Asking For Opinions On This Machine...

[007]

Pale,
Do you currently have an OS disc? What type of internal hard drive, graphics card, etc does your current system have?

No I don't have an OS disc, and my son who fancies himself quite computer savvy says installing a new OS won't fix my current no sound problem. I have an HP Pavilion a1610n with a AMD Athlon, 2.4 GHz, and 1 gig of DDR memory, upgradable to 4 gig. What I did was, like an IDIOT, uninstall the Legacy driver for my Realtek sound, and now it won't let me reinstall it because it keeps saying I need this Microsoft bus driver, which IS in it, but still gives me an error message saying it's not. It's a known problem. One I've googled and tried every fix under the sun and nothing has worked yet. I'm wondering how they ever got it working in the first place.

And the graphics is what came installed, NVIDIA, and the internal hard drive is a 250 gig.

I disagree wiith the son. a system recovery will install a brand copy including drivers and everything. what ya got to lose????

Well in his defense, he said it was a 50-50 chance because usually all the drivers are on a separate disc. He bought a Bare Bones computer and put it together and installed his own OS, and he said he had to go online and download a bunch of drivers that didn't come on the OS DVD for this and that to get his running right.

 

[namvet]

No I don't have an OS disc, and my son who fancies himself quite computer savvy says installing a new OS won't fix my current no sound problem. I have an HP Pavilion a1610n with a AMD Athlon, 2.4 GHz, and 1 gig of DDR memory, upgradable to 4 gig. What I did was, like an IDIOT, uninstall the Legacy driver for my Realtek sound, and now it won't let me reinstall it because it keeps saying I need this Microsoft bus driver, which IS in it, but still gives me an error message saying it's not. It's a known problem. One I've googled and tried every fix under the sun and nothing has worked yet. I'm wondering how they ever got it working in the first place.

And the graphics is what came installed, NVIDIA, and the internal hard drive is a 250 gig.

I disagree wiith the son. a system recovery will install a brand copy including drivers and everything. what ya got to lose????

Well in his defense, he said it was a 50-50 chance because usually all the drivers are on a separate disc. He bought a Bare Bones computer and put it together and installed his own OS, and he said he had to go online and download a bunch of drivers that didn't come on the OS DVD for this and that to get his running right.

I still disagree. I have an HP A1034n. no CD's needed. do a "destructive recovery" it wipes hard drive clean and reinstalls a new copy. just like from the factory. if yours has a D drive thats the recovery program

 

[Ringel05]

No I don't have an OS disc, and my son who fancies himself quite computer savvy says installing a new OS won't fix my current no sound problem. I have an HP Pavilion a1610n with a AMD Athlon, 2.4 GHz, and 1 gig of DDR memory, upgradable to 4 gig. What I did was, like an IDIOT, uninstall the Legacy driver for my Realtek sound, and now it won't let me reinstall it because it keeps saying I need this Microsoft bus driver, which IS in it, but still gives me an error message saying it's not. It's a known problem. One I've googled and tried every fix under the sun and nothing has worked yet. I'm wondering how they ever got it working in the first place.

And the graphics is what came installed, NVIDIA, and the internal hard drive is a 250 gig.

I disagree wiith the son. a system recovery will install a brand copy including drivers and everything. what ya got to lose????

Well in his defense, he said it was a 50-50 chance because usually all the drivers are on a separate disc. He bought a Bare Bones computer and put it together and installed his own OS, and he said he had to go online and download a bunch of drivers that didn't come on the OS DVD for this and that to get his running right.

It is more like 90/10 that it won't work - yes the primary drivers are not always found on the OS disc. Lesson learned, when buying bare bones always look to see if the drivers/bios are loaded or the disc comes with it. Like the E-bay link I posted it comes complete with all but the OS and other than that is actually a finished system, not bare bones.
Just offering alternatives, not trying to convince one way or the other. If you prefer buying an OEM product great, I'll offer what help I can with that, if not, it's ok with me, just trying to be helpful. As I stated in my first post the one you are looking at is fine for what it is, if that is what fits your needs.

 

[FactFinder]

... I've got a good chance to pick one of these up, not an actual HP distributor but still unwrapped and brand, spankin' new in the box with all the accessories, and possibly HALF the price of it here on Best Buy.

HP - Pavilion Desktop with Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor - p6140f

Yea or nay, and why?

Thanks in advance to those who give me a legit, informed opinion.

If you can get it for 1/2 that price, it is a good deal. For what you want I would spend about another 125 for a video card with at least 512mb ddr3 Ram. AMD based chips are hot right now. Double check that it has an available PCIe slot.

 

[007]

Well, the computer went for $515.00. Too much. The son bought a bares bones with as good if not better stuff in it for $350.00, so that's what I'm going to do. His has a cool light in it too...

 

[Ringel05]

Well, the computer went for $515.00. Too much. The son bought a bares bones with as good if not better stuff in it for $350.00, so that's what I'm going to do. His has a cool light in it too...

(cool light) Good job! What are the specs on it, if ya don't mind me asking?