Author Topic: The Computer Megathread (Read 517053 times)

So a few days ago, I tried going back at a computer I failed to fix, as it had been having issues starting up (before it POSTed.) To go into more detail, you could hear the HDD spin up, the CD-ROM drive starting, the FDD cycling, and then the board beeps. Everything but the board powers down and starts powering up again, and it would get stuck repeating that scenario. I tried resetting the BIOS, removing unnecessary jumpers, replacing the battery on the motherboard, removing all the variables (modem card, HDD, CD-ROM, FDD,) but nothing seemed to work. After I fiddle around with stuff on the board, it doesn't want to turn on AT ALL. I immediately believe I damaged the board with an ESD, and tried loving around with the front panel connectors trying to get it to turn on. My little brother comes over, asks what's wrong, and immediately, he gave me one of his older power supplies to try it with.
It posted after the swap. I felt really unintelligent at that moment.

This actually happened to me once; my dad brought me some junk computers, two of which looked salvageable. One of them had the exact same symptoms as yours, and the other one seemed to work just fine. Later I found out that the latter had a wonky motherboard; the voltages were off, and floating-point operations would give math errors, plus it only had two memory slots.
I pulled out the other computer, which I thankfully had put aside instead of tossing, and it worked just fine once I swapped out the power supply (don't know why exactly I thought that components with the word 'eco' written on them would be even remotely functional lol). A good idea, since it had a much better motherboard.

MackTheHunter · December 01, 2012, 01:06:04 PM

I came up with a beautiful idea.

I wanted to get into the industry of building and selling custom gaming PCs, but it's a popular market and I probably wouldn't get far with it.

I also had the idea of making and selling furniture, as I'm a pretty good woodworker. Again though, high popularity, and that's what IKEA's for.

Now what about this, combining the two - make custom built PCs, but the cases are hand crafted, varnished wooden cases. I mean like, gorgeous Victorian furniture style cases, and also making them as fire-resistant as possible on the inside. I feel like this would spring up a pretty grand market.

Treynolds416 · December 01, 2012, 01:15:36 PM

Quote from: MackTheHunter on December 01, 2012, 01:06:04 PM

I came up with a beautiful idea.

I wanted to get into the industry of building and selling custom gaming PCs, but it's a popular market and I probably wouldn't get far with it.

I also had the idea of making and selling furniture, as I'm a pretty good woodworker. Again though, high popularity, and that's what IKEA's for.

Now what about this, combining the two - make custom built PCs, but the cases are hand crafted, varnished wooden cases. I mean like, gorgeous Victorian furniture style cases, and also making them as fire-resistant as possible on the inside. I feel like this would spring up a pretty grand market.

oh lawd
Build someone's computer straight into their coffee table

MackTheHunter · December 01, 2012, 01:39:23 PM

Quote from: Treynolds416 on December 01, 2012, 01:15:36 PM

oh lawd
Build someone's computer straight into their coffee table

That's the kinda stuff I'm saying! I could probably also do custom monitors (modified bezels/stands of pure oak or something) and I could make up some seriously awesome keyboards.

Treynolds416 · December 01, 2012, 01:46:17 PM

Quote from: MackTheHunter on December 01, 2012, 01:39:23 PM

That's the kinda stuff I'm saying! I could probably also do custom monitors (modified bezels/stands of pure oak or something) and I could make up some seriously awesome keyboards.

I recommend making some super-cool prototype models, like furniture where a monitor and keyboard will pop out, and then advertising them

Pentium · December 01, 2012, 01:52:45 PM

Quote from: MackTheHunter on December 01, 2012, 01:39:23 PM

That's the kinda stuff I'm saying! I could probably also do custom monitors (modified bezels/stands of pure oak or something) and I could make up some seriously awesome keyboards.

That sound quite cool. There was a company that did this back in ~2003, though I don't know if they're still around.

Momentum · December 01, 2012, 03:02:22 PM

Quote from: Treynolds416 on December 01, 2012, 01:15:36 PM

oh lawd
Build someone's computer straight into their coffee table

i was thinking of doing just that, accept with a desk. the whole computer would be built underneath a large peice of wood, and things like front panel inputs and optical drives will be embedded into the wood, and fans would also be embedded in the wood.

Momentum · December 01, 2012, 03:13:26 PM

finding the perfect mouse for me is a hopeless journey.