Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: chaser on January 21, 2013, 09:16:49 PM
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Title pretty much says it all. I was driving through an alley today and found a brand new looking Gateway fx6800-01e gaming computer. I knew it must not work or it would be propped up against
a trash dumpster. But I couldn't help but pick itup and bring it home and at least try it. I opened it up and all the components are there, and nothing smells "burnt" like somthing burnt up in it.
So I plugged it in and much to my suprise the PSU starting humming and lights came on on the mother board and the power switch started a slow fade in and out kind of thing. So I pressed
the power button for the moment of truth and......... nothing. Absolutely nothing happens when the power button is pushed. I talked to tildeath earlier and he told me to check the power supply,
and to plug in speakers and see if it gives any beeps. I tried the speakers and no beeps. All good there. I took the PSU to Best Buy to be tested (I know I know.. not the best place but they were
the only place open at the time I went.) Anyways they said the PSU was all good and it was putting out power. So once I got it home I took the power switch off of my computer and put it on the
dumpster computer. Plugged it in and..... Nothing again. So I put my computer back together and now I'm here. Anyone else know what might be wrong with it. Hard drive maybe? But would that
keep it from at least turning on? Lets here your suggestions. I have several pictures of it's internals if anyone wants to see them to.
BTW sorry if this is the wrong section skuzzy, couldn't decide between this and the hardware and software section.
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I'm sure 100% that if you put it back next to the dumpster that it works there!
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LOL! It beats sitting around doing nothing after work. It's to cold to go out and work on the Jeep so I gotta have something to do! My expectations for this computer are pretty low :banana:
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sounds like the motherboard is shot.
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sounds like the motherboard is shot.
This. If you had the PSU tested and its working fine your options on what could be wrong with it are limited to a bad ground between the case and the motherboard or the motherboard itself is dead. if it were any other component in the case the computer would at least power on.
I would say try taking the motherboard and power supply out of the case and hooking them up together right on your desk and try to power it on. If it powers on outside the case it is a grounding problem.
Sounds like you found out why this was a dumpster computer :)
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the PSU starting humming and lights came on on the mother board and the power switch started a slow fade in and out kind of thing.
That sounds just like it were in the hibernate state, but since you took the whole PSU away to be tested, I can't figure there'd be any electricity stored anywhere to maintain that state. If there were, the solution would be simply to press the power button for about five seconds, until the computer would shut down. Then restart. If the starting problem were due to a locked hibernation, the rig should start normally. I've helped many customers on the phone with that simple trick...
Trying the above doesn't cost you more than five seconds of your precious life, so go for it. At least, the computer should shut down in five seconds and if it doesn't, the culprit usually is the motherboard.
Now, if you can turn it off in five seconds, Captain1ma's suggestion is worth trying. You can try a few tricks while preparing for that, in the following order. Remember to unplug the mains before detaching any component.
- Unplug every USB/Firewire/sound/card reader wires that are connected to the case. Plug in mains and try to boot.
- Unplug the hdd, both data and power, try to boot
- Unplug the optical drive, both data and power, try to boot
- Detach RAM, try to boot. Most computers would beep several times.
- Attach one RAM stick, try to boot. Repeat with other sticks, also with a known good one.
- Leave a known good RAM stick in, detach the video card. Try to boot, beeping expected.
- Try with another video card. Try to boot,
- If the new video card works, test the original RAM one at a time
If the above doesn't give any results, you already have done most of the preparations to take the motherboard and PSU out of the case.
Oh, and yet one thing to check: See if the CPU fan is in the right connector. If it is, try with another fan. Also, if there are any case fans, try with another. I've got an elderly HP mobo here which won't boot without a case fan.
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If a computer fails to boot the first thing to try is always clear the CMOS. Remove the battery, use the jumper to clear the CMOS, insert the battery back and then try to reboot. More often than not this is all that's needed to restore function.
One must wonder how many working computers have been trashed simply because the CMOS had a corrupt setting. My uncle was ready to trash his after his 'computer expert' friend had rebuilt his computer and figured it was unfixable. One CMOS reset later it was humming like new again...
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If a computer fails to boot the first thing to try is always clear the CMOS. Remove the battery, use the jumper to clear the CMOS, insert the battery back and then try to reboot. More often than not this is all that's needed to restore function.
