Dead but not forgotten

[ilovemyjoggler]

Our Pc died...

EVERYTHING was on it although I've been assured that it was fully backed up not too long ago. I hope my partner isn't just telling me what i need to hear.

[dwl99]

Surely only a bit of it died? Which bit?

[ilovemyjoggler]

God knows...it won't start up. When switched on all we get is a flashing orange light on the power button. Last used earlier today with no signs of illness.

[dwl99]

Possibly a dead PSU? Have you a spare one to try out?

[ilovemyjoggler]

No but we can try to source one. Thanks!

[pete]

Curious on the mfg and model laptop?

[ilovemyjoggler]

Hmm, Pete, not much I can tell you as I'm not too sure. It's an Asus, but we had it custom built a few years ago.

[pete]

There should be a sticker with a base model number underneath the base of the laptop.

Did a generic google search and found:

Hi, my battery light for my asus g74sx is blinking orange ans it wont turn on anymore. My charger is fine (tested on another laptop) but dunno about the battery. it should turn on without the battery anyway... any ideas?
Thanks!
Optional Information:
What have you tried so far?: * Unpluging charger + battery, hold power for 45secs, and reseat * CMOS reset * Tried another charger * Unseat hdd, ram
I removed the battery and unplugged the power supply. I then held down the power button for 45 seconds. I then reinstalled the battery and the power supply and pushed the power button and voila it worked. I did have to try it a couple of times before it woorked but all is well now.
The flashing LED indicates some sort of charging problem, which could reside in the battery, power adapter, or motherboard. You'll need to do more troubleshooting to narrow down the possibilities.

[ilovemyjoggler]

Sadly ours isn't a laptop but our main tower PC. Had a look for labels - there is one but it only refers to the casing, not the inner workings.

On the bright side, the backup is relatively up to date. Whew.

[pete]

I just fixed my sister in laws computer. It is an HP. It had the flashing light thing on it. I though originally it had gone to sleep.

It did need a new power supply and its now working.

I did see another issue with it though. I used my compressed air to clear out the dust inside of it some. Looking at the motherboard I did notice one capacitor was almost at a lead stage (the exploding capacitor syndrome). Try a new power supply?

Also check really good if any of your capacitors are leaking. I still need to repair the capacitor. It involves removing the motherboard; then removing the capacitor.

There are only a few connections going to the power supply. Typically its one main multipin plug to the motherboard, then a little 4 pin plug (keyed) plus all the drive power stuff regular and sata.

[ilovemyjoggler]

Waiting for a new power supply. Fingers crossed it'll work - otherwise we may need to seek marriage guidance as we can't agree on a plan B!

I've since been using my laptop which is older than dirt and had no memory left. So out of necessity, I've learned a new trick. I've increased the size of the c drive on my laptop by taking space away from the d drive - without losing any data! This may not sound like a big deal to the tinkerers on here but I'm really rather pleased with myself.

[pete]

While waiting for the new power supply take a vacumn cleaner to it. Be careful.

Use a good flashlight and look at the tops of the electrolytic capacitors to make sure none of them are spilling their guts.

If you do see that then you will need to replace the capacitors that are failing before you put in the new power supply.

In order to do the capacitor replacement you will need to remove the motherboard. That said the capacitors are very inexpensive.

Attached are some pictures of leaking capacitors.

[ilovemyjoggler]

Good to know what to look for - Thanks pete.

take a vacumn cleaner to it. Be careful.

Oops. Bit late for this warning. Used a dyson to suck the living daylights out of it...

[pete]

You should be fine if you didn't hear a clatter of computer guts being sucked into the whirlwind....geez...where did Toto go?

[hawsey]

ha ha ha

Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

[pete]

ilovemyjoggler,

How did it go with your endeavor?

My sister in law asked that I replace her computer with a newer one as the old dual d pentium was just a bit too big and it is going.

I have my wife set up with a net-top which works for her and is tiny; IE: the size of a large paperback (Shuttle mini pc). She plays some games so she wanted something a bit horsepower. I have a second shuttle in Florida which I utilize and its been on now (along with my wife's) for some 3 plus years 24/7. It does not have a fan and uses a massive heat sink to keep it cool. These do have slim combo drives and either SSD or notebook drives in them.

