The PC thread

[El Barto]

If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.

You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

[cramx3]

If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.

You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

Ah nice, thats good to know.

[Stadler]

If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.

You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

For some reason that made me laugh. 

[ReaperKK]

If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.

You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

I've done this a number of times and I've never come across an issue slotting in an old bootable drive. As long as your bios settings direct which drive to boot from you should be good.

[ReaperKK]

Interesting discussion, I've never replaced the board on a laptop before either. Only repair Ive done on a laptop is to clean the cpu fan which accumulated a ton of dust. Even that was a pain to disassemble and put back just due to the nature of how tightly things are packed.

Like others have said data transfer is a cinch these days. If you get a hold of your drive, whatever type it is, and get the correct cable, that's pretty much it. In windows you'd just plug that into another computer and copy paste.

I've done it once before and it was a huge, huge pain in the ass. I'd never do it again.

[faizoff]

If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.

You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

For some reason that made me laugh. 

As hilarious as that sounds, which it does to me as well, ElBarto is describing exactly how Windows handles it lol.

[nobloodyname]

I laughed, too! It's the wonderful deployment of "helpfully".

[axeman90210]

Thanks for the input all. I picked up my laptop from the place today to take it elsewhere for a second opinion.

[Bolsters]

If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.

Depends on whether encryption was turned on or not. If not, everything on it should be retrievable.

[axeman90210]

Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

[cramx3]

Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

Same price of $500 though?

[axeman90210]

Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

Same price of $500 though?

Yeah, $500 and probably a wait until November for the part to come in.

[cramx3]

Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

Same price of $500 though?

Yeah, $500 and probably a wait until November for the part to come in.

Interesting.  Seems expensive to me, but maybe that is legit the going rate for the work.

I say that as someone who literally just replaced a motherboard at work just now 

[El Barto]

Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

Same price of $500 though?

Yeah, $500 and probably a wait until November for the part to come in.

Interesting.  Seems expensive to me, but maybe that is legit the going rate for the work.

I say that as someone who literally just replaced a motherboard at work just now 

**snip**

Yeah, I'm calling that apples and oranges. That's 4 MoBos in one, and you could still do it in a fraction of the time as doing one laptop board. 

[cramx3]

Oh for sure, a server mobo is built to be easy to replace.  I didn't mean to compare, just thought it was funny as I was actively doing something similar.

[axeman90210]

Well, about three weeks later and I finally have a new computer. After the second opinion on my laptop was the same I reached back out to the first place I had brought it to. They had offered that if I bought a laptop through them they'd include a free data transfer, the laptop options they had quoted me were a little bit overpriced but I figured that was compensated for by the free data transfer. They didn't reply to my message for days. Finally, I called them again on the 11th and they told me they'd have to give me a new list of options because their availability was always changing. OK, fine. I didn't hear anything for a few days, reached out for an update on the 14th and it was crickets in response. Finally called them again on the 18th, they apologized and said that their message to me must not have gone through, but they'd have a couple of up-to-date options over to me by EOD. Sure enough, they sent me a couple of laptop specs right as they closed, but couldn't even be bothered to include the CPU or the hard drive size. Despite all this, I was still going to go with them even if I wasn't getting the best deal because it just seemed easier to me. I guess I annoyed them by daring to ask for the CPU/HD information Thursday morning because they gave it and then when I followed up to confirm if they had these laptops in hand or if they'd have to order them, they told me that everything is by order and if I want something right away they recommend Best Buy. Message received, fuck you too Ordered a new laptop later on Thursday that has better specs than the high-end machine this place quoted me at the same price as the low-end machine they offered me.

[cramx3]

Data transfer should be easy, but damn, they clearly didn't give a fuck about making a sale.

[Orbert]

Here's a problem that's driving me crazy.  Any suggestions are welcomed.

My son gifted me a new PC build.  New tower, new guts.  He and his roommate have built a few of them now, so he felt pretty confident.  Graphics card is GEForce RTX 3070.  No monitor, so we went a got a new monitor that should have worked fine with it.  Samsung Odyssey G5 (LS27CG512ENXZA).  Hooked everything up, and the monitor cycles through its inputs (HDMI 1, HDMI 2, DisplayPort) twice, finds nothing, and turns off.

