I have a Dell 4400 (bought in 2002). It's been a piece of junk from the day we bought it. Several problems with it and I don't want to call their tech support since I can't understand them anyway (they send you over to someone in India). 1. The monitor will work for awhile then it will slowly get fuzzy. If I shut it off and wait a minuet or two then it will work..but not long so I keep doing this. 2. I stuck a disk into the ROM drive and it doesn't do anything. It wont open any of my disks I put in it. I ran a Check It diagnostics test and is said it can find it.
Like I said it's been junk since I bought it so any ideas will be appreciated. Should I give up on it and buy a new one or try to get this one fixed?
2006-07-10 07:29:59 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Oh and I've moved the monitor to a friends computer and it does the same thing.
2006-07-10 07:42:39 · update #1
Since you bought this in 2002, can I assume it's a CRT monitor? What's happening is there is a questionable component in the CRT, probably a capacitor, that has gone or is going bad. I recommend you confirm this by swapping out the monitor for another if possible and see if you still have the problem. Assuming it's fine and we know for sure it's the monitor, the only realistic solution is a new monitor. You can get them repaired, but the cost is as much as or more than a new monitor. I'd recommend getting a nice 17" LCD, they can be had very reasonably these days.
The CD also sounds like it's bad, but the first thing I would try is checking the cables. With the PC turned off, open the case and unplug, then re-plug in the cables going to the CD-Rom drive. Also reseat the ribbon cable on the motherboard. Recover and fire it up. If it's still not working, then you will probably need to replace it. Fortunately they are inexpensive - around $20 for just a CD-ROM, a little more for a burner or DVD-rom.
Personally I always recommend testing the components by swapping them out to confirm diagnoses before spending any money, if I can at all help it.
A final note - this is an older PC - generally the life expectancy for a home PC is 3-5 years, depending how cutting edge it was when you bought it. Maybe that will help you decide if it's time for a new one...
2006-07-10 07:42:04 · answer #1 · answered by qetyl 3 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I can give you several options on how you can improve it, but it will be more costly than buying a new computer. The monitor problem is not your monitor so just buy a tower. A new tower will be less than 500 bucks these days so I think you should just purchase a new tower and get rid of that one. If it's not reliable now, it will just fail on you more later.
2006-07-10 07:36:10 · answer #2 · answered by Sean I.T ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1. if the monitor is fuzzy have you tried another monitor on this system?
2. Does the drive show up in windows explorer?
chances are there may be one solution to both of these problems......a new system board.
if your machine is still under warranty Dell will fix it
2006-07-10 07:39:26 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do you have your receipt, from when you purchased the PC?
When you call support, you can request someone from the US.
Looks like you're going to have to spend some more money, either getting it fixed, or getting a new PC.
Walmart has some pretty good deals, if you want to go that route.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=3951
2006-07-10 07:36:45 · answer #4 · answered by Ms. Spongebob 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
use it as a boat anchor and go have a local shop build you a regular working pc with an operating system and not much else. then you can install what programs you actually need instead of having a quater of an oversized hdd taken up by junk.
2006-07-10 07:33:52 · answer #5 · answered by digital genius 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get a new one... This time go with a HP, Sony, or have one custom built for you. Check out the following sites.
2006-07-10 07:35:33 · answer #6 · answered by Mr. Me 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For the cd drive you can go to my computer and look under cd drive, if it knows its there wich you said it did, you can start the cd from there. If this dosent work it is probably broken or cd is in bad condition.
2006-07-10 07:44:04 · answer #7 · answered by vincent m 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
do you have speakers near your monitor? the magnetic field can screw up the monitor's picture and color. as for the cd-rom, maybe the IDE cable isn't all the way in?
2006-07-10 07:35:01 · answer #8 · answered by Critical Mass 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
thro it out the window and get an emachine. HP and COMPAQ suck so dont get 1
2006-07-10 08:23:30 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
new one
2006-07-10 07:34:06 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