Best to get the drive out then Daniel, back it up and decide with your friend on how to proceed.
It's always the first thing I do.
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HI Marc, I know this is trivial but let me share an experience with you. Got to work on a HP All In One computer runing windows 8 yesterday, and this just kind of underlines the confusion with windows 8. When I looked at the PC in his office I told him he should upgrade to 8.1, at that point he said he had already bought the 8.1 cd. He didn't know he could download the update for free. That wasn't the best part though. Evidently this PC must have had a trial version of Avast installed on it and he was trying to install Norton 360 on it. Somewhere somehow he was able to lock down the proxy lan settings and it shut down IE Explorer, so no internet. I finally brought the PC home and was able to research the problem and trace it back to the browsersafeguard addon in internet explorer. I uninstalled the program and then I had to boot into safe mode with network and reset the lan settings. I will install his 8.1 update today. Daniel.
8.1 on a CD Daniel?
Coincidentally, I was fixing a laptop today that had four different anti-virus programs installed, which apparently made the customer feel a little safer.
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Hi Marc
Got the data off of the laptop hard drive it hooked right up to my computer. This is an HP G71-349WM series laptop, the screen will light up but that is all. It does seem to be going through the booting process but I get no graphics what so ever. I really think it is the onboard GPU and that would mean another motherboard. Would you share your thoughts here. Thanks Daniel.
HP and Dell laptops have had their fair share of on board GPU problems, mainly due to overheating.
It's simple economics Daniel.
Is the cost of replacing the motherboard a viable proposition?
If the GPU still functioned but was overheating, you could have gone in and reseated it after applying new thermal compound and maybe changing the fan.
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Thanks for the info. I am pretty comfortable repairing desktop computers but a breakdown of a laptop may be out of my league. I got their data off the hard drive, I think I will advise them to take the laptop to a someone who is more qualified for the repair. Daniel.
I agree with you Daniel.
Sometimes it's best to stand back and not be a hero.
I find that it takes about five times as long to carry out a deep laptop repair against a simple PC lobotomy.
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Thanks, Got the Windows 10 WTP installed yesterday on my computer. Am using it at this moment and it is running really well. Enjoy not having charm bars popping out. Daniel.
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You were right about the 8.1 update. What this person had was a full version of 8.1 on a cd. Even I should have known better. The 8.1 update had already been downloaded all I had to do was install. It is back up and going now with windows 8.1. Daniel.
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I would like to do an update to that HP laptop. After further investigation I was told the laptop had been dropped and was given permission to disassemble and what a nightmare that was. The culprit turned out to be a loose cannection on the back side of the laptop screen. For anyone who has attempted this kind of repair will know what I am talking about. You do have to be patient and work very carefully. Daniel.
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I had a friend who found this old Dell Dimension E521 on the side of the street. He wanted to see if I could do something with it. It had no HD but it was a very clean computer. I installed an old HD I had and reinstalled Windows Vista Home Basic with the product key on the label. I put VLC player and the Chrome Browser on it and my friend now has a very clean retro Dell computer and Vista is still good for another year or two. Daniel.
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