Why I couldn't follow your advice

Puppy related raves and general interest that doesn't fit anywhere else
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Antipodal
Posts: 253
Joined: Thu 26 Mar 2009, 16:52
Location: The other side of the world

Why I couldn't follow your advice

#1 Post by Antipodal »

On Monday 6 December 2010 20:17 UTC one of the moderators advised :D me with these words: "try running Puppy from a multisession CD-DVD"
On Wednesday 8 December 2010 04:53 UTC I committed my self on following that recommendation. :|
The day after that, my computer was struck by lightning. :shock:

Though I had been able to assemble it in 2007, I lacked the knowledge and tools needed to solve this new problem.
So I sent it to a technician and, as a replacement, I began to use the computer that is described at another thread.

About six weeks later, the technician phoned me to tell me he was unable to fix the burnt motherboard. He offered changing it for a new MSI 945GCM7 LV2. He said it was very difficult (if not impossible) to find a new Intel DP965 motherboard and that the one he was offering me was as good as the burnt one. He also offered making the assembling job.

I was so sick of waiting that I accepted everything.

So, on 21 January 2011 I began using my desktop with a new motherboard. It was then when I discovered the new one was a microATX (24,5 X 24,5 cms) and not an ATX (30,5 x 24,5 cms) as the burnt one was. At first I was rather concerned about that. But after reading in the Internet the significance of that difference and mostly after discovering that for my every day needs the performance of the MSI board was similar to the Intel board, I almost forgot I had changed my motherboard.

In fact, the lightning affair had been so shocking :shock: that I also forgot that on Dec 8 I had decided to try to run Puppy from a multisession CD-DVD, and instead of that, I focused myself with heart and soul in trying to put the old computer I mentioned above in the best conditions to work with Puppy just in case something similar occurred again.

For different reasons (among which I must include electrical problems in the old computer due to its old wires) I didn't advance far in that direction, and by the end of August (after having received some blue screens in my main computer) I asked for help (in this forum) for choosing an external USB disc drive where I could keep Puppy files and where I could keep a clone of the XP partition that was triggering the blue screens. :?

I was helped by the same moderator :D that had helped me before and fortunately had no problems in following his advice :D . After that, I felt so acquainted with Puppy that I thought it deserved to be included in my hard disk and once more forgot the multisession CD-DVD issue and centered my attention in preparing my best computer for the Win'N'Lin project.

I was working on that, when on the last week of last November while I was modifying (as I usually do) some .xlsx files I had received, I suffered an unexpected and spontaneous shutdown that was followed by an XP blue screen. :(

I tried to follow the indications of the blue screen but that led me to a series of consecutive shutdowns and/or freezing of the keyboard and mouse cursor. :( :(
Finally I couldn't boot into XP any more :x , so I decided to boot into Puppy and try to fix the problem from it.

Unfortunately, while the screen showed the Puppy files being loaded into RAM, I heard a kind of muffled snap or puff :shock: , the loading process stopped, and the cursor remained indefinitely flashing in the screen. :x

After that I was unable to shut the computer down and/or restart it. The only way to stop it working was to unplug it from the wall socket. But from that moment on, it never started working again. :evil:

The technician I mentioned before says my Pentium 4 microprocessor is working fine but that the motherboard's electronic components that surround the LGA775 socket are damaged because they were overheated because the cooler and the microprocessor's fan were dirty. He also said I must replace the damaged electronic components (which are very hard to find) or I must replace the motherboard.

I suspect this technician is trying to string me along. He was the one who provided me with the motherboard who is now useless, he assembled it 10 months ago and I used it in the same environment and taking care of it in the same way I took care of the previous motherboard for 3 years without problems 'till it was struck by lightning. Unfortunately I don't know of other trustable electronic technicians around.

So, here I am, using again the "out of the museum computer" that I've described above, trying to decide what to do (with a limited budget) to recover the hardware capability to home test different sorts of operating systems.

Letting aside this "out of the museum computer", I still have a usable ATX cabinet, a Pentium 4 3GHz, a 1GB DDR2 RAM, a MSI PCI-E,NX7100GS, 128 M DDR2,D-Sub,DVI-1,HDTV/VO Turbo Cache video card, a floppy disk drive, a DVD drive, 2 internal (160GB & 640GB) and 1 USB external (500GB)hard disk drives that are working.

