It never rains but it pours; I have busted PCs EVERYWHERE!

digitalwanderer · Feb 17, 2003, 07:17 PM

Normally I really like fixing friends PCs as I count it as a bit of a challenge/distraction/fun-thing, but MAN have I gotten waylaid lately! Aside from me problems with crapping out Bubbles hard-drive, me daughter managed to REALLY screw up Babs again....I got her all fixed just in time to answer the door and it was a friend of mine who just got back to town after a years absence or so with his busted PC in his arms.

I put it in the kitchen next to the busted P100 I got fixed up but haven't gotten around to returning yet. At least this one will be sort of fun, it's me first P4.

(And I think I know what's wrong with it....it came with the sides off and a really dirty inside. I can see a thick blanket of dust on top of his CPU's heatsink under the fan, but I haven't figured the trick out yet to removing a stock P4 bracket yet.

)

Add to that a desperate e-mail I got from my father at work who wants to drop off his PC tonight for me to completely rebuild as soon as possible. (It's a PII300 I think, w/64Mb and a 4Mb onboard rage fury2 chip? I don't know, it's been a looong time since I played with it. It still has win95 on it.

) So I got another one coming in tonight that's gonna need some MAJOR re-workage. :hrm:

All this has GOTTA be cleared and gone for me by this weekend, I'm expecting that $500 dreambox for me friend and I want to be able to focus on setting & loading it up right. I spoke to me friend today and the earliest he's going to be able to come down and pick it up is March 9th...so I actually should have enough breathing room on that one.

Just felt like whining, don't mind me.

EDITED BITS: Found it! Here's the skinny on the P4 retention clip.

***craig5320*** · Feb 17, 2003, 07:24 PM

What's the going rate for a 24/7 on call PC support technician?

UberLord · Feb 17, 2003, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by craig5320
What's the going rate for a 24/7 on call PC support technician?

2 pizza's and a crate of chilld beer

Starscream · Feb 17, 2003, 07:44 PM

I hope you don't do all this work for free. I used to do computer work for my friends and friends of the family for free, it starts off fun but it's eventually going to become a huge pain in the ass. Now it's 20 bucks an hour or I won't even touch your computer (except for my close friends then it's free).

digitalwanderer · Feb 17, 2003, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by craig5320
What's the going rate for a 24/7 on call PC support technician?

I wouldn't know, I don't understand the concept of charging people to help 'em very well.

On the brightside, he also included his disks "in case I needed 'em for drivers or something" including:

Unreal2
Alice (Lost me back-up of it)
RedShift4 (KILLER planetarium software!)
The complete Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on DVD

The Joy of Cooking (Shut up! I like cookbooks, I just never thought of trying a computerized one.

)
THE Aquarium Screensaver. (The one from hell.

)

I consider it a fair trade for basically taking off his heatsink/fan, cleaning it up, and remounting it. That and I'm gonna have to repair his attempted repair of XP. (I'm pretty sure he wiped it, but I have full "powers of attorney" over this PC right now so I can just wipe it and start over if'n I want to.

I'm gonna give the heatsink an hour or so to dry off and then mount it and see what the what is. It's looking like it's gonna be a nothing project with just some fun tweaking/set-up.

digitalwanderer · Feb 17, 2003, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Starscream
I hope you don't do all this work for free. I used to do computer work for my friends and friends of the family for free, it starts off fun but it's eventually going to become a huge pain in the ass. Now it's 20 bucks an hour or I won't even touch your computer (except for my close friends then it's free).

For friends/family it's always gonna be free, anyone else I think me rate is officially $150us/hour right now...

toddsmack2k · Feb 17, 2003, 08:30 PM

dig i know you will make it thru it! Kindness is good karma

DriveEuro · Feb 18, 2003, 12:33 AM

DIG, you want to fix my BIOS chip for my NF7? It is dead.....

digitalwanderer · Feb 18, 2003, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DriveEuro
DIG, you want to fix my BIOS chip for my NF7? It is dead.....

Sure! What's an "NF7" though...

I tried to get his XP install to boot, but gave up after a couple of attempts. I couldn't see fixing up his install of it anyways, so I just popped in me 98se boot-disk and went to town with "fdisk" and fixxed ALL his problems all gone.

I'm done installing 98se and am now setting it up to install XP. I can't figure out what network card he's got in there and I'm too lazy to shut it off and bend over and look, I figure I'll just install XP and see if that don't identify it for me then I'll hunt up a 98se driver for it.

(Gads, I am SO hooked on dual-boots now! )

I'm so proud of myself for just nuking his hard-drive and saving myself a couple of days of grief!

No_Style · Feb 18, 2003, 01:43 AM

Quote:

I haven't figured the trick out yet to removing a stock P4 bracket yet.

)

Took me a few minutes of pulling and stuff to get that bracket off, but it's actually easier to get off than a P3's. I HATE REMOVING P3 Heatsinks and brackets!

digitalwanderer · Feb 18, 2003, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by No_Style
Took me a few minutes of pulling and stuff to get that bracket off, but it's actually easier to get off than a P3's. I HATE REMOVING P3 Heatsinks and brackets!

Flipchip or slot? I hate the flipchip ones to DEATH!!!

I swear they were designed in such a way as to maximize your risk of totally destroying your mobo every time you play with 'em!