Hooked the monitor up to my wife's laptop upstairs, and it worked fine.  Interesting.  So we brought up the new PC, hooked everything up, and it worked fine!  The monitor recognized the PC, and the display looked nice.  So we took everything back downstairs (it will live in the basement, replacing my current PC).

Hooked everything up, and still no go.  We tried HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 inputs, with both outputs on the graphics card and also on the motherboard.  All connections were tight, all the usual things.  Every "help" site says the same thing first; check the connections, check the power, yes and yes.  We tried every possible combination twice.  In case it was the cable (even though it hooked up to the laptop fine) we went and bought a new HDMI cable.  Still nothing.

Just to make sure we weren't going crazy, we took everything back upstairs, hooked it up, and it worked!  Took everything back downstairs, and nothing.  Every combination of inputs to the monitor and outputs from the PC, twice.  Tried turning the HDMI cable around, which shouldn't have done anything, and it did exactly that: nothing.

We took the PC to Micro Center, who checked it out head to toe, and even did some "advanced" diagnostics, but everything was running perfectly as far as they can tell.  It was a new build, but we built it Christmas Day in the living room, so there was a chance that we'd messed something up.  An hour or more of diagnostics, and they couldn't find anything wrong.  Went home, tried everything again.  It works in the living room, but not in the basement.

Some of my son's friends suggested weird power issues.  The power strips in the basement are pretty old, so fine, I bought two brand-new power strips with surge protection.  Unplugged everything, plugged both brand new power strips directly into the wall, plugged in the new PC and monitor.  Nothing.  Monitor cycles through the inputs twice, then goes to sleep.

The house is 60+ years old, maybe the power in the living room is sufficient but the basement isn't quite good enough?  Side note: All previous PCs and monitors (there have been many over the 20+ years we've lived here) have worked fine.  In the basement.

One more bit of information: The monitor was "open box" at Abt.  It had been returned for reasons unknown, but had been thoroughly tested by them, and it does work fine with the laptop, and also with the new PC but only upstairs, not downstairs.

TLDR: New monitor and PC work together fine in the living room, but not in the basement.  Independently both work fine.

What in the hell?

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Here's a problem that's driving me crazy.  Any suggestions are welcomed.

My son gifted me a new PC build.  New tower, new guts.  He and his roommate have built a few of them now, so he felt pretty confident.  Graphics card is GEForce RTX 3070.  No monitor, so we went a got a new monitor that should have worked fine with it.  Samsung Odyssey G5 (LS27CG512ENXZA).  Hooked everything up, and the monitor cycles through its inputs (HDMI 1, HDMI 2, DisplayPort) twice, finds nothing, and turns off.

Hooked the monitor up to my wife's laptop upstairs, and it worked fine.  Interesting.  So we brought up the new PC, hooked everything up, and it worked fine!  The monitor recognized the PC, and the display looked nice.  So we took everything back downstairs (it will live in the basement, replacing my current PC).

Hooked everything up, and still no go.  We tried HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 inputs, with both outputs on the graphics card and also on the motherboard.  All connections were tight, all the usual things.  Every "help" site says the same thing first; check the connections, check the power, yes and yes.  We tried every possible combination twice.  In case it was the cable (even though it hooked up to the laptop fine) we went and bought a new HDMI cable.  Still nothing.

Just to make sure we weren't going crazy, we took everything back upstairs, hooked it up, and it worked!  Took everything back downstairs, and nothing.  Every combination of inputs to the monitor and outputs from the PC, twice.  Tried turning the HDMI cable around, which shouldn't have done anything, and it did exactly that: nothing.

We took the PC to Micro Center, who checked it out head to toe, and even did some "advanced" diagnostics, but everything was running perfectly as far as they can tell.  It was a new build, but we built it Christmas Day in the living room, so there was a chance that we'd messed something up.  An hour or more of diagnostics, and they couldn't find anything wrong.  Went home, tried everything again.  It works in the living room, but not in the basement.

