Broken A Computer? Unable To Fix One?

[XunknownX]

I'm curious. How many of you out there have 'broken' a computer or have come across one you've been unable to repair due to not being able to find the problem?

Once, I was new to putting thermal compound on my comp. I had just bought some AS3 and I wanted to see if there was a difference between that and whatever came stock on my cpu. So, never done it before, I attempted it. However, my volcano 7+...the clip...you had to use the screwdriver at the top and there was a bar that the PSU sat on. And it made it difficult. So I dissaembled my volcano 7+ and rotated the clip 180 degrees so you could use the screwdriver on the bottom where I had lots of room to work. Well, I put the AS3 on and the computer would not boot. So I thought I screwed it up. Messed with it all night and I was PO'd.

The next morning I ran out and bought a new mobo and cpu which I currently run. And I took it to an off the wall computer shop to install the cpu and HSF for me. Man that sucked, I felt like a damn disgrace. Me going to a comptuer shop for a repair? Unheard of. Many friends and family count on me to fix there computers. This was a secret I wasn't going to tell many. Anyways, a buddy needed a mobo and cpu temporarily so I let him borrow what I thought was my toasted cpu and mobo....

2 days later I get a call. "Dude, you totally had the clip on the heatsink upside down and it wasn't making good contact. I fixed it and it's all good to go. Just thought I'd let you know." I walked outside onto my balcony and jumped. D'oh! j/k

Oh well, it forced me to upgrade. :p

[Pinky]

I had similar problems with pressure being exerted on my P3 waaay back when... I thought it was causing the traces on the motherboard to flex enough that it would boot fine one try, next time nothing... had me going nuts for hours until I figured out it wasn't that at all... the video card wasn't making good contact! :p

[Silversinksam]

I used to drive my folks bonkers as when I was a kid I took everything apart to see how it works (about a 95% success rate putting things back together ;)

My folks finally bought me a few books like Marshall Brain's 'MORE How STUFF Works' and How Things Are Made: From Automobiles to Zippers
by Sharon Rose, Neil Schlager

when I was about 10, I once saw a documentary on TV of the theory that bees should not be able to fly due to the ratio of wing size and body weight, so when my folks were at work I captured about 100 Bees and put them in a 10 gallon aquarium for study. When my mom came home she almost had a panic attack, she was under the impression that I was allergic to Bee stings and I would go into anaphalactic shock if bitten (wasnt true I found out when I was about 13, when I put on my shoes and a bea was in the shoe and it stung me on the foot. It hurt but I didnt go into shock lol. (Some say that it takes a second sting to suffer from anaphalactic shock, but I was bitten again a few years later)

Did this curtail my curiosity of taking things apart? heck no, it just gave me more fodder and questions.

Anyway I have been stumped many times in trouble-shooting PC's, but if you keep calm anything can usually be fixed or rectified.

[nil_esh]

Well, a while back, I had a PC that was running extremely unstable (crashing every few minutes). I originally thought it was because of the video card I just installed. After trying all kinds of stuff (replacing components, trying a different OS installation, etc), I replaced the CPU with a $30 Duron. Still didn't fix anything. Then I ordered a motherboard from Newegg. Before the motherboard arrived, I fixed the problem. All it took was a simple clear CMOS (using the jumper). One of the most obvious things to do that I had not bothered to do.

So I basically had an extra mobo/CPU that I didn't really need to buy. It was cool, though, I built another machine from it and eventually found use for it (it was the TV room PC for a while, then gave it to my sister).

There have been a few times where I tried to fix a friend's computer, but could not get it working. I could only guess at what component was bad, but didn't have a spare to verify whether I was right or not.

[rogerdugans]

I've had a few-
Starngest thing that has happened was a system in my old (version) seti farm:
Trading hetsinks and chips around to max out performance on each system:
One failed to boot afterwards!
I tried EVERY trick in the book on that system, then started swapping things back to see what was broken: mobo problem. I was stumped because NOTHING had happened during the whole procedure!!!!!
I tried again the next day: still no boot. Not even any beeps- just nothing.

Well, I waited about 3 days for the weekend and thought I would give it another shot: first try the system booted up fine!
Never found any problems and I never had a problem with the system again.
The only thing I can think of is some type of static charge that dissipated with time. Very wierd.

Note: I also took things apart as a child but my family had a few more issues with it for years:
Nothing was safe and it was not until I was 10 or so that I was able to put things back together and have them still work! (About 4 or 5 years....)
Alarm clocks, watches, lights- didn't matter: anything I could get my hands on and 30 minutes alone with was prone to disassembly. :D

[ThePerfectCore]

I once took a PIII 450 apart to clean it out and format the HDD. When I put it back together, it wouldn't boot, wouldn't even try. No lights, fans, nothing. I waited a few hours and tried again. Nothing. Ripped everything out, nothing. Tried different PSU, nothing.

Apparently one of the power pins on the floppy drive was bent in such a fashion that I ended up putting the connector on "one pin over". Guess who figured that out? Local computer repair shop...

[dippy_skoodlez]

Originally posted by XunknownX


Once, I was new to putting thermal compound on my comp. I had just bought some AS3 and I wanted to see if there was a difference between that and whatever came stock on my cpu. So, never done it before, I attempted it. However, my volcano 7+...the clip...you had to use the screwdriver at the top and there was a bar that the PSU sat on. And it made it difficult. So I dissaembled my volcano 7+ and rotated the clip 180 degrees so you could use the screwdriver on the bottom where I had lots of room to work. Well, I put the AS3 on and the computer would not boot. So I thought I screwed it up. Messed with it all night and I was PO'd.