Correct, that should be the first thing on the list. I should make a list, the old memory isn't as good as I'd like to believe. :old:
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Thanks for all the replies. I just got home from work and can finally start trying some of this.
quick question though. I found a button battery on the motherboard in my computer, but I can't find one on the motherboard in the dumpster computer. Is it some other type of battery maybe? Could it be built into the motherboard?
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Disregard the part about not being able to find it. The CMOS battery was under the video card and I had to pull it out to acces that battery.
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I finally tried all the suggestions in this thread.. Absolutely nothing made any difference at all unfortunately. I'm pretty convinced it is indeed the motherboard as mentioned before.
That leads me to another question. Would it be worth it to buy a motherboard to put in it? I mean I got it for free, so I figure $150-$200 (honestly have no idea) for a motherboard wouldn't be to bad considering this computer went for around $1200-$1300 brand new.
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What parts are in it?
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even if you throw away that puter get the windows validation code. it maybe on the back of the case.
midway
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Take the hard drive out and plug it into your good computer. you may get lucky and stumble onto a bunch of amateur p0rn! :cheers:
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That leads me to another question. Would it be worth it to buy a motherboard to put in it? I mean I got it for free, so I figure $150-$200 (honestly have no idea) for a motherboard wouldn't be to bad considering this computer went for around $1200-$1300 brand new.
Before you buy a new mobo, you should test all the other components in another system. Also, look for second hand spare parts. You might get a good mobo for about $50. There's always someone who wants to have all the latest gear, having a pile of perfectly usable quality components occupying his valuable space.
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Take the hard drive out and plug it into your good computer. you may get lucky and stumble onto a bunch of amateur p0rn! :cheers:
oh crap...where did I throw away my comp :uhoh
:rofl :rofl
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Thanks INK now I can't get the picture of you and a sheep out of my head. LOL
LawnDart
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Thanks INK now I can't get the picture of you and a sheep out of my head. LOL
LawnDart
you know what they say about sheep right?
:D
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you know what they say about sheep right?
:D
get your own?
midway
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What parts are in it?
To be specific it has...
Motherboard: Gateway TBGM01-1.0-8EKS3H
Processor: Core i7, Intel i7-920 / 2.66 GHz Turbo Boost 2.93GHz
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4850
Ram: 3GB DDR3
CD player: Not sure exactly but is has DVD±RW capabilities.
15 in 1 card reader
500 Watt PSU
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If you knew that everything else was good then yes it would be worth finding a used MB for it and a better PSU.
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One more quick question. Though this actually concernes my computer. It's developed a high pitched whining noise the past couple days. It sounds like it's coming from the video card fan. Tonight I noticed I had horizontal lines that are "falling" down my screen. Is my video card going out or is my moniter going out?
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One more quick question. Though this actually concernes my computer. It's developed a high pitched whining noise the past couple days. It sounds like it's coming from the video card fan. Tonight I noticed I had horizontal lines that are "falling" down my screen. Is my video card going out or is my moniter going out?
Sounds like your card is overheating. Check first that it's not full of dust. If it's clean and the fan still screams prepare to buy a new card.
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Start your computer with the case open. Very carefully stop each fan by depressing the center with your finger to determine the source of the whining. If it's a fan, the first thing is to remove all dust and debris as MrRipley said. The second thing is to detach the fan, remove the sticker from the bottom of it and put one drop of sewing machine oil into the bearing.
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get your own?
midway
:rofl :rofl
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I've been busy with some stuff lately so I haven't had a chance to get back on here. I blew it out with an air compressor and I tried the pressing down on the fan thing and it's actually the fan on my CPU whining. Although after stopping it and letting it return to spinning, it almost stopped whining now :uhoh
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after stopping it and letting it return to spinning, it almost stopped whining now :uhoh
IMO that tells that the bearings have loosened a little. I repeat: Detach the fan, remove the sticker from the bottom of it and put one drop of sewing machine oil into the bearing.
(http://www.dansdata.com/images/fanmaint/oil500.jpg)
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Thanks bizman. I'll do that!
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If a computer fails to boot the first thing to try is always clear the CMOS. Remove the battery, use the jumper to clear the CMOS, insert the battery back and then try to reboot. More often than not this is all that's needed to restore function.
One must wonder how many working computers have been trashed simply because the CMOS had a corrupt setting. My uncle was ready to trash his after his 'computer expert' friend had rebuilt his computer and figured it was unfixable. One CMOS reset later it was humming like new again...
