Finding teacher to rebuild my computer

[dazed woman]

I don't know where to post this question. Hope I am in the right place.

My husband put together our computer. I decided on the components and such getting great help from this board. Then my husband passed away. :( A big shock and the computer went in storage with my life while I regrouped.

When I pulled the computer out the motherboard had failed. MSI sent a new one. It also had problems. Grrr. Anyway my local shop took it apart for me. They also found the problem with the second board. Right now they are swamped and it has been sitting there for 2 weeks with the new replacement motherboard waiting to go back together. I also purchased a second hard drive (with a rebate that is quickly going to expire), a 4th fan, a modem,and a DVD recorder to add to my system.

What I really want is someone to actually physically guide me through the process of putting it back together. I will soon pick it up from the shop no matter what. How do I go about finding someone to do that? I do not want to build for others, I just want to know my own computer. When I asked my local shop if they would let me do the reassembly, they got upset and felt I was thinking they were ripping me off. Quite the contrary. I felt they had really helped me. Oh well. So how do I find someone willing to help? I do not think there are any local schools. I just do not know where to look. Doesn't need to be an actual instructor. I was thinking of a recent graduate or someone soon to graduate. But it doesn't need to be even that. The person just needs to know more than me about putting a computer together. Please guide me where to look.

Thank you,
Dazed Woman in Clearwater, Florida

[Jhorner1]

Take a look at This Site (http://www.all-about-pc.de/english/buildpc/buildpc/buildpc1_intro.asp) .It will walk you through each step of assembling a computer and installing windows. It is a little dated (win98 and 2000) but the steps are still the same. Once you have it back together if you have any problems post them here and we will help you solve them. Just take your time and make sure you understand what each step is going to accomplish.

[dazed woman]

Thanks for the site. It is a good one for pictures. I probably could slog my way thru this.

My sister might know someone who could help. That is another option. Now to the hardware forum for questions about where to put the hard drive, DVD recorder and such.

[Bullman]

Here (http://www.upgradingandrepairingpcs.com/videos/index.asp) is a great website that has helped me out a whole lot on my PC builds. There are several good videos on just about everything you need to do when building a pc.

I always understand things better when I can see the work actually being done the first time. Also, if you have any questions during your upgrade, you can get some great advice in this forum. Good Luck!

[dazed woman]

Is there any way to keep the videos on my hard drive? I am using an old '99 380AMD laptop with 90 Mgs of Ram and dial up 56K ISP. The video says a half a phrase and has to buffer. It takes forever to get through a video. Any ideas?

Thanks

[Whyzman]

Once they've gone through the initial "ssslllooowww" load, I think you can replay and it will play normally...

As for saving, I think you can opt to save the file...

[pave_spectre]

As for saving, I think you can opt to save the file...
That doesn't always work with streaming media unfortunately. :rolleyes:

Once it has finished however it can usually be found in the temporary internet files, though that might take a little digging.

[malcore]

With the videos from that site, just right click the link for each video and select "Save Target As.." (if using IE), point it where you want it to be saved and click Save. Entire clip will be downloaded to your hard drive and not "streamed".:)

[Variable]

Building a PC is pretty easy. My 9 year old boy can just about do everything required (with his little hands its easier for him than me sometimes :). If he can do it, so can you.

Most of the parts if bought retail will come with instructions on how to install the part. New motherboards are simple nowadays. No dip switches to mess with anymore with a normal installation.If you have a local bookstaore you can find several books with step by step instructions on building your PC. If your local shop is so busy that they cannot install a motherboard in 2 weeks, then you should probably just take your parts home and do it yourself.

Variable

[Whyzman]

Variable and others who encourage building yourself are, as the English say, "Spot-on!" ;)

If you can plug in a toaster you can assemble a computer...pretty much just plugging things in...

The hardware part is the easy part...it's the software that's usually the bugger...

As mentioned, we're here to assist however we can...

The experience of building is very rewarding from the standpoint of familiarity...you will know the parts of your machine and how it went together...

Once familiar, you would have no problems swapping things out yourself to troubleshoot...sure beats dragging the thing down to the shop everytime there's a hitch in the git-along...:)

[dazed woman]

Well I feel pretty jazzed. It is partially done. This has been scary. I went down to living on $800/month with my husband's death so if I broke anything while reassembling this thing I would have an expensive paperweight.

So the status is with the great suggestions (the save-target-as worked great. Thanks malcore) the motherboard is in, the cards are installed, I've added the hard drive and swapped out the CD-Rom with the new DVD recorder. None of the wires are connected. I am looking at a bunch of wires and again, I will take a deap breath and go for it. My husband fortunately made notes in the motherboard book and the case book. Now to figure out which cord is which.

I set jumpers on the hard drives and Roms as Cable Select. I figure this would help me make it goof proof. I also have the round cables that cost a bit but I think I am going to just use the flat ribbon cables. I have 3 case fans installed and had purchased another but the shop lost it. :( Fortunately they are pretty cheap.

So here is what I have. And I think further questions I have I will post on a differnt forum here. Thanks everyone for your help! And 9 year olds are use to this stuff. I just turned (whisper) 50! Yikes!

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
MSI KT3 Ultra 2 motherboard
512 Ram DDR
Ante ATX Server Case w/400 watt power supply
Windows XP Home
Lite-On CD-RW 48x24x48
NEC 2500 DVD-R I just added (Nice birthday present from MIL)
WD 80GB H/D main
Seagate 80GB H/D I just added (More birthday present. It was $35 with rebates. Now how long will the rebates take to be paid?)

[Whyzman]

Sounds like things are going along well! :cool:

My eyesight is pretty good, but I have found that when it comes to hooking up the power and reset buttons and the LEDs, that a magnifying glass works wonders...

We've had posters in the past worry about this procedure, but there's not much to go wrong...if the LEDs are put onto the motherboard header incorrectly they just don't light up...the power and reset buttons can go on either way as they just complete a circuit...

Hang in there, you're doing well! ;)

[Variable]

Attaching cables is probably the hardest part for me becuas emy hands are to big for some of those dinky connectors. I use a pair of elongated needle nose pliers for ones I can't get to. oh, if the floppy lights stays on you put the cable on the drive upside down and don't forget the plugs that go from the cdrom to the sound card connector on the motherboard I assume.. Those are for when you play cd's and want to hear the music.

You get hung up just post back. Remember, when doing this stuff make sure the connections are on tight and correctly, if it looks cock-eyed it probably is. Pull it off and reseat. The IDE cables have a little solid block in the middle of them, this goes in the block sized space inbetween the wires on the motherboard and the drives. You can't put them in wrong, they wont go in. All you need to do is pay attention and be patient and you'll do fine.

[classicsoftware]

One piece of advice when putting PC components together.

DON'T FORCE ANYTHING

Otherwise take it nice and slow. Another neat tool is go to your local medical supply store and get a hemostat. It's like needle nose pliers only easier to use and some of them lock. Great for placing jumpers on drives and motherboards.

You go girl....