Marcos,
First of all I'll say I'm sorry to hear your news. It's not good news at any time of the year, let alone the week before Christmas.
I find it hard to believe that the burden of proof is on you. My brother had something similar - their argument was that the retailer knew the signature strip numbers, so he must have authorised the transaction. My brother (a solicitor) argued that that was utter rubbish; they eventually backed down. This is a civil matter and so the level of proof is "on the balance of probabilities" IIRC - I defer to learned friends on the site if I'm wrong. I suggest you start keeping notes of all your conversations with the CC company and stick to your guns.
I don't see how they know it was "watched over the internet". It could have been someone (shop, restaurant, etc) swiping it through a card reader and noting your signature strip number separately.
Hope it works out.
V
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someone who has apparently watched an internet transaction and cloned our account/debit card.
This shouldn't be possible if you've used a secure web site. The encryption should be to all intents and purposes unbreakable. Obviously the risk is greater if you've used an insecure site or ever sent the details by e-mail. You also have to trust the trader to keep the details secure once they've got them. A few years ago I was one several hundred people paid £50 compensation by Powergen when their customers' debit card details became visible on their public web site. The money was for the inconvenience of having to get a replacement card with a new number. See tinyurl.com/yr49n and tinyurl.com/3c6bx
Overall, the risk of someone finding your card details in a bin are probably still greater.
There have been many cases lately of fraudsters sending out e-mails asking for people to enter account details on a fake web site that looks like the bank's own but you'd have to be very naive to respond to one of these.
Have a look at the terms and conditions for your debit card. With credit cards there's usually a maximum amount for which you can be liable unless you've been negligent. Some banks also have an on-line fraud guarantee.
Another thought: are you in Credit Card Sentinel or a similar scheme? These give you cover for fraudulent use.
[Shouldn't this topic be in the 'I have a question' thread?]
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A very sad but salutory tale Marcos. FWIW I hope and am sure you'll get the money back sooner or later.
Of course this all adds hugely to my ever mushrooming paranoia about the internet and its shortcomings :-(
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I sympathise totally with your situation Marcos, a far higher amount of fraud goes on than the banks or credit card companies would like to admit.
However, I must agree with Vin while it is possible that this has happened because of some internet activity it is equally possible that it could have been at any place the card has been used especially if it has been out of sight for example in restaurants, pubs etc.
Unlikely to have been done from a till receipt since these dont usually include the 3 disgit security number even if they display the normal number in clear.
The internet is just an electronic way of dealing with the same variety of people you deal with on the high street. Some you can trust and some you would be more reluctant to trust.
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Why don't you ask your Bank for a copy of the counterfoil signed by you that they would have received to authorise the transaction. And if they don't have that (yes, I know they don't), perhaps they could tell you what security questions were asked to ensure that the person using the card was you.
Or is it simply a matter of anyone telling them your credit card number and then getting as much money as they want ?
If they still insist, explain how you have remembered that it was in fact you afterall, and you used it to pay for good and services. Unfortunately those goods and services have not been received in any kind of satisfactory condition, and as such you would like your money refunded, which would be their responsibility, as would extracting their money (not yours) back from the supplier of those goods and services.
That should slow them up a good bit....
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Do you keep your credit card details on your PC?
Do you have a Firewall enabled - a proper one .. not Microsoft\'s carp one..
Do you run Ad-aware or other program regularlyy to remove trojans?
If you answer yes to question 1 and no to 2&3 there is a high probability
1. Your PC is infected with Trojans which can send any details on your PC- anywhere.. In fact it is virtually 100% certain you have Trojans..
2. These trojans may have looked for your credit card details on your PC and emailed it somehwhere.
ANYONE who keeps personal details on a PC and does not have a firewall and search at LEAST wekly for Trojans.. is at HIGH risk...
Yes: I have a firewall (it is different to an Anti Virus program ) - I also have a hardware firewall on a router..
Check how vulnerable you are: go to the Symantec site(genuine Symantec test, NOT a virus)..
www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/nis_pe/
and Click On: Test your Exposure on the bottom left hand of the page..
Running a PC connected to the internet with no firewall is like leaving your car outside with the keys in, engine running and a message saying \"steal me..Please\" attached..
I\'ve bought things over the internet for past 4 years with no problems. I keep NO persoanl details on my PC.. certainly not stored on it...
