What would you do if...

You were told by a close family member that they were buying a new pc. You would recieve their old pc (better than your existing one) and it would be upgraded. You help to upgrade the pc and it works. The next day you find out that your new pc 'crashed' and is on the floor, without a shell. You return to find your old pc in a similar condition. Therefore, you now have two computers that don't work. It is then suggested to you by said person that it may be worth you buying a new pc, with some help from them. This person spends a few days trying to fix the pc's but is unable to achieve anything. This person has friends who can help, but that help was promised 5 days ago and nothing will come of it before i go back to uni. Yes, i still have one piece of work left to do. I am however able to do it on that person's pc. I have now been without a my pc since last fiday (good friday). He recently bought something new for the pc but i don't see how that will help, unless he has broken something. If he has broken something and is unwilling to admit it, i don't see how he can solve the problem.

Therefore, what would you do?

<font color=skyblue>Not trust this guy to help you, eat your loss and find somebody that can do it right, or even get some step by step help from of the techs that visit IW, and do the job yourself. I have been doing all my own PC repair for the past two years after I got tired of trusting others to do it, or paying others to do it. Now I only have myself to blame. Yet my PC is running without trouble, so I guess I am doing something right. It is easier than you would think.</font>

First up, tell this guy to get the hell out of your PC. To take down two PCs in one day is either malicious or plain incompetent.

Secondly, check all connections, power it up. Post as much info on it as you can - what isnt working about it. What BIOS beep codes does it give. Does anything display on the screen.

heh, he probably screwed up something, didnt know what he did, and tried to operate as a different option. how'd he screw up your old comp though?

i should add that i build computers on the side (computer science minor) and that i've put together several (including my personal computer that i'm using right now) i might be able to help so PM me with more details of what is wrong and some stats and i'll try to lend some advice.

First things first... triage. What exactly is the problem you're currently facing? I understand the PCs have crashed, but what exactly does that mean? Do they fail to do anything, fail to boot, fail to start completely, or something else?

Second thing... this "friend" needs to be advised that he keeps his hands in his pockets (and out of your computers) until further notice, unless he'd like to have them removed, put in plastic baggies, and sewn into his pockets.

Third, post back here with the description of what's gone wrong. A PC is actually a pretty simple beast, all things considered; I'd feel confident that I could get at least one of the two machines back up, one way or another.

I've also built my last two PCs, as well as reclaiming dead PC bodies to make computers for my kids, and I'm getting ready for my next PC build. I don't claim to know everything, but I've seen a thing or two along the way, as have many of the folks on this board. Give us a chance, and you might be pleasantly surprised at the help available.

Good luck.

The bizare thing is that he built my previous pc from scratch and that had worked fine for years. I think he got over zelous and tried to install extra memory. Unfortunately, he took some out of my old pc and that hadn't been formatted. I still think he can resolve the issue but i am not happy about it as you can probably tell. I would send info but as you can probably tell, i know very little about what has actually gone wrong. The closest i have come to an answer is that something has shorted. Thanks for the help, i guess i will have to sit this out and see what happens. I never thought i would miss having my own pc this much!

um, simply put, one of your RAM sticks probably went bad. if his computer is several years old, it might be about time you took a look at getting a new computer too. It only took me about $500 to build a new comp with a 2.66 p4 processor and 512 mB of DDR RAM. you could probably find a friend who actually knows what he's doing to build it for you.

If he tried combining memory from one computer to another, it may well be that the memory isn't compatible, and that's causing a problem. I'd remove all but one stick of memory and try to boot with that. If it succeeds, look for a similar stick and boot with that. Repeat until you've identified which are the new ones and which are the old, and then put 'em both back where they belong.

I first ran into that problem with memory for my first home-built machine. I didn't realize that the motherboard couldn't handle anything greater than 66Mhz memory; the 100Mhz which was standard on the street wouldn't be recognized. I eventually used it in my second home-built machine, but it was a waste of time and money until then.

maybe its better to post your problems here as well since many of us can give you advise since several of us have already built our own pc from scratch.