Fix old computer or buy new one?

August 5, 2011 8:16 AM

Should we buy a new computer or try to fix the old one?

In spring 2009 we bought a desktop computer to serve as a "living room" computer (we stream video content via the web, use it as a BluRay player, manage our music library, rip DVDs, and occasionally use it to surf -- regardless, it is used every day and needs to run Windows) for $850.

Here are the specs:
HP Pavilion Slimline s3710t PC
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor E7400 [2.8GHz]
- 3GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM [1x2048,1x1024]
- FREE UPGRADE to 500GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s
- 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300 [DVI, HDMI, VGA adapter]
- Blu-ray player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
- TV tuner, dual format ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote

In the past few weeks the computer has blue screened often and has trouble playing video (choppy, freezes). I ran HP's own and a few other diagnostic tests to no avail. I then reinstalled Windows and although the overall speed was a bit better, the video quality issues and the blue screening remains.

At this point I feel like my options are:
- go through HP tech support to try to resolve this (but I really have NO spare time to do this and I'd have to pay for the tech support)
- try to buy a new compatible video card and see if that fixes the problem
- just buy a new living room desktop and reformat and sell this one on Craigslist (being honest about the blue screening)

(We have multiple laptops and a desktop for the rest of the house that are chugging along fine, so no need to repurpose this one within our home.)

I'm inclined to buy a new desktop because
- this one is 32 bit and 64 bit would be good to get more RAM
- I don't want to spend $100-200 on a new video card when I could spend a few hundred more for a new machine
- It would be less time consuming than trying to fix the old one

Are there options that I'm not seeing?

posted by k8t to Computers & Internet (20 answers total)

Did those diagnostics include a test of the RAM? "Frequent bluescreens and choppy video" sounds a lot like what happens to me every time a memory stick starts to die.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:23 AM on August 5, 2011

Are the drivers on the video card completely up-to-date?
posted by griphus at 8:24 AM on August 5, 2011

I would guess that the problem was bad RAM, a bad GPU, or bad power supply. Any of these could take time to fix, but would be a fine task for someone with nerdier inclinations.

Call HP tech support - maybe they'll just replace it no questions asked. Spending 15 minutes on them is probably worth it. You could get a good machine for next to no effort. It's worth more as a used good if it's fixed, too.

Failing that HP support saves the day, I would suggest selling it and getting a new one. (And for the sake of the environment, you could buy a used one. For a few years now, any computer can do anything.)

By the way - I do think this machine can take a 64-bit OS, though it was probably delivered with a 32-bit one. Not that it matters really.
posted by krilli at 8:25 AM on August 5, 2011

Response by poster: Yes, all drivers are up-to-date and when I did the reinstall of Windows, I did the latest.

I can't flash the BIOS because HP only provides the BIOS updates if one is running Vista (I'm running 7).

Maybe I should swap out the RAM with other sticks that I have?
posted by k8t at 8:25 AM on August 5, 2011

Take the computer apart, take the fans off of the CPU and video card GPU, clean the heavy layer of felt that's formed off of the heat sinks, re-assemble, enjoy your new-found performance.

This sounds classically like overheating.
posted by straw at 8:28 AM on August 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

and if not, you can capture your BSODs (they may be logged already) and spend a few minutes with windbg. Yeah, sure, it's really geeky, but they've made it so friggen easy to use - set the symbol file path, open the crash dump, !analyze -v and it tells you what the BSOD was, why it happened, and the driver possibly at fault.

Now, doesn't help distinguish hardware failures from crappy drivers, though..
posted by k5.user at 8:33 AM on August 5, 2011

I can't flash the BIOS because HP only provides the BIOS updates if one is running Vista (I'm running 7).

I do not think this is correct. I had to sit with tech support to get it done -- who were surprisingly helpful and, for once, didn't treat me as though I had never seen a computer before -- but I was definitely pointed at their secret file archives to get the program I needed to update the BIOS.
posted by griphus at 8:33 AM on August 5, 2011

- HP Pavilion Slimline s3710t PC

This computer has onboard vga. Have you tried removing the nvidia and testing the computer without the card?

- this one is 32 bit and 64 bit would be good to get more RAM

While there might be DIMM slot restrictions due to being a slim PC. The processor is a Core 2 which means it's capable of supporting 64-bit OS's.