There are trojans which read your mailbox, read you mail, read your Word documents ,see which sites you visit, report to who knows whom whatever.
madf
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Standard response of any organisation hit by fraud is to say its your fault and you have to swallow it. Then they have at least a chance that you'll shut up and go away. When they pull this talk to a supervisor or manager immediately and make it clear that if you get no joy its straight to your solicitor, and if you get no joy then thats where you go. Don't forget to charge them your legal fees as well.
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My Visa card has been cloned twice now, apparently from Internet transactions. On one occasion it was for over 3K. Someone had bought an airline ticket on SAA from the US to Jo'burg. The card company had no problem with it at all. There was no suggestion that it could be my fault and my account was fully refunded both times.
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The strange thing is the account used is only normally used for small transactions so normally has no more than £1k sitting in it with a £500 overdraft facility. At the time it only had £400 so I am now £2,500 in the red on that account.
I have questioned the bank and they have said I have an official £500 overdraft but an unnofficial £2,700 overdraft.
Work that one out.
I also recieved a letter from the bank on monday asking me to verify a £40 transaction at the local BP garage for fuel but no mention of the £2,932.40 paid out to a student bookshop in Sweden.
My solicitor seems to think I shouldnt worry about it as he is dealing with this sort of thing all the time and the banks more than often reimburse.
I have a good firewall, a program to remove trojans and I do not keep any details of cards etc on the computer which is making me think it might be the card was cloned in a shop or similar.
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Marcos - Sorry to hear about this.
We had a problem last year with a credit card which was normally only used by my wife to buy petrol.
Then a statement arrived which had a £5000.00 debit at a jewellers in Dubai. Obviously a drastic change of use! The CC company's response was to raise our credit limit!.
I phoned them and said sorry, not me. They sent me a form to fill in and sign and I destroyed the cards. That was the end of it.
The card had never been used on the net , only at a local service station. We pointed this out to the CC company but as far as we know the police were never involved and we heard no more about it.
The problem with a Switch card however is that you have to get your money back from the bank. That complicates things considerably, so never use Switch on the net.
Hope you sort this out, Regards DougB.
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Marcos,
As another life long Spurs supporter I know how the loss feels - and the money as well!!
I have had my credit card details used for a $1,000+ transaction in the USA. When I disputed this I was sent a slip showing a mail order for many pairs of size 7 slippers(I take a 14) which included $150 for post and packing. No delivery address was given. After several letters the sum was written off by Visa.
Also last Xmas new Debit cards for myself and SHMBO were intercepted and mine was used in Italy for over £1000 within a couple of days of being sent. Both cards were stopped and new ones issued. In spite being stopped my wife's has been used several times in South Africa for small amounts(£20 or so) - apparently this sum is below the limit for requiring it to be checked. The upshot of all that was that I did not incur any loss.
Your Bank are talking rubbish in saying you must prove you didn't order the books. How can you prove a negative? The firm must know where the books were delivered to and the bank's investigators can chase it from there.
Let us hope we stuff Manchester United on Sunday!
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Marcos
I can understand how you feel about this, must be quite a damper on christmas. BUT as other people have said, you are highly unlikely to be asked to pay for this - the first thing I would do is to change my credit card company for turning this into a drama.
A couple of years ago, I had a call from Sainsburys Bank telling me that someone had tried to buy some computer equipment from America on my credit card. They reissued the obviously cloned card within a day or so and it never impacted on me at all - didn't even appear on a statement. Obviously very much on the ball.
Hope it gets sorted soon.
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- the first thing I would do is to change my credit card company for turning this into a drama.
Isn't it a bank account rather than a credit card. Whatever it is, closing the account is the last (in the chronological sense) thing to do. The bank has less incentive to sort it out if they know you're longer a customer.
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I wouldn't stay with a bank that accused me of doing such a thing. I cannot understand how they could believe you would suddenly decide to buy £3k worth of books from sweden. Any simple heuristics that checks on transaction history should have blown a gasket at this point!
If you don't get much help with your bank then trading standards, CAB, the ask jessica column in the telegraph or watchdog would be your next ports of call.
