My PC went belly up

[Donnie]

First, I heard what sounded like a FAN making a lot of noise. No, it was not my HDD's (I have 4 of them in one PC). It knew it was a fan by the squealing erratic sound. I just could not pinpoint which Fan (as I have two in the front - two in the back from liquid cooling. Then one fan on the back end (1 inch or 2.5mm square) mounted on the back of a removable tray.
By the way, the small one on the removable tray was the culprit and man did it make some loud noise.

So, being the smart one - HA - here it comes... I took both side panels off and set it outside and blew the thing down with an air compressor. (not the canned type). Ok, a little stupid, but it worked. And man did the dust come out. I thought I kept my PC clean until my powerful air compressor got a hold of it.

Being very proud of the manly thing to do, I hooked up the monitors, keyboard, and the usual things. Flipped on the power button. NOTHING. DEAD. PAPERWEIGHT DEAD.

So, being the idiot that I became for that moment. I decided to take things into my hands more seriously. Making matters worse. I then with tools in hand. I tore the whole thing down all the way. I stripped ___ LOL____ the motherboard out and decided to lay ALL parts out on my desk so I could get a good idea of what I am up against here.

Once I got it all laid out. The first thing is to take the power supply apart and to see what the heck is wrong with it. NO power has to be the PS. I did not see anything unusual. It is obvious it uses (well everything today) uses switching power supplies -- of which I hate. Can't work on them unless you have a load on them.

Then I put Power Supply (PS) back in the food chain and this time I noticed a tiny green light on the MB (motherboard) - BUT, that tiny green light had been there all along. My thinking was that maybe one channel of the PS was just enough to power the MB and nothing else. But, how come my Power Button will not power it up? I never figured it out.

The main thing, I guess in the process of pulling all the guts out on the table, I was able to get a POST (BIOS Power On Self Test). Now I am talking !!!!

It's done now - as far as I am concerned, If I can get the BIOS screen up with a POST, then I am home free. Well, it took me the remaining 6 hours to put the thing back together again and here are some pics of when the thing was on my desk working !!!!

Last image is working as it should - I guess this does prove that you don't HAVE to have a case. But it helps.

​

 

[shipbuilder]

That sort of thing is why I got out of the electronic "rat race" in late 1992 - couldn't stand any more of it! Now have two big PCs and four laptops, all second hand and each used for different things. In the five years we have been using second hand computers, none of them have ever given any trouble, but if they do, they would just be dumped if it wasn't something I could fix in an hour -
This is the only type of electronics that gives me any pleasure and satsifaction nowadays - designed and built by myself. 3 valve TRF receiver.
Bob

 

[Donnie]

Bob - very nice. I can see how that hobby can be fun. Back in my college years, I loved playing with electronics making things. I had a magazine subscription that each month featured a project to build. As time when by, it was very unfortunate that the projects got much harder. When digital electronics came along, then the project became these small microprocessors "things". Like building a microprocessor temp gauge. Then if I remember, they brought on EPROMS. THen you have to find a way to program the EPROM which I did not have the burner and it was above my desire and skill. Then I just lost interest as each magazine feature became more and more complicated microprocessor control things.
Now, the latest thing is Auduino and apparently, you can take an Arduino kit and make it do just about anything you want it to do. Now, I have lost interest in it all. Also, I might add that back then, it was becoming more and more expensive to build things.
The only thing left for me to do is to build my own PC's and now it is getting to the point that you can buy a supercomputer less than you can to build your own.
THe PC you see if just when I had all the components out all over the place and it is a total mess. When the stuff is mounted back into the CASE, you can hardly find any wires at all - nice and organized.

 

[Pathfinder65]

Oh yeah, I’ve got great memories of building Heath kits, radios, test equipment, amplifiers, etc. Build a few PC’s over the years, worked many years as a Contractor for IT Departments and repairing PC’s. Like Bob, I gave up and retired in the mid 90’s, when it became cheaper to buy a new PC versus the “high” labor cost to repair them. Prospective customers weren’t interested in paying for the time it took to troubleshoot let alone the cost of materials. Networks migrated from local LAN’s to WAN’s to ever more complicated connection. The old “trouble is leaving here OK” was a great joke among my compatriots. I’ve got various PC’s, Tablets, Laptops here at home. I also am religious with backups. But if any of the equipment fails I don’t bother with repairing it. I go to the local Pawn shop and buy something similar. A lot of the University and local College students pawn their electronics before heading home for the summer. So there is usually some good equipment to choose from.

Jan

 

[paulv1958]

Hi Don, fairly std config for a grunty PC these days. I assume your doing some heavy cad work.
Classic quotes attribute to Bill G

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
– Bill Gates, 1981

“The Internet? We are not interested in it.”
– Bill Gates, 1993

“I see little commercial potential for the Internet for at least 10 years.”
– Bill Gates, 1994

The best one is still

“The best way to get accurate information on Usenet (Old style forums) is to post something wrong and wait for corrections.”
– Matthew Austern

 

[Kurt Konrath]

I remember working with my dad in late 60's and early 70's on his kit build tube tester and the good old Radio Shack electronics bread board kits where you can design and test circuits and things out.

Dad was a radio repairman worked on early car telephones when still radio based with small head set up front and big transmitter box in trunk.

We used to drive the neighborhoods looking for old radios and tv's people put on curb, and would take them home and he showed me how to take apart things for spare parts to fix other peoples radios and televisions. That was before the "disposable electronics age" came about where you throw out and buy newer units.