"Wes" wrote in message
...
"Tom Gardner" wrote:

My slightly anal bookkeeper back-up his data at least 4 times a day to a zip
drive in addition to a RAID mirror. I back-up my drawings as I work on them
to
a thumb and documents once a week or so but I have hard copies. We've gotten
bitten and were lucky but the lesson stuck.


Great, you have data. Have you done a full bare metal bring up boxes from
scratch, put programs and data on them and get back in business restore?

That is from duplicates of os, tape backup, applications software disks as
in the office burned to the ground, the original cd /dvds are gone, paper
files with license keys, ect.

Back when I was doing the IT thing, I had tape, spare tape drive, interface
cards, duplicates of install media, configuration data, ect and once a year
I'd do a disaster restore drill.


Wes

For me to get a box up from scratch to functional in less than an hour. I have
customized XPP with the full OS and basic applicants on an unattended DVD, start
it up and walk away. Generations of back-ups and originals are in a big
fireproof safe and my thumb drive is in my pocket. We're pretty good but not
perfect.

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
Tom Gardner wrote:

Thanks for the interesting site! I've had caps blow and sound like a gun
shot.


A woman at my church asked me to look at her computer. A small
electrolytic exploded in the power supply and shot out through the fan.
That bad power supply destroyed the hard drive, the CD-ROM drive, the
RAM, the CPU and the motherboard. The only thing that was still usable
was the cheap case.

--
My sig file can beat up your sig file!

Did you tell her it was a message from God? I would have...

Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

I need to order a new supply. i see newegg has a huge selection. Any
particular suggestions on which to order?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2&N=2010320058


P.S. stuff is breaking faster than I can repair it. Still have an electrical
circuit to repair. SWMBO just told me the wash machine leaks water on the
floor. I just put a bettery back in the truck and the alternator won't
charge. leaving everything to freeze for three months sure causes trouble.
maybe i should just go back to FL.

Karl

On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.

Tom Gardner wrote:

"Cydrome Leader" wrote in message
...
Tom Gardner wrote:

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...
My other computer just died... FWIW, it just completed a 2000 trip. Ran fine
before the move. Nothing after.

When you push the button in front to boot the computer, the fans just spin
for
a second and nothing else happens. Any suggestions on what might be wrong?

Its an older Dell P4 2 Ghz model.

Karl



You deserve a power supply tester. The last one I got was $7 Test the
supply,
unplug all peripherals except the MB and one memory module. If it stays up,
plug
one thing at a time in. But, Id bet on the PS.

the rest of the computer is called a power supply tester.

if a computer died during a move, reseat everything, and dust it out while
it's open.




I use my leaf blower after pinning the fans with toothpicks...DON'T over-rev
them!

ahaha- to the leaf blower part.

I tried to blow out a squirrel cage blower once, but it ran too fast and
self destructed. It stopped really really fast as the blades ran into the
housing and pieces of them flew out.

On Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:57:58 -0600, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:


I need to order a new supply. i see newegg has a huge selection. Any
particular suggestions on which to order?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2&N=2010320058


After suffering several failures of cheap no-name power supplies over
a short time period, I started buying Antecs. Antec supplies are
mid-range in price, and my impression is that they're a good value. I
haven't any failures with three supplies in 3 or 4 years.

--
Ned Simmons

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:21:32 -0600, Ignoramus24341
wrote:

On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.


Indeed.

Gunner

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:21:32 -0600, Ignoramus24341
wrote:

On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.


Dell has gone the route that Packard Bell and Compac did, for years.
Proprietary guts

When Packard Bell was THE low end computer, I only bought NEC stuff,
as it was made of high end "generic" stuff.

Gunner

On 2008-03-06, Gunner wrote:
On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:21:32 -0600, Ignoramus24341
wrote:

On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.


Dell has gone the route that Packard Bell and Compac did, for years.
Proprietary guts

When Packard Bell was THE low end computer, I only bought NEC stuff,
as it was made of high end "generic" stuff.


HP did the same.

i

Ned Simmons wrote:
On Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:57:58 -0600, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:


I need to order a new supply. i see newegg has a huge selection. Any
particular suggestions on which to order?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2&N=2010320058


After suffering several failures of cheap no-name power supplies over
a short time period, I started buying Antecs. Antec supplies are
mid-range in price, and my impression is that they're a good value. I
haven't any failures with three supplies in 3 or 4 years.

I've been having good luck with Rosewill's mid-range lineup. $30-40
range. The units are good and heavy (they used enough copper in them) and
I haven't had one die on me in the 2 years I've been using them at work.
(Machine shop with oily environment).

On Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:57:58 -0600, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

Like I said, power supply.
Like I said, DELL from HELL.

