8 Oct
2007
8 Oct
'07
10:30 a.m.
On 06/10/2007, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
As have others, you misunderstand me. Clearly I should have spelled
this out more.
The fact that PC kit is so cheap that it's not worth repairing is not
why I don't repair classic machines. It's the reason I /don't know
how/ to repair classic machines.
No... Classicmp is a mailing list. It's where people /talk/ about
classic kit. The nursing happens elsewhere in real life. Salient
difference!
Well, although I realise that's just an example, I can respond using
details of a recent real job.
An AtlhonXP PC works fine with 2 DIMMs. With all 3 slot filled, it
crashes, freezes or hangs. I suspect, from prior experience, a memory
error. So step #1, I get a Linux boot CD with memtest86 on it, so I
can exercise the RAM.
With all 3 DIMMs fitted, memtest gives errors.
With 2 fitted, it's OK.
Try the 3rd on its own: fine.
Try the other 2 on their own: fine.
Try all 3 slots individually: fine.
Summary: any permutation of 2 of the 3 is fine. All the DIMMs
themselves check out fine, including on other machines. But on this
machine, filling all 3 slots makes it unreliable. Given that I don't
have a good motherboard to swap in, the resolution, then, is to
downgrade it to 2 DIMMs & warn the owner not to try 3.
That seems like a reasonable diagnostic process to me, and apart from
fitting or removing the DIMMs, the only tests were done in software.
Ah. Exotica. Most of my stuff is very vanilla, I'm afraid.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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But as I said
elsewhere, for my clients today, if a machine is less
than a couple of gigahertz, it's skipware. It's not worth my time to
try to diagnose a fault; if it fails, swap it out and replace it with
a new machine.
Wait a second. Last time I checked, this was classiccmp. Not
'How-to-easter-egg-modern-PCs' or 'Computer-jobseekers' or... But
classiccmp. It is ridiculous to assume that becasue something may well be
the right solution in one case that it has to be right solution in all cases. my clients,
not to nurse their old kit along as long as possible.
As I said, this is classiccmp. Nursing old kit is exactly what we do here. I realize
that. But I did specify earlier: I don't generally work
below the level of the circuit board. There's no single part of a PC
Again, how on earth cna you know what the fault is if you can't diagnose
it. You mentioned swapping a DIMM. How can you know if an intermittant
memory problem is a fault in the DIMM or in the memory controller on the
motherboard? I don't
know what that is. I have a bag of ISA kit: mostly multi-I/O
PGC = Professional Graphics Controller. An IBM board set (3 boards
fitting into 2 adjacent ISA slots (there's a memory PCB sandwiched
between them) that form an intellegent-ish graphics card with an 8088 to
control it (!). I have the techref, I'd love to play with the boards.