Just call me "PC Crasher" (PCC for short)

[SilvrT]

As many of you know, I'm a computer tech....been in the biz for 22 years and last night and this morning have been the worst experience I've ever had ... thought I'd share it coz no matter how bad something is... there's bound to be humour in it.

 

Sunday my son brings his computer over to me to fix. It boots up with the "Blue Screen of Death" with the message UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. No biggie...been there, done that and I had it fixed in 20 minutes.

 

Last night I planned to take it over to his house... me and Nina would go for a ride on the scoot. I set the computer on the trunk rack...looks pretty stable... then walked away to grab some bungee cords and......OMG!!! it's sliding off!!! and before I could do anything it crashed to the floor breaking the case open, plastic front panel smashed to pieces... OH NO!!!...

 

Take it upstairs and plug it all in.... nothing! ... nada... zip ... it has power but nothing comes up on the monitor..nothing at all. Neither the monitor light or the CPU light turn green like they normally do and the hard drive just clicks once but doesn't spin up. No bout a doubt it...the motherboard is shot!

 

Ok, so I bring his hard drive in to work this morning to test it out on one of the PC's here...

 

I open up one of the computers here and unplug the hard drive...then plug the hard drive from my son's machine in and set the hard drive on top of the corner of the open CPU box.. then I reach back to plug the power cord in and bump the hard drive, knocking it off and onto the motherboard. (&^$#@!!!&*... and more *&!!!@##)

 

So I pick it up and set it back on the edge and power up the computer... nothing...nada ... no workie ... just like my son's. Ok, so I plug the hard drive back in that was in the system to begin with... same thing... nothing... Crap!!... so I open up another computer (both were working before I started this) and take the hard drive out of it and plug it into the first machine...same thing... nothing.

 

I then test all the hard drives (including my son's) in the second machine and all are working.

 

So, it looks like I've CRASHED 2 computers in the last 18 hours!! .... WHAT NEXT???

 

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

:crying:

 

Unfortunately, the PC at work is now off warranty to boot!

 

Oh well, it's good for parts and at least my son's hard drive is still working so he hasn't lost everything.

[mkrieg]

Being a network engineer, I feel your pain. I have done something similar in the past only that time with servers and not pc's.

[Dano]

Most of us have joined that club in the town of "Klutzville"

[BuddyRich]

Some days its just like that. If you ain't droppin the hardware your misconfiguring the software and shuttin down the whole building.

Other days you look like a genius and your still stand there wondering what you did right. Just remember its all based on Electronic THEORY.

[RandyR]

must be a sign from above that its time to upgrade....

 

 

PS. I've always wondered why the newest version of the the operating system which is always marketed as being more efficient and faster, requires more memory and a faster computer to run... One of those mysteries of life, I guess...

[SilvrT]

PS. I've always wondered why the newest version of the the operating system which is always marketed as being more efficient and faster, requires more memory and a faster computer to run... One of those mysteries of life, I guess...

 

yup... every new version of windows states the same thing...yet it never is unless you go out and buy 2-3 times the machine you have. They're all in cahoots methinks and we fall for it (or are forced into it).

[Squeeze]

Most of us have joined that club in the town of "Klutzville"

 

 

Well, i didn't know they named the Town after my Name, but i've been there some Times in the Past .... even if i didn't read the Name of the Town ... :crackup:

[SilvrT]

Well, i didn't know they named the Town after my Name, but i've been there some Times in the Past .... even if i didn't read the Name of the Town ... :crackup:

 

huh??? I thought your name was Lutz ... not Klutz ... or is that your "unspoken" nickname?

[Squeeze]

huh??? I thought your name was Lutz ... not Klutz ... or is that your "unspoken" nickname?

 

Nope, it's NOT, but then, the Difference is just the "K" ....

 

 

 

:whistling:

 

 

:crackup:

[friesman]

It sounds like your week went like mine, I had the EVA4400 stall twice last week while we were running payroll......wow, talk about stress and long days. This expensive piece of crap isnt even a year old and HP keeps saying that it need just one more firmware update. Both failures were caused by just one harddrive failure in the array of 48, what happened to the redunduncy we were promised?:bang head:

 

Good luck with yours Rick

 

Brian

[wes0778]

Yes, the words "OOPS" and "computer" definitely should never be used in the same sentence!!!

