Computers - never overlook the not so obvious!

[steve_earwig]

That's looking extremely useful, just one thing:

Before removing a mainboard from a system you unplug all ancilleries...Basically everything apart from power to the mainboard.

I get the point but I think you need to change the word "removing" to "condemning" The first time I read it I was wondering if I could unplug the psu once the board was in the bin...

Oh, and my other mate said he could tell it was the motherboard by all the bleeps. Excuse me? What beeps? The fecker never made a sound until I put the new motherboard in it I guess that's what happens if you're the third person to look at it and someone didn't put the connectors back properly

[lozz]

Sounds like you got fed up with that pc,

never mind tho, couid of been worse, like ringing Microsoft for eg for suport /advice,

microsoft.jpg

[steve_earwig]

It's gone back from whence it came. I've pulled 4 trojans off of it, updated everything, got rid of all those stupid toolbars and about 4GB of garbage but at the end of the day there's no point in me doing anything else as its owner is a kid and, once she gets it back, my mate might get a mumbled fnku (or local equivalent) and she'll be back to filling it with mindless garbage before you can say "facebook".

So another one fixed for nowt, all I've got from it is a bit more experience, a bit more knowledge and I've racked up another favour, which the way my back is at the moment I can't get enough of...

[mjb]

Before removing a mainboard from a system you unplug all ancilleries; Ide cables, molex connectors, berg connectors, hardrives, ROM drives, floppy drives, Remove all LEDs, USB fly leads.

Pfft noob. I hot-swapped several cases when I was a young 'un

First time I used my "special" PSU with a mains cable soldered directly in (good job it was the right way round when I plugged the kettle lead in too!), then rest involved using a "modified" case with power cable shaped hole

[sirwiggum]

I've worked with a few interesting characters in my time.

The one who was testing a batch of PCs shipped from the US. *bang* went the first, as he had forgotten to switch the voltage on the PSU from 115 to 230v.
*bang* went the second, as he hadn't learnt his lesson!

The cure for an overheating server was a portable aircon unit. A seemingly permanent temporary fix.

Then the one who hotswapped RAM on a laptop while the machine was still on

[406loon]

The one who was testing a batch of PCs shipped from the US. *bang* went the first, as he had forgotten to switch the voltage on the PSU from 115 to 230v.
*bang* went the second, as he hadn't learnt his lesson!

The cure for an overheating server was a portable aircon unit. A seemingly permanent temporary fix.

Then the one who hotswapped RAM on a laptop while the machine was still on

I have had the customer 115/230 phenomenon more than once. Some of them say "I accidently...." or "I thought it was the power switch" and my favourite "my finger slipped".

Cure for an overheating server being a portable aircon unit - lol. Could they not fit uprated fans/thermal paste/bios update/clean case out? - its a bit cheaper.

Hot swapping ram - have had customers do this with harddrives aswell.

[steve_earwig]

Excuse the ignorance but what happens if you hot swap ram and hard drives (I presume this is IDE) I'm guessing something more than just a system crash.

I'm guessing the result of a finger slipping ( ) on the voltage selector is somewhere between a loud pop and fireworks.

I reckon these overheating server problems solutions are far too complicated, all you need to do is rig up a sprinkler system...

It'll end up on here sooner or later... http://www.snopes.com/humor/business/wordperfect.asp

[DaiRees]

The one who was testing a batch of PCs shipped from the US. *bang* went the first, as he had forgotten to switch the voltage on the PSU from 115 to 230v.

I've done that when I worked for an american company, "we'll ship you over a configured PC", "OK thanks", "bang", "there'll just be a short delay in setting that up while I swap out the PSU.......". Only did it once though!!

[mjb]

Excuse the ignorance but what happens if you hot swap ram and hard drives (I presume this is IDE) I'm guessing something more than just a system crash.

RAM can be hot-swapped in systems which will power the module down for you and migrate the data to another dimm. If you try it in a consumer motherboard you're likely to have the power pins of the socket touch data pins, which will fry them. Exactly the same goes for CPUs too.

HDDs of any kind can be hot-swapped, no problem. Just get the OS to bring down the channel first. No real problem unless you put an IDE drive's cable back in upside down because it was before the days of keyed sockets

[sirwiggum]

The one who was testing a batch of PCs shipped from the US. *bang* went the first, as he had forgotten to switch the voltage on the PSU from 115 to 230v.

I've done that when I worked for an american company, "we'll ship you over a configured PC", "OK thanks", "bang", "there'll just be a short delay in setting that up while I swap out the PSU.......". Only did it once though!!

Fair enough doing it once, lesson learnt, but this fella (self titled 'IT specialist'...) then did it again on the next one!

The time he rebooted a server but had mucked up the mount points of the shared drives, then went round everybody's PC checking their recycle bin, that nobody had deleted the shared drive!

[406loon]

Hot swapping ram - the contacts on the ram can phyiscally scorch.

Hot swapping hard drives - had customers do this then the drive not powering up at all (dead)


Has anyone ordered a Bulldozer cpu? I have put my pre-order in today for an FX-8150. Should have it in a weeks time.

[steve_earwig]

I fink it's real broked now

[lozz]

vandal

[steve_earwig]

Actually, after I noticed that the moveable links were shaped so you could use your fingers on them instead of tweezers or point-nosed pliers (and the risk of dropping the little buggers on the floor that this entails) I wondered what else to have - battery, BIOS chip and finally the chipset cooler, which is a nice big anodised blue after-market looking jobbie. I figured snapping the board in half was the only safe way of getting the plastic clips out of the board without damaging them. The board was tougher than I thought: even after I'd drilled holes across it, it almost bent double before it snapped.

[lozz]

Lmfao,

icouid just imagine you working in a computer repair shop.

your not a ex bt engineer are you by any chance ?