Got my computer back from the repair shop and I got a new problem. Plus my old problems were still not fixed.

Original problems:

-sometimes the monitor would not turn on after booting up
-sometimes after booting up I would get a PnP4 error
-both dvd drives not recognize

All the repair shop did was reinstalled windows and they said everything was fine. lies!

-the computer still had booting problems
-could see both dvd drives, -but only one worked
dvd rom drive does work - does not read any cds or dvd

I've tried updating the DVD drivers

JLMS DVD-ROM XJ – HD166 - does not work master
Teac DVD + RW DV-W58E - works slave

128MB DDR Nvidia GeForce FX 5200

Dell Dimension 4600i
Windows XP Home Edition
Intel (R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.00 GHz


I'm also having problems with my graphic card
after getting it back from the repair shop I had to reinstall the driver
If worked fine for 2-3 weeks

Then I started getting the PnP4 error again. I discovered I need to replace the battery. Did that. No problem work again without problems for about 1 week. Then monitor started do a long extented flicker. Somethings it would turn inself off. So I would have to reboot.

Another time after booting up I get a nv4_disp Stop Error

I can only assume that I need to replace the graphic card.

Can the problem I've having with the DVD Rom drive be related to the problem with the graphic cards?

Do I need to replace my DVD also? I don't really did it if the other one works.

Could it be that this is the 10th worst PC of all time (http://www.pcworld.com/article/129857-2/the_10_worst_pcs_of_all_time.html)?? It was the original "Dell Hell" even though they have now improved their act out of all recognition.

The article cites the PSU as being particular prone to problems and a flakey PSU can cause all sorts of problems. That is the only unit I would be inclined to try replacing but a new tower could be money better spent. You could grab some barebones setup and add most of the peripherals from your current Dell. Unfortunately you would also have to get an operating system for it.

As for repair shops - don't get me started. Supposed experts and all that. I have seen hard drives supposedly replaced with new ones and returned with the original still inside as one of the worst of recent rip-offs.

PS
A budget bare-bones example (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856110092) from New Egg. Only one IDE port so you would need to ditch one IDE/ATAPI device. RAM is cheap these days for modern systems and so are hard drives. I would grab a SATA HDD if I were going this route. It has on-board video. It might not suit your specific needs but should give you food for thought rather than pay out money for repairs on a five or six year old PC.