8 Oct
2007
8 Oct
'07
9:29 p.m.
On 08/10/2007, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
I don't want to and I don't need to. Those are 2 pretty damned good reasons.
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.
There's nothing to stop you learning how to do repairs on classics... ARGH!.
Oh %deity, where to begin...
OK, it works with 2 DIMMs, not 3. My first question is 'should it work
with 3 DIMMs of that size'. Or is there a limit on the total memory
that's been exceeded.
AFAIK, yes, it should, but it doesn't. This sort of thing appears to
be a consistent fault with old ~1.5GHz Athlon XP motherboards.
Assuming there isn't, it would _appear_ the
problem is with the memory
controller on the motherboard. If it's some large ASIC that's failing, my
expeirince is that when a chip starts to go bad, it gets worse. So the
machine might have more mrmory errors shortly. I'd want to be sure any
machine I'd fixed was working, and would carry on working. Not fail on me
when I need it most
It might do, yes, but I don't have any suitable spares and it's for
someone who can't afford to replace it.
And I said 'appear' above. Maybe the
motherboard is fine. Maybe it's a
marginal PSU that can't supply enough current for the 3 DIMMs. Did you
even chack the PSU votlages under load? Let alone ripple?
And again, you're working on the assumption that I am you, or that I
work like you, or that everyone should work like you.
No, I didn't, and no, I'm not about to, because I don't do hardware
repairs and if the hardware is faulty it goes in the bin and gets
replaced wherever possible.
Now perhaps you know why I do all diagnosis and
repairs of _everything_ I
own myself...
No, Tony, I don't. While I have huge respect for your apparent
abilities at troubleshooting, diagnosing and fixing classic kit,
comments like "I won't run a modern PC because I can't afford the test
equipment to analyse it if it goes wrong" say to me that you are so
obsessed that you will shoot yourself in the foot and drastically
inconvenience yourself rather than change your behaviour. If a PC goes
wrong, one does not analyse it, one junks it and replaces it, because
PCs are interchangeable commodity kit. To spend thousands on repairing
something worth at best hundreds and probably in fact worth perhaps
the cost of a pint or a train ticket is not sensible pragmatism, it's
not commendable attention to detail, it's bl**dy daft. And to say "I
won't run it if I can't repair it" is dafter still!
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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