:cool:
Too add to that, how many people trash their computers because the hard drive is corrupted or infected? I guess the lack of Tech knowledge of so many is the gain of so many :rolleyes:
HL
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how many people trash their computers because the hard drive is corrupted or infected
It's not one or two customers, all of them elderly blue collar men, who look at me cleaning a polluted rig for an hour or so and start over and over asking if it were time to dump the rig and get a new one. And I always answer, that a new computer doesn't cure the main culprit situated between the back rest and the keyboard.
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It's not one or two customers, all of them elderly blue collar men, who look at me cleaning a polluted rig for an hour or so and start over and over asking if it were time to dump the rig and get a new one. And I always answer, that a new computer doesn't cure the main culprit situated between the back rest and the keyboard.
Your kindness is hindering your business. You should answer with a straight face: Absolutely! How many zeros would you want to be in the purchase price? :devil
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Your kindness is hindering your business. You should answer with a straight face: Absolutely! How many zeros would you want to be in the purchase price? :devil
Kind? I don't sell stuff. The contribution margin in computer stuff is so... marginal. I get my pay from endless housecall repairs of dumpster computers. :t
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Kind? I don't sell stuff. The contribution margin in computer stuff is so... marginal. I get my pay from endless housecall repairs of dumpster computers. :t
If the customer is dumb enough to think his problems will be solved by a new computer he should be ready to pay overprice too :)
But you're right. Computer hardware sales is a craptastic way to do business. At least as long as you remain in the phase of 'going all out customer service to establish a steady client base'. After you go 'viral' and start a blooming internet sales things get different.
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If the customer is dumb enough to think his problems will be solved by a new computer he should be ready to pay overprice too :)
But you're right. Computer hardware sales is a craptastic way to do business. At least as long as you remain in the phase of 'going all out customer service to establish a steady client base'. After you go 'viral' and start a blooming internet sales things get different.
I see your "actions" as ripping off the customer...its also the typical way most businesses work now a days.
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I see your "actions" as ripping off the customer...its also the typical way most businesses work now a days.
The definition of doing business is ripping off the customer. You're not going to make a buck by being fair and doing favors. The art of doing business is knowing how much you can rip the customer off and still leave him satisfied for the money.
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I see your "actions" as ripping off the customer...its also the typical way most businesses work now a days.
Ripley has a point. Think of it like this. EX: McDonald's pays about 10 cents for each coke they make. They charge you a dollar. Big profit considering how many they sell.
My statement may not be exactly right about how much they pay for coke. You get the point though.
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I know the workings of businesses....and I absolutely hate it....the bigger the business the bigger the thief's are that run it.
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I know the workings of businesses....and I absolutely hate it....the bigger the business the bigger the thief's are that run it.
The true thiefs are the corporate heads who have 'golden handshake' deals meaning they can drive the company to bankrupcy, fire all the 15 bucks/hour workers and get rewarded 2 million+ when finally getting the boot from the company. That's thievery.
Business is not thievery. You sell someone an apple. You can charge him 10c for it. But when you sell him a healthy way of life you can charge 100 bucks for that apple.
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You should have worded what you said a tiny bit better. I wouldn't say Ripley is ripping people off, just making profit.
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I wouldn't say Ripley is ripping people off, just making profit.
That's not what he said.
The definition of doing business is ripping off the customer.
Sorry but I have to disagree.
One person wants/needs something (using profit from their own endeavors) and another has the means to provide it (at a profit). Both win and no one needs to be ripped off.
You comment speaks to your own distorted view of the world. Those who work toward mutually rewarding exchanges are more successful for longer periods than those who blatantly rip people off.
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The problem with our society AND our economy is that people now believe that they should make the absolute maximum profit that they can get. This principle is what has devastated the housing market, the stock market(multiple times) and worst of all the health care system. People now expect that a house that they buy should double or more in value much more quickly than ever before. What ever happened to selling more of something at a reasonable price? Whatever happened to ethics? Greed is listed as one of the 7 Deadly Sins for a reason.....
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The definition of doing business is ripping off the customer. You're not going to make a buck by being fair and doing favors. The art of doing business is knowing how much you can rip the customer off and still leave him satisfied for the money.
