Help! I am so disgusted. My PC, which I've had for 18 months just died...Took it into the shop....the mother board is shot. I am buying another PC, but my old one is XP and of course, I have no choice of Operating system and will have to get Vista.
The hard drive is okay, and the technician is going to migrate my files for me...Thank God....For now, I'm having him put the files on an external hard drive until I replace some software on the new PC. I haven't purchased the new PC yet, but after much research decided on one.. My question is: What about the software programs I had loaded onto my old PC? Am I going to have to re-install all of them? I have one program, which I can't live without, which was put on my PC from my ex-boyfriend...and it was copied over from his computer to mine. This whole thing is so distressing....I'm going to Sh*t if I can't recover all my music and photo files........Someone please tell me it's going to be okay!!!

i heard vista is terrbile..buy a mac lol

no seriously though i hope it all works out for u..

If you have your old hard drive, you should be able to recover everything. It will be ok!

That's highway robbery. If your motherboard is shot, then they only need to replace the motherboard. If they CPU is shot, then they only need to replace the CPU. If the motherboard and CPU are shot, then they only need to replace the motherboard and CPU. If I lived there, I could do it for you and only charge you $20 + parts. What is their excuse for needing to sell you a new OS? If it's the motherboard, as they say, then what's wrong with the HardDrive? They said they could transfer your files, so your HD is fine. It's complete BS and if I did live there, I would go to that shop with you and give them hell. I'm so sick of seeing these sorts of unethical behaviors where naive computer users are tricked out of their money.

That's highway robbery. If your motherboard is shot, then they only need to replace the motherboard. If they CPU is shot, then they only need to replace the CPU. If the motherboard and CPU are shot, then they only need to replace the motherboard and CPU. If I lived there, I could do it for you and only charge you $20 + parts. What is their excuse for needing to sell you a new OS? If it's the motherboard, as they say, then what's wrong with the HardDrive? They said they could transfer your files, so your HD is fine. It's complete BS and if I did live there, I would go to that shop with you and give them hell. I'm so sick of seeing these sorts of unethical behaviors where naive computer users are tricked out of their money.

tell them that you know that you DO have a choice of operating system.the ONLY reason they are telling you that is to make MORE money off of you.

spidercmb IS correct. IF it is JUST the cpu OR motherboard (rare occasion that both are shot at the same time). those are VERY easy to replace for no more than MAYBE at the max of $300.00 .

old hard drive CAN be added as a "slave drive operating system recovery" unit.for example if i hook up another hard drive to my pc it shows that i have 4 hard drives.BUT in reality it only has 2. this IS possible IF the new pc has 2 IDE ribbon cable connectors on the motherboard.

Okay, they did mention it might be up to $300 to replace the motherboard. Someone else (outside of the shop) also told me that there might be some issues doing that, making everything work alright again. Is that true?

First off,Vista is crap!,i tried it for about a month and got rid of it.

i know how ya feel with the motherboard issue.on my old PC,my power supply blew and took the motherboard with it .i haven't been able to test out the cpu or memory on it but i'm looking to get another motherboard and just put them back in it.

you will have to reinstall the programs but as far as music and stuff,you can just transfer them from your old HD to the new on as long as the new PC will recognise it.just set the old one as a slave drive.

The power supply, video card and hard drive are okay. He didn't say anything about the CPU though....

well it's good your power supply is still ok.they're usually the most unreliable part in the computer and can usually be a pain trying to find a good one.

It seems to make more sense to just get them to replace the motherboard. Is it true there can be problems making everything work right when they do that? Or is it like snap one in and go? LOL

it depends on the quality of the motherboard really,just like any other computer part.the best thing to do is to try to get the exact same motherboard that you had unless it wasn't very good but if it's the same kind,you shouldn't have any compitability issues with it

Except this one blew out after only 18 months and i have no idea why......hmmmm

18 months?i'd suggest getting a better brand than but your lasted longer than mine did.mine lasted maybe 12 months at the most.are you having to order it yourself oris the computer place ordering it for you?

The place will have to get it for me. THey might have it in stock..... It's a Gateway computer, and I've never owned one until now. I have had 4 computers and NONE of them did THIS.

ahh ok,yeah the one i'm using no is an older Gateway.if you were having to order it,i was going to suggest using newegg.com,they have great deals,fast shipping,and a good return policy.When it comes to things like that,a good return policy is something you can't beat

Where the heck are you guys getting these gold plated motherboards? I got a "AMD Athlon X2 A64 4400 Toledo Core Socket 939 CPU" for 199.99 and it came with RAM. Texasrose9, you don't seem like someone who does a lot of database, development work or serious gaming at home, so they are screwing you to put more power into your computer than you need.

$109.99 Motherboard + CPU
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2945305&CatId=1619

Or you could drop it down to $89.99 for a single core processor.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2945338&CatId=2018

Both have onboard video and sound, so throw in a GIG of RAM for $52.99 and you are good to go.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2968496&CatId=147

In my mind, computers are like cars today, everyone needs one. Or more like a phone. It's a link to the world around you, giving you instant access to information, music and other people. I have seen a lot of people who get intimidated by terminology and buy a computer that greatly exceeds their needs, just because some salesman pushes the newest technology. Leave the $300.00 motherboards to the serious gamers and insist on something a year old so that you can save a huge chuck of cheddar.

you can still get xp machines

at tiger direct dot com

and possibly new egg dot com

dell used to have both not sure if they still do