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Requiem For A Motherboard
JimLynch writes "In my last DIY column, I discussed what it was like to build my first system. As time went by, unfortunately, my DIY system wasn't all wine and roses. This column tells the story of how I destroyed my motherboard through a series of ill-planned and stupid actions. It should stand as a shining example of What Not to Do for DIYers everywhere."
This has to be by far one of the worst things i've seen posted on slashdot. Really, the fact that someone even took the time to write this article amazing me.
How many ways can I destroy a computer... yahh
Maybe if there were good gory pictures or something
Gamblers Forum
I have seriously manhandled about 150 computers, ripping out the motherboards, making frankenstein boxes out of non-working boxes, hot swapping non hot-swappable hard disks, forcing fans onto cpus, pulling out running SCSI discs to get that gyroscopic effect because the disks are still spinning at 10K rpms. I must have had some luck though. Never once have I broken a machine.
Knocks parts off the motherboard, wasn't grounded, refused to measure fan sizes before buying them. And I am still only halfway through the article. Can be summed up in one sentence:
Feckin' eejits shouldn't mess around inside the computer!
Download my free songs!
Geeze, who is the author of this lame article. Should I start writing articles about my trip to the grocery store? I wounder if I could get published, well at least I could get slashdotted...
*sigh* this articles so lame, it just makes me laugh to hard.
Gamblers Forum
I dunno, I tried real hard on a graphics card comparison to kill a board, swapping cards fast, and, oops, forgot to power off before reboot...
That was several years ago and all the boards survived. Buy quality components is probably the best lesson!
It should stand as a shining example of What Not to Do for DIYers everywhere.
You betcha. Here are some gems:
When I returned, I smelled the distinct odor of something burning. -snip- Just for the heck of it, I checked the temperature of my motherboard with SiSoft Sandra.
Mistake number 1. If you smell smoke, go for the plug, not Sandra!!
You knocked off a "white doohickey" and didn't check to see if it was something that was soldered to the board?
Yeah, that could be a problem. Learn the names of your doohickeys, at least. Then post here - we could use the giggles.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
The first time I built a computer, I figured that if a few of those metal support posts were good, more would be better. That's why they gave me a whole bag, right? I assembled the system and it wouldn't start. I did some troubleshooting, succesfully booted with the board out of the case and eventually solved the problem.
That's as dumb as I've gotten -- perhaps I should be writing for ExtremeTech instead? I know my first response to trouble isn't to ask in a forum what new heat sink will make me more 1337.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
This whole article was just one painfull (and pitiful) screwup after another. I couln't even bring myself to read the whole thing.
Actually...
Yeah, he made a series of incredibly boneheaded moves. No big deal there, I think most humans do something like that at least once in their life.
However, he was smart enough to write an article and make some money off of his mistakes. Hell, he can probably deduct the cost of the dead hardware as a business expense. I never managed that.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
Why has this article been published on Slashdot anyway? Just to make fun of the poor fellow?
Or maybe Slashdot readers suddenly became a bunch of dumb wannabe geeks who really need that kind of "tips" and I haven't noticed yet.
If this guy works in IT he should be fired. This is a prime example of why I have a job and why I give people too much credit. Doohicky? If you don't know a resistor or a capacitor when you see one, you probably don't need to build your own pc. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
umm... this guy can't get fan size right (let alone check for dust in his origional fan). i really don't think that installing a water cooling system is really the task he should be assigned.
The Neo-Bohemian Techno-Socialist
The meta-bug: Failure to isolate problems one at a time.
If he'd simply concentrated on what was wrong (bad fan on heatsink), he never would have purchased the new heatsink. He would never have purchased a new case to fit the new heatsink. He would never have had to remove the motherboard and fuck it up by knocking parts off in his failed attempt to put it into the new case. He would never have needed a new motherboard, and he never did need a new case.
> Can be summed up in one sentence: Feckin' eejits shouldn't mess around inside the computer!