Doing business is providing a service and/or product for a profitable fee. There is no reason why a business can not provide their service and/or product for a fair profit and not rip a person off because of their ignorance. Doing so is nothing short of unethical and greedy. As for favors, it depends on what you define as a favor, but your perception towards business is the reason why I always get everything in writing, then do a search through the BBB and internet to see what kind of business I am dealing with. I liked the good old days when all you needed was a handshake.
And yes, I have owned a business, and I did not rip anyone off.
My Opinion
Fred
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That's not what he said.
Sorry but I have to disagree.
One person wants/needs something (using profit from their own endeavors) and another has the means to provide it (at a profit). Both win and no one needs to be ripped off.
You comment speaks to your own distorted view of the world. Those who work toward mutually rewarding exchanges are more successful for longer periods than those who blatantly rip people off.
This just shows you don't understand business. Doing something for a 'mutually rewarding' profit is something that a paid worker does for a company. The company on the other hand has one and only one goal: To maximise the profit to the stock owners. Look at Apple. They're ripping their customers off like no tomorrow. But their product design together with marketing has made the products so desireable that the company sells little but gets record profit year after year. The customers are left wanting more even though they know that 400 dollars of their 600 dollar iPad is pure profit.
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And yes, I have owned a business, and I did not rip anyone off.
My Opinion
Fred
No offense but 'I used to own a business' and 'did not rip anyone off' fulfill eachothers pretty well. Well, unless you sold your business for a rip-off price afterwards that is! :neener:
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This just shows you don't understand business.
And that's why I was in the executive ranks of hundreds of million to multi-billion dollar businesses for over 20 years and now work with a fortune 200 company? OK.
How far has ripping people off gotten you?
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And that's why I was in the executive ranks of hundreds of million to multi-billion dollar businesses for over 20 years and now work with a fortune 200 company? OK.
Yep, being a worker in a company does not require business intelligence. Take a good look at Apple and its success. It's a giant ripoff and they're the most profitable tech company around.
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Yep, being a worker in a company does not require business intelligence. Take a good look at Apple and its success. It's a giant ripoff and they're the most profitable tech company around.
I think you missed the part about "executive" (reporting to the chairman and/or CEO). And BTW I was a recipient of one of those "golden handshakes" at one point. I still didn't have to rip people off.
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Look at Apple. They're ripping their customers off like no tomorrow. But their product design together with marketing has made the products so desireable that the company sells little but gets record profit year after year. The customers are left wanting more even though they know that 400 dollars of their 600 dollar iPad is pure profit.
These comments are laughable and show how little you understand about business. Are you actually trying to say Apple shows 67% EBITDA. Ridiculous.
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The problem with our society AND our economy is that people now believe that they should make the absolute maximum profit that they can get. This principle is what has devastated the housing market, the stock market(multiple times) and worst of all the health care system. People now expect that a house that they buy should double or more in value much more quickly than ever before. What ever happened to selling more of something at a reasonable price? Whatever happened to ethics? Greed is listed as one of the 7 Deadly Sins for a reason.....
:aok
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These comments are laughable and show how little you understand about business. Are you actually trying to say Apple shows 67% EBITDA. Ridiculous.
Talk is cheap. Apple runs the leaderboard and it's based on pure ripoff. Believe it or not.
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I think you missed the part about "executive" (reporting to the chairman and/or CEO). And BTW I was a recipient of one of those "golden handshakes" at one point. I still didn't have to rip people off.
A golden handshake is a major ripoff. If you think otherwise you're fooling yourself. The only difference is you're ripping off your own company staff instead of the customers. The worst kind possible.
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A golden handshake is a major ripoff. If you think otherwise you're fooling yourself. The only difference is you're ripping off your own company staff instead of the customers. The worst kind possible.
If the buyout and replacement of an executive raises the stock price of the company then it's a bargain for the shareholders which generally benefits the company workers. Again you know nothing of which you speak.
EDIT: I can't believe you're so voraciously defending the deplorable act of ripping people off. It seems some lessons in both business and ethics might do you some good.
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No offense but 'I used to own a business' and 'did not rip anyone off' fulfill eachothers pretty well. Well, unless you sold your business for a rip-off price afterwards that is! :neener:
Your words; "The definition of doing business is ripping off the customer. You're not going to make a buck by being fair and doing favors. The art of doing business is knowing how much you can rip the customer off and still leave him satisfied for the money."
