I thought you just upgraded...

No... just the hard disks. Changed my old 300Gb PATA data disk for two 300Gb SATAs. And bought XP MCE. Proper hardware upgrade will have to wait for a while.

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That was the one and only mistake I have ever made with hardware.

This was not a mistake I made though!

The only mistake I ever made was lending out my power screwdriver I only use for computers to somebody. When I got it back I forgot to check the torque setting. Man, that sucked balls. It cracked the motherboard around the screw hole, but their where no leads there at all so it still worked fine.

Other then that I have never done any physical damage to any computer part I was not trying to do on purpose.


I am very safe and gentle!

http://www.frappr.com/bluesnewsmembers
Show me where you live! I promise it will only hurt the first time.

Pull the ground wire(s) free before pulling the power and you're guaranteed to release the magic smoke every time!

One, the two grounds are in the middle. Since one side always comes off first, it would be near impossible (for me anyway) to remove the ground first. So I knew my power supply was safe, and if it did not do jack to it, it was not going to do jack to everything or anything else.

But I am removing the power from the drive to the power supply, so that would only affect the drive and not the motherboard. Motherboards have long since built it protection to protect from critical failures when the drive power suddenly just dies….so no biggie.

But again, like I said to begin with, do not do it. I was trying to break my dvd drive even more because it was pissing me to hell off. It only did not work right because I am betting it was not plugged in all the way/shook loose from the drive spinning.

If you pick the right two holes you can do that completely safely. You won't even trip the breaker.

Yeah, but that is no fun!


http://www.frappr.com/bluesnewsmembers
Show me where you live! I promise it will only hurt the first time.

Hey now.

I'm just teasing ya a bit!

If something is broke there is nothing working with breaking it more!
Just in this case, in trying to break it more I accidentally fixed it!

I punted a 486 like a football once, after it wouldn't behave.



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GW: Nilaar Madalla, lvl 20 R/Mo / Tolyl Nor, lvl 20 E/Mo / Xylos Gath, lvl 13 W/Mo

http://www.goldfrapp.co.uk/

Motherboards have long had protection for this so there was no risk of damaging it.

And, uh, exactly what protection would that be?

Pull the ground wire(s) free before pulling the power and you're guaranteed to release the magic smoke every time!

stick one in each part of the socket.

If you pick the right two holes you can do that completely safely. You won't even trip the breaker.

Pick the wrong two and you'd better hope the breaker trips...

Speaking of dumb things to do while your PC is on - don't put a screwdriver near it - ever.

While upgrading a machine way back in the day, I was installing the new 33.6 modem. Had the cover off to make sure everything worked before I put it all back together, and was putting a screw in while it was dialing one of my favorite local message boards.

Well, needless to say the screw dropped off it's intended location and hit the MB!!!! No smoke. No sound. Nuttin. The MB arc'd and turned itself off before any damage was done! Couldn't believe it.

That was the one and only mistake I have ever made with hardware.

-Although I once worked with a guy that thought he had "hot swap" SCSI disks in the Dell server he was setting up for a client and pulled one out to prove it after he was done installing everything! ahahahahahah I will let you use your imagination on that one.

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The drive was not working, so what did I care if it screwed it up more? Motherboards have long had protection for this so there was no risk of damaging it.

ehhehehe Famous last words to a client.

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Join us next week, when Enahs tells us how he was having a bad day, stuck his finger in a electric socket, and how he's been fine ever since.

Hey now.
The drive was not working, so what did I care if it screwed it up more? Motherboards have long had protection for this so there was no risk of damaging it.

If something is broke there is nothing working with breaking it more!
Just in this case, in trying to break it more I accidentally fixed it!

And no no no…you do not stick your finger in a electrical socket. It will not fit. When you do is taking two paper clips, unwind them…and stick one in each part of the socket.
Fun fun fun!


http://www.frappr.com/bluesnewsmembers
Show me where you live! I promise it will only hurt the first time.

While clearly it is not a permanent solution, I may just leave it until I upgrade.

I thought you just upgraded...

Yes, I know how dumb that was... you can all laugh at me now

Not so much laughing as staring at you in disbelief while slowly backing away...

Actually, if that fan was spinning at speed then you're lucky the blades didn't fly off as little plastic bits of doom...

Try swapping various cables... change the power cable for another one, and the IDE cable. My boot drive wasn't working the other day after my recent digging around in my PC and all it was was a dodgy power lead.


Speaking of dumb things to do while your PC is on - don't put a screwdriver near it - ever. Not so much from an electrocution prevention thing, but I had the side of my case off the other day with the thing running, and was changing a fan grille (for one with a dust filter). While casually positioning the grille with one hand, I hear a nasty churning noise similar to the wood chipper in Fargo. I had accidentally stuck the screwdriver (held in my other hand) in the fan of the cpu heatsink - an aftermarket job from Zalman http://tinyurl.com/3tpl8. One of the fan blades fell off, which meant the whole thing was terribly unbalanced. While it still would push air effectively it sounded like the aforementioned wood chipper.

