Very VERY big problem!

[nicola]

Hello everyone. I drew up a long list of things to do on my website today, but the worst thing imaginable has happened. My monitor, mouse and keyboard are not drawing power from my computer which renders the whole thing useless. Tested it on adams, and it won't work with his hardware either. At the moment it crashed, I had just updated the Artists to be Added page. Please don't panic if you find your comments are gone. I have written down ALL the votes on my notepad before it crashed. I kept comments up that had links in them. Please spread the word that I have no access to the website until further notice. I can still help with enquiry emails the best I can without referring to CCUKs system, but please be patient if I can't all I have is the internet on my blackberry mobile. I am gutted and terrified that I've lost 2 years worth of music, and with road tax and MOT to pay for next month, I cannot even think of replacing my PC until Feb 2013. Annual awards, all my updates... Nothing until then.

Adam still has access and can make the odd update, but he has his own things to do, all on his PC; I cannot kick him off his own PC. He literally spends all of his free time on it. Besides, his PC does not have the material and programmes I need to make updates anyway.

I am so sorry this has happened. I am near tears! Xx

[bogi]

Nicola, maybe I could technically help, but I have not enough information about the HW failure. I am not sure I understood your troubles quite correctly.

"Tested it on adams, and it won't work with his hardware either."

Does it mean your computer seems to be OK, but your peripherals suddenly do not work with Adams PC? Does your monitor really seem to be dead, when you connect it to Adam's PC? Does it have only one data input? It is usual that monitor can be connected both with analog VGA connector, or digital DVI. Do you use cable keyboard and mouse, or some bluetooth version? Can you test your computer if it has power on USB ports (for example with some USB key)?

Did crash "only" your peripherals and your computer is still running, or the computer crashed too?

Do Adam's peripherals work with your PC?

"I am gutted and terrified that I've lost 2 years worth of music"
I don't understand this sentence exactly, is it about possible data lost? That need not be the case, your disk can be quite OK.

Nic, where is it easier to communicate with you, here or on facebook? I am solving HW failures quite often at my work.

[nicola]

Hello Bogi,

Fortunately, Adam is a bit of a techie himself. He investigated it and found for the money it would cost for new parts and repairing for an old PC, that we might as well buy a new one. He did exactly that on his credit card. We need to get it paid back though. We were supposed to launch a fundraiser this weekend for the website costs just before the PC crashed and died on me, so we'll be raising the initial target up. The fundraiser should start over the next week. Too much has gone on this weekend to get it set up.

Thanks so much for the offer of help, Bogi. As always, you are a generous and thoughtful friend. x

[bogi]

Nic, it was surely better to buy a new one, when the repair costs would be so high.
I hope the fundraiser will help you to cover the costs, I am ready to participate.

[klamath]

Nicola,
Sorry about the computer horrors. My wife had a problem Friday and lost an edit job she had on MSword. Just flat out vanished. She was in tears.
My brothers are techs and they discovered hardware problems in several computers we have. Adam probably already knows this but in case he doesn't have him check the capacitors in the motherboard. They can go bad and case all kinds of problems. My brothers didn't know about this until this weekend and they pulled the caps out of old motherboards and replaced the bad ones. It solved all the problems several of our computer were having for years. It might be something Adam can try. Here is a website that addresses the problems as well.
www.badcaps.net/
Good luck.