Done the SAME thing.. your not alone =P Ive also had a LOT of "mysteryous" fixings where just waiting overnight, its fixed... o.O last problem I couldnt fix, was a really crappy dell 1.3ghz willy. me, my dad, and uncle whos an engineer couldnt figure it out... PSU was good, CPU is fine, and ram/video and hdd good.. assumed was bad mobo.. its sitting right beside me, and its been replaced with my athlon 1700+ 8) acn you say UPGRADE? =P Oh, and im stuck on a "unsolvable" CPU throttling problem ATM too =(

[nil_esh]

Originally posted by ThePerfectCore
Apparently one of the power pins on the floppy drive was bent in such a fashion that I ended up putting the connector on "one pin over". Guess who figured that out? Local computer repair shop...

The last time I put a connector one pin over the connector went up in flames when I turned the on PC!

It was actually one row of pins over (so only half the pins were connected, but connected to the wrong side). This was connecting the daughtercard for an old Turtle Beach sound card.

That was pretty scary, I scrambled to turn off the PC. Fortunately, nothing was damaged, I just never bothered to use that daughtercard ever again since the connector was toast anyways.

[Bensa]

I was maybe 6, when we had broken calculator, and I fixed it by just messing around with the internals :rolleyes:

My god, SSS has a new avatar.

[Tebore]

Wow SSS I did the same thing when I was 4 I took apart everything in the house to see how it worked. My success rate of putting things back together were lower however :p.
The first upgrade I ever did I was so scared. I installed a stick of ram and my system didn't boot, my parents were panicing behind me making me almost wet myself. Later I found out that I forgot to hook up the ATX connector. When I got that going I didn't get a picture, AGP card came loose.
Lesson learned: Never upgrade infront of parents who make you feel like wetting yourself when you mess up.

[dippy_skoodlez]

Originally posted by Tebore
Wow SSS I did the same thing when I was 4 I took apart everything in the house to see how it worked. My success rate of putting things back together were lower however :p.
The first upgrade I ever did I was so scared. I installed a stick of ram and my system didn't boot, my parents were panicing behind me making me almost wet myself. Later I found out that I forgot to hook up the ATX connector. When I got that going I didn't get a picture, AGP card came loose.
Lesson learned: Never upgrade infront of parents who make you feel like wetting yourself when you mess up.


LoL ;) I know how it feels.... kinda like frying my video card and being w/out MY pc, which is more than 4x the speed of my dads ATM, like 500x if you consider being able to play diablo2 and anything the requires more than integrated graphics.. but... I was w/out ANY 3d games for like 5 months, after I realized a good videocard is a MUST!! tweaking the hell out of my TnT2 to get 60+ fps in UT2k3, yet all lost now =( lol... BTW, SSS, your avatar is scary =P

[XunknownX]

I prefer to upgrade/fix a computer in my apartment without people watching over me. People over your shoulder = uneasiness

[JigPu]

I've got a broken computer I've YET to fix (pretty dang sure it's a mobo problem :D)

Back in those days, we had a Cele 466 in a HP. That was a good system (LOUD though), and served us pretty well. One day though I got the bright idea of installing Intel's Application Accelerator. I checked through the docs, found everything I needed to know and downloaded. Installed and immediatly benchmarked the drive.

BSOD. Suck! Reboot and benchmark again. BSOD. Reboot. Attempt to run anything, BSOD. :mad: I finally decided that the AA had to go, and uninstalled the sucker. Reboot to finalize uninstall and it never finished POST again :eek:

I STILL can't fix the thing.... The BIOS will go through it's stuff all the way to just before hard drive detection, and then freeze solid. Dosen't matter what hardware is hooked up, or if known good hardware is used. It just freezes midway through the BIOS.



Though if it wern't for that computer dying, I'd never have this beautiful computer of mine :)
JigPu

[Remove]

Originally posted by XunknownX
I prefer to upgrade/fix a computer in my apartment without people watching over me. People over your shoulder = uneasiness

I actually prefer someone watching. That way I can have them do all the running and fetching. "Get me a phillips/jumper wire/fan grill/vanilla pepsi/lighter while your standing there.":D

[Tebore]

Originally posted by Remove


I actually prefer someone watching. That way I can have them do all the running and fetching. "Get me a phillips/jumper wire/fan grill/vanilla pepsi/lighter while your standing there.":D

A good boy scout is always prepared. :D
Well when I work on someone's system I have all the tools I need around me in one of those roll up pouches. I have a zippered CD case with all the software I need. This saves time and that way I don't have to bother anyone and they don't bother me.
Wondering... Does anyone have a "Tool kit" that they can't go to a job without?

[ThePerfectCore]

"Get me a phillips/jumper wire/fan grill/vanilla pepsi/lighter while your standing there."

You forgot cotton swabs, stitches, rubbing alcohol, and rope for a torniquet, especially with old AT cases. :p

[Tebore]

Originally posted by ThePerfectCore


You forgot cotton swabs, stitches, rubbing alcohol, and rope for a torniquet, especially with old AT cases. :p

Oh goodness don't reminds me of those evil cases.

[Krieger]

Tebore, Yeah I ahve a toolbox with all my tools, and a zippered cd case for all my software.

Also I've only come across 2 computers I could not fix, they have both been sent to the depths of hell. Although I have brought more than my fair share back from an early grave.

[captain_sHiFTy]

the biggest problem i've been having with my computer lately that i havent been able to fix is noise. My old cpu heatsink just kept getting louder and louder and louder until i finally couldnt stand it anymore. so i went and bought a new heatsink (volcano 12 with variable smart fan, mmmm variable fan). but now the power supply is doing the same thing. today i officially voided the warranty and opened it up and greased the fan. but its STILL making a high pitched whining sound. i've narrowed it down to the fan grills on the psu and the case, so im gunna take those out today and see if it works.