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Definition of a good day...
It happened after inadvertantly sticking mixed memory types on a motherboard (one unbuffered stick slipped in.)
The response of the system was to go gah-gah. This mobo has an artifical voice that irritatingly reports stuff instead of beeping. It shrieked like a harpy, yelling, continuously, "MEMORY INCOMPATIBILITY, MEMORY INCOMPATIBILITY, MEMORY INCOMPATIBILITY, ..." Pulling the plug (and only pulling the plug) stopped that.
I opened the box, discovered my mistake, and put in matched memory.
"Gah-gah" is a term of art for, first the machine acts crazy, and then, when I push the start button on the front panel, nothing happens. Which is what happened next.
Ok, not quite. When pushing the front panel button, the CPU fan would take a 1/64th turn and instantly stop. Nothing else happened. I repeated this with power interruptions about a dozen times. No joy.
Ok, so I made sure everything was properly seated and connected. Pushed the front panel button again and still the half-hearted attempt at fan twisting and na-da. After expressing some religious thoughts, I started disconnecting stuff, one at a time, but still keeping all the stuff mounted in the case.
Now, it is the case that plugging in the PC and turning the power supply button on, on the back side, would cause the status LED on the mobo to light as well as the status LEDs at the NIC connection. The next step was to push the start button just to raise my level of frustration. This sequence of events was repeated while gradually disconnecting everything in the box, one at a time.
The sequence went something like: USB cables, sound cable external, sound cable internal, network cable, Aux video card fan (not the primary), quaternary case fan, tertiary case fan (in front of the 3 hard drives), secondary case fan (under the power supply), HD #2, HD #1, CD-ROM, DVD-RW, Internal speaker, HD #0, video card substitution, CPU fan, mobo-PS disconnect, mobo-PS reconnect, memory sticks out.
The reaction of the system, after each disconnect or removal, was gah-gah except the "crazy" part was not discernible and only assumed on my part.
I considered my next steps, testing the power supply and buying a new motherboard if the PS tested out. I would have tested the power supply earlier except didn't have a known-good PS to swap in and I have misplaced my little dummy load device.
Just for giggles, I did the "reset the CMOS jumper" thing and cycled the PS. Still no joy. I left the PS and mobo powered up, and went off to make lunch, sauerkraut and polish sausage on rye with a black and tan.
When I came back I shut the power supply off, and stared into the depths of the case awhile. Then, for no reason, I plugged the matched memory back in (which requires removal and replacement of the video card so that the slot clips can open and close on the sticks), and pushed the front panel button.
VOILA!!! Houston (and Mrs. Calabash), we have lift-off!
And so, one at a time, I plugged everything back in, and now everything works as before.
My SO asked, "Are you going to have to buy a new computer?"
I missed an opportunity there; "Nah, I fixed it."
"What did you do?"
"I dunno."
The response of the system was to go gah-gah. This mobo has an artifical voice that irritatingly reports stuff instead of beeping. It shrieked like a harpy, yelling, continuously, "MEMORY INCOMPATIBILITY, MEMORY INCOMPATIBILITY, MEMORY INCOMPATIBILITY, ..." Pulling the plug (and only pulling the plug) stopped that.
I opened the box, discovered my mistake, and put in matched memory.
"Gah-gah" is a term of art for, first the machine acts crazy, and then, when I push the start button on the front panel, nothing happens. Which is what happened next.
Ok, not quite. When pushing the front panel button, the CPU fan would take a 1/64th turn and instantly stop. Nothing else happened. I repeated this with power interruptions about a dozen times. No joy.
Ok, so I made sure everything was properly seated and connected. Pushed the front panel button again and still the half-hearted attempt at fan twisting and na-da. After expressing some religious thoughts, I started disconnecting stuff, one at a time, but still keeping all the stuff mounted in the case.
Now, it is the case that plugging in the PC and turning the power supply button on, on the back side, would cause the status LED on the mobo to light as well as the status LEDs at the NIC connection. The next step was to push the start button just to raise my level of frustration. This sequence of events was repeated while gradually disconnecting everything in the box, one at a time.
