Posted on 04/02/2019 2:49:27 AM PDT by Chickensoup
Tech Ping: Chickensoup is in Hot Water. Computer Died a Horrible Death. Need to Save Its Soul!
Chickensoup's trusty Acer Aspire E1 met its fate with a bottle of Pellegrino water yesterday afternoon. Stupidly instead of turning the computer off when the accident happened, the Soup thought it was ok to run it, and after about 5 minutes the whole thing turned off. No power nowhere. Something shorted out.
Acer has not been backed up in a few weeks and the new data needs rescue.
Trusty Acer needs to have a hard drive recovery including .pst outlook files
The Soup has been looking online and except for Staples and one Asian company all the rest of the data backups are far away and look sinister.
Except for the ones that are porn sites...on a different subject... Chickensoup was shocked! shocked! at the variety of uses of common household objects in the sexual adventuring world...
Ahem, back to the poor broken computer...chickensoup needs to save the hard drive and access it to order another computer same build.
So the first question: Where to get saved?
Second question: is there a current computer out there of similar build?
https://www.cnet.com/products/acer-aspire-e1-731-4699-17-3-pentium-2020m-4-gb-ram-500-gb-hdd-us-international/
It has a dvd player burner, the big port for the blue cord to the internet, wireless, 3 usbs 17 inch screen Win7 and it loves me.
I would be grateful for some direction.
Chickensoup's trusty Acer Aspire E1 met its fate with a bottle of Pellegrino water yesterday afternoon. Stupidly instead of turning the computer off when the accident happened, the Soup thought it was ok to run it, and after about 5 minutes the whole thing turned off. No power nowhere. Something shorted out.
Acer has not been backed up in a few weeks and the new data needs rescue.
Trusty Acer needs to have a hard drive recovery including .pst outlook files
The Soup has been looking online and except for Staples and one Asian company all the rest of the data backups are far away and look sinister.
Except for the ones that are porn sites...on a different subject... Chickensoup was shocked! shocked! at the variety of uses of common household objects in the sexual adventuring world...
Ahem, back to the poor broken computer...chickensoup needs to save the hard drive and access it to order another computer same build.
So the first question: Where to get saved?
Second question: is there a current computer out there of similar build?
https://www.cnet.com/products/acer-aspire-e1-731-4699-17-3-pentium-2020m-4-gb-ram-500-gb-hdd-us-international/
It has a dvd player burner, the big port for the blue cord to the internet, wireless, 3 usbs 17 inch screen Win7 and it loves me.
I would be grateful for some direction.
I had to fix a PC for a church about 2 years ago. They spilled something on it and stuff stopped working.
Luckily the hard drive was OK, the motherboard and other stuff was bad.
I went to the Dell auction & refurbished site and spent $200 for a machine with more capability on it.
I put in the old hard drive, booted it up and after getting new drivers everything just worked.
I then had to buy a new license from microsoft for about a hundred.
I gave the PC back and everything was fine.
thank you. Using computers since 1983 and this is the first time I spilled anything into one. Poor laptop.
I would appreciate a ping to your list of silicone and chip warriors...
If you didn’t move the computer suddenly while it was on, the HD may be OK, it’s in a sort-of-sealed case.
I spilled a beer onto my laptop a few years ago while it was on, and immediately lifted it upside-down to let the beer drain ... but that sudden movement destroyed the spinning HD and I lost everything
But I learned 2 valuable lessons from it - backup regularly (expect failure!!), and keep drinks the hell away from your computer
You have my sympathy. I killed mine last fall. Drowned the poor thing, just like you. I so miss my Windows 7. :(
Buy a used Dell with a Win 7 license from someone on Craig’s List. You likely will be able to find one with a fresh Win7 install. If not, you can buy an install disk on eBay for under ten bucks. A Dell install disk works with any licensed Dell PC of the same OS. Then plug your old drive into the PC you just bought as a secondary disk. There are two cables, one for power, the other for data. You may need another cable for the data. If the disk is good, you should be able to read all the files and copy them. I’m assuming your disk is a serial disk. If it is IDE (quite old), you need to buy a PC with both IDE and serial interfaces.
Use Craigslist to get a similar vintage Acer laptop.
-Pull the RAM and hard drive (HD) from the laptop. They’ll still be good.
-Swap in the drive and boot up.
-Get to desktop and go through the driver installs, reboots. Your ACER is old enough that Windows will have compatible drivers in the OS.
-Check the RAM on the replacement system if the old RAM is compatible, faster, etc. Add the old RAM to the replacement system. If it’s slower put it in bank 0. If it’s faster put it in bank 1 (slowest RAM goes in lowest bank to set RAM speed).
You shouldn’t lose anything.
When hardware changes significantly re-Activation is triggered. So record the CAL from the sticker on the blown ACER. Use that when activation pops up in the new system.
what is a cal?
First step is to see if the hard drive is still ok.
Dismantle the laptop. Remove the battery, the DVD, the hard drive, and any other removable parts.
Completely dry out the hard drive. Place it in a cloth bag and pack it in a plastic bag with a kilogram of dry uncooked rice and leave it in a warm place overnight. That should pull out any remaining moisture.
Place the hard drive in an external USB enclosure (you can often find these for sale for under $10), see :
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb+enclosure
Plug it into a working computer or a smart TV and see if you can see the directory structure.
I would have been happier if it had been an adult beverage.
chickensoup needs to know who to find to do this sort of thing for her.
chickensoup can barely screw in a lightbulb.
I believe MS is going to stop updates on Win 7 next year and Win 10 is not bad - I use the shell and the screen is exactly like my Win 7 was.
I think it is about $15 or so for an external case for your hard drive.
I just had something replaced in my laptop - I think it was due to a power surge during a windstorm. I know nothing about PCs - but I do figure out my car repairs using Youtube. (I was so proud of the money I saved doing my own car repair compared to what the dealer told my wife. But two weeks later I had to spend the savings on my PC repair.)
Look around for a small PC repair shop - or ask friends what they do. I keep going back to the same place - I THINK they are honest?
I use a laptop as my main computer. But - it is up on a bookshelf, and I have an external keyboard and a large monitor on the desk. (I never use it as a laptop, but it will sit on the table at a motel - no drinks!)
Surprisingly, I haven’t spilled on my keyboard ever. Close a few times. Good luck Chickensoup.
I spilled a beer on a laptop that stopped working. All I had to do was replace the keyboard and it was fine.
If you don’t want to do the technical stuff yourself, there’s various “computer repair” shops around in every city, find one you can trust ...
OR, check with your trusted friends and neighbours to see if they have a son/daughter who knows how to build computers (yes I’m serious), they’ll be able to help you for a cash deal
As for #2 - It looks like mwave.com has a pretty close match for $490:
A CAL is Microsoft’s Client Access License. If the laptop was purchased with the OS installed the CAL sticker will be on the laptop, usually on the bottom. The CAL is entered during a re-Activation prompt.
If you purchased the OS and upgraded the laptop yourself the CAL sticker will be in the DVD case.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.