Unfortunately replacing the fan on Zalman products is a nightmare, and I had no Arctic Silver (don't start spreading vs tiny-dot :)) so I didn't want to take the heatsink off.

So I unplugged the fan, snapped all the blades off, and changed it for my current setup - a case fan dangling over the heatsink, secured by wires. While it sounds (and looks) very dodgy, it is, funnily enough, far more effective than the Zalman fan - CPU temps have dropped by about 8C!

While clearly it is not a permanent solution, I may just leave it until I upgrade.


Yes, I know how dumb that was... you can all laugh at me now

By the way, what happened to Ray? And also... AOE III is awesome.


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This post is shamefully brought to you using someone else's unsecured wireless network
This comment was edited on Jan 27, 05:00.

I do not recommend this…but one time when my DVD drive was screwing up and eventually I just got pissed and unplugged the power from the drive while it was trying to do something. Plugged it back up and it has been working perfect ever since….

Join us next week, when Enahs tells us how he was having a bad day, stuck his finger in a electric socket, and how he's been fine ever since.





--------------------------------------------------------------
GW: Nilaar Madalla, lvl 20 R/Mo / Tolyl Nor, lvl 20 E/Mo / Xylos Gath, lvl 13 W/Mo

http://www.goldfrapp.co.uk/

Well, that was fun.

Zone Alarm's program control is a royal pain in the ass during a re-install. Especially when it's blocking the program that is used to set up the wireless mouse and keyboard, and since you have no control you can't click the friggin' 'allow' button.....

Also: I <3 Flash Drives.

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Xfire: GreySpire
GW: Alia Arjel Mo/Me

Make sure your cables are plugged in good.

I do not recommend this…but one time when my DVD drive was screwing up and eventually I just got pissed and unplugged the power from the drive while it was trying to do something. Plugged it back up and it has been working perfect ever since….

hehehe, yeah, I don't think I will be cutting the power to a device on my pc like that.

**********************************************
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Looking to add BF2 members to our clan. Drop a line if interested.

Make sure your cables are plugged in good.

I do not recommend this…but one time when my DVD drive was screwing up and eventually I just got pissed and unplugged the power from the drive while it was trying to do something. Plugged it back up and it has been working perfect ever since….


http://www.frappr.com/bluesnewsmembers
Show me where you live! I promise it will only hurt the first time.

Is Aleve actually in the same category as Naproxen?

Naproxen is the generic name for Aleve. They're the exact same thing -- like Tylenol and Aceteminophen (sp?).



Bats - sounds like the drive is going south (as you know). May want to check doom9.net or cdrfaq.org or similar (cdfreaks.com maybe?). Not my area of expertise.

Actually, putting in a blank DVD doesn't even bring up the menu, it is having a hard time reading it and asking me what to do.

Log files said the ambigious "driver detected an error on device cdrom\drive0" or something. Damn. Looks like RMA.

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nada. was thinking about trying again, but flushing the logs and checknig them afterwards.

I guess try that.

/edit: Not even a year I don't think. Maybe I can send it back. I actually kept the box this time.

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This comment was edited on Jan 26, 22:07.

Alright guys....calling out the dogs.

Come out of the garden, baby
You'll catch your death in the fog
Young girl, they call them the Diamond Dogs


Anyway...

Sounds like your drive is wearing out and/or dirty...how old is it?

Did you check the device manager to see if there were read errors (I know discs are covered in there, and pretty sure atapi errors are also)...




--------------------------------------------------------------
GW: Nilaar Madalla, lvl 20 R/Mo / Tolyl Nor, lvl 20 E/Mo / Xylos Gath, lvl 13 W/Mo

http://www.goldfrapp.co.uk/
This comment was edited on Jan 26, 21:32.

Alright guys....calling out the dogs.

Been having weird issues with my Plextor 716A DVD/CD drive. Disks aren't always reading in it (DVDs) and I am having a hell of a time copying DVDs. (Don't start on the moral shit)

Earlier today it woudn't eject (button press or through right click and "eject").

I updated the firmware, and have 3 DVDs here to copy - and it won't read any of them.

Drivers are not an issue, they are not available.

Is/are there programs I can use to test the drive?
It is fine if I need a new one, but I would like to know rather than just get another drive.

**********************************************
Always listening to: http://www.xmradio.com/programming/channel_page.jsp?ch=53
FUNGS 53

Looking to add BF2 members to our clan. Drop a line if interested.

Through the murk of that video it looks like it's probably Rick Wakeman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Wakeman