PC Repair
2+ months after Austen 'crashed' the PC, it's still not completely repaired but it's very close. As it turns out, there were numerous problems (think: Murphy's Law).
After the infamous power down (caused by a simple press of the button on the power strip), the PC didn't properly restart. After days of failed repair efforts, I decided to copy the data onto an external drive and rebuild. Efforts to backup the data by booting off of various CDs (Knoppix, Phlak, Ultimate Boot CD, etc) was not going well. The PC kept freezing mid-way through copy jobs.
More troubleshooting (and days later) revealed that 3 out of my 4 hard drives had bad sectors (way beyond the redundancy offered from my RAID-5 set). This was definetly causing problems reading data.
After spending another few days of diagnostic tests, I submitted RMA claims with Maxtor, who was kind enough to send me an advanced replacement of each drive, provided I gave them seperate credit cards for each hard drive. Fortunately, removing the hard drive with the most bad sectors allowed me to copy the data safely to an external hard drive (which I purchased during one of my many trips to a local computer store).
Once the new drives arrived, I rebuilt the RAID set and started the lengthy process of reinstalling Windows and all the apps, etc. Of course, this did not go as smoothly as expected either. The PC continued to freeze during the installation or shortly after booting into Windows. Days (weeks?) went by in this state of flux while I continued to troubleshoot - overheating problems? Failing CPU? Bad power supply? The fix? Purchasing a new motherboard, CPU, video card & memory (basically a new PC that I would build). I had this PC for almost 5 years and figured it's time to boost my config anyway.
After finally receiving all my new equipment, I put it all together only to watch it turn off after 1 second. You didn't think it would be fixed at this point, did you? So, another round of calls to tech support followed over the next few days. The funny thing about tech support is if you call 3 times and speak to 3 people, you get 3 different problem assessments and 3 different suggested solutions. They kind of all said my new CPU is the problem but suggested different testing techniques. Eventually, I confirmed my memory was not compatible with my new motherboard. How could this happen, you ask? Didn't I confirm compatibility before buying? First off, if you haven't purchased memory recently, it's a bitch: 50 options with abbreviations to totally confuse you. Anyway, when I picked my motherboard from NewEgg.com, they conveniently listed various memory chips I could buy as a combo package, under a "Compatible Upgrades & Accessories" section. After I complained to them, they said they don't actually guarantee any compatibility on what they sell, despite the section being labelled with the word 'compatible' in it!
So, I put in some temporary memory and got the PC to boot - yeah! Windows had to do some major reconfigurations considering most of my hardware had been changed but that went well for the most part. When I loaded one of the utilities to monitor the PC temperature (note: this utility came with my motherboard), the PC froze - arghh!! After powering it off and spending another day or two researching the problem, it turns out the utility has a known bug that causes the freeze. I installed a different utility which works fine.
Finally, could the end be near? NOPE! The PC temp is a little high so I have to buy some additional fans; fortunately this went as expected. My 2nd monitor (which has been sitting in a box in the garage for months, unused) is not displaying the picture properly (I now have a high-end dual-monitor video card). As it turns out, one the pins in my cable was bent so after fixing that, the video was restored. I also ordered the correct memory for my PC, which works as expected, and has LED on it. Why? Why not!?
What about my old PC? Still unable to figure out the cause of the lock-ups. Rin tried troubleshooting the problem but no luck yet. He's taken the old setup back to his house for more investigation.
In the end, I will have a cool high-end gaming/high performing PC (dual-core CPU, 2 Gb RAM, kick-butt video card, etc). It should really come in handy for all the video editing I've got backlogged. But maybe next time, I'll just buy a prepackaged PC and leave the excitement of building your own PC to the other geeks who have more time to dedicate to the process.
Before you snicker at my geekiness, consider that writing this was therapeutic for me. What's your excuse for actually reading it?