Actually didn't sell my business, I had to decide to go one direction or another, and I chose the other. So the answer still stands, I didn't rip anyone off! I kinda feel you can't say the same. :neener:
Fred
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Your words; "The definition of doing business is ripping off the customer. You're not going to make a buck by being fair and doing favors. The art of doing business is knowing how much you can rip the customer off and still leave him satisfied for the money."
Actually didn't sell my business, I had to decide to go one direction or another, and I chose the other. So the answer still stands, I didn't rip anyone off! I kinda feel you can't say the same. :neener:
Fred
I gather that your business wasn't very successful given that you decided to quit it. This was my point.
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If the buyout and replacement of an executive raises the stock price of the company then it's a bargain for the shareholders which generally benefits the company workers. Again you know nothing of which you speak.
Hahaha you must be joking? So you're defending the practice of rewarding leaders who have sunken the company to the bottom? :rofl
EDIT: I can't believe you're so voraciously defending the deplorable act of ripping people off. It seems some lessons in both business and ethics might do you some good.
Again: The whole concept of business is of ripping people off. Profit margins do not come from thin air. If your company would price everything on 'fairness' base you'd never be able to gain big profits. Competition is the only thing that limits the level of ripoff basically. Your competitors will force you to drop margins if they have a competing product or service to offer. If a company has something unique to offer the margins of that can be almost freely raised.
Just look at Apple and Nvidia - both companies have unique products (or at least had) and they're priced through the roof. Not because they're more expensive to manufacture - because they CAN.
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I gather that your business wasn't very successful given that you decided to quit it. This was my point.
See, that is where you have guessed wrong. It was actually very successful, thus why I had to make a decision. The only point that I have seen you make is how unethical you are in doing business.
Fred
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See, that is where you have guessed wrong. It was actually very successful, thus why I had to make a decision. The only point that I have seen you make is how unethical you are in doing business.
Fred
Sorry but I laugh at anyone who mentions 'ethical' and business in the same sentence with a straight face :)
The raw reality is that if you try to do business 'ethically' you're going to suffer and get exploited. My company, for example, had a bad period of 'fair' approach to customer service for some years. We did favors to customers and didn't charge of every fart our people did mostly of fear of losing customers as we were a small startup company competing with 100-1000 times bigger competitors. This lead to small margins and the customers learned that they can start to demand anything for free. In the end we had customers demanding us - do this and we won't pay because you didn't charge us last time either. This is pure insanity business wise.
So we changed the whole approach and decided we do not need customers who are not prepared to compensate us well for our services. The only reason why we could do that was because we were already established in the industry and the clientel knew we had something to offer that they can't get from our competition. There was some customer dissatisfaction at first but then they either quit doing business with us (actually I think none did in the end) or accept the new way of doing things. This change in attitude more than doubled our profit margin in the first year together with an increased turnover and continues growing every year. We could hire more people and invest more in development after that. If we continued to be 'fair' we'd be bankrupt now for sure.
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Hahaha you must be joking? So you're defending the practice of rewarding leaders who have sunken the company to the bottom? :rofl
Again: The whole concept of business is of ripping people off. Profit margins do not come from thin air. If your company would price everything on 'fairness' base you'd never be able to gain big profits. Competition is the only thing that limits the level of ripoff basically. Your competitors will force you to drop margins if they have a competing product or service to offer. If a company has something unique to offer the margins of that can be almost freely raised.
Just look at Apple and Nvidia - both companies have unique products (or at least had) and they're priced through the roof. Not because they're more expensive to manufacture - because they CAN.
Not every business that sells is "at the bottom". Many are at the top, or getting there. You have absolutely NO justification for your business standards, they are the root cause of the majority of our nation's economic ills, and proof that our country is no longer the moral leader in the world. This is so similar to the ideas that preceded the Great Depression, and has and is causing the ongoing Great Recession.
And by the way, just because someone can do something doesn't make it right OR ethical. Sooner or later, those business models fail, because they inevitably price their product out of their costumers' range. AMD came along to compete with Intel and for many years was the better product at a substantially lower price.
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MrRipley...your ideas will be the death of our economy, it's unsustainable, and you will see that eventually...businesses that practice fairly always succeed over those who charge all they can get away with...you may be doing well right now, but someone will come along with fair practices, and your customer base will desert you.
