So the motherboard on my pc is dead on Saturday morning. So I take my pc into the more reliable of the local shops and they tell me that it is beyond repair as the technology is now over 5 years old (I bought the refurbished pc in 2006) and nothing they have now will work with the surviving components of my pc.
So apart from needing to shell-out for a new pc (and not having enough $$ to get a kick-a$$ rig), it burns me that my entire Dawn of War collection (original Dawn of War along with Winter Assault and Dark Crusade expansions) sit in the dead computer. I bought them via download (EB Games) and have no disks. So I'm talking to the builders of my new pc about having them transfer the games over. Sure they said, but why not save yourself our fee and re-download the games? Perfect I think. But heresy is afoot.
I go to EB Games website and it appears that do not carry the original Dawn of War series (except Soulstorm) any more, and there is nothing for download from them. Hmmm. So I contact them (via e-mail) and they tell me that they used another company "http://csc.trymedia.com/" for their download service, but EB Games no longer deals with this company and therefore I would need to go to their website and contact them. The foul taint of Chaos lingers as that website and company appear to be 404.
Heretics!
A true tale of woe to be sure 40Cent. :(
A couple of thoughts.
You can probably pick up a used replacement MB that will work with your PC for a song on Kijiji. Also check with the folks at Brilliance Computer Technologies who frequently have a good stock of used parts and are really helpful. You can also pick up a hard copy of Warhammer 40K Gold for $10 at your local Zellers in their bargain bin.
Oh...and start saving those loonies for a new kick@$$ gaming rig!
I'm dealing with Robotnik after being hosed by PC Medic, over a refurbished video card last year.
Maybe I should have gone to Brilliance from the get-go.
I tend to deal with Brilliance or MysteryByte and have had good experiences with both vendors.
New Egg!
Quote from: Shelldrake on March 13, 2012, 02:41:55 PM
I tend to deal with Brilliance or MysteryByte and have had good experiences with both vendors.
Robotnik has great parking and is close-ish to home. Not as close as TBC, but close-ish nonetheless!
Now that sucks...can you save the HDD of your dead computer at least?
40 as long as it was just your motherboard that died you could totally retrieve your data from the old HDD. Our IT dept. here at work does it all the time. I burned my old work laptop. When my replacement arrived I gave the old laptop's HDD to IT who hooked it up to some cable and dumped the contents onto the new laptop's HDD.
Alternatively, if you bought a new desktop, just attach the old HDD into a free bay and you should be all set.
Quote from: Oche on March 13, 2012, 03:50:32 PM
Now that sucks...can you save the HDD of your dead computer at least?
This.
Just take the old hard drive out of the old machine, if there's a bunch of installers on it, and buy an external USB hard drive enclosure. Plug that old drive up in it, insert into your new PC's USB port and *POOF* you have your files back. If the motherboard died on your old dinosaur, then your hard drive is likely just fine (unless an exceptionally bad power surge fried everything in it).
Sometimes, on a password protected login, you won't be able to acces your Documents folder on another OS in that way without "taking ownership" of the file. No big deal, but I'm guessing you didn't put much of importance in your My Docs folder anyway did ya? ;)
Well you have bought them and can provr it with your statments, why not just put your keys in to a copys preserved on pirate bay.
40Cents,
If you decide not to revive your old rig, you can put together a nice budget gaming rig for not many $ these days. For example, this package has everything you need (except OS) for less than $500. Video card is onboard but will run older games and you can always pop in a better card at some point in the future.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.789250 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.789250)
^Got my rig from NewEgg. They rock. I will never go anywhere else for parts either. Great service.
Another plug for Newegg. I bought all the parts from them and put together my first machine for a great price.
Quote from: Oche on March 13, 2012, 03:50:32 PM
Now that sucks...can you save the HDD of your dead computer at least?
Yep! :)
Quote from: Nefaro on March 13, 2012, 08:01:03 PM
Quote from: Oche on March 13, 2012, 03:50:32 PM
Now that sucks...can you save the HDD of your dead computer at least?
