http://anypcfixed.co.uk/ – Excellent.
Due probably some wear, some dust and my inability to mess around carefully the PC was annoying loud. It was the fan on the cpu and the fan on the gfx card. It was not the one at the back – I know this because in the end I cut the wires to it. I really don’t like computers that make noise. And I really didn’t want to risk doing anything myself. I didn’t trust PC World at all (who does?) so I hunted around. http://anypcfixed.co.uk/ popped up on a search.
Nimesh uses a helpdesk which is neat so the whole conversation is there. I listed the problem and the components. He replied, told me what was what, assured me on the cost. Took no money – despite my offering – and ordered the parts. A few days later the bits were there so after a call we headed over.
When there I told him about the noise again, a hum, the way it was odd when it booted and then left it with him. The next day it was fixed and ready. He had fixed the BIOS (my fault it went wrong) set temperatures somewhere, fitted the new back fan, the gfx card cooler and the Arctic freezer on top of the main CPU. All sorted. It’s been perfect since. No noise, boots properly, USB stuff works properly (he fixed that too).
There are some people who you come into contact with that you are very happy to deal with again – and Nimesh is just that. When the other machines need some attention it’s him I’ll be calling.

(see – I do praise where something is worth praising!)

Inviting a failure of course but the MyBook is holding up okay. I have 4 sites backed up nightly onto a drive, then that drive is backed up to the MyBook. It chugs away while doing the compare and copy so it’s noisier in that respect to the other external HD’s I have but it’s doing what I wanted – so far…. I fully expect it to shatter in a few hours now :)
Ideally I’d have a USB switch so I could also flick to backup the mac. There’s bound to be something on this I’d miss if it crashed.

And now it’s the turn of the PC. It died briefly a couple of weeks ago but that was probably a short in the main PSU (lots of dust, very small place) – it was thanks to Steve that I even looked there. Somehow it fixed itself. One of the fans – the CPU one I think – has been sounding odd. The graphics card fan had quietened after a good blast of air but there was a slow rhythmic hum which had got louder and the air coming out at the front had got warmer.
And it just died. No sound, no sparks, no big ‘ta-da!’, it just stopped. Fan stopped and a minute or so later the machine shut down. So far – this is an hour later – nothing has brought it back. So I’m hoping the fan was somehow responsible and that it can be repaired. That’s tomorrow’s task – find a repair man. (And no, the chances of me taking it to Muppet World are below zero.)

–

27th Update: It’s okay. Weird. And early next week it’s going to have 3 new fans/coolers (rear / cpu / gfx) fitted, the hum found and eliminated and I’ll probably ask him to check the boot options. But fixable it is, and affordable too. Turnaround will be a day apparently.

I can’t work this out.

Problem:
Only a small amount of sound comes from the R speaker. This happens when playing Winamp or a game.

Test each element:
– Remove audio plug from back of machine and plug Zen headphones into machine. Sound is good and even.
– Plug the speakers plug into a Zen and sound comes from both speakers evenly.
So this establishes that the output from the computer is good.
It also establishes that the speakers both work when sent a stereo signal

So why does the one speaker fail to make enough noise?

If it were a sound setting in the computer the headphones would show it.
If it was a problem with the speakers the Zen hookup would show it.

I have no ideas.

I still have only the tiniest sound from one speaker even if the other is booming.
Every driver (nvidia, realtek) is up to date. I have uninstalled and reinstalled more than once.
Machine is clean, everything well seated.
Sound settings correct.
Headphones direct into the socket in the dead speaker work properly.
The speakers work perfectly when plugged into my zen.
I have tried everything I have found.
But I have no clue as to where sound is actually driven – motherboard or gfx card?
So what do I look to replace?

Update:
It’s hardware. Somewhere between the wiring from the headphone jack inside the speaker to the actual noise-making parts it is damaged. How on earth that happened I have not the slightest clue – I’ve never had a speaker just break before. So it’s off to a box-shop tomorrow to get some new ones. Neverwinter just isn’t good in mono through the one.
And I’m annoyed that I didn’t take it all apart and test with known good parts earlier. I’m meant to be able to troubleshoot stuff ;)

J’s laptop went off with a broken screen. It came back with a new one. And a heap of software install issues. HP admitted that if I sent it back all they would do is format the drive and replace the OS. So that’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow. It’s about this time tomorrow dban will complete for my machine. Not so bad – I have the weekend to play some games.

And for those that follow it, isn’t the trolling on rab great right now? Though I have a feeling it’s a regular behind it…

Dear Hewlett Packard,
Where you choose to locate your support centres is entirely up to you but at least make sure the phones lines are crystal clear and that the people blindly following the yes/no flowcharts speak into the microphone properly. It’s one thing trying to understand the accent of someone for who english is a second language and the difficulties of this are compounded by the quietness of the person speaking.
Tell them to speak up. Turn the volume up. Either would be nice.

Also, when someone phones and says all the drivers are up to date, that your own diagnostics indicate a fault, that the bios is up to date and that the add / remove hardware has also been tried just send that already annoyed person to repair. Making them jump through all your flowchart hoops is annoying.