They may not have even seen your card as I am sure there are card number generators out there. Also have you been using cash machines? There have been gangs going around cloning cards used in ATMs that they have meddled with so that may be how your number was obtained.
teabelly
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Quite worrying reading these posts regarding posts regarding Internet security. Over the last couple of years I have installed Norton antivirus and firewall. Only yesterday Norton picked up three viruses and was unable to deal with it despite regular live updates and had to go to the Norton site for a removal tool. It arrives with a message regarding your account. For anyone interested the Norton info is tinyurl.com/38vxm More recently installed spybot and still don?t feel secure especially after seeing the amount it found.
My bank encourages me to use Internet banking which I do and download statements and use transactions.
However in the very small print of their paper literature they also warn not to keep information regarding banking on any electronic medium. I imagine all banks give the same warning but how many people read this and what is the point of downloading and then having to print everything and then delete off the computer or save to floppies.
A retired Accountant neighbour was telling me recently that he runs two computers and uses one for the Internet and the other for personal data. Asking why he did this he was quite adamant that it is too risky to have any personal information on a computer connected to the web. Maybe he has Swiss bank accounts and contacts with the Colombian drug barons.
But the more I read you fellas perhaps he isn?t as paranoid as I thought and ultimately something of the same method where computers can have internal separation will have to be achieved.
I have two hard disks on my computer and it would be an ideal situation if one of them could be made inaccessible when connected to the Internet. I suppose it could be done at present by having an external hard disk and physically disconnecting it when connected but who wants to do this every time.
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Marcos I sympathize, I really do.
I will NEVER EVER use the internet for a credit or debit card purchase again and I couldn't possibly recommend anyone else to do so.
A US Dollar account I had in Jersey was milked of some $27,000 about 2 years ago. Most of the charges were made on establishments in Taiwan through internet airline bookings, using my debit card details. I had to go to war with both the card issuer and the bank and my case was not helped by the fact that at that time I was visiting Taiwan regularly on business, so couldn't deny I had never been there.
The card company's fraud people were convinced I was a victim of the dual swipe scam where a bent hotel cashier or shop clerk runs the card through a second swipe terminal which records the encoding, and these data are then sold to syndicates for use on the Internet. Their case was, since I denied making the charges, that it was my carelessness in letting the card out of my sight while a purchase was being rung up.
Now I know this scam operates all over Asia, but in any case while travelling I always use Amex, since it just helps to have business expenses on one card for accounting purposes. I had never used this debit card in Taiwan. I had however used it
twice to order some motorcycle parts from America.
Eventually without going into details I brought some heavy artillery to bear and after 4 months I got my money back (minus any interest).
The bottom line is I don't believe a word about internet pay sites being fully secure. I'll bet right now there are any number of bored 13 year old math students in internet cafes from Manila to Bombay figuring out ways of breaking into them. Of course you won't hear about these attempts for obvious reasons.
Sorry Marcos: keep fighting. The reasons banks behave like they're doing with you is because they daren't admit publicly their systems have holes in them.
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For those of you who stilll think using IE Explorer is a good idea, there is a freeware patch for the url spoofing vulnerability exploited by the PayPal scam and others. Microshaft have as yet not bothered to fix it, although it's been known for ten days:
www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/18/107133707211...l
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Following the recent discussion on Firebird, I thought I would give it a try. It certainly seems much faster, but I cannot get the IE imported bookmarks to display in alphabetical or any sort of logical order (under W98).
I have tried the 'manage bookmarks' route and a couple of others, where the secondary windows do indeed display as required, but the main program sticks doggedly to the jumbled display.
All this rather cancels out the speed advantage..... any ideas?
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Frostbite
I haven't come across this problem so I'm afraid I can't help, but then when I use Windows I use XP Pro or 2000, which work quite differently from 9x. But here's an idea. Bookmarks for Firebird are stored in the documents/settings/phoenix directory. Why not try manually copying the bookmarks.htm file from Explorer to that directory without changing anything? If that doesn't work the forums for Mozilla are quite active and this is probably a known issue with a fix, so why not post there? If nothing else they'll want to know about it if it is a bug.
Speed isn't the only advantage: there's security, extra functionality (mouse gestures, tabbed browsing etc.) and frequent upgrades. Bear in mind IE is now two years old: Firebird is a "current" application.
