Moe, txnetcop, say it has happened to you too.

[Cazzie]

I can laugh at it now, but it was not so funny yesterday around 2:00.

Yesterday my CD/DVD Writer bought the back 40, so I had to go into town and get a new one. Easy enough to install a CD/DVD Writer, eh, 30 minutes most I'd say to unplug all, strip the old one out and put the new one in.

Well, it didn't quite work out that way. New Writer uses SATA power and drive ports. Okay, I got those, but dang it the SATA drive port to the MB is on the very bottom, underneath the video card. So the card has to come out so I can plug it in. Well, since I have to take the card out, why not go ahead with a thorough cleaning (do that about every 4 months). Pull both cards out, audio card out, take fan off processor, and proceed to clean all the dust bunnies. Got 'r' done and put everything back, then proceeded to check the new Writer (had to do a CD for another person, I never B/U to CD/DVD anymore, I use flash drive). Hit the power switch, nothing! Huh! WTF!

Look to see what might be loose, all looks good. Take computer down again, check everything, notice the SATA drive to the HD was somehow unplugged when I pluger the writer plug in, aha! video card has to come out again, HD plug pushed back in, computer plugged back up, hit power, nothing! Right now I am ready for a Valium, my pressure cooker is smoking!

Take computer down, open guts and take all out to see if I may have left something undone.

DAMN! The tiny little HDD wire plug, tiny I tell you, you know what they look like, had been knocked off the pin to the MB while cleaning! That one little POS plug was the whole culprit. Plugged it back, hooked all P and Ps back, hooked up computer and fired up, bang, that's it, that one little plug caused me THREE solid hours of horrible frustration yesterday. Please, tell me it happens to the pros too.

Caz

 

[kilo delta]

Computer maintenance is fun..eh? :d


Btw, did you clean off and replace the thermal paste from the processor's heatsink/fan?

 

[txnetcop]

I have had cheap SATA wires come loose when cleaning my case. I know better now than to ever close the case completely until I have started the computer back up and see the pretty lights and hear the single beep code tell me all is good! LOL!
Ted

 

[Cazzie]

Computer maintenance is fun..eh? :d


Btw, did you clean off and replace the thermal paste from the processor's heatsink/fan?

No, left that be, just the fan. I clean my computer regular enough, the cooling gills never have any dust in them. A clean computer, like a clean car. runs cooler and better. And lasts longer.

Caz

 

[kilo delta]

No, left that be, just the fan. I clean my computer regular enough, the cooling gills never have any dust in them. A clean computer, like a clean car. runs cooler and better. And lasts longer.

Caz

Yep,it's amazing how quickly the dust builds up...can's of compressed air are very handy for blowing out dust and debris from computer components.

 

[hey_moe]

LOL.....Caz sometimes computer maintenance can drive ya nuts much less a full build. My question is why do ya have cables in there that if ya fart they come disconnected..lol. I know this has happen to Ted and that is to get a batch of high end cables and they all be bad. Talk about something that will throw you a cruve ball.

 

[TARPSBird]

When I assembled my current computer back in January I could barely find those tiny pin locations on the motherboard. Fortunately I had my son on speaker phone walking me through the project and he told me where they were. I still had to use my Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass just to make sure I had the right pins. There shouldn't be any connections on a MB that are so small you have to use a tweezers or needle-nose pliers to put the plugs on.

 

[mfitch]

Been there, stressed over that.

An additional irritation is the amount of time it takes to unplug every external cable and plug them back in. Plus USB devices have to "re-install" if they end up in a different slot. That can be annoying for mice which won't work at first when trying to log in.

 

[gigabyte]

Been there done that got a drawer full of t-shirts.

