(no subject)

[nmg]

The fan on our main PC has been misbehaving for the past couple of months (buzzing intermittently), which is a fairly good indication that the bearing has been going. The bearing seized completely within the past few days, but I'm not exactly sure when it happened.

So, time to replace things. The last time this happened (over a decade ago, on my machine of that time), I replaced the fan, which seemed to do the trick. This time around it looked a little more tricky; I'd have to unsolder the old fan from a very crowded circuitboard in the PSU. Discretion being the better part of valour, I decided that the easiest option would be to just buy a new power supply, and get one that was a bit quieter than that on the old machine.

So, hippety-hop to Maplins, and back again with a new PSU. Removed the old one and fitted the new one, being careful to ground myself before doing so. New PSU is indeed quiet, and pulls air through in a way that the old PSU no longer did...and the machine as a whole is dead. Doesn't boot, doesn't even get as far as the BIOS prompt. Looks very much as though, despite my precautions, I've just killed it.

And this is why I'm a computer scientist, and not a computer engineer.

Comments

[pinguthegreek.livejournal.com]

Did you sit the garklet down in front of you to watch ? From the photos I've seen of him, I can imagine him folllowing you very intently. ( I know, woman, thinking of babies.....I just see you as being the cool kind of dad )

I hate technology*.

[lionsphil.livejournal.com]

Here's a fun one for you. A box dual-boots Windows XP and GNOME/Linux.

• Boot it into Windows. Receive random bluescreens, often with a bias towards I/O.
• Boot it into Linux. Be told that / is corrupt. fsck it, and watch the kernel "oops" itself.
Let it warm up, and everything is fine for both, and all apparent I/O problems have vanished.

If you diagnose this as "bad memory when booted cold", congratulations. I'd love it to be that, but memtest86+ tells me that it really, really isn't. Voltages, temperatures, etc. are fine, too. I guess it's something more irritating, like a motherboard fault that has appeared out of nowhere.

Don't even get me started on the high-end graphics card that fell into mediocrity in the time it took me to get it working (over six months). Bloody PC hardware.

* Exceptions are made for robots. Also, Bromptons, and cars not made by Americans or the French.

[andre-powell.livejournal.com]

Hi Nick,
OK a couple of things to check through.
1. Does the Fan on the new PSU start up ?
2. Any odd smells near it ?
3. What is the power rating rating of the new PSU compared to the old PSU ?
4. Is the PSU switched to operate at 220V instead of 110 V ? (yes I know it would have gone bang but its a check to see if it soft failed).
5. Unplug the power supply from the mother board and see if it powers up (ie the fan). (it may not as some PSU's need a minimum load.)
6. Check the power cable from the mains for damage.
7. Check the fuse in the power is either not blown and is the right rating for the PSU. There may be a large inrush current so you might have to put a higher rated fuse in to cope.
8. Check the connectors for damage, these days the pins are 'formed' pins and are easily damaged. The PSU side should be 'sockets' check that they haven't become deformed.
9. Not tooo sure of the pin out but see if you can get a DVM onto the pins and see if there are voltages available but point 5 may come into effect.
10. Plug the PSU into a different mains socket.
11. Check the plug to see if the wires are actually secured.

Hope that helps.

Best Regards

Andre'

I'm sorry, I really couldn't help laughing out loud.

[killtest.livejournal.com]

"..why I'm a computer scientist, and not a computer engineer"

Very much best wishes for fixing this; I know how horrifying/frustrating it is when this kind of thing happens. "Nooo. Make computer go now!". Hell you deserve some good karma back just the the laugh that line generated alone.

[jacint.livejournal.com]

The most common component that's failed for me has been hard drive controllers. Which usually means getting a new motherboard, (+memory & cpu).

Or, if you've gotten fed up of this happening every year, you bought 2 identical motherboards last time, and stuck one in a cupboard for when this happened again.

I've not had this happen on any ATX computers, but I do recall getting wierd interlock problems on AT machines. I usually had to unplug all the power connectors from everything, power the machine up and down, and add each connector back in turn (mobo, hd's, fd's, cd).