Chris
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IE doesn't use a bookmarks.htm file. 'Favorites' are actually shortcuts arranged in special directories (or 'folders'). It does let you export to a Netscape/Mozilla-style bookmarks.htm file though. I wonder whether exporting from IE gives different results from importing into Firebird.
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Ah, I've exported to one of those bookmarks.htm files but had forgotten it wasn't the same as the what IE uses, if I ever really noticed what IE uses. It's been a year since I used IE other than when it's been forced on me, and it's amazing how quickly you forget these things. I had to fix someone's Win98 machine a few weeks back and it was really alien and unfamiliar, despite me having used Win9x for over a decade until this year.
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Thanks for your comments on this, guys. I have just discovered that, amazingly, bookmark alpha-sort is not yet supported in MF, so I will not be using it because of the resultant delay.
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For those of you who stilll think using IE Explorer is a good idea, there is a freeware patch for the url spoofing vulnerability...
A new article at www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34618.html reveals that this patch creates its own problems and has been withdrawn.
The article in the Age referred to Openwares.org as 'a Vaunatian company'. Does anyone know what that means? I don't think there's such a place as Vaunatia and a Google search for 'Vaunatian' only finds that article.
It's clearly safer to stick with Firebird or full Mozilla. This thread (and its predecessor) has caused me to find a few features of Firebird that I hadn't previously noticed. I especially like the way you can highlight some text, right click on it, and perform a web search which opens in a new tab. I also like the idea of adding the Firebird features you want: see texturizer.net/firebird/extensions/ . Note for nervous technophobes: this involves no technical knowledge. You just click a link to add the feature you want.
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Misspelling of Vanuatu/Vanuatian? Somewhere in SW Pacific?
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Misspelling of Vanuatu/Vanuatian? Somewhere in SW Pacific?
Ah yes, formerly the New Hebrides. Seems likely as the reference was on an Australian web site. I can sleep soundly now that's no longer bugging me!
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I'm guessing Vaunation is probably "from Vancouver", but the writer has invented a spelling for a word that is more often spoken than written down. Well spotted on the patch problems. It looks like The Register fell for what could be a con in itself. But the reason I've ditched Microsoft products is exactly the fear and endless add on software that this site seems to exploit.
PS I like the "search on highlighted text" feature as well.
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Guys,
Might be time for a new PC quite soon. Curently a Hewlett Packard with an AMD500 chip, upgraded to 184MB RAM, upgraded hard drive to 20GB (after failure), video is on an integral chip that uses some RAM (8MB?). Standard CD-ROM drive, floppy plus a stand-alone ZIP drive for backups. W98SE, Word 2000 and all the usual stuff.
It is currently very stable and performs well for it's age despite being loaded with programs well beyond its design use. For all mail, Internet and Office capabilities I would keep it but some issues come to light now.
We are doing a great deal with digital imaging and I think a faster processor would help during manipulation. Also it is now impossible for us to backup all of our files because we have so many images it would cost hundreds in ZIP discs, as well as the nuisance of splitting folders to get them onto the 100MB ZIPs. Also I have a lot of downloaded (and paid for!) utility type programs which I like to save in case of disaster, these take up a lot of storage space. The kids would like to be able to play DVDs on the PC.
Finally I want a 17" monitor and it would be daft not to get a flat one now.
I did look around just for a 17" monitor and a decent one seems to be £300. Then I see whole 2.4 systems available from £499, with perhaps £120 to upgrade to a flat monitor.
Just one example was one at the checkout at the local Rainbow. 2.5 processor, huge hard drive, huge RAM, separate DVD and CD-RW drives, 17" normal monitor, speakers, printer and mickey mouse digital camera...currently £549 but soon to be £499.
Anyone any experience of these "budget" PCs and what I should look for. Also if they can do it all for this price why would you ever spend more?
Thanks,
M.M
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>Anyone any experience of these "budget" PCs and what I should look for. Also if they can do it all for this price why would you ever spend more?
I have been using budget 'white box' PCs at home for years. Buy them from a reputable local dealer who has been in business for at least a few years. Make sure the motherboard is a reputable brand such as Asus, MSI or Gigabyte. If you do that you will get a perfectly good machine at a reasonable price. If your monitor is OK you might want to keep it and just get the box itself. That is a worthwhile saving. Also have a look at getting an AMD cpu instead of an Intel one. You get more bang for your buck. Intel have bigger numbers on the name of the chip but AMD go faster for the same price or less.