You have a gift for understatement. Describing this guy as a "feckin' eejit" is akin to describing Valles Marineris as a "ditch".
Constructive advice: The difference between feckin' eejits and the clued is that the clued try to solve one problem at a time. CPU running insanely-hotter than normal? Solve that problem - and only that problem. After you've solved that problem, then you can think about getting better solutions like a quieter heatsink/fan, a snazzier case, or a new motherboard. Solving one problem at a time means that the "solution" to the first problem doesn't necessarily have to fix anything -- it could be that you wanted to upgrade the old box anyways, so just power off the damn thing and buy your new box.
If you don't know what you are doing, then either take it to or buy from someone who does.
That's no way to learn. You probably shouldn't be missing around on a computer you need for more important stuff, or if you can't afford to burn something out, but otherwise it can be an interesting and educational progress. Much better than sitting on your ass and watching what Hollywood or even Slashdot is feeding you for a few hours.
You didn't miss anything, basically this guy just told everybody how foolish he was. If I am getting heat sink/fan for my cpu and it's not an exact copy/replacement I would definitely check to see if it fits. This man doesn't, in fact he doesn't check three times. To further things he gets impatient and either shorts out his board with static electricity or the piece that he refers to as a doohickey was more important that he realized when he knocked it off.
I have the same board he has, sorry strike that, had and I gone through two fans because of temp getting to high but I allow the BIOS to turn of the PC if things get to hot. Linux can get might pissed off about a hard shutdown but it's better than having to get a new CPU.
All in all a really dumb story...
I would like to see a picture of said doohickey to see what it was he broke.
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
If they can't build a computer, why should we trust anything they have to say about computers on their website?
If your processor was to overheat, the computer would just freeze. On the slim chance that garbage was incorporated into your binary, it would just crash when you ran it. The chances of some incorrect but "meaningful" bits being written are vanishingly small.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
But I prefer shopping at well known internet sites than compusa.
Actually, I found that local computer stores often do a good job. I built my last computer from parts I bought at a small computer store in Concord, CA. All the parts were ASUS or Intel (including the ASUS GeForce 2 GTS with shutter glasses which I didn't know what to do with). The only things I got from CompUSA were a midrange case (largest they had) and a new 19" Monitor. Put all the parts together, and that self-same system is still running today. The quality parts have stood up through extreme temperature changes, always on operation, and have been so compatible that they've allowed me to review just about any OS I wanted to try.
Believe it or not, the prices weren't much higher than the online retailers. And as I said, many online retailers will sell you some foreign jobby like "AZUZ" instead of the true blue components.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Rebuilding an engine is kind of like upgrading your computer.
You get to:
1. Buy tools to do the job right.
2. Have screws and bolts left over after every trek under the hood/in the case.
3. Get to swear you'll never touch this goddamn piece of crap again when it fails to start/turn on.
4. Be overjoyed at the sound of sweet exhaust/bios beep when you're finally finished.
The only real problem with cars is that they don't stay perfect forever. But I guess the same could be said for case fans/hard drives etc.
I've worked on cars for about 6 years now, got the bug from friends in college. Some days I hate having to fix my cars, but others, I look at the savings.... that is, after I learn what to buy etc.
Karnal
I built my first GNU/Linux PC this spring. It worked out surprisingly well. Here is my advice:
an ill wind that blows no good
No doubt. Moreover, during the lulls in fixing that which was broken by morons, we can just keep thinking up dumb "modz" to sell the lunkheads:
I also love the see-through door. I'll never, ever own a case without one again. I like being able to peek in and check up on my components. I can check what's going on without the bother of having to remove the door.
Check what's going on?! Not much, unless you are awed by fans spinning and semiconunductors sitting motionless on immobile printer circuit boards. What a stupid thing to say. But then again, I suppose if one is in the habit of ignoring "thingys" that one knocks off of one's mobo, that glass window might show some interesting firewroks.