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Sorry but I laugh at anyone who mentions 'ethical' and business in the same sentence with a straight face :)
The raw reality is that if you try to do business 'ethically' you're going to suffer and get exploited. My company, for example, had a bad period of 'fair' approach to customer service for some years. We did favors to customers and didn't charge of every fart our people did mostly of fear of losing customers as we were a small startup company competing with 100-1000 times bigger competitors. This lead to small margins and the customers learned that they can start to demand anything for free. In the end we had customers demanding us - do this and we won't pay because you didn't charge us last time either. This is pure insanity business wise.
So we changed the whole approach and decided we do not need customers who are not prepared to compensate us well for our services. The only reason why we could do that was because we were already established in the industry and the clientel knew we had something to offer that they can't get from our competition. There was some customer dissatisfaction at first but then they either quit doing business with us (actually I think none did in the end) or accept the new way of doing things. This change in attitude more than doubled our profit margin in the first year together with an increased turnover and continues growing every year. We could hire more people and invest more in development after that. If we continued to be 'fair' we'd be bankrupt now for sure.
Compensation for services and/or products is expected. I or anyone else should not expect a business to provide a service and/or product for free. I also believe a business should never offer to provide a service and/or product for free. This is a bad business practice, and you clearly saw how it can turn out.
This has nothing to do with ripping someone off. There are thousands and thousands of business that provide a service and/or product for fair compensation without ripping off their customers, or having to resort to do something for free. By your words, it appears you want to get as much out of your customers as you can based on their ignorants. My perception of your business style is similar to, I take my poorly running car in to an automotive repair business, where in reality it had a bad plug wire, but you try to sell me an engine. You can call it what you want, but that is purely unethical.
Fred
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Unfortunately, Ripley operates under the P.T. Barnum business model...there's a sucker born every minute....
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MrRipley...your ideas will be the death of our economy, it's unsustainable, and you will see that eventually...businesses that practice fairly always succeed over those who charge all they can get away with...you may be doing well right now, but someone will come along with fair practices, and your customer base will desert you.
Luckily I live in Finland so you don't have to worry about it! Sorry for raising your concerns.
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IMO there's two ends in the ways to make profit: With a large margin to a limited clientele, or with a small margin selling huge quantities. Of course there's umpteen ways in between.
I used to work as a salesman for an international company whose politics was (still is, I believe) the former. A colleague once predicted the future being like this: We'll be selling less and less quantities of more and more special products to less and less customers for a higher and higher price. AFAIK the department I worked for isn't active here any more...
An example of the latter is a large American hypermarket, whose best profiting product had for years been a $1 fishing line with a 1% margin. People bought those reels by the dozen. A billion cents is quite a lot of money...
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Compensation for services and/or products is expected. I or anyone else should not expect a business to provide a service and/or product for free. I also believe a business should never offer to provide a service and/or product for free. This is a bad business practice, and you clearly saw how it can turn out.
This has nothing to do with ripping someone off. There are thousands and thousands of business that provide a service and/or product for fair compensation without ripping off their customers, or having to resort to do something for free. By your words, it appears you want to get as much out of your customers as you can based on their ignorants. My perception of your business style is similar to, I take my poorly running car in to an automotive repair business, where in reality it had a bad plug wire, but you try to sell me an engine. You can call it what you want, but that is purely unethical.
Fred
Obviously I was provoking you with the choice of words. Business can't be done without healthy margins and in that sense it's always a ripoff of some sort. The more traditional businesses which cannot offer anything unique in terms of services naturally can't be that profitable. There's just too much competition. But when you offer something unique, let's say a Ferrari super car, you can set the price tag to the sky and yet have people lining up to buy it.
The world is full of products and services which are priced at true ripoff prices but yet are so desirable that people want to buy them regardless of the fact. And the companies that have the expertise and know-how to do it are the companies that can rocket in profitability.
By the way your example of auto repair is good and is happening all the time. The car repair services, especially the 'stealership' services operate just in the way you described. They charge you 80 dollars for a ball bearing that can be bought for 2 dollars using the same part number without the automaker branding.
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IMO there's two ends in the ways to make profit: With a large margin to a limited clientele, or with a small margin selling huge quantities. Of course there's umpteen ways in between.
I used to work as a salesman for an international company whose politics was (still is, I believe) the former. A colleague once predicted the future being like this: We'll be selling less and less quantities of more and more special products to less and less customers for a higher and higher price. AFAIK the department I worked for isn't active here any more...
