you have timer on just how long Trekbbs take to load
But if it's not fast enough to play the games you want then new computer time
Thanks again for all the advice and it's given me the boot I needed to finally order something to see if I can get the old PC working again. I've never had an SSD before so have ordered:
Integral 8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz SDRAM Desktop/Computer PC3-12800 memory - £29 (to double the RAM)
Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-76E500) £62 (the 1Tb was £104 and would be overkill)
Hopefully I can power it on with the SSD installed using it as the OS drive and download Windows 10 Pro using the sticker licence key. From all the advice I've read here that seems to be easy enough as it's the same hardware and I'm then back up and running and only have a few games I install so 500Gb is more than enough. Eventually I'll replace the other 2 x 4gb sticks of RAM that came with the machine with another Integral 8GB stick so they are both the same model and add a GPU and a standard internal HD for storage. I'm determined to get a few more years out of it and I've never had access to such fast internet. This time 10 years ago I had just moved to the Cotswolds and didn't have internet at home for three years. I would make a note of what I needed to search for and use the library PCs at the weekend. Since then I've just had USB dongles which can be fast at times but not always good with video so to now have access to this super fast connection I need to see if the Kingpin deathmatch servers are still running so I can get my long overdue revenge. The only attempt I made at online gaming was in the 90s when I had installed Kingpin and tried joining a server on a 56k modem. I'd like to get involved in shooter games like SWAT 4 co-op modes and team work based games like The Forest. A few guys at work play it and I installed it on my PC but it couldn't run it smoothly enough so I never got far from the plane before giving up. There was a noticeable delay from my inputs to them actually happening and made it unplayable. Very interesting game though and I'm always looking out for AI in games and how I can manipulate it. It sounds like it's not that simple in The Forest which intrigues me even more.
Integral 8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz SDRAM Desktop/Computer PC3-12800 memory - £29 (to double the RAM)
Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-76E500) £62 (the 1Tb was £104 and would be overkill)
Hopefully I can power it on with the SSD installed using it as the OS drive and download Windows 10 Pro using the sticker licence key. From all the advice I've read here that seems to be easy enough as it's the same hardware and I'm then back up and running and only have a few games I install so 500Gb is more than enough. Eventually I'll replace the other 2 x 4gb sticks of RAM that came with the machine with another Integral 8GB stick so they are both the same model and add a GPU and a standard internal HD for storage. I'm determined to get a few more years out of it and I've never had access to such fast internet. This time 10 years ago I had just moved to the Cotswolds and didn't have internet at home for three years. I would make a note of what I needed to search for and use the library PCs at the weekend. Since then I've just had USB dongles which can be fast at times but not always good with video so to now have access to this super fast connection I need to see if the Kingpin deathmatch servers are still running so I can get my long overdue revenge. The only attempt I made at online gaming was in the 90s when I had installed Kingpin and tried joining a server on a 56k modem. I'd like to get involved in shooter games like SWAT 4 co-op modes and team work based games like The Forest. A few guys at work play it and I installed it on my PC but it couldn't run it smoothly enough so I never got far from the plane before giving up. There was a noticeable delay from my inputs to them actually happening and made it unplayable. Very interesting game though and I'm always looking out for AI in games and how I can manipulate it. It sounds like it's not that simple in The Forest which intrigues me even more.
What are people's opinions on NUC's as general purpose machines? Family member wants one just to surf the web / email / social media, netflix, that kind of thing.
Specifically this machine with 32gig ram and m.2 drive
Intel BOXNUC8I5BEH NUC Barebone Kit - Core i5 8th Gen
Specifically this machine with 32gig ram and m.2 drive
Intel BOXNUC8I5BEH NUC Barebone Kit - Core i5 8th Gen
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The licence key isn't required for the download and creation of the installation media so if you're not able to download on the desktop system, you'll be able to do it on your laptop and create the USB key (I mean hey I guided by sister through the process trying to recover mum's computer and they're on the other-side of the planet without her wanting to kill me
The licence key isn't required for the download and creation of the installation media so if you're not able to download on the desktop system, you'll be able to do it on your laptop and create the USB key (I mean hey I guided by sister through the process trying to recover mum's computer and they're on the other-side of the planet without her wanting to kill me
Cheers I didn't think of that and it could save some time if I have the OS already downloaded but it's a work laptop so it might need admin creds. They are usually fine with that kind of thing as long as it's all above board and a few years ago let me install VLC Media so I could use a USB optical drive to watch Simpsons DVDs on the laptop in the kitchen
I'm not sure if the Optiplex 7010 MT has wifi capability but if it doesn't there's an RJ45 wall socket which I assume connects to the same internet provider. I've just moved here so have no idea what the deal is with my internet connection and if I could incur charges if I start using Gb of it daily. I need to check that with the landlord.