Some of my son's friends suggested weird power issues.  The power strips in the basement are pretty old, so fine, I bought two brand-new power strips with surge protection.  Unplugged everything, plugged both brand new power strips directly into the wall, plugged in the new PC and monitor.  Nothing.  Monitor cycles through the inputs twice, then goes to sleep.

The house is 60+ years old, maybe the power in the living room is sufficient but the basement isn't quite good enough?  Side note: All previous PCs and monitors (there have been many over the 20+ years we've lived here) have worked fine.  In the basement.

One more bit of information: The monitor was "open box" at Abt.  It had been returned for reasons unknown, but had been thoroughly tested by them, and it does work fine with the laptop, and also with the new PC but only upstairs, not downstairs.

TLDR: New monitor and PC work together fine in the living room, but not in the basement.  Independently both work fine.

What in the hell?

Could be dirty power at the plug you are trying to use. Seems strange though. Another thing, you should be using the displayport input, it allows for higher bandwidth to the monitor. That monitor should have come with a displayport cable, but you said it was open box, so maybe not.

[El Barto]

Does the computer POST? Can you see the BIOS when you power on? You're focusing on the monitor, but if the monitor isn't showing you anything at all it could be that the PC isn't booting up downstairs. Again, that would suggest a power problem. If you have a UPS somewhere in the house that might help you resolve that. Just for confirmation purposes you could also run an extension cord from upstairs to down.

[Orbert]

I was thinking of going out and getting a DisplayPort cable.  But I was focused on the fact that everything works upstairs, just not downstairs.  It seems to me that the cable and the whole setup would either work or not.  But hell, I don't know.

Running an extension cord from upstairs to downstairs will be fun.  Trying that tomorrow.

[Podaar]

Do you have a voltage meter? Test the outlet for 115V, if it's within 5%, you should be fine as far as the outlet goes. If it's 108 or lower, I'd guess the PC isn't posting and therefore offering no signal. You could have an open ground as well, especially in an older home...of course, I don't know if new power supplies have safety features for checking source power.

[Orbert]

When we were working on it the other day, my son swore he heard the POST beep, but I wasn't sure.  I didn't hear anything, but I didn't know what to listen for either.  I'd forgotten about that.  I worked on it for hours yesterday, which including booting it many, many times, and I don't remember hearing a POST beep.  I'm guessing they're not as loud and obnoxious as in the old days, but I still don't remember hearing anything.

I don't have one, but I may get a voltage meter and check things out, just to know.  Doesn't actually solve the problem, but it would be good to know.  What's killing me is that if the issue is the AC power in the basement, then it was good enough for the three or four PCs we've had before, including the one I'm on now, but not clean enough for the new PC.

[El Barto]

Power requirements have massively increased over the last five years. That means a more robust PSU. It might be objecting to the juice you're giving it.

[cramx3]

Yeah all things are pointing to power and if you are wondering, a 3070 GPU uses a shit ton of power.  Im assuming there is no spare monitor to check down stairs, but Id guess using the long power cable to see if the PC is even posting.  Might as well use that long testing power cable to power the PC as well if you get nothing out of the monitor still. 

[Orbert]

Update:  Ordered a power tester/voltage meter.  Power in the basement is a steady 121 volts, same as upstairs.  Checked the outlets, and just for grins, checked the power coming out of the brand-new power strips, specifically the two outlets into which I'm plugging the PC and monitor.  121 volts.

So today I borrowed one of my son's monitors, with the DisplayPort cable still hanging off it since he basically unplugged it and lent it to me (he has two so he's just down his second display for now).  When I plugged it in via DisplayPort, it found the new PC right away.  So, I unplugged my son's monitor and plugged mine in using my son's DisplayPort cable, and it works.  Found it right away.

Holy fuck.  It's been the HDMI cable all along.  I read that DisplayPort is recommended (thank you King), but I didn't realize that that meant "It (HDMI) will intermittently work and not work, without any predictable pattern other than mostly not working."  And just to make things more interesting, it just happened to work upstairs a few times, and not at all downstairs, but that could just be the odds if it doesn't work most of the time anyway.

