Ping.
Must be a Dell laptop.
Get back when you can.. and hey, wash your hands after using library computers.
Buy a used computer. Lots of businesses have failed loading up the used market.
Hopefully, your computer problems are repairable and you will stay online and on FR. You will always be welcomed back, and can use the library to check in during the interim. Good luck!
Dude! Get a loaner from a friend. Everybody has some old computer they aren’t using.
Look on Freecycle.org (when you visit the library) for a free computer!
Sounds like your computer guy doesn’t know what he’s doing, unless your computer has multiple problems.
What is it that does not work?
IOW, what were the symptoms before the "crash" by crash I am assuming you mean that the PC would not boot to the desktop.
Just wondering how he could tell that your software is not the problem if your hard drive was bad.
BTW I work in the IT sector.
FWIW, I’ve gotten computers from Salvation Army stores at amazingly low prices. Sometimes just parts, sometimes the whole setup. CHEAP route to look into.
Return soon, and best wishes.
SC
For less than $200 plus S&H you can do it. Check around.
The Linux version behind the following link is free, and it has everything you’d want in a computer—especially for working with the Internet. It’s easier to install and use, for most, than Microsoft operating systems. ...most recently installed it on a new Acer laptop. Access by way of wireless Internet (broadband, in the middle of nowhere here) was automatic (no configuration necessary). Ubuntu is even more sure to install on used/refurbished computers than very new models (drivers). It’s more stable than Windows and won’t die, unless the hardware does. Yeah, I’m about as cheap as they come.
I prefer NetBSD over everything else (better license for business and best security), but that one’s not so easy for most people to install.
I don’t know where you are, but I have a computer you can have. I’m in the San Diego area. It’s a 2.7 Ghz P4 that I don’t use any more.
Make sure your power supply is putting out the correct voltages, before you rush into anything. I spent several months tracing a baffling freezing issue on my mother’s machine before finally just poking around in the BIOS just to see if anything was whack....4.75v, yikes! Perfect since it was swapped out.
I would miss you. In a worst case couldn’t you go to the library a few times a week until you can get a new computer? That would keep you in touch with the rest of us. Then there’s always “used” laptops online ... newspaper ads sell old computers for less than the price of a hard drive - some are really old (windows 95) but they still work... I’ll pray the repair works...
Hurry back, ZC!