Cheers
Ian
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I would always avoid on-board graphics - it's an area where flexibility could be important. On-board sound doesn't bother me but might be more important to others.
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Last year I made my own PC. Basically I went top spec and it cost in parts 600quid. The graphics card alone set me back 250quid.
My freinds brother in law has just started making PC's to order and through his suppliers he can make an equivalent to mine for about 400quid.
As said above as long as they use good branded parts you wont have a problem.
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Although a colleague builds his own, I think you get better value from a ready built package. I usually don't like buying from places like PC World as they are very expensive. But just after Christmas they can have a small number of PCs at bargain prices. A colleague got a very good deal. The one advantage of PC World is that they are on the High Street so if it goes wrong, you know where to go. The computer magazines regularly do group test reviews of PCs so I would check those out too. Also names like Mesh, Tiny (name change?) and Dell are respected and decent value.
I think you get best value by avoiding the faster chips. You pay a premium to have the latest most super duper wotsit. I'm sure that a 2.5GHz CPU is more than enough.
Do you want a printer and camera? Do you know if they are any good, or are they kit that no-one could sell so they flog it with a PC? If you want it, then it's probably a good deal.
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"Also it is now impossible for us to backup all of our files because we have so many images it would cost hundreds in ZIP discs, as well as the nuisance of splitting folders to get them onto the 100MB ZIPs."
Surely the answer to storage problems would be to fit a CD-RW as they are very cheap now. Discs store 700mb and cost next to nothing.
One thing to be aware of with a budget PC is that some manufactures do not now fit floppy drives which can be a bind if you have info stored on floppys.(floppies?)
Starting with a BBC I have spent thousands on computers over the years and have been forced into upgrading, and thus throwing/giving away a working PC, when it wasn't compatible with some software/hardware I wanted to use. We got a good digital camera which requires a USB connection which the oldish but perfectly serviceable PC didn't have - so new PC. I have little doubt that this ancient 3 year old PC will soon become redundant; but I will wait until I am forced to replace it. Today's top of the line PC is tomorrow's entry model and so on.
On the subject of flat screen v normal screen it would be interesting to find out if the flat screen has any serious advantages other than saving space. I sometimes wonder if getting an expensive flat screen is the computer equivalent of putting a huge spoiler on a Ford Ka.
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On the subject of flat screen v normal screen it would be interesting to find out if the flat screen has any serious advantages other than saving space.
Isn't that the main reason for getting one? It is a lot of space. My 19 inch monitor is excellent but it's as deep as it is wide. I'd definitely get a flat screen if I were looking for one now. There's also the fact that there's no scanning so it should strain the eyes less. I'd say the screen is the most important part of a PC and, if you get a good one, it'll outlast the other components.
In answer to Leif's post, Tiny were taken over by Time some time ago. They did trade as The Computer World for a while but I notice that this has now changed to The Computer Shop. I seem to remember they were involved in a dispute with PC World who claimed the name was too similar to theirs.
The trouble with asking advice on what PC to buy is that anything will look a bargain to someone who bought theirs more than a couple of months ago. Buying a few computer magazines would give you an idea of what to expect for your money.
If you're otherwise happy with your current setup I'd definitely agree with the advice to extend its life with a CD rewriter. I fitted one for someone a few months ago and it cost less than £40 from PC World, which isn't the cheapest place. Computers depreciate and get out-of-date more quickly than cars so that's a small price to pay if it enables you to avoid buying a new one for a few months.
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I upgraded to a flat screen only a couple of months ago and thought then that it was an improvement - now, when I use my old PC with a 17" CRT, the CRT seems markedly poorer than the new TFT in sharpness, contrast, colour and, surprisimgly, size - I haven't measured them but the 17" TFT must be close in screen size to a 19" CRT.
Main reason for posting though is it has a really useful feature you might like to consider - the screen can be turned to "portrait" orientation. (There is software to put the picture the right way round!)This is great for web browsing long pages and you can get an A4 page on the screen just about full size for wordy processing.
Not sure how many have this feature - mine is a Philips 170B4MG.
One other thing to watch - TFTs have a " manufacturing tolerance" for permanently dark or lit sub-pixels, stated in the manual - my first one had a permanently lit red sub-pixel, and although the shop changed it at my request, in theory it was to spec i.e. this does not qualify for a repair under guarantee. It might be a good idea to get the shop to agree in advance that you can swap it if you happen to get one that has pixel defects.
