Chas. Steinmetz Jr.
New Member
Edit: Research has caused me to decide a laptop may be the solution, so starting this thread in the laptop forum.
My HP Envy 700-210 desktop computer is presently dead. It is about 10 years old, so much of it is obsolete. I accepted the free WIN 10 download and lived to regret it. WIN10 deleted the drivers for my built in card reader at every update, so I kept the drivers stored for reinstallation, but that no longer works. Must bring the game cam to the house and plug camera into USB to get pics. Now I have had a failure of the HDD. Computer won't start. It clicks regularly about every 3 seconds for a minute or so before going quiet. Error msg says "Hard Drive Error, please run the hard drive test is system diagnostics, Hard Drive 1 (3F1)". The drive passes both the quick test and the long test. I have 2 hard drives, a 1TB that I think is the bad one, and a 320 GB that may contain backup files. I realize that my data may all be lost, that is a separate problem to deal with when I have a working computer (currently on Mrs' notebook). I could probably replace the bad drive and continue to use this computer but I figure all new would get me out of the obsolescence loop.
Questions: Do I want a SSD? I never really needed the huge 1TB capacity of my old drive, my criterion is durability. Which will run longer before failure, HDD or SSD?
I DO want: multi card reader, dual hard drives, CDRW (I guess I'll still be burning some CDs), maybe internal wifi router.
Not a gamer, just a surfer who likes good video quality on my wide screen monitor. How much RAM is adequate these days?
What OS? I was happy with WIN7 (or was I running WIN Vista?) but some of my software was already noncompatible. Fell down the WIN10 rabbit hole but sure not married to it.
I have good useable wifi keyboard & mouse, monitor, sound bar, external wifi router for in-house Internet. Do I want to keep this stuff, or why not? I want to get a good machine, but don't want to pay top $$ for things I don't need.
As a guy who built his own 1st computer thru about the fifth one, I am embarrassed to say I am no longer knowledgeable enough to build my own box, so am trying to pick from the infinite variety the internet has to offer. So I ask forum members to tell me what they think I should be looking for.
Thanks for all replies!
My HP Envy 700-210 desktop computer is presently dead. It is about 10 years old, so much of it is obsolete. I accepted the free WIN 10 download and lived to regret it. WIN10 deleted the drivers for my built in card reader at every update, so I kept the drivers stored for reinstallation, but that no longer works. Must bring the game cam to the house and plug camera into USB to get pics. Now I have had a failure of the HDD. Computer won't start. It clicks regularly about every 3 seconds for a minute or so before going quiet. Error msg says "Hard Drive Error, please run the hard drive test is system diagnostics, Hard Drive 1 (3F1)". The drive passes both the quick test and the long test. I have 2 hard drives, a 1TB that I think is the bad one, and a 320 GB that may contain backup files. I realize that my data may all be lost, that is a separate problem to deal with when I have a working computer (currently on Mrs' notebook). I could probably replace the bad drive and continue to use this computer but I figure all new would get me out of the obsolescence loop.
Questions: Do I want a SSD? I never really needed the huge 1TB capacity of my old drive, my criterion is durability. Which will run longer before failure, HDD or SSD?
I DO want: multi card reader, dual hard drives, CDRW (I guess I'll still be burning some CDs), maybe internal wifi router.
Not a gamer, just a surfer who likes good video quality on my wide screen monitor. How much RAM is adequate these days?
What OS? I was happy with WIN7 (or was I running WIN Vista?) but some of my software was already noncompatible. Fell down the WIN10 rabbit hole but sure not married to it.
I have good useable wifi keyboard & mouse, monitor, sound bar, external wifi router for in-house Internet. Do I want to keep this stuff, or why not? I want to get a good machine, but don't want to pay top $$ for things I don't need.
As a guy who built his own 1st computer thru about the fifth one, I am embarrassed to say I am no longer knowledgeable enough to build my own box, so am trying to pick from the infinite variety the internet has to offer. So I ask forum members to tell me what they think I should be looking for.
Thanks for all replies!
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