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I'm thinking about buying a refurbished HP from a liquidation outlet. It's one of those mini systems - 1.3Ghz Athlon, 60gig drive, Asus Geforce3 Ti200, 12Xburner, 16X DVD, 512MB DDR Ram, Asus mobo. I usually don't buy major brand boxes but the price is good on this one and I won't have to pay the M$ operating system tax. I hate the mini cases so I'm thinking about picking up a good tower case and just transferring over all components. Anybody have one of these? Any proprietary concerns with the mobo, connectors...
Jimbo
I have an HP 7845. They are very proprietary. You can only use the recovery disks with that computer. If your motherboard dies on you, you have to have it HP tattooed in order for the recovery disks to still function. I like my computer. Runs pretty good, for me. I'm not an expert or a gamer, so not sure how it is as far as other systems are concerned. But overall, as far as the price I paid for it, I've been happy with it. Hope this helps with your decision.
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I just transfered a HP baby box into a standard ATX box. The customer had the same box, only the power supply pooched. The power supply for HP is an odd ball size and shape, so I could not locate one. HP is the only place to obtain one, and the cost far exceeds the $60 for a new tower and PS. The problem with the HP is their weak power supply. 260 as opposed to 300+ My suggestion is to transfer your hardware to a new box. This will solve you PS
requirements due to the fact that you have a burner and dvd. Buy it and use it until the warranty (if any) is expired, than transfer the guts. If it worked in the baby box, than it will work in the ATX tower. And yes you can rer-install the OS, and it dose'nt have to be HP. That is my opinion, hope this helps.
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Thanks Dianna,
I'm not worried about the recovery disks because these refurbished units are sold bare with no software. I've got Win98, 2k, and XP that I can install on it. I was going to upgrade my motherboard, CPU, and video card but then I stumbled on this pc and its cheaper than what I would have paid for in parts.
You're actually lucky in that you got recovery cds. I'm hearing that new HP's don't ship with them - you get a hidden partition on the drive with all recovery files.
Jimbo
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If you have Windows on a disk, then I'd definitely get it, as you won't have to worry about the recovery disks and then having to obtain another copy of windows if something happens to your motherboard. Vtech, I didn't mean you couldn't reinstall, you just can't use the recovery disks, IF you don't have a new motherboard tattooed. If he has a copy of Windows already, he won't have that problem.
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Thanks for the heads up vtech,
I had a feeling that something would be proprietary but if its just the power supply than no problem. I'll gut it and keep the case around for a year until the warranty runs out.
Jimbo
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ive got a question for dianna(if she ever comes back, or someone else who knows), i had a dell pc, and the mobo blew, i got a new mobo, i have the recovery cd, but it told me its only for dell. how do you get a mobo stamped. is there a download or something, or do you have to type commands, and if it didnt work, is there a way to unstamp it. the disk is for win2000, thats what i had before the motherboard blew. but i didnt feel like paying for 2000, so i just got 98se because its all i was able to afford at the time. thanks for you help
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Eric, I'm not an expert and certainly don't know how to work on a computer. Someone in my family is a tech, so he is the one who told me about the tattoo thing. I was trying to decide about getting an extended warranty for my HP, and that is one reason I decided to get one, is because I didn't want to have to worry about the expense of buying Windows, and a new motherboard, in the event that died on mine. He told me that when they replace the motherboard on a brand name computer, he would go to the site and download the tattoo, but I am sure he told me you have to be certified or something like that, with the company, and be able to access that information. I think he said he would download the tattoo and load it on a disk or something. Not sure of that. He is Dell certified right now, so if I talk to him, I'll ask him about how to do that for you. I'll post back if I can find out. If it's a few days from now, I'll start a post with it to your attention. I would definitely call Dell if I were you and ask them about that, and if perhaps they can send you the tattoo? I know they give lifetime tech support, so it's worth a shot to call them about that. By the way, what model is your computer? Maybe I could get him to get a tattoo for you. Not sure, but I could ask. I don't know if he's allowed to do that or not.
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Oh, yeah, eric, you could also go to ebay and see if you can get an OEM version of 2000. If you look there, and keep your eyes open, you can get a good deal on software there. I don't really think it's necessary to use the recovery CD, Windows is supposed to run better without all that stuff that the brand names have loaded along with it. I think the OEM version is usually cheaper, and it will work with any mobo, from what I understand. I thought Dell's had OEM and not recovery CDs. Guess I was wrong.
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Eric: you should of gotten a system disk with your new or (used) motherboard. This disk should have any video/sound/modem/network drivers on it that you need. My suggestion to you is to elimenate the need for the recovery disk by gathering the proper drivers for your installed hardware and go from there. Relying on a recovery disk is not my idea of a fun day. I have restored a few pc's in my time using the restore disk. I actually prefer an HP if I have to use a factory restore disk. The Compaq I did forgot to put the modem driver on it. How it that for "good" tech support? But like I said once you have the drivers for the mother board and any add-on cards you won't need to rely on a restore disk anymore.
Hope this helps.
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thanks terri, but i was able to get all the drivers, and i bought windows, so im not using the dell stuff, i agree that pc brand stuff isnt good, but the windows is on the cd, and i thought it would be nice to have the win2000, im fine with 98, doesnt seem any worse than the 2000 i had...
dianna, i looked on ebay, i found windows 2000 very cheap, and did a buy it now, so thanks for trying to go throug all that trouble with someone in your family trying to do stuff with his dell certificate or what ever it was. maybe i should have looked there than trying to put someone through all that mess. thanks anyway and have a good day :o)
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Hi,
I bought a HP 8750C refurbished system.
It locks up several times a day, especially
while on the internet. The computer completely freezes all graphics, although the networking and sound cards still seem to work.I recently found a lot of other people had the same problem, in the HP user forums.
If I had known this, I would not have bought the pc.Pavilion Freezes:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x17d7a1abbac8d5118ff10090279cd0f9,00.htmlI am so unlucky that I had got HP 8655c...but I am trying....
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x39697bb04b5cd611abdb0090277a778c,00.htmlscreen freezing & errors, etc.
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xdce5f841489fd4118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html8655C
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x80d835067c18d6118ff40090279cd0f9,00.htmlHp 8655c
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x73ed911284f5d5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.htmlhp 8655c freezes...
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xfae6f715edc6d5118ff10090279cd0f9,00.html8655C freezes constantly
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x27fe3c853cd9d5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.htmlPv 8655C repetedly hangs.
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x68f2911284f5d5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.html8655c locking up
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xb509cb60e503d6118ff40090279cd0f9,00.htmlNew news on Pavilion 8655 freezing issue?
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x84d394f22a31d6118fff0090279cd0f9,00.html
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