demented computer - a story (pretty funny)

[sven]

some of you remember that computer i found in the garbage. i got it working. its a pentium 3, 433 Mhz, 15 gig hd, windows 2000. its a pretty nice machine (gamehead has seen it). anyways, it was working for one whole night on thursday. booted it 4-5 times, everything was working properly. this was after supper it started working.

friday after school, Gamehead come over, its around 4 oclock. the thing wont start. im p***ed cuz i had it working. all it does is turn on the light, and shut down. now we spent an hour and a half trying to get it to start again. we made a joke that it only starts after 6 cuz i had it working.

Friday after supper, around 8, i go downstairs to try it, and it starts. now im thinking about destroying this thing. so i start working on it, and 10 minutes later, it shuts down on me. this thing is going to kill me. i try it a half hour later, works for another 8 minutes. so i gave up

This morning (saturday), i tried it, it started for, say, 3 seconds. then shut down. twice it did this. now iv given up, im gonna change the power source, then the mother board, and it it doesn't work, the parts are going into this computer lol.

ill see tomorrow, havent tried it tonight. maybe it just works thursday, after 6..... its wierd

[gamehead200]

**** that computer p***ed me off like crazy... We took out all the PCI components, video card, RAM, and CPU and it STILL wouldn't even show a sign of life... Added one piece at a time but still no luck!!

[sven]

**** i hate that machine. he wanted to steal it from me

[SiMoNsAyS]

maybe is only full moon's thursdays after six...

[Synapse]

definently sounds like power supply problems to me..

I wouldn't mind finding that computer in the garabge.. have an extra 15 gig hard drive.. nice find..

[XtremeMaC]

yea sounds like some power problems though might night be only in the PSU.

also those old cards have a small battery i'm sure u all know, maybe that's dead? change it, its pretty easy to change it..

[prathapml]

*moving topic out of "general discussions" coz its not!

[sven]

sorry, didn't know if it was hardware or software hangout, because it could be a program keeping it from starting, or the power supply, or bios (is bios software or hardware?). so i put it in general discussion, cuz its really more of a story, less of a problem

[prathapml]

Oh well, "hanging out" here for hardware is what it says. All's fine now, np.

[rupert86]

Best defined as dry solder. That is, due to the thermal stresses the solders become loose (have just tiny air-bubbles inside then which can't be seen by naked eye). Since the voltage is very low, there can be no induction and the chip fails altogether.

This problem mostly occurs in graphics cards and mobos, sometimes in generic RAM modules too.

Get the mobo out, wash it with some soap solution. Then blow it with a powerful (household but powerful) air-blower. That'll make the water sit in the holes (or bubbles) and complete the connection.

At least this amount of pain will make the system going for about a week, or anyway until the time the water evaporates due to the chip's heat.

That's also a useful tip to squeeze money out of some everybody Joe young who doesn't know why his 10-yr old system is not functioning well.

This type of problem arises by frequently turning off & on of the system. Look at those servers. They are installed once and they never show this type of behaviour since they keep continuously running for almost 3 yrs.

That's why I never intermittently shut down my PC. Only standby when I'm not there. It runs 15 hrs a day.

Anyway even if the system is doomed, it may have a working HDD, etc. I wish the very best with it.

Also, the least Pentium III was a Katmai core 450MHz, read once again the label on the CPU. OR maybe it was an OEM one?

[sven]

hum.... no idea. i might just take out the pieces and keep them, depends. its started working tonight, but not earlier today. it must only work late at night. wierd thing.