Okay here goes.

Dell Dimension 4600 computer-6 years old. Works fine but the Hard drive is going and quick.It makes audible noise it was just a clicking and has now progressed to a grinding noise.

My kids say cmon Dad-just buy a new system, but money is an object right now.Census work is my only income at the moment....

My attitude is just replace the hard drive (old one 80Gig!) I like the CD/DVD burner double bay drive set up I have...

Memory is only 512MB so I figure while the case is open go ahead and blow in some more memory also. I am figuring on no more than $200 tops to upgrade and fix....

What say you?

I would likely have to pay/coerce a local friend to help out.

And if you are local and possess this kind of skills you could earn some cold hard cash....

 

crack the case and make sure the noise isnt coming from your fans... they sometimes make noises when they are dying. blow out any dust bunnies who are living there.

if it is the harddrive then you should be able to pick one up on newegg.com for fairly cheap

bump the ram to 2gigs and you;ll feel it for sure.

make sure you backup your CD keys prior to rebuilding your machine. http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml

 

Dude,your gettin' a dell.

 

my computer was total crap...........

see this thread though.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f39/...repair-204596/

 

thanks Tofer-I had not considered it could just be the fan but the noise comes and goes.

Seems to me if it was the fan it would be constant. But I will crack it open and verify.

Probably will be a new Dell-they have treated me very well. On my last machine they replaced a hard drive a full year out of warranty. But this one substantially older now.

If only our new truck prices fell like electronics ....I can't believe what you can buy these days for $500....(computer that is)

 

It's gotten better as of recently-still have not blown in it out-been busy putzing with neighbors ^%$$%& lawnmower...

thank for the lumpy link and I will read up on these CD keys mentioned.

I just did a 3 DVD Norton backup the other day just in case it dumps on me...

 

ron, mine was totally crashed...would turn on and turn off and that was it. LUMPY did me good.

 

got the scoop on what the issue was... my son had forgotten that he rigged up another hard drive within the case and powered it up- but not attached any data cabling to it. It was the wrong format so the data cables would not connect up.

That was the drive making the noise and now it is dead so the noise is gone.
Thanks for the inputs guys and I will get around to blowing out the case one of these days.

 

ya, if its that old that it only has 512mb of ram..... I wouldnt bother doing anything to it, unless it absolutely needs it.... I would just save up, and get a new system....
You could buy all the parts from www.tigerdirect.com for pretty cheap money, and have a blazing fast system. If you can assemble it yourself....

 

in the future if you ever replace that comp. there are good write ups on the net. how to assemble one your self. if you do it your self its cheaper and better then any dell, hp, sony, etc. You can also gets lots of questions answered here, there are alot of techies on YT

 

The nice thing about going Dell is the warranty and not having to mess with it if your not into computers. But if your into building them you can get a much faster system for much cheaper than going with a prebuilt one.

As for it being 6 years old, you're fine. Def upgrade the memory though, it will be like having an whole new machine.

You really should blow them out every 8-12 months. They are like little vacuums and suck all kinds of junk in them. We have 2 labs and hard wood floors, I blow mine out every 6 months and it's a wreck.

Nice to know that it was the other drive that went and not your main drive. I'd recommend using a Seagate backup solution, it works well for home users. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148550

 

between a 1TB seagate external and microsoft SyncToys, i'm not worried about data backups

 

^^2X That's what I'm using 1TB Seagate FireWire baby!!!

Not that FireWire is all that special...Just fun to say.

 

i need to get a eSATA card in my computer.. then my data transfer rate would be HUGE over USB2.0

 

Thought has crossed me mind but it's just for backups so I'm not all that worried. I have 2 SATA drives in it so i'm alright for now. Someday when I upgrade I'll have enough on-board.

 

this will be my next computer... hooked up to a big screen for hulu / nexflix streams.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-005-_-Product

 

I've been thinking of getting media center like that...Totally eliminate the use of DVD's!!!

Someday when I have an extra couple hundred just laying about...

 

the nice thing with that box is it comes without an OS, RAM or HD....

 

7 will share movies and medial quite well with itself. You can stream media from your main machine to that lil box and not have to worry.

Just grab a 2TB hd and you're set!!! Copy and stream from your main machine and your golden.

 

geeks