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"Isn't that the main reason for getting one? It is a lot of space."
I can understand getting a flat screen if space is at a premium - or consider getting a laptop. However with the printer, scanner speakers and tower on my desk it wouldn't make enough difference in extra space for me to justify the cost of upgrading.
On the subject of cheap PCs. I bought a new 2.4Ghz Compaq PC in the USA in June. It came with 17" Monitor, Windows XP & Works, CD-RW/DVD, fax card etc and a HP combined Printer/Scanner/stand alone photocopier. The price $499(approx £300)
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My current PC is a white box with no name on it from ebay, bought about 2 months ago. It has the latest equipment inside, it is very fast, apparently perfectly reliable and cost £420.00
As far as I am concerned at that price it's also disposable. Brilliant value.
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M.M
As someone who sits all day in front of a PC I'd say flat screens are an absolute must. They are much more gentle on the eyes: the clarity is far, far superior to CRT. The one I'm using right now is a fifteen inch (but you really get the fifteen inches) and cost me £160 from PC World on a promotional deal. Shop around--but then you knew that. I've found Amazon to be quite competitive for hardware on occasions.
The other thing is I wonder if what you're lacking is RAM rather than processor speed. Have you thought about boosting the RAM to 300+ meg? I ask because I just resurrected a five year-old Pentium 233MHz and am using it for word processing, backup and image storage. With 160 meg of ram it's perfectly happy. Incidentally this machine cost me £1 in an auction of "obsolete" office equipment, plus about £30 for some memory. Of course the advantage of adding RAM, if you get the right type, is that you can add it to any new machine if it turns out to be necessary to buy one, so nothing lost.
Chris
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MM If you have anything valuable saved on your Zip disks be very wary as they have an awful reputation for reliability.
There's many comments on the internet describing what they call the death click from them. I had this and it was exactly as described and it then ruined any disk put into it. Unfortunately I read this after the event. The later larger size apparently also has faults. On Micro Mart issue 778 this week they have an article named "10 Most useless pieces of hardware for your PC"
And guess what comes into it..?
alvin
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Thanks all, excellent response and food for thought.
Just briefly I think we'll need to go one step beyond the "white box" as styling is crucial with its location here in the domestic environment. For the same reason if a new monitor is bought as part of the package a TFT upgrade makes sense as no normal 17" would go anywhere on the desk.
I know the problem with ZIPs Alvin but thankfully mine wasn't in the affected serial number range and I have a checker program that detects evidence of faults on the disks well before they are ruined.
Just upgrading to a CD-RW was my first thought but by the time you add a DVD drive as well, the new monitor, extra USBs, even more memory and so on....well the packages started to look good value.
I wonder if the on-board graphic cards are really an issue if you don't ever play games, do they help with image editing?
M.M
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If you buy a branded PC then it typically will be built of totally standard bits which have been used together many times.
Buying a bargain one, whilst performance and quality might be fine, can often have little foibles which under a certain set of circumstances might give you grief.
If it does happen its a pain to find. You end up in situations where you're looking at a certain combination of this graphics card, that driver, this CD driver, that mother board, this power supply and that diskette drive when used with that piece of software and dialled-in can crash !!!
The other issue can be that faults tend to be much more serious - frequently the motherboard which you then find has everything built into it making component replacement pretty difficult.
Lastly those that come in a package with scanner, printer, DVD drive, CD-RW drive etc. etc. are a pain to rebuild. They tend to come with a single CD which loads everything including peripherals and their drives. And if you should change one of the components and need a different driver then future repairs/rebuild become a real pia.
Whilst more expensive, I tend to use the larger brand names to avoid many of these situations - and they do happen.
The difference in cost between them becomes less significant for the non-leading edge user who will tend to keep their PC for much longer than others.
Having said that, my sister uses the cheapest stuff she can find and rarely has an issue.
IMO the flat screens have very little advantage beyond the space issue. They do tend to be a little less reliable, although not hugely so.
