Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:36 pm

I finally got fed up with my development system today...

Remember a couple of months ago when we had the wierd power problems and my computer would just reset itself without warning? Well, it's been doing it again. Today I was in Delphi and had been programming for a couple of hours when it decided to reset itself. Poof...3 hours of work lost!

I couldn't take it any more. I just can't develop on a system that is going to do this. As much as you try to remember to save your work periodically, it seems to know when you haven't saved and resets itself at the worst times.

So, I took the system down to the local computer store. We have a really good independant computer shop near our house that builds game systems, repairs computers, etc. I'm getting the case, power supply and motherboard replaced. This *should* be an end to the problems with this system.

I *know* that the USB ports on the old system were dead. I had to add a PCI USB card a few months ago to fix that and get my PDA to synch again. I already replaced the UPS this past week and that didn't fix it. So, my guess is that either the power supply was also damaged or that the CPU is somehow getting too hot and shutting down the system to protect itself. The fan on the power supply was definitely starting to make some bad noises now and then.

I decided it would cost more to try and debug and fix the current system and it's cheaper to just get a new system. Replacing the motherboard and case and keeping the rest of the peripherals isn't as expensive as I feared.

I paid a bit more to get a motherboard that has dual ATA connectors so that I can do RAID disks in the future. It also has the latest 64-bit Athlon CPU socket. It will have a 3100 in it, which is a *total* overkill for my development system. Should be something I don't have to replace for a *long* time. My current CPU was a early 500Mhz Athlon (about 5 years old). Of course, I also had to get new RAM for it.

Ended up costing about $600, which is a lot for me right now, but I think worth it for getting a reliable development system again.

Unfortunately it means another 2-day delay in work on eMobius. I'm typing this blog entry from my gaming system right now. They will do the rebuild of Windows for the new motherboard, reapply patches like SP2, etc. So, when I get the system back on Saturday, all of my software and settings should still be intact. Cross your fingers on that! This will actually be a good test for this computer store to see how good they are.

So, I'll be spending the next couple of days doing on-paper design work for eMobius.

Wizard Joined: 14 Oct 2000 Posts: 1368

I hope you took a backup of your source code before handing the computer in. Would be really annoying if they managed to format the harddrives.

Enchanter Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 698

Or even copied the source code for nefarious purposes.

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:19 pm

It's always a downer to hear of your computer troubles. I have them (I think we all do) too, but when it is your livelyhood that sucks even more!

I realize you've made your decision, and I'd have to agree it's the right decision, but a story for you.

I don't know all the right words to use here, but our work system is built up with about 10 different servers - all serving something different. I guess what you would call the 'main' one had a melt down the other day. I call it the 'main' one because that's the one we log into first to get all our scripts and bits and pieces so that we can 'talk' to which every other server(s) we're allowed to.

It took a while to figure out that the server had gone down, because it didn't affect individual users already logged in, just those trying to log in, so the afternoon when the problem was first noticed didn't get the attention it should have. The next morning when all 70 of us are trying to log in, big panic. Anyway, our onsite people didn't know what to do to get it up again, so we called in the 'big boys'. They came and tinkered for awhile with no immediate results, but some work arounds to get us logged in through someother server. Somewhere close to the close of business someone with not a lot of expertise asked the question "is the fan working the way it should?" Some quick tests showed it wasn't, a quick dismantle, a short walk to our Engineering Office, a spray with WD50, , walk back, reinstall and all was well - and continues to be.

I'm sure we should go out and get a new fan (I believe the one that sits on the CPU), but a day of paying people to fix our server ended up costing about a penny of WD50 and 5 minutes of labor to actually solve the problem...

Oh well, that's not a bill I have to pay...

I'm sure you'll get a bigger kick out of your new zippy system though!