If the machine bluescreens when working off only the onboard video...I'd suspect overheating or bad capacitors.
posted by samsara at 8:42 AM on August 5, 2011

Post what the blue screen says
posted by majortom1981 at 8:48 AM on August 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

just to summarize, there are three(four) easy possibilities:

a) overheating caused by the accumulation of filth on fans and heatsinks (note also check out the fan on the power supply)

solution: open case of computer, clean out filth

b) bad graphics card

solution: take out graphics card, try computer with new graphics card or the graphics card that is built into the matherboard

c) bad RAM

solution: depends on how many sticks of RAM you have. but the solution is to find the bad one and replace it

(d) Your power supply could be going, which is hard to diagnose if the problem is intermittent...


HP tech support is not going to help you unless you want to spend crazy money.

You can spend under $50 on a video card to replace the one you have.

it sounds like *you* want to buy a new computer... but this is probably easily fixed. Try an independent tech support place... $100-$200 < $800
posted by ennui.bz at 8:59 AM on August 5, 2011 [4 favorites]

Get a new computer. HPs aren't the most reliable or decent computer makers ever. Even if you do manage to fix this with $100-$200, something worse may crop up later.
posted by astapasta24 at 9:04 AM on August 5, 2011

Download and burn a copy of memtest86+, boot from the CD, and let the memory test run overnight (it's not exactly fast).

In the morning, you'll know if you can rule out bad RAM or not.

I'm going to wager that you can fix this for under $100, and that it's worth it to do so.
posted by schmod at 10:15 AM on August 5, 2011

Oh, and this machine can certainly run 64-bit Windows. Unfortunately, it looks like your system can only support 4GB total though.

Coincidentally, I've seen bad hard drives cause NTFS.sys to bluescreen Win7 under some circumstances. If we know what's on those bluescreens, we might be able to help you better...

Still. I'd lean toward fixing this, rather than tossing the thing.
posted by schmod at 10:22 AM on August 5, 2011

In some circustances choppy video could be caused by hard drive issues. Your computer is quite new but you never know. If you haven't, I suggest running the customary HD tests & utilities just to make sure. Good Luck
posted by carlsdad at 12:11 PM on August 5, 2011

Outside of what you did already, I'd clean out the fans and replace defective memory if applicable, and ADD MORE. I'd guess that machine has a pretty low end video card that uses shared ram to do display tasks.

The problem is most commodity desktops make upgrading video cards (don't forget about a necessary PSU upgrade most likely) a real hassle, and perhaps not possible on your slim model.

Instead of selling I'd start a new proper self-build using some of the parts you already have: drives, ram, periphs.
posted by tremspeed at 2:03 PM on August 5, 2011

Since you've got 2 RAM sticks in there, I'd definitely try taking one out, see how it goes, then if it's still running poorly, try it the other way around.

And nthing the suggestions to clean your case of gunk if you haven't already.

Both of these are quick things that shouldn't take long to do, before you proceed further.
posted by JauntyFedora at 4:17 PM on August 5, 2011

Response by poster: Update:

I took it apart and cleaned out dust (there wasn't much).

In the meantime, it has blue screened a few times (I wasn't there to catch the error message), but in the Windows whatever log, it says that the error was caused by the graphic card.

I bought a slot fan and will install it this week in case the issue is overheating. I've been reading around that these SlimLines face an issue with overheating generally.

Thanks all!

PS, if I was to buy a new graphics card, how do I find out which ones are compatible with my machine?
posted by k8t at 12:44 PM on August 8, 2011

Did you try running this for awhile without the card? (using onboard instead)

For a replacement card, you'll be fine with any PCI-e 16x that is designed for "low profile." Many ATI and nVidia cards will come with detachable plates so they can be inserted in normal and low profile slots.
posted by samsara at 1:15 PM on August 8, 2011

Oh, to add to that however, pay close attention to the power needs of the card. The factory default for the HP Pavilion Slimline s3710t is a 230 Watt power supply....a very low rating compared to full blown desktop systems (which these days is recommended to be at least 500 watt by comparison). I'd go for the lowest power card you can find that has HDMI output and decent consumer ratings (via newegg or amazon). You'll only need a good accelerator, but not so much 3D since this will be primarily be for video/movies and general internet.
posted by samsara at 1:23 PM on August 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: A ha!

I took the machine apart and the fan on the video card was totally jacked up and off center.

So I ordered a new video card (which was too tall for the case, but ordered a different one... low powered. Thanks for the tip!) and a slot fan.

Thanks all!
posted by k8t at 7:08 PM on August 11, 2011