Wednesday, July 13, 2005

3 Idiots and a PC

Yesterday I broke my computer. In an attempt to move it (while running), I pulled one of the cords a little too tight. When this happened, my monitor blinked out and the song that was playing started repeating the last 2 seconds that just played. After unplugging everything, putting it on the desk and reconnecting the vital components, I attempted to reboot. Nothing, double check my connections, still nothing.

Hoping that I simply wrecked my cord I call Shedu to see if I can barrow his monitor extravaganza feast to trouble shoot my problem. I get there and we plug one of his monitors in, no dice. Then we put one of his video cards in, still nothing. Then he does some stuff that I dont know how to explain other than there was a network and bios involved. After all that didnt work we had run out of time.

I told Kato about it at work that night and he said hed take a look at it after we got out. The first thing we did was make sure the hard drive worked by making it a slave on his machine. Everything was there and so we backed up all the documents on it. Then we ran scan disc to make sure that everything was fine with the drive. Next we replaced the hard drive and attempted to boot it up again. No luck.

Its about 4am at this point and there isnt much left to do. Just for fun I take the light and look around inside my computer. After a minute I realize that I forgot to tell my team of experts one very small detail. I had removed 1 of the RAM chips when I opened it up before I brought it over. Upon further investigation it appears that I did not replace the chip all the way. So, I locked the chip back into place and started her up and everything was back to normal.

In the end we never did figure out why the monitor went out or why the music kept repeating itself.

3 comments:

katohater said...

i told shedu this and i guess i'll repeat it here: what most likely happened is that the "rambus continuity module" was not seated properly and when you moved the computer, it unseated itself enough to no longer make the connection. since the continuity module is basically like a "pass-through," it would definitely interrupt your system and cause it to cease normal function.

regardless, either shedu or myself should have made sure all memory modules were seated properly. this is why we don't work for geek squad or nerds on site. we would overlook the obvious problem, and, in shedu's case, he would just tell everyone that their motherboard is fried.

shedubeard said...

I'll say anything to make my friends by new computers.

katohater said...

what would you do for a klondike bar?