I've ordered a DisplayPort cable from Amazon, and it will arrive tomorrow.  If I hook it up and all is well, then this has been a long, frustrating, learning experience.  Always use DisplayPort!  If I hook it up and it doesn't work, I return the monitor because apparently it is just picky enough to only work sometimes via either HDMI or DP.  It was open box; there's a reason why someone returned the damned thing.

[Orbert]

So... next crisis.  The old PC came pre-loaded with Windows, etc.  The new one has nothing.  I can't find the original documentation or anything else with my product key.  Do I have to buy a new copy of Windows to load on the new PC?  During the setup, it asked me for my product key, which is when (after an hour or so of fruitless searching) I realized I don't have it.  I was just going to install Windows on the new PC using the same product key.  I didn't know if that would work or not, but I was going to try.

Right now, it's up and running, but Windows hasn't been "activated", so I can't personalize most settings and I'm assuming installing stuff like Office is going to be hamstrung.  And I'm further assuming that I'm going to need that product key to activate Windows.  Options?

[faizoff]

Interesting read regarding the HDMI cable fiasco. It's entirely reasonable for HDMI cable to be incompatible with the monitor, there are a few varieties of the cable too just because of how GPUs and monitors connect.

As for activation, you should be able to use the old product key for the new windows installation. In my previous PC I had made my account the digital key so to speak. so anytime I install a new windows I just sign in and it's activated. In your case if your old PC is still up and running, you can extract the key with a free program like magic jelly bean. I believe I used it once to do the exact same thing. If it doesn't activate right away they usually ask to call a number, it should be an automated process to activate the key. This was from a few years ago so I'm hoping the same thing applies in your case.

[Orbert]

Wow!

Magical Jelly Bean was super easy to download and run, and it solved the issue on the first try.  Windows on the new PC is activated.

Thanks, faizoff!

 

[faizoff]

Glad that worked. Enjoy the new PC! Using a high refresh monitor is a game changing and everything else feels so slow in comparison.

[Orbert]

Thanks again.

I don't quite follow this part, though:

In my previous PC I had made my account the digital key so to speak. so anytime I install a new windows I just sign in and it's activated.

[faizoff]

At some point in my past windows usage, I would never sign into an account and just use the local account. When I kept getting prompted to sign in I finally did and it asked me if I wanted to use that as my windows digital key in lieu of the actual product key. So I opted to do so and from then onwards, for any new installation, I just sign in and it gets activated and doesn't ask for a product key.

[Orbert]

Interesting.  A few PCs back, when Windows first started asking for usernames and passwords, I only ever set up Bob as the account, with no password.  I didn't know that there was an option to "just use the local account".  I figured there had to be at least one account, so I set it up as simply as possible.

But I still don't see how a brand new PC is going to know what your product key is if it was on the old PC.  At that point, there's nothing to connect them.

[cramx3]

Interesting read regarding the HDMI cable fiasco. It's entirely reasonable for HDMI cable to be incompatible with the monitor, there are a few varieties of the cable too just because of how GPUs and monitors connect.

Yeah, the HDMI thing seems odd to me, but glad you found a way to overcome that with the display port cable. Weird.

[Orbert]

I'm almost done setting up the new PC.  Windows is activated, and I can cannect to my work PC.  These were two of the main things that had to happen before it replaces the old PC as my primary workstation.

The last thing is getting Microsoft Office onto it.  I have two different boxes here, both say "Office Home & Student 2016", and on the front they both say "For 1 PC" which sounds a bit ominous.  The only difference as far as I can tell is that one is in an orange and white box, and the other is in a white and orange box.  I believe one of them was used to install Office onto my daughter's laptop.  One of them has the Microsoft account email and password filled in; the other is blank (I believe that one was my daughter's).

To the point:  Is there any way to use a "For 1 PC" version of Office on the new PC?  Because I have the boxes, each with the xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx product keys, I've tried them both, and for each I get a message to the effect that it looks like this product key has been used already on a different PC.  Which is true and not really unexpected.  When I try using the Microsoft account and password, I click a few things and eventually get to a page that no longer exists, also not really surprising.

If possible, I can "transfer" it from the old PC to the new one; I won't need it on both.  Or do I have to buy a new copy of Office?  That's not the end of the world, but if I can save a few bucks, I'm into it.

Help me, DTF.  You're my only hope!