This.
Just take the old hard drive out of the old machine, if there's a bunch of installers on it, and buy an external USB hard drive enclosure. Plug that old drive up in it, insert into your new PC's USB port and *POOF* you have your files back. If the motherboard died on your old dinosaur, then your hard drive is likely just fine (unless an exceptionally bad power surge fried everything in it).
Sometimes, on a password protected login, you won't be able to acces your Documents folder on another OS in that way without "taking ownership" of the file. No big deal, but I'm guessing you didn't put much of importance in your My Docs folder anyway did ya? ;)
Good idea. I've actually discussed this with my local tech shop. The downside is that they said that I won't be able to play my games off of it, like I could when it was the actual hd.
There is nothing that is password protected on the old hd, it's the "family" pc.
Quote from: Shelldrake on March 14, 2012, 09:48:00 AM
40Cents,
If you decide not to revive your old rig, you can put together a nice budget gaming rig for not many $ these days. For example, this package has everything you need (except OS) for less than $500. Video card is onboard but will run older games and you can always pop in a better card at some point in the future.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.789250 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.789250)
Interesting. I've already ordered this one (with 4 gig instead of 2) and no OS (which saves me a bit over $100 off of the price). I'm gonna use XP as I already have the disk and product key.
http://www.robotnik.com/robotnik-amd-athlon-ii-x2-system.html
Quote from: Centurion40 on March 14, 2012, 11:19:41 AM
Quote from: Shelldrake on March 14, 2012, 09:48:00 AM
40Cents,
If you decide not to revive your old rig, you can put together a nice budget gaming rig for not many $ these days. For example, this package has everything you need (except OS) for less than $500. Video card is onboard but will run older games and you can always pop in a better card at some point in the future.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.789250 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.789250)
Interesting. I've already ordered this one (with 4 gig instead of 2) and no OS (which saves me a bit over $100 off of the price). I'm gonna use XP as I already have the disk and product key.
http://www.robotnik.com/robotnik-amd-athlon-ii-x2-system.html
Congrats. The rig you ordered should be fine for anything that isn't too graphics intensive. I recommend using your old video card instead of onboard video since chances are it is more powerful than a HD 3000. The only potential issue I see is that the 450W PSU will limit any future graphics upgrade.
This would be a nice upgrade using the $ you saved on the OS :)
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=612912&CatId=7005 (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=612912&CatId=7005)
I'm not sure what the vid card is on my old rig. All I can say for certain is that I had to replace the original last year when it went toasty. PC Medic installed a used replacement- because they had nothing else new that would work with my old pc (or so they said). My old rig was never quite the same with the used vid card... so I'd be loathe to poach it for the new rig!
His old card and mobo was probably an AGPx4 or x8. They stopped making those awhile back.
Fortunately, these days, all regular-sized motherboards come with a PCI-Express slot for the latest vid cards. So you can just purchase your own and pop it in, if your power supply will support it, and not have to worry about whether your motherboard even has a video card slot at all (as in years past).
Quote from: Centurion40 on March 14, 2012, 11:17:03 AM
Good idea. I've actually discussed this with my local tech shop. The downside is that they said that I won't be able to play my games off of it, like I could when it was the actual hd.
There is nothing that is password protected on the old hd, it's the "family" pc.
Yeah, I was one of those techs in a tech shop for a number of years. ;)
Once you get whatever you need off that old hard drive, pick up a new compatible hard drive sometime (SATA or IDE compared to what your external HDD enclosure supports) and put it in there for use in backing up your game installers, serial numbers, and whatever else (music, porn, snuff films).
Just know that the more you use any piece of computer hardware, the lower it's life expectancy becomes. So eventually a motherboard, or hard drive, will die. Circle of life, man. But that external one will last a helluva lot longer if you only turn it on when you need to backup or install to/from it. :)
Good tips! Snuff films! Goddam!!! :o