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Well my experience is just the opposite I find "white box PC's" to be absolutely standard and a doddle to sort out and upgrade because they are built of exactly standard components. My heart sinks when somebody comes in with a problem with a big name computer. The big guys do things like tweaking drivers and fitting parts only available to them. It's the computer equivalent of the Haynes manual saying special tool xyz needed or refer to main dealer (motoring link hehehe).
I do however, chose my box supplier with care. You need to do your homework. Check out the reviews in the computer magazines and phone up the ones that interest you and note how professionally your query is dealt with. Incidentally there are now some very smart systems around from independent suppliers.
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"The big guys do things like tweaking drivers and fitting parts only available to them. "
Dell use their own mother boards. Mine has only 2 memory slots and I am limited to 512MB maximum which is causing me real grief as I really need 1GB memory. I like the build/component quality of Dell, but having only 2 memory slots is rather poor.
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"If you buy a branded PC then it typically will be built of totally standard bits which have been used together many times.
Buying a bargain one, whilst performance and quality might be fine, can often have little foibles which under a certain set of circumstances might give you grief."
This is true but you might still find this when addings extras, unless you buy the manufacturers add-ons which can be rather costly. I have a Dell box. I contacted Dell about a new 80GB hard drive. They quoted me well over £100. So I bought one from PC World - on sale - for £50.
I had problems with my Dell box. When I installed a CD RW drive, I found the machine would not hibernate, and I had problems printing. After several months I traced the problem to Easy CD so bought Nero which cured the problsm. I also had problems with Photoshop and had to fiddle with the machines settings to get round them. Then I installed a second hard disk, and could no longer use my scanner. After several hopurs, including finding out that Dell had installed the OS disk at the end of the primary IDE cable, I worked out that the new HD had to sit on the secondary IDE cable for an unknown reason.
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I am rather inclined to go with Mark's view on the major brands. They must get some experience from the number built to any particular configuration.
However I do accept the point Godfrey makes, it is the same view as my most trusted PC contact. Similarly a semi-retired guy who has been into computers for many years. He would rather build up something from known basic components without any added makers quirks. He says they are far easier to fault find in the future.
But I don't expect to add much to whatever I buy this time. If it has the current generous standard spec it should go three years without many upgrades and I'd be happy with that. So if it is stable for the first few weeks and not mucked about with it out to go the distance without too many issues...yes?
If purchased now at £500, and with a nominal residual value of £100 in three years, the private cost (50% of my PC costs go to the business) will equate to less than £70/yr. Frankly for the use our PC gets that is a bargain. For that reason I'm happy to buy a system with minimal upgrade slots or other limitations that would frustrate a "fiddler"....then just replace in three years when a 10Ghz machine will be £200.
I would like an explanation of the difference an expensive stand-alone graphics card makes if anyone could tell me. Also any more info on problematic major brands would be good.
Thanks,
M.M
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You don't need an expensive graphics card if you don't play computer games.
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M.M. "Just upgrading to a CD-RW was my first thought but by the time you add a DVD drive as well"...
Combined DVD/CDRW drives range from £34 to £43 at www.cclcomputers.co.uk.
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Are there any disadvantages to having these two combined?
Just say I was tempted to do this as a short-term upgrade what impact would my AMD500chip have over a modern 2.4 machine....slow burning times? Crashes while writing?
Just how secure do you guys think CD-RW is? Disks for life?
M.M
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I am no real expert on CD writing, but the problems with it arise because it needs to be a continuous process with no interruptions. Therefore in the old days (at least 2 years ago!) it used to be recommended that you stopped any other programs from running, and disconnected from any network while burning a CD.
However, "burnproof" technology uses hardware and/or software caching to ensure that (within reason) the stream is delivered in the required continuous fashion. I think you'd have trouble buying something today without this technology.
The burning time is mostly dependent on the speed of the drive itself rather than the processor speed or memory size. To achieve the fastest speeds you'd need to buy higher spec blanks. Whether it's really worth worrying about is debatable. I am still using an old 4x drive, and I can burn a full CD faultlessly in about 20 minutes - maybe less - I go for a fag and a coffee when I start, come back, and it's finished. Performance hasn't changed between a P800 and a 2.4 chip.
Digital media was once sold with the expectation that it had a lifespan of at least 100 years. Do some research, but I believe that some CDs have been reported as starting to degrade, so doubts have been cast about the 100 year life. Being digital, the problem will be that once damage occurs, you've probably lost the whole CD.
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