My Computer Crashed & Burned

What part of it "bit the dust"? The power supply? The hard drive?

Hard drives might be. I've lost 2 over the last ten years or so.

You mean hard drives are no longer EIDE and are now SATA? It's not just the connector that's different it's the speed in which the hard drive moves data that's different.

So it's only your power supply that died.

Suggest you get Norton Ghost and mirror your hard drive to a new larger SATA hard drive. It's easy to use and it's cheap insurance. Ghost mirroring works in Windows and takes no skill.

Jon Banquer San Diego, CA

As am I , but you (Bob) are still a dumbass. I really hate it when my family grows. Well, sort of. Dumb ass. BTW, did I forget to say "Dumb ass"?

I feel your pain BB. In the past month my wife's computer died, my old server died, and earlier this week my workstation at work bit the big one.

How long they last probably has more to do with luck than anything else. My wife's computer and the box at the shop were both less than three years old yet my old server was in service for roughly 11 years.

On the other hand, maybe it has something to do with lunar flares, moon spots and the phase of the sun?

I don't think so -- it appears that the components just have been "value analyzed" to the point that they just crap out.

"new and improved" or at least cost reduced..... EIDE and SATA

Good to see you back -- we missed you.

========== Check out the Ubuntu linux operating system. You can install along side the windows system to see how you like it and so you can run the window programs. They also make a windows emulator to run windows programs on linux.

Free download. You can burn what they call a live-cd to test drive w/o installing.

Ubuntu omes with tons of free software, and there is a bunch more available for just the download.

You may want to add anothe EIDE drive to your existing box for the new o/s for example

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

BottleBob wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

I keep 2 new power supplies here on hand at all times. There are 5 computers in this house and invariably a P/S goes south more often than anything else happens to them.

I have found that the high dollar power supplies aren't any better than the $20 el cheapo's either, as far as longevity.

Black Dragon wrote in news:fs1jq8$8po$ snipped-for-privacy@bdhi.local:

I've had a rash of issues lately myself. I've got to order a new MB for the server :/. Would have already had it...but this is a 5 week pay month...so no extra cash. Those SO suck.

F. George:

The power supply on my computer at work went out a couple of months ago. That computer is probably 3 1/2 - 4 years old.

We? You mean you and that parrot sitting on your shoulder? Just kidding. Thanks for the kind words, but I seriously doubt my few posts per week would be missed much.

Thanks for all the juicy computer techie stuff.

My personal favorite is Xandros

Gunner

Just for reference, you can probably get a card that will allow a new computer to access and older hard drive.

Yep, $22.99

I've got such a card in the carcass of my old server. ::BD grabs a phillips head screw driver:: A Maxtor ATA133 IDE PCI drive controller with two channels (up to four devices). I'll give it away to anyone in the USA. I'll even throw in an Adaptec AHA-2940 Ultra Wide PCI SCSI adapter and a few assorted 10/100 megabit PCI NICS.

Just speak up and we'll find a non public way to exchange shipping info.

Heads up. Recall my post a few weeks ago about my bad luck with ASUS mobos? My machine at work that croaked this week was built on an ASUS board. An ASUS A8N w/Athlon64 FX55 processor. On board SATA controller gave up and it had a bad stick of ram in it. I didn't complain too loudly though, I'm getting a shiney new Core 2 Duo out of the deal. :)

That's why I buy Gigabyte, but I used to buy epox damn they were good.

We lost about 4 of these a few years back all within about a 6 mo time span and were just outside of warranty :

Black Dragon wrote in news:fs3408$149r$ snipped-for-privacy@bdhi.local:

Damn BD, now you have me worried, that is what is in THIS machine.

Check the capacitors, since they went cheap only made to last a few yrs at most (all mother boards did this) Not that they knew this but lowest price rules. Look on the top to see if they are puffed up. I have an old 7 year Epox board that is that way (extra of 3 puters) & the caps are that way. Gigabyte has boards that have metal capacitors (Don't know if this helps or hides).

Trust us Bob, You'd be missed. Even a few posts per week inproves the signal/noise ratio.

They puff up and or leak s*it out of the x shaped relief area ontop the dielectric finally drying out completely shorting the capacitor which cooks the diodes which IIRC are generally associated with your -5vdc buss.

Half-nutz wrote in news:677a820d-e258-4202-9dec- snipped-for-privacy@p73g2000hsd.googlegroups.com:

Agreed. The S/N ratio has really been bad since the sporgers came through.

On a second note: Half-nutz, you might want to check out the thread over on PM I started yesterday. - Something - Macro programming. I posted some partial code over there I wrote for an automated VMC. Might be some useful information in there for you......