Tarq's Dead Computer

[Tarq]

So for those of you not on IRC, I finally picked up a new power supply today, and Zalbuu and I plugged the fucker in. After a great deal of fuckery, we finally determined that while the new power supply was perfectly functional, the motherboard was not. This is truly unfortunate.

Also, my old computer (shitty but serviceable) does not appear to be cooperating. The current consensus is that the hard drive is not turning on for some reason, and porting the hard drive(s) from my dead computer apparently overtaxes the power supply of the old beast. So the current plan is to transplant one of those drives to the old computer, along with the new power supply, and see how it handles.

This isn't particularly ideal, as that old computer is a piece of shit, but it'll have me online by Wednesday at midnight.

In any case, I've heard from a few people notes about having a spare motherboard, and what little dignity I have (it's somewhere!) certainly won't stand in the way of taking donations. So, uh, a few details:
-An ATX motherboard, along with most of the other pieces in there.
-Runs PCIE connectors for the graphics cards, and SATA for the hard drives.
-Most likely a Pentium 4. I'll have to check when Nuff returns to Seattle but I'm pretty certain.

Hopefully I'll be online, if a bit laggy, for the beginning of Wrath regardless.

[Aelflaed]

Not to rain on an already rainy parade...

But you'll also want to be aware, with replacing the motherboard, that you're likely going to have to reinstall Windows. When you put in the new motherboard, your windows install is going to wig out and think that you've put it in a new computer and are trying to HACK IT ILLEGALY AND BOOTLEG WINDOWS.

If you have multiple hard drives, I think there's a way around this, but I am not good with the specifics.

[aleros]

If you have multiple hard drives, I think there's a way around this, but I am not good with the specifics.

As far as I know, you have to wipe at least 1 hard drive and run windows off that one, but you can keep and retain information on any other hard drive, even your old hard drive that has windows on it. It just has to be selected as the "Slave" drive to the other "Master" drive with your OS.

[Tarq]

Okay, some new and exciting and possibly even relevant facts regarding my computer situation.

-My newer computer (Computer A, let's say) has been confirmed as a Pentium 4.

-Both A and B (the older, shittier one) apparently have a failsafe in which the motherboard will refuse to trigger startup unless the floppy drive has power. This is akin to a Lexus which will lock the ignition if it senses you're not wearing your driving goggles.

-Computer B is a stubborn piece of shit, and its hard drive refuses to receive power. Shenanigans with transferring the power supply and either or both hard drive(s) from Computer A largely resulted in frustration and incomprehension.

-Dealing with three hard drives, two of which are technically identical but yield entirely different results in terms of making the computers start up, is sort of like playing three-card monte with Professor Moriarty while blindfolded.

-The important thing I did learn is that it might not be the mobo. Through a complex process of hard drive substitution, I was able to determine that, with no hard drive plugged into Computer A, the computer will start up and stay on; however, doing the same with one or more hard drives plugged in will lead to either a power flicker and no response, or startup followed by shutdown within 10-15 seconds.

-I also realized that, the more I fucked around with it, the less time the computer would stay on; after several experiments, it got to the point where even with no power to anything but the mobo (and the stupid fucking floppy drive), Computer A would still shut itself down after 5 seconds. This leads me to believe it's an overheating problem, because in all of this the liquid cooling system that keeps Computer A from exploding just won't turn on.

-So the cooling system might just need to be refilled with its supply of Hulk Blood, or maybe it's not receiving power properly. Unfortunately, all I know about the cooling system is that I hate it. So, waiting on Nuff to get back from vacation (Wednesday midnight?) to see if he knows how to fix that shit.

-Until then, no proper gaming computer, and thus no Wrath.

-Fuck me sideways.

[Sonya]

I wasn't going to go home today and just stay in Bellevue for the Wrath launch, but assuming I finish all my homework in time here at school and set up properly at my friends, I might be able to drop my old computer off at your place. Its nothing special, but it played WoW perfectly fine. Big IF, depending on schedule and traffic.

[Gryphonheart]

((

Nov 12, 2008 9:40:55 GMT -5 Tarq said:

-The important thing I did learn is that it might not be the mobo. Through a complex process of hard drive substitution, I was able to determine that, with no hard drive plugged into Computer A, the computer will start up and stay on; however, doing the same with one or more hard drives plugged in will lead to either a power flicker and no response, or startup followed by shutdown within 10-15 seconds.

-I also realized that, the more I fucked around with it, the less time the computer would stay on; after several experiments, it got to the point where even with no power to anything but the mobo (and the stupid fucking floppy drive), Computer A would still shut itself down after 5 seconds. This leads me to believe it's an overheating problem, because in all of this the liquid cooling system that keeps Computer A from exploding just won't turn on.

I think our computers are evil twins.


~Gryph

))