MaryL
04-18-2004, 06:37 AM
I gave my IBM 1412i to a friend with very limited funds and shipped it to
her. She lives several states away -- as a result, some of my information
will be rather vague. She had literally never touched a computer before but
does have webtv. I thought of this as a very basic computer for her to use
for word processing, surfing the web, and possibly some rudimentary photo
controls. Instead, she *immediately* bought more ram RAM, upgraded to XP,
and made a number of other changes that are not clear to me. When I learned
that she was going to spend a total of about $600.00 on it, I tried to
convince her to buy a basic desktop instead. However, she insisted that she
does not have room in her apartment for a desktop computer. In addition,
she bought a number of cheapie software programs and installed them all.
Some caused problems and she uninstalled.
Long story short: due to problems that popped up (possibly conficts in all
the the programs and a *very* new user), she had to reinstall XP. She also
used Partition Magic and said she had to change the size of Drive C because
it was now too small for XP. I think she also used the IBM restore disk
(despite all the changes she made to the computer) and at least one complete
reinstall of XP.
Now the computer will not recognize *any* of her USB devices, although they
did work before she reinstalled everything. She said the light would
momentarily flicker, then nothing happens. She also found that the
connection for the USB port is now loose (possibly a problem caused in
shipping, but I never had any problem with it), so she added a card so that
she could attach USB devices that way. It still doesn't work! Her printer
will also run from a serial port, so she bought a cable for that -- and XP
still doesn't recognize it.
I gave the computer to her in the first place because she has almost no
money; now she is even deeper in debt and says she can't afford to hire a
computer expert to look at the system for her. Some possible issues that
occur to me are: (1) Would a reformat be useful? (2) Is Partition Magic a
problem with IBM hard drives? (3) I know that IBM has a number of
proprietary requirements. Has all of this "upgrading" interfered or
irreparably damaged the computer? (4) Or does the USB problem have
absolutely nothing to do with what I am asking?
Recognizing that I will be doing all of this by telephone and (1) she is a
complete newbie, and (2) I have years of experience with computers but
consider myself adept at a number of software programs but definitely *not*
expert with hardware -- can anyone offer some suggestions?
--
MaryL
her. She lives several states away -- as a result, some of my information
will be rather vague. She had literally never touched a computer before but
does have webtv. I thought of this as a very basic computer for her to use
for word processing, surfing the web, and possibly some rudimentary photo
controls. Instead, she *immediately* bought more ram RAM, upgraded to XP,
and made a number of other changes that are not clear to me. When I learned
that she was going to spend a total of about $600.00 on it, I tried to
convince her to buy a basic desktop instead. However, she insisted that she
does not have room in her apartment for a desktop computer. In addition,
she bought a number of cheapie software programs and installed them all.
Some caused problems and she uninstalled.
Long story short: due to problems that popped up (possibly conficts in all
the the programs and a *very* new user), she had to reinstall XP. She also
used Partition Magic and said she had to change the size of Drive C because
it was now too small for XP. I think she also used the IBM restore disk
(despite all the changes she made to the computer) and at least one complete
reinstall of XP.
Now the computer will not recognize *any* of her USB devices, although they
did work before she reinstalled everything. She said the light would
momentarily flicker, then nothing happens. She also found that the
connection for the USB port is now loose (possibly a problem caused in
shipping, but I never had any problem with it), so she added a card so that
she could attach USB devices that way. It still doesn't work! Her printer
will also run from a serial port, so she bought a cable for that -- and XP
still doesn't recognize it.
I gave the computer to her in the first place because she has almost no
money; now she is even deeper in debt and says she can't afford to hire a
computer expert to look at the system for her. Some possible issues that
occur to me are: (1) Would a reformat be useful? (2) Is Partition Magic a
problem with IBM hard drives? (3) I know that IBM has a number of
proprietary requirements. Has all of this "upgrading" interfered or
irreparably damaged the computer? (4) Or does the USB problem have
absolutely nothing to do with what I am asking?
Recognizing that I will be doing all of this by telephone and (1) she is a
complete newbie, and (2) I have years of experience with computers but
consider myself adept at a number of software programs but definitely *not*
expert with hardware -- can anyone offer some suggestions?
--
MaryL