The P4's was actually pretty sweet once I saw a diagram of how it was put together, I was just working in a WAY to dusty/dirty case to see which bits were the pull apart bits and didn't want to force something broken on someone elses PC. (I'm cowardly that way.

)

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Athlons do it later in the week.

WarGun · Feb 18, 2003, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by No_Style
Took me a few minutes of pulling and stuff to get that bracket off, but it's actually easier to get off than a P3's. I HATE REMOVING P3 Heatsinks and brackets!

ya tell me bout it

i was removing a celery a few months ago on a socket 370.
lol i could hear the zif socket and mobo cracking with the pressure...but all went well...best way to do this is remove the mobo...but who wants that headache

DriveEuro · Feb 18, 2003, 02:17 AM

NF7 = My motherboard. Abit NF7.....nForce2 chipset. K7 processor.

WyreTheWolf · Feb 18, 2003, 09:35 AM

Congratulations DriveEuro, you have just found out the reason why I decided to stay away from the nFoce boards... If you read on AMDMB... just about every single nForce2 motherboard has this major glitch in it. It doesnt matter what brand of mobo it is... seems to point to the chipset. You will need to get a replacement bios from the board manufacturer.

DriveEuro · Feb 18, 2003, 04:05 PM

I already ordered the replacement. I could've RMAed it but that woulda taken twice as long.

No_Style · Feb 18, 2003, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
[B]Flipchip or slot? I hate the flipchip ones to DEATH!!!

I swear they were designed in such a way as to maximize your risk of totally destroying your mobo every time you play with 'em!

Flipchip! The P4 bracket can easily be removed with fingers, but the P3

My friend and I with screw drivers as leverage and all that other nonsense couldn't even get his off! We gave up since we were becoming to aggressive towards the damn thing. It's also a hassle to get back on as well!

Feb 17, 2003, 07:17 PM	#1
digitalwanderer Colour Commentator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Highland, IN USA Posts: 5,619 Rep Power: 0	It never rains but it pours; I have busted PCs EVERYWHERE! Normally I really like fixing friends PCs as I count it as a bit of a challenge/distraction/fun-thing, but MAN have I gotten waylaid lately! Aside from me problems with crapping out Bubbles hard-drive, me daughter managed to REALLY screw up Babs again....I got her all fixed just in time to answer the door and it was a friend of mine who just got back to town after a years absence or so with his busted PC in his arms. I put it in the kitchen next to the busted P100 I got fixed up but haven't gotten around to returning yet. At least this one will be sort of fun, it's me first P4. (And I think I know what's wrong with it....it came with the sides off and a really dirty inside. I can see a thick blanket of dust on top of his CPU's heatsink under the fan, but I haven't figured the trick out yet to removing a stock P4 bracket yet. ) Add to that a desperate e-mail I got from my father at work who wants to drop off his PC tonight for me to completely rebuild as soon as possible. (It's a PII300 I think, w/64Mb and a 4Mb onboard rage fury2 chip? I don't know, it's been a looong time since I played with it. It still has win95 on it. ) So I got another one coming in tonight that's gonna need some MAJOR re-workage. :hrm: All this has GOTTA be cleared and gone for me by this weekend, I'm expecting that $500 dreambox for me friend and I want to be able to focus on setting & loading it up right. I spoke to me friend today and the earliest he's going to be able to come down and pick it up is March 9th...so I actually should have enough breathing room on that one. Just felt like whining, don't mind me. EDITED BITS: Found it! Here's the skinny on the P4 retention clip. __________________ WTF is up with the sigs?

Feb 17, 2003, 07:24 PM	#2
*craig5320* HH Administrator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 8,568 Rep Power: 445 System Specs	What's the going rate for a 24/7 on call PC support technician? __________________ HardwareHeaven on Facebook

Feb 17, 2003, 07:44 PM	#4
Starscream King of the Decepticons! Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Cybertron Posts: 117 Rep Power: 0	I hope you don't do all this work for free. I used to do computer work for my friends and friends of the family for free, it starts off fun but it's eventually going to become a huge pain in the ass. Now it's 20 bucks an hour or I won't even touch your computer (except for my close friends then it's free). __________________ Over and outie...

Feb 17, 2003, 08:30 PM	#7
toddsmack2k It Never..... Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Kentucky Posts: 3,173 Rep Power: 0	dig i know you will make it thru it! Kindness is good karma __________________ [color=blue]*Bleeding From the Inside Pouring Out, The* *DriverHeaven* Spiral, We Shall Never Let Go Of.[/color]

Feb 18, 2003, 12:33 AM	#8
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	DIG, you want to fix my BIOS chip for my NF7? It is dead..... __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Feb 18, 2003, 02:17 AM	#13
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	NF7 = My motherboard. Abit NF7.....nForce2 chipset. K7 processor. __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Feb 18, 2003, 09:35 AM	#14
WyreTheWolf Wolfish Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: Cave; Ozark Mountains Posts: 2,110 Rep Power: 0	Congratulations DriveEuro, you have just found out the reason why I decided to stay away from the nFoce boards... If you read on AMDMB... just about every single nForce2 motherboard has this major glitch in it. It doesnt matter what brand of mobo it is... seems to point to the chipset. You will need to get a replacement bios from the board manufacturer.

Feb 18, 2003, 04:05 PM	#15
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	I already ordered the replacement. I could've RMAed it but that woulda taken twice as long. __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024