The sequence went something like: USB cables, sound cable external, sound cable internal, network cable, Aux video card fan (not the primary), quaternary case fan, tertiary case fan (in front of the 3 hard drives), secondary case fan (under the power supply), HD #2, HD #1, CD-ROM, DVD-RW, Internal speaker, HD #0, video card substitution, CPU fan, mobo-PS disconnect, mobo-PS reconnect, memory sticks out.
The reaction of the system, after each disconnect or removal, was gah-gah except the "crazy" part was not discernible and only assumed on my part.
I considered my next steps, testing the power supply and buying a new motherboard if the PS tested out. I would have tested the power supply earlier except didn't have a known-good PS to swap in and I have misplaced my little dummy load device.
Just for giggles, I did the "reset the CMOS jumper" thing and cycled the PS. Still no joy. I left the PS and mobo powered up, and went off to make lunch, sauerkraut and polish sausage on rye with a black and tan.
When I came back I shut the power supply off, and stared into the depths of the case awhile. Then, for no reason, I plugged the matched memory back in (which requires removal and replacement of the video card so that the slot clips can open and close on the sticks), and pushed the front panel button.
VOILA!!! Houston (and Mrs. Calabash), we have lift-off!
And so, one at a time, I plugged everything back in, and now everything works as before.
My SO asked, "Are you going to have to buy a new computer?"
I missed an opportunity there; "Nah, I fixed it."
"What did you do?"
"I dunno."
Add a Comment
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Comment by NeferSif on July 9, 2009 at 6:57pm - LMAO! That was great. Most of the time patience pays off. Good for you.
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Comment by Bit Byter on July 5, 2009 at 9:58am -
Eric - Troubleshooting step #49: Follow the hunch.
Bret - Thx.
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Comment by Bret Spector on July 4, 2009 at 6:26pm - Wow. Priceless. Just priceless...
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Comment by Eric Fox on July 4, 2009 at 4:36am -
That seems to be how it always goes with these repairs. Half of the time, you don't really have a clue as to why it works, or why it was even broke. It just was, and isn't now. Had this one computer where I ad no idea why it refused to go into Windows. on a hunch, I swapped the drives. Switched master/slave, cables, everything needed to ensure one took the job of the other. And it worked! For some reason, Windows was installed on the second drive, rather than the first. Why? Heck if I know.
At the end of the day, you'll always get a weird solution to at least one problem. Just be thankful you don't have to fix that particular problem again. Sure, you'd probably actually figure out what - if anything- was wrong with it, but it'd be a bigger pain, as no two issues ever work the same.
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Comment by Bit Byter on July 3, 2009 at 2:47pm
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SSBren - Yeah, maybe I shoulda made lunch sooner.
BrianB - You know, 9 chips on two sticks and 8 on the third (ECC and non-ECC)? This creates a can't boot condition.
Dan - Sometimes just dotting the i's and crossing the t's and verbal flattery will get you there, but I generally try berating the hardware first.
Shtano - Just a CMOS reset. ...but then, if I thought a board was toast and I could get it to boot with the update software, I'd try to inspire the eeprom anyway.
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Comment by Shtanto on July 3, 2009 at 1:06pm - I've done that a few times. Sucks doesn't it? So much for learning from past mistakes! Grats on the repair all the same. I'dve been a bit more reluctant to fiddle with the CMOS. You can easy brick good boards if you do it wrong.
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Comment by Dan on July 3, 2009 at 12:48pm -
Hmmmm, as a tech repair person I run into "I dunno" all too often after I 'fixed' it. LOL!
The biggest problem is then making up some blarney story the customer will believe. ;o)
Dan
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Comment by Brian Buckley on July 3, 2009 at 12:28pm - mix and match ram error?
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Comment by SassySweetBren on July 3, 2009 at 12:04pm -
ha ha...I love that Nah, I fixed it. What did you do? I dunno. Priceless.
I replaced one stick of ram with two because I was upgrading. I feel your frustration as when I turned on my computer. It would sound like it was starting up but nothing after a minute. I wanted to chew nails.
Like you, I walked away and came back later. Took both out and inserted again. My hands aren't the strongest part of my body so, I did not have them seated like I thought. Sure was a nice feeling to see a screen and hear the computer not shut down.
It was just like the old days when I once made clothes. The answer to most problems is time away from what one is doing. Don't ya think?
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