An example of the latter is a large American hypermarket, whose best profiting product had for years been a $1 fishing line with a 1% margin. People bought those reels by the dozen. A billion cents is quite a lot of money...
The best profiting product for most Finnish stores is the plastic bag. They charge 20 eurocents for a bag and it costs less than 1 cent to manufacture. :)
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Obviously I was provoking you with the choice of words. Business can't be done without healthy margins and in that sense it's always a ripoff of some sort. The more traditional businesses which cannot offer anything unique in terms of services naturally can't be that profitable. There's just too much competition. But when you offer something unique, let's say a Ferrari super car, you can set the price tag to the sky and yet have people lining up to buy it.
The world is full of products and services which are priced at true ripoff prices but yet are so desirable that people want to buy them regardless of the fact. And the companies that have the expertise and know-how to do it are the companies that can rocket in profitability.
By the way your example of auto repair is good and is happening all the time. The car repair services, especially the 'stealership' services operate just in the way you described. They charge you 80 dollars for a ball bearing that can be bought for 2 dollars using the same part number without the automaker branding.
Since I see you are in Finland, I understand a little bit better. Ripoff is overcharging a person for a product or service. The slang, at least in my area, is that it basically means stealing from someone by some sort of transaction. Not a good word to use when describing business practices. Sure there are people overpaying for products and services, and if they know they are paying the over inflated prices because they want it now, then it is not a ripoff. They are willing to pay the price to get hands on. Big difference in charging a less knowledgeable customer more than a knowledgeable customer.
You stated in an earlier post "If the customer is dumb enough to think his problems will be solved by a new computer he should be ready to pay overprice too" You are using the word "dumb" where in many cases it is a lack of knowledge why a customer may think that. So I guess you are not willing educate and provide a service for reasonable profit, but would rather sucker him for all you can get because of his lack of knowledge.
Anyway, I'm done, I really didn't want to HiJack the thread, I would rather see if he gets the computer running. :D
Fred
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If the "ripoffee" is agreeable with the "ripoff-er" isn't that the way of business, if you agree to buy the crap at the agreed upon price, regardless of the fairness, THE RIPOFFEE AGREED, RIGHT? SO ALL Y'ALL STFU.
Damm, some of y'all are like a bunch of bored old squabbling hens.
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Ok back on subject...
Any updates on the dumpster computer?
LawnDart
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Ok back on subject...
Any updates on the dumpster computer?
LawnDart
+1 I wanted to find out if it worked at all and if it did then how much he had to spend to get it up and running again.
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Sorry I've been away for a long time. Me and my uncle worked on the dumpster computer 2 days ago and it turned out it was nothing more than a bad switch inside the power supply. I put the power supply from my dad's computer in and it came on, but the CMOS was messed up so we reset the CMOS and the computer booted right up and worked fine. I still need to order my own power supply for it and add some RAM so it'll be a week or so before I get it fully up and running.
It blows my current desktop away with it's capabilities and my current one will run AH on full graphics.
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Find any adult amateur videos on the hard drive?
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No :(
Sad day
Finally remembered to order a power supply tonight so it should be here on Saturday.
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Find any adult amateur videos on the hard drive?
Be careful of what you wish for. My uncle received a second hand replacement phone when his own was in the service and it contained images of hairy exposed MALE behind of the previous owner. My uncle said he wishes he didn't look lol :ahand
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My son found a computer in the dumpster. Took it home, turned it on, and it worked! He's been using it for about 5 years now. I will say this that is the most ghetto looking computer I have ever seen, lights everywhere.
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Got my power supply put in today. First post from the dumpster computer! YEAH!
Everything works perfectly. Even played a little aces high earlier on it.
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WTG Chaser !
If I had driven by that dumpster it woulda been mine. :D
:salute
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So a quick little update on this computer. It's still humming along fine. Only trouble I have with it is it needs more RAM. I've been doing some extensive video and photo editing lately and 3GB of RAM just isn't cutting it. I'll probably drop 12GB's into it. Should be plenty lol :rock
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I didn't quickly find which operating system you have, but just in case I'd like to remind you that if you're running a 32 bit OS, 4 gb would be the absolute maximum. With a 64 bit OS the motherboard is what sets the limit. Some mobos only can take up to 8 gb.
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enjoyed the thread! lol @ pewter.
How did you know it was a dumpster computer? maybe someone just left it there as they were moving out or something and you've come along and nicked it!