New PC Pics
After the infamous power down (caused by a simple press of the button on the power strip), the PC didn't properly restart. After days of failed repair efforts, I decided to copy the data onto an external drive and rebuild. Efforts to backup the data by booting off of various CDs (Knoppix, Phlak, Ultimate Boot CD, etc) was not going well. The PC kept freezing mid-way through copy jobs.
More troubleshooting (and days later) revealed that 3 out of my 4 hard drives had bad sectors (way beyond the redundancy offered from my RAID-5 set). This was definetly causing problems reading data.
After spending another few days of diagnostic tests, I submitted RMA claims with Maxtor, who was kind enough to send me an advanced replacement of each drive, provided I gave them seperate credit cards for each hard drive.
Once the new drives arrived, I rebuilt the RAID set and started the lengthy process of reinstalling Windows and all the apps, etc. Of course, this did not go as smoothly as expected either. The PC continued to freeze during the installation or shortly after booting into Windows. Days (weeks?) went by in this state of flux while I continued to troubleshoot - overheating problems? Failing CPU? Bad power supply? The fix? Purchasing a new motherboard, CPU, video card & memory (basically a new PC that I would build). I had this PC for almost 5 years and figured it's time to boost my config anyway.
After finally receiving all my new equipment, I put it all together only to watch it turn off after 1 second. You didn't think it would be fixed at this point, did you? So, another round of calls to tech support followed over the next few days. The funny thing about tech support is if you call 3 times and speak to 3 people, you get 3 different problem assessments and 3 different suggested solutions. They kind of all said my new CPU is the problem but suggested different testing techniques. Eventually, I confirmed my memory was not compatible with my new motherboard. How could this happen, you ask? Didn't I confirm compatibility before buying? First off, if you haven't purchased memory recently, it's a bitch: 50 options with abbreviations to totally confuse you. Anyway, when I picked my motherboard from NewEgg.com, they conveniently listed various memory chips I could buy as a combo package, under a "Compatible Upgrades & Accessories" section. After I complained to them, they said they don't actually guarantee any compatibility on what they sell, despite the section being labelled with the word 'compatible' in it!
So, I put in some temporary memory and got the PC to boot - yeah! Windows had to do some major reconfigurations considering most of my hardware had been changed but that went well for the most part. When I loaded one of the utilities to monitor the PC temperature (note: this utility came with my motherboard), the PC froze - arghh!! After powering it off and spending another day or two researching the problem, it turns out the utility has a known bug that causes the freeze
Finally, could the end be near? NOPE! The PC temp is a little high so I have to buy some additional fans; fortunately this went as expected. My 2nd monitor (which has been sitting in a box in the garage for months, unused) is not displaying the picture properly (I now have a high-end dual-monitor video card). As it turns out, one the pins in my cable was bent so after fixing that, the video was restored. I also ordered the correct memory for my PC, which works as expected, and has LED on it. Why? Why not!?
What about my old PC? Still unable to figure out the cause of the lock-ups. Rin tried troubleshooting the problem but no luck yet. He's taken the old setup back to his house for more investigation.
In the end, I will have a cool high-end gaming/high performing PC (dual-core CPU, 2 Gb RAM, kick-butt video card, etc). It should really come in handy for all the video editing I've got backlogged. But maybe next time, I'll just buy a prepackaged PC and leave the excitement of building your own PC to the other geeks who have more time to dedicate to the process.
Before you snicker at my geekiness, consider that writing this was therapeutic for me. What's your excuse for actually reading it?
New PC Pics
posted by Cin and Vin at
10:56 PM
2 Comments:
This took me 60 seconds to read. You spent 60 hours putting together your computer and shooting video of it's flashing lights. Who's the geek?
Flashing lights on RAM! How could I not video that?
Hmmm...let's see:
1. operator of a Dish Cam
2. distributor of free wi-fi advertised by sidewalk chalk
3. >30 Cat5 runs in < 800 sq ft apt.
4. Cat5 in bathroom medicine cabinet
5. apt. closet dedicated to computer equipment
I rest my case.
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