Need some serious help!!!!

[zjoanyg]

hey everyone, i'd like to start off by introducing myself... my name is george... i've had vista on my computer since it's premier... and now, i have a major problem... i joined this forum because it seems like a good start to a solution for my problem... but searching for my specific scenario is producing thousands of results... so either im searching for the wrong terms or maybe i just have no clue... so instead, i'm going to just make this thread....

i have a hp pavillion dv6700... it is a laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit edition installed... im not going to go into detailed spec of the laptop for reader's sake...

ok, so here lies the problem... i was playing everquest online one day, same as any other day... when all of the sudden, my laptop completely shut down on me... now when i turn on my laptop, the screen is all messed up now and it's actually split up into multiple screens... about 8-9 screens instead of just 1 that covers the entire screen...

so, i took it to best buy to have them take a look at it... n they want $150 for recovery of my personal files(docs, pics, misc.)... n i was like no way... they said that the graphics might be fried on my laptop's motherboard...

so now what im thinking of doing is:
1) getting another motherboard and switching it out
2) getting an external hard drive enclosure and recovering my files myself
3) getting another display inverter and swap it with the one i have

i think i might just do option 2 because it's the cheapest route... but i think i might have a problem with that.... would it be a problem to access my files??? lets say i use my roommate's computer and my hard drive in the external enclosure... would i be able to get to my files that way??? would they be encrypted or inaccessible??? i think if i am able to do it that way, then i'd have nothing to worry about when i use the recovery discs to re-install vista....

any advice or comments would be appreciated.... thanks for your time...

 

[Shadowjk]

For option 2 i think that you should take that route first of all you are gonna have to detach the hardrive from the laptop itself and then you need to find out if it is a IDE hardrive or a SATA hardrive. then you buy a external case and USB connector for it and it should work hopefully And should be no problem with accessing your files

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello George, welcome to Vista Forums.



If you can see to move your files and the date you want to save to another external HDD that would be the best way as you may have ownership problems doing it from your friends PC, though there are tutorials that help with that.

Can you see the images enough to do that?

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67717-take-ownership-file.html?ltr=T

 

[GKahn]

the video card is not fried, if it was there won't be any screens at all.
it's just some of the settings that went wrong when your PC shut down.
the HP pavilion have a LONG HISTORY of overheating(and resetting unexpectedly) on their owners.

what I'd personally suggest to you is, if you have an external hard drive, try and save all of your files. Don't take it to best buy, they charge you tons and do cr*p. But that's not the point. I'd strongly suggest to get rid of vista since it has a LOT of compatibility with some older games (Ever quest is not on the list, don't worry) but that's not the point. Although vista might cover up the drivers that might be missing with an older version of windows, that does not cover up for the many problems it will cause in the future. I have a desktop that I have connected to my HDTV and my mother watches HDTV streaming online.
As long as I had vista on it, it gave me ALL kinds of problems. I got tired of it and Put windows XP. Since then, not even one problem.
For the sake of your computer, I would strongly recommend to put windows XP on your system.
also, buy yourself an external, save your data and put good ol' XP

I hope it works out for you! post back a reply and tell me how that goes, I might be able to give you an extra hand if you need anymore help!
take care and good luck!!