[hipshot]

As many of you know, I'm a computer tech....been in the biz for 22 years and last night and this morning have been the worst experience I've ever had ... thought I'd share it coz no matter how bad something is... there's bound to be humour in it.

 

Sunday my son brings his computer over to me to fix. It boots up with the "Blue Screen of Death" with the message UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. No biggie...been there, done that and I had it fixed in 20 minutes.

 

Last night I planned to take it over to his house... me and Nina would go for a ride on the scoot. I set the computer on the trunk rack...looks pretty stable... then walked away to grab some bungee cords and......OMG!!! it's sliding off!!! and before I could do anything it crashed to the floor breaking the case open, plastic front panel smashed to pieces... OH NO!!!...

 

Take it upstairs and plug it all in.... nothing! ... nada... zip ... it has power but nothing comes up on the monitor..nothing at all. Neither the monitor light or the CPU light turn green like they normally do and the hard drive just clicks once but doesn't spin up. No bout a doubt it...the motherboard is shot!

 

Ok, so I bring his hard drive in to work this morning to test it out on one of the PC's here...

 

I open up one of the computers here and unplug the hard drive...then plug the hard drive from my son's machine in and set the hard drive on top of the corner of the open CPU box.. then I reach back to plug the power cord in and bump the hard drive, knocking it off and onto the motherboard. (&^$#@!!!&*... and more *&!!!@##)

 

So I pick it up and set it back on the edge and power up the computer... nothing...nada ... no workie ... just like my son's. Ok, so I plug the hard drive back in that was in the system to begin with... same thing... nothing... Crap!!... so I open up another computer (both were working before I started this) and take the hard drive out of it and plug it into the first machine...same thing... nothing.

 

I then test all the hard drives (including my son's) in the second machine and all are working.

 

So, it looks like I've CRASHED 2 computers in the last 18 hours!! .... WHAT NEXT???

 

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

:crying:

 

Unfortunately, the PC at work is now off warranty to boot!

 

Oh well, it's good for parts and at least my son's hard drive is still working so he hasn't lost everything.

why didn't ya just" slave"

your son's hard drive to the office p c to begin with?

would have saved a lot of work, on your part.

just jt

[massey130]

just depends on whats on hand. sometimes slaving a drive is more of pain than swappin drives. i had a CD burner go bad just unpluggin it to slave the HDD. i have a junker pc that is just for stuff like that.

 

pc support tech

 

massey130

 

dale in La.

[SilvrT]

why didn't ya just" slave"

your son's hard drive to the office p c to begin with?

would have saved a lot of work, on your part.

just jt

 

good idea and I'd thought of that but.... ya can't slave something when there are no additional SATA drive connections off the motherboard. (or am I missing something here ... I'm always open to new discoveries)

 

In any event, it's too late for that now LOL

 

Brian (friesman1) ... I wouldn't change shoes with ya for a second bud ... I think my job is pretty cushy in comparison.

[friesman]

 

Brian (friesman1) ... I wouldn't change shoes with ya for a second bud ... I think my job is pretty cushy in comparison.

 

Got any cushy jobs out in lotusland? I am starting to think its not fun anymore ......

 

Brian:whistling:

[wes0778]

good idea and I'd thought of that but.... ya can't slave something when there are no additional SATA drive connections off the motherboard. (or am I missing something here ... I'm always open to new discoveries)

 

In any event, it's too late for that now LOL

 

By SATA do you mean IDE? If so, Most motherboards have 2 connectors, which will each support 2 drives with the proper cable. Jumper one as "Master with Slave Present" and the other one as "Slave". OR, Jumper them both as CS (Cable Select) and the one connected to the middle plug in the ribbon cable becomes the slave and the on on the very end becomes the master.

[Sailor]

OK Rick, now I know who to call. I am not computer literate. We went on vacation and had my wife's sister stay here while we were gone. The computer was working fine when we left. When we got back there was a note on it to say it was broken. Did I mention that my wife's sister thinks she knows a lot more about everything than she actually does? I called teck assistance and we spent an hour going through the blue screen of death and into the black screen of death. The teck assistance had to put me on hold 4 times to get more assistance. They kept repeating that they had never seen anything like this. I got it partially back before they admitted defeat. I got a friend who is a teckie in and he went at it. It took a while but he got 95% of it back. There are a few minor glitches in it but they don't mater. No one can figure out what she did. The next time we left and she stayed here I hid the computer. It is a laptop so it was easy. She is forbidden ever to touch our computer on pain of something so hideous I haven't even thought of it yet.

