Oy Kvetch.
Mar. 14th, 2004 01:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swestrupToday was yet another round in the neverending battle with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
taxlady's computer. This afternoon she went out and swapped the two 256MB RAMs (that we couldn't get to work) for three 128MB RAMs that we were pretty sure would work. Not only did we end up 128MB poorer in the deal, but it cost us an extra $20 as well. Sigh.
Anyway, I put the RAM in and it worked first time, so I figured my problems were over. I spent some time testing the hardware and fixing wonky BIOS settings (that I had played with in an attempt to get the 256MB RAMs to work). Finally, it looked like everything was going fine.taxlady went into her office to prepare to recieve her refurbished machine, and I started putting the panels and stuff back on.
Suddenly I remembered that I had left a CD in the drive. Not a big deal, but at this point I didn't want to take a chance transporting a machine (even across the house) with a CD in its drive, in case I somehow managed to damage the CD burner. At this point I had already shut down the computer and removed the power cables and I didn't want to have put it all back and power the machine up and wait for it to boot, just so I could pop the disk out and ask it to shut down again.
Since I had a bent paperclip handy (never leave home without it), I put the clip into the emergency eject hole on the drive to pop out the tray. I've done this a million times before and its never caused any problems. This time was different. The tray came half-way out and stuck. A gentle tug had the tray all the way out, and I removed the CD, but the tray refused to go back in. Not wanting to force things, I sighed and reconnected the power, so it could cycle normally. No dice. The tray is now stuck. A few minutes with a flashlight revealed that some inner part has come loose and is jamming the mechanism.
So now the CD burner is broken and its warranty is long over. It might be fixable, but I know even less about the guts of CD burners than about power supplies. I came this close to breaking into tears out of sheer frustration. I was within minutes of being able to get back to my own projects (like finding me a job) rather than having to babysit this 'simple' upgrade.
So tomorrow I'm going to pull the broken CD Burner out of that machine and put in the CD Reader from my old machine I've been trying to refurbish into a server. At least that will let my wife get back to work, and as her home office provides this house's only income at the moment, that's a priority. She'll still be able to burn CD's in the burner on my machine, although that will hardly be convenient for her. Then I suppose I'll see if I can't fix the broken burner, or failing that, see what's the cheapest replacement I can find.
*SIGH* You know, if I wasn't broke and resenting every penny I'm spending on this upgrade I'd have laughed all this off as just another slightly-expensive learning experience. Instead I'm going to be up half the night with worry again.
taxlady's computer. This afternoon she went out and swapped the two 256MB RAMs (that we couldn't get to work) for three 128MB RAMs that we were pretty sure would work. Not only did we end up 128MB poorer in the deal, but it cost us an extra $20 as well. Sigh.Anyway, I put the RAM in and it worked first time, so I figured my problems were over. I spent some time testing the hardware and fixing wonky BIOS settings (that I had played with in an attempt to get the 256MB RAMs to work). Finally, it looked like everything was going fine.
taxlady went into her office to prepare to recieve her refurbished machine, and I started putting the panels and stuff back on. Suddenly I remembered that I had left a CD in the drive. Not a big deal, but at this point I didn't want to take a chance transporting a machine (even across the house) with a CD in its drive, in case I somehow managed to damage the CD burner. At this point I had already shut down the computer and removed the power cables and I didn't want to have put it all back and power the machine up and wait for it to boot, just so I could pop the disk out and ask it to shut down again.
Since I had a bent paperclip handy (never leave home without it), I put the clip into the emergency eject hole on the drive to pop out the tray. I've done this a million times before and its never caused any problems. This time was different. The tray came half-way out and stuck. A gentle tug had the tray all the way out, and I removed the CD, but the tray refused to go back in. Not wanting to force things, I sighed and reconnected the power, so it could cycle normally. No dice. The tray is now stuck. A few minutes with a flashlight revealed that some inner part has come loose and is jamming the mechanism.
So now the CD burner is broken and its warranty is long over. It might be fixable, but I know even less about the guts of CD burners than about power supplies. I came this close to breaking into tears out of sheer frustration. I was within minutes of being able to get back to my own projects (like finding me a job) rather than having to babysit this 'simple' upgrade.
So tomorrow I'm going to pull the broken CD Burner out of that machine and put in the CD Reader from my old machine I've been trying to refurbish into a server. At least that will let my wife get back to work, and as her home office provides this house's only income at the moment, that's a priority. She'll still be able to burn CD's in the burner on my machine, although that will hardly be convenient for her. Then I suppose I'll see if I can't fix the broken burner, or failing that, see what's the cheapest replacement I can find.
*SIGH* You know, if I wasn't broke and resenting every penny I'm spending on this upgrade I'd have laughed all this off as just another slightly-expensive learning experience. Instead I'm going to be up half the night with worry again.