Though I haven't lost the mood to follow the moderator's advice about trying to run Puppy from a multisession CD/DVD nor the mood that is needed to rehabilitate my best computer, nor even the mood to assemble a modern desktop computer, I think the second option is the priority.

At this point I feel must disclose the moderator's name :) (Flash), thank him once more for his assistance :D and beg him to accept my excuses for not having followed the multisession advice yet.

Finally I would like to respectfully ask him if he shares my point of view about the priorities I have stated in a previous paragraph and if (taking into account the changes that have occurred in the computer world during these last 4 1/2 years) he thinks there's a place in this forum where I can ask for advice about rehabilitating my best computer and about assembling a modern desktop computer for testing operating systems.

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Flash
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#2 Post by Flash »

That would be me, I guess. :shock: Much as I'd like to take credit for lightning striking your computer, I'm afraid that was just plain bad luck. As for the second motherboard giving up the ghost, I can't say. It must have been rated to handle your CPU, and it did work for a while, so, again, I'd say its premature demise was just bad luck. :(

Your CPU is fast enough to be useful still, and 1GB of RAM is more than enough to run Puppy. I recommend that you consider replacing your motherboard yourself. I've replaced several motherboards and found that it's not at all difficult as long as you read the directions (if any) and take your time. Before you unplug anything from the old one, lay the new one beside it and compare where the wires go.

I'd guess you can buy a replacement motherboard online for around $100 (U.S.). Just make sure it can use your CPU, RAM and power supply. As to make and model of motherboard, I can't help you there. Perhaps you can find one that will automatically shut down, or at least give an alarm, if its BIOS detects the temperature is too high.

Worst case, you fail in your attempt to put it together and have to take it to the guy who fixes your computer. Will that cost any more than if you took it to him in the first place? And you stand to learn how to repair your own computer. :)

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kooliepup
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Joined: Sat 14 Jan 2012, 03:40
Location: Victoria, Australia

#3 Post by kooliepup »

Wow.
I'm exhausted after just reading that.
There's no place like 127.0.0.1

Sylvander
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Joined: Mon 15 Dec 2008, 11:06
Location: West Lothian, Scotland, UK

#4 Post by Sylvander »

1. "I suffered an unexpected and spontaneous shutdown that was followed by an XP blue screen"
Regarding the shutdown, and XP BSOD:
(a) When you swapped in a new mobo...
It was almost certainly ESSENTIAL that you run a NON-DESTRUCTIVE-REPAIR of the XP installation.
This is necessary because...
The drivers installed [by the XP Setup program] during the original installation of XP...
Are MATCHED to the particular hardware set that was connected at that time and found by the XP Setup program.

(b) When you swap in a new mobo...
And DO NOT repair the windows installation...
The drivers being used by that installation of Windows...
Are [almost certainly] NOT SUITABLE [because not matched] to the hardware [new mobo] now in place.
Hence the shutdown, and BSOD.

Antipodal
Posts: 253
Joined: Thu 26 Mar 2009, 16:52
Location: The other side of the world

Really grateful for your replies!!

#5 Post by Antipodal »

Gentlemen:
Really grateful for your replies!! :D
In my next post I shall comment on some of the ideas :idea: that arose in my mind after reading your messages. :)

starhawk
Posts: 4906
Joined: Mon 22 Nov 2010, 06:04
Location: Everybody knows this is nowhere...

#6 Post by starhawk »

Send me a picture of your "new" broken motherboard, using the "email" button at the bottom of this post. I need a close-in shot of the area that is damaged, and I may be able to help based on that.

linuxbear
Posts: 620
Joined: Sat 18 Apr 2009, 20:39
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

#7 Post by linuxbear »

"Location: The other side of the world" ......I am not sure which side of the world you are on. Isn't there always another side of the world no matter where one lands? :-) I ran puppy quite well on my previous rescued cost-free laptop. This was an old Dell 300 meg P3 with 256 meg of RAM. The machine would not run XP effectively and was designed for Win 98, but was fine with Puppy and a compact flash to extend the onboard 6 GB hard drive. Garage sales are a great place to find complete computers that windows users (or should I say the windows used) think are "worthless"

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