I found an Asus core duo for $144.00 USD with a 250Gb HD for her. (refurbished). Its bigger than a netop but smaller than a half sized tower.

BTW I am currently using this sized case for a few new servers (HA servers, MythTV box, PFSense box et al). These run the gammit of motherboards but I have settled on some "industrial strength" BCM motherboards. I also have redone the power supplies on these boxes utilizing PicoPSU's as today there are very well made (been using them for years now in the carpcs). I have also utilized slim combo cdrw/dvdrw drives along with a tiny hot swap drive cage in the front 2.5" sized which you can hot swap notebook or SSD drives. I will most likely leave the above mentioned pc case alone and most likely will not modify it in any way.

[ilovemyjoggler]

Hi Pete. The simple answer as to how things are going is...they're not!!

The Asus didn't have a working dvd drive and was very very sluggish (no doubt because of the nearly full memory which I had been meaning to clear...) so my partner is inclined to ditch it, particularly as we have a full backup. We have a couple of laptops and the proposal is to use one of those as the family pc but working off an attached hard drive as neither laptop has a large memory (in fact, one of them is pants). I'm really not convinced.. If anything, I'd prefer a new replacement but we can't decide on that either. So, as I expected, we've reached an impasse. Divorce has been mentioned a few times

I've no knowledge about hardware and this has always been my partner's remit (much much more knowledgeable than me).

Every home should have a Pete. I like the looks of the ones you've posted...I want oomph, large memory, speed but also I like the idea of something taking up less space. Oh, and let's not forget cheap!

[pete]

Divorce has been mentioned a few times

There is more to life than computers; really.

Here if divorce is mentioned; it's mostly because of my now 36 year old parrot. She is extremely jealous of my wife.

The bird and her do not get along and all they every do is cuss out each other. Me I am in middle of it all; as when I walk into the room; the parrot tells me she love me. I don't think my wife is jealous of her; but who knows.

She does sometimes mention cooking the parrot for dinner (she is a large bird; in fact the largest of the amazon family).

That said I typically have purchased many refurbished computers from geeks dot com (like the one above). Have a look. Its reasonable to ship to you in the UK .....

[ilovemyjoggler]

Pete, thank you so much for this post. It made me laugh. My interest has been piqued - can I see your possessive, cussing parrot? The only thing I know about them is that they live for a LONG time. So still many happy years of jealousy ahead!

Btw, Tell your wife to watch out - I've seen Hitchcock's 'The Birds'.

[pete]

Here is a picture of "Kika" my parrot. She is not really colorful as typically the male parrots are the most colorful.

She is always included in the family pictures during the times that the family gets together for the holidays.

She was the size of my palm when I got her. I feed her with a nosedropper for a bit and would make breakfast for her every morning. She comes from Guatamala in Central America. (she came from a nest in a tree; literally).

She is a Blue Crown Amazon Parrot

English name:Guatemala Amazon, Blue-crowned Amazon
Two Name: Amazona f. guatemalae

General in the tropical rainforest habitat, elevation 1500 meters of the mountain forest, shrub or tree of the half open jungle like live in the edge of the forest. Non-breeding period will be a pair of a pair or more to 20 only a group of settlements; common in the early morning and sunset and habitat. Keep quiet when eating, about seven in the morning when they see them in search of food, eating time than other varieties The parrot For the early. They gathered at the river edge timing to feed mineral mud bath in shallow water. Like a noisy shuttle in the woods, because the protection of color, imperceptible in the tree. Move in the same region; fly high, fly open wings rapidly flapping, the sound frequency is high, and the similar.
Morphological characteristics:
The blue crown spots Amazon parrots[1], body length of 38 cm (15 inches), wing length 220-252 mm (8.5 to 10 inches), as the body's largest Amazon, an average of 540-700g. Looks like the spots Amazon parrots, but the forehead, crown and crown position obvious blue wing edge green. Immature young blue light, the pupil is dark.
The wild diet:Fruit (especially liked the fig), berries, flowers, the tree top buds; May Day mineral soil.
In South America, the breeding season is from November to February; in America from April to June; like a hole in a tree or palm tree nest; most of the bird's nest is about twenty meters above the ground to 25 meters; but there are also found sixty centimeters to three meters from the ground example. All observed nest with three chicks.