[Rocket]

By SATA do you mean IDE?

 

Nope, SATA is completely different, from IDE. None of the connection cables for the drive are compatable, not even the power.

[RoadKill]

Maybe you should start being nicer to "Murphy"! :rotfl:Next time maybe he won't invoke all his laws in 24 hours

[SilvrT]

By SATA do you mean IDE? If so, Most motherboards have 2 connectors, which will each support 2 drives with the proper cable. Jumper one as "Master with Slave Present" and the other one as "Slave". OR, Jumper them both as CS (Cable Select) and the one connected to the middle plug in the ribbon cable becomes the slave and the on on the very end becomes the master.

 

SATA & IDE are different... most PC's built within the last 3 or 4 years have SATA connectivity and some have both SATA & IDE where the SATA is used for the hard drive and the IDE is used for the CD and therefore generally has a second connector that a person can hook up another IDE peripheral such as an IDE hard drive.

 

I am very familiar with what you've suggested, having been in this business for 22+ years; however, SATA connected drives do not have the same capability as the old IDE did where you could connect more than one device to the same cable and set them up as Master/Slave using jumpers or cable select....at least not on these PC's here at the office nor on my personal PC at home or on my son's.

 

I will stand corrected on the above because I know there are such things as multipliers and other means of making that happen but I've not explored that technology...haven't needed to dig into hardware stuff like this for over 3 years now so my tech knowledge on this subject is not totally up-to-date.

Edited September 17, 2009 by SilvrT

[SilvrT]

OK Rick, now I know who to call.

 

I started out teaching computers in 1986. I then got into programming, setting up PC systems, networking, and consulting all the while, still working as a trainer. I built a pretty good "one man" operation just from "word of mouth" ..... such as your statement above.

 

Unfortunately for those who "now know who to call".... I've stopped working for myself and only do the tech work for one company now and of course, the kids

 

Having said that, if I was in your area when your PC crashed, I might consider taking a look at it... as a friend and fellow vr member.... and because I'm envious of your hair! :rotf:

[SilvrT]

Got any cushy jobs out in lotusland? I am starting to think its not fun anymore ......

 

Brian:whistling:

 

I think I got the only one that was left. Although every piece of equipment here has been installed and setup by me and it all runs very smoothly and we have specialized software that runs the operation that I do a lot of custom programming for automation purposes with, my job is pretty slack to say the least. I could really do the work needed here on a contractual basis, off-site, remote connection and do what is required maybe 2 or 3 days out of two weeks. I believe they keep me here full-time only because it's written into their contract with the government and they get paid accordingly.

[LilBeaver]

I think I got the only one that was left. Although every piece of equipment here has been installed and setup by me and it all runs very smoothly and we have specialized software that runs the operation that I do a lot of custom programming for automation purposes with, my job is pretty slack to say the least. I could really do the work needed here on a contractual basis, off-site, remote connection and do what is required maybe 2 or 3 days out of two weeks. I believe they keep me here full-time only because it's written into their contract with the government and they get paid accordingly.

 

Ah, the problems of being good and efficient at what you do! Don't say this too loud...

[BuddyRich]

Hey Rick, Get your self an external usb drive housing for SATA drives. They work great.

You can get them in 3.5 or 2.5 for working with laptops. I also have one that accepts either or and you just slap them in vertically thru an access door.

 

http://www.supermediastore.com/sansdigital-mobilestor-ms1ut-3-5-enclosure.html?utm_source=googleBase&utm_medium=pcsite&utm_term=HD-009-1842-datafeed27&utm_content=datafeed27&utm_campaign=googleBase%20-%20HD

[massey130]

for those of us who have those boxes of "parts" layin around, now is a good time to get your hands on those "hybrid" motherboards that take both SATA & IDE. after a time there will be none and we will all move to SATA drives. i went to put an IDE burner in my Dell thinking i had at least had one IDE port to find zero. now i have to find a SATA burner.