Dolt, that author is.
everything in moderation
no it's a simple case of a complete moron that thinks he can do something...
Like the losers in the poser-ricer car with the screwed on exaust tip and a nitrous kit that they are scared to even try because the idiots probably never ordered the right injector size or dont even HAVE an injector because they can get expensive.
The local junkyard here has lots of "tricked" hondas that have obliterated engines because of nimrods that think they know something, try it without reading anything or even trying to learn about it and ruin something expensive.
(ever see what a aftermarket turbo does to an engine if you dont install the intercooler?? "that part is expensive!" was the excuse. lots of detonation at high revs blows the hell out of aluminum and CroMo engine parts.)
there will always be really braindead people that "think" they know what they are doing. they dont, and they are way too stupid to read or learn first.
the real student or person trying to learn will read the fricking manuals and other information at least 5 times before they try it.
when I rebuilt my first engine I read the manuals at least 10 times and I had to STILL refer to it during the process...
and that is simple mchanics, not electronics!
Unfortunately, a lot of cases have decorative plastic front bezels that don't let air thru, even though they seem to have a grill in the front.
On all my cases, I use a 7" diameter AC fan on the front. I cut a hole thru the plastic bezel, thru the sheetmetal, and mount a 240 volt AC 7" (6.75") diameter fan on the front, blowing in so as not to fight with the power supply fan.
Using a 240 volt fan on a 120 volt system makes it run slow so it is not noisy. You could also use a 120 volt fan and a speed control suitable for inductive loads ( a light dimmer usually isn't). The ideal is to use a 200 volt fan made for the Japanese market (where the voltage is 100 or 200 volts, vs the 120/240 in the USA) but these are a little hard to find.
You absolutely need to have outlet area to dump the hot air, and I try to put my cards in every other pci slot, and leave out the blanks covering the slots in between. In this way you make a card cage like in the mainframes, where air used to flow between every board.
The fans are cheap on the surplus market, if you check the ads in Nuts and Volts magazine, you will find lots of surplus places listed. If you get a used fan and it has noisy bearings, you can pull them, read the part numbers, and order replacements for them from a bearing place like E. B. Atmus.
Once you make the proper holes in your case and put in a big fan, you should get lower temps than you do with the cover off.
If you want to be less extreme you can use smaller 12 volt fans, just make sure you cut the holes to let air in and out.
Here are some cheap fans at marlin p jones. The 24 volt fans may not run at all on 12 volts, unfortunately, but the 12 volt ones should run on the 7 volts you get between +12V and +5V on your power supply.
Good luck!
I've never been to ExtremeTech.com, but I would guess by the name of the site and the writer's completely ridiculous mistakes, that this article has to be a joke. I could understand if this was some random blog, but this article is coming from a site that seems to be about upgrades/mods/etc. Did they decide to get the mailroom guy to build a PC? It just doesn't make much sense.
As quite a few other posters have pointed out their tips for building a new system, all I really want to add in is RTFM. I'm not saying you have to read the entire thing, but everytime I've built a new system, that's my method. Open the box, ogle the motherboard, then take 5 minutes to look over the manual--that way you at least know the random jumpers on the board. And it gives you a moment to step back from it and calm down--at least for me. If I'm about to be building a new PC, I'm raring to go. I think the key to building a system is to SLOW DOWN! Think before you ram that $300 CPU in the wrong way and bend all the pins.
That's just my advice.
Reading some of the nasty comments here on /. actually makes me feel sorry for the ExtremeTech guy. Ok so he made a couple of noob DIY mistakes, but who doesn't? Hopefully by the time he builds the next PC it should be easier... if he is smart to remember the mistakes he did.
OTH there are people who are just too hamfisted to be successful at handling/building delicate electronic components. I remember a manager I had once who kept on breaking stuff that we were building software for, almost everytime he "played" with one of them...