The media creation tool doesn't actually install anything so that should be an issue.
Not sure if it requires admin privileges to run because I've had admin access when ever I've running (even if that is a bit of a bad habbit
You'd in this day an age a landlord would go for an unlimited account to avoid having to handle the issue of overages when you've got tenants using (especially if there's more than one flat).
I've got a copy of the image file sitting on my drive and it comes around 4.7GB
Specs on the Optiplex don't list wifi as standard (though given they are aimed at the business market and the age of the machine that's not surprising).
The media creation tool doesn't actually install anything so that should be an issue.
Not sure if it requires admin privileges to run because I've had admin access when ever I've running (even if that is a bit of a bad habbit
You'd in this day an age a landlord would go for an unlimited account to avoid having to handle the issue of overages when you've got tenants using (especially if there's more than one flat).
I've got a copy of the image file sitting on my drive and it comes around 4.7GB
Specs on the Optiplex don't list wifi as standard (though given they are aimed at the business market and the age of the machine that's not surprising).
I had a look at the spec of the 7010 and I think you're right that it doesn't have wifi built in. When I bought it the power lead bag also had a small USB stick no bigger than the receiver for a wireless mouse and I've never used it but I assume that was to enable wifi. I still have it so that might come in handy but I've got an RJ45 cable so will see if I can get a wired connection from the wall socket.
The SSD and RAM has arrived so I'm just waiting for the PC which I'm getting out of storage on Friday but am stuck on how to create the OS. I just tried using the media creation tool which requires elevated permission so the only way to download it is for someone in IT to remote on and put in their credentials. If I plug in a blank 8Gb USB flash drive in to my work laptop and manage to download the Windows 10 pro 64bit version to the flash drive is that flash drive then ready to plug in to my computer when I've connected the new SSD or does the file need to be unpacked first? I've never bought a disk without an OS before so am not sure what functionality I have before the OS is installed.
that could be a wifi adapter (I didn't think they could be that small) but don't expect stellar performance from it but for a get out of jail card it could come in hand (hopefully Windows has driver support built in).
There's a program called rufus what will allow you to create a bootable USB drive if you're able to download the iso.
It had a portable (so doesn't require installation) version so you might be able to run that without getting a prompt for admin access.
If you're not able to download the iso, send me a private message and I'll send you a link to the copy I used for mum's computer that's stored on my onedrive (I used the mediacreation tool and got it save to an ISO).
install the new drive into the Optiplex (plug in where there existing hard disk is connected and it will be come the first drive in the system). You'll then need to boot from the USB drive. Not sure if it will got automatically because it doesn't detected a bootable disk. If not, when the computer starts up press the F12 key and it will bring up the boot menu. Chose the USB drive from the list (it might be listed twice so it could be trial and error).
Also having the old hard disk unplugged will a) prevent accident use as the install location and b) make sure the SSD is the first drive so you won't have issues with the booting if the old hdd is pulled at some point.
Then it's a matter of following the bouncing ball. One you've selected the drive it should automatically partition and format for you.
One of the annoying features microsoft have added is the trying to tie your windows 10 login to an online account which I find a pain in the podex. Make sure the computer isn't connected to the internet while doing the installation and then you should be able to create a local account without issues.
Couple of other things. AS you've probably discovered the SSD is a lot smaller than your regular hard disk
so there's probably not a bay for it. Because there are no moving parts it can just sit inside the case (maybe secure it it with a bit of stick tape). Might be possible to get a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter but not the end of the world if you don't.Not sure if there will be any spare SATA cables for the old hard disk to be plugged in at the same time as the SSD if there are any files you want to copy across.
^^ Glad you're doing the helpdesking, I don't have to do a thing this way..Oh I would advice against using tape inside a computer, it usually will turn into some sticky gunk, rather disgusting..
although I've had to resist the tempatation to rip some heads off over the years this sort of thing has been a very large part of my work in IT over the past 31 years.
Started in December 1989 with a small family owed computer company, went solo in 2000 but closed in 2009 before moving to the great White North, did some support for a client back home before a falling out, did an IT diploma and now self employed doing a bit of work for some local non-profits and contract IT work for company that has contracts for doing work for various large organisations here which is well below my skill level but there's no much else where I'm living and hampered by not having a drivers licence (eye-sight borderline to hold one - so have to turn down jobs were they want laptops to undergoing motherboard swaps and the like).