It gets really interesting when this happens to an Exchange server and you have a hundred users waiting for eMail service to come back online... The worst one for me was one day in the server room I was connecting a new UPS to our main Domain Controller. I figured hey there are two power supplies in each server so now is a good time to shut one down and give it a little clean up, "Brain Fart" I forgot I had not charged or connected the new UPS to the 220V circuit yet, so I have 3 servers each with one power supply connected to the old UPS and the other connected to the new as yet unpowered UPS. You know where this is going right, I pull the cord for the PSU from the Domain controller (I am in the back of the rack and do not notice the very small power light go out), I pull the PSU and set it on top - might as well get them all out at the same time... I move to the file server, and "pull the plug", then to make a complete fool of myself I pull the the power for the Exchange Server - yup you guessed it everything went dead silent for about 100 users. I am walking around the rack with 3 power supplies in my arms thinking I am be so proactive when the Admin bursts through the door arms flying babbling something (I normally shut off my Implant processor when I am in the server room so I am not bothered by all the fan noise - I guess there was none now anyway...lol). I power back up the Hearing device and listen to Kim (the Admin) spout off about all the systems going down "what's wrong did you do something without warning us?" OK time to think fast Gig... "umm who me", I am now noticing things are just a bit too quiet in the server room, I tell Kim "$h_t it must be the router or switch if everyone is down, there is no way all 3 servers would fail at the same time especially with a brand new UPS"... I almost had her until she to noticed the room was just a bit too quiet today - "Is that the story you want me to tell everyone, or are you working one a better one? Oh and you might want to grab line one Network services is holding to find out why the trouble board just went red"... BUSTED!

Some times I wonder why I gave up drinkin...

 

[Cazzie]

Been there done that got a drawer full of t-shirts.

It gets really interesting when this happens to an Exchange server and you have a hundred users waiting for eMail service to come back online... The worst one for me was one day in the server room I was connecting a new UPS to our main Domain Controller. I figured hey there are two power supplies in each server so now is a good time to shut one down and give it a little clean up, "Brain Fart" I forgot I had not charged or connected the new UPS to the 220V circuit yet, so I have 3 servers each with one power supply connected to the old UPS and the other connected to the new as yet unpowered UPS. You know where this is going right, I pull the cord for the PSU from the Domain controller (I am in the back of the rack and do not notice the very small power light go out), I pull the PSU and set it on top - might as well get them all out at the same time... I move to the file server, and "pull the plug", then to make a complete fool of myself I pull the the power for the Exchange Server - yup you guessed it everything went dead silent for about 100 users. I am walking around the rack with 3 power supplies in my arms thinking I am be so proactive when the Admin bursts through the door arms flying babbling something (I normally shut off my Implant processor when I am in the server room so I am not bothered by all the fan noise - I guess there was none now anyway...lol). I power back up the Hearing device and listen to Kim (the Admin) spout off about all the systems going down "what's wrong did you do something without warning us?" OK time to think fast Gig... "umm who me", I am now noticing things are just a bit too quiet in the server room, I tell Kim "$h_t it must be the router or switch if everyone is down, there is no way all 3 servers would fail at the same time especially with a brand new UPS"... I almost had her until she to noticed the room was just a bit too quiet today - "Is that the story you want me to tell everyone, or are you working one a better one? Oh and you might want to grab line one Network services is holding to find out why the trouble board just went red"... BUSTED!

Some times I wonder why I gave up drinkin...

ROTFLMAO! You made my Sunday Mike!

Caz

 

[txnetcop]

Cazzie almost every time I ever made repairs or additions to a computer it invoked the anger of the computer gods just as soon as I locked the case up tight and put the computer back in it's place...it is just the same as asking for it I guess! LOL

 

[Milton Shupe]

Gig,

And that's why I only do server maintenance on the weekends.

 

[java2srv]

Yes, core temps go up for me especially when I mis-estimate how long a "simple" job is going to take.

I do it to this day, and now with years of experience "every" job is a "simple" job -- computers, cars, the yard, cleaning the carpet, doing laundry, or clearing the dishes out of the sink.

It never fails -- something goes just a little off track and suddenly I'm in unknown territory with a self-imposed deadline.



Working on the car, in the kitchen, or on one of the computers and it's like Satan himself is standing beside me slapping screws and parts out of my hands. Stuff that I just took out won't go back in the same way. What!?:isadizzy:

The new skill I'm learning is how to detect this happening early in a job, and to possibly leave enough time when planning for even simple jobs as though I was doing them for the first time.

This should become quite handy as my age is definitely contributing to not being able to remember how in the world I did something the last time.

 

[magoo]

Working on the car, in the kitchen, or on one of the computers and it's like Satan himself is standing beside me slapping screws and parts out of my hands.

.....Not Satan.....it's Murphy.