I need to order a new supply. i see newegg has a huge selection. Any
particular suggestions on which to order?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2&N=2010320058


P.S. stuff is breaking faster than I can repair it. Still have an electrical
circuit to repair. SWMBO just told me the wash machine leaks water on the
floor. I just put a bettery back in the truck and the alternator won't
charge. leaving everything to freeze for three months sure causes trouble.
maybe i should just go back to FL.

Karl




--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:21:32 -0600, Ignoramus24341
wrote:

On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.


Like I said - DELL from HELL


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Tom Gardner wrote:

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
Tom Gardner wrote:

Thanks for the interesting site! I've had caps blow and sound like a gun
shot.


A woman at my church asked me to look at her computer. A small
electrolytic exploded in the power supply and shot out through the fan.
That bad power supply destroyed the hard drive, the CD-ROM drive, the
RAM, the CPU and the motherboard. The only thing that was still usable
was the cheap case.

--
My sig file can beat up your sig file!

Did you tell her it was a message from God? I would have...


I told her, Yes, you did buy a brand name computer, but it was the
cheapest computer ever made."


--
My sig file can beat up your sig file!

Gunner wrote:

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:21:32 -0600, Ignoramus24341
wrote:

On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.

Dell has gone the route that Packard Bell and Compac did, for years.
Proprietary guts

When Packard Bell was THE low end computer, I only bought NEC stuff,
as it was made of high end "generic" stuff.

Gunner


Did you know those Pathetic *******s computers were built with NEC
parts that fell through the bottom of the NEC barrels? Have you looked
at the NEC web page lately? The last time I did, it had some PB
computers listed.

BTW, to you remember when PB made overpriced consumer electronics?
The old game shows, like 'Lets Make a Deal' stated that the retail
prices were over $1000, for a $400 color TV. I only saw ONE PB color TV
in Ohio. We had the only shop that would touch it. I was VERY happy
that I worked for the industrial electronics group, that day.


--
My sig file can beat up your sig file!

clare, at, snyder, dot, ontario, dot, canada wrote:

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:21:32 -0600, Ignoramus24341
wrote:

On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.

Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.

Like I said - DELL from HELL


Actually, its "Dell? YOU bought a Dell? What the hell is wrong with
you? Dude, you're going to HELL!!!" ;-)

The road to hell is paved with empty Dell computer cases.

Dell is a contraction of Damnation and hELL.


--
My sig file can beat up your sig file!

Gunner wrote:
On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:21:32 -0600, Ignoramus24341
wrote:

On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.
Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.


Dell has gone the route that Packard Bell and Compac did, for years.
Proprietary guts

When Packard Bell was THE low end computer, I only bought NEC stuff,
as it was made of high end "generic" stuff.

Gunner

Actually other than the lack of the power switch the Dell machines are
(except for the XPS box) standard parts now. Personally I have a LOT of
Dell machines and have had better service from them than any other
machines I've had. They also derate there power supplies a LOT. The
"250" watt unit in this machine is just loafing along at 250 watts, I
have run it through a couple tests and can get 400 watts out of it
without any problems.

--
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:10:41 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

BTW, to you remember when PB made overpriced consumer electronics?
The old game shows, like 'Lets Make a Deal' stated that the retail
prices were over $1000, for a $400 color TV. I only saw ONE PB color TV
in Ohio. We had the only shop that would touch it. I was VERY happy
that I worked for the industrial electronics group, that day.

Oh, that brings back nightmares, all right... Uncle Wes helped
engineer that 19" all-tube monster, I think one of his co-workers was
Earl "Madman" Muntz with his insulated side-cutters... ;-P

He got us a deal, but told us to get the extended warranty. (He
knew the MTBF was abysmal, but you can't come out and say it and keep
a job...) And over the course of about 12 years every single
component in the set was changed at least once. Two picture tubes.
One or two complete tuners.

And I was in there in between calls, the young kid with the plastic
tuning screwdriver cleaning up the color when things drifted. Even
had my own Killer Cord and degaussing coil.

(Amazing what you pick up when you quietly watch what the repairman
is doing, and exactly how he does it. And you take it to heart when
he says "Whatever you do kid, do NOT touch here, or here, or here!" as
he points out the flyback and the HV anode pickup cup and such. And
since I never got knocked on my ass, I must have learned something.)

When they wouldn't renew the contract any more, we dumped the set
the second time it died - the first retail repair call was a very
expensive lesson. And by then solid state sets were starting to hit
the market.

-- Bruce --

"Tom Gardner" wrote in message
...

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
Tom Gardner wrote:

Thanks for the interesting site! I've had caps blow and sound like a
gun shot.


A woman at my church asked me to look at her computer. A small
electrolytic exploded in the power supply and shot out through the fan.
That bad power supply destroyed the hard drive, the CD-ROM drive, the
RAM, the CPU and the motherboard. The only thing that was still usable
was the cheap case.

--
My sig file can beat up your sig file!

Did you tell her it was a message from God? I would have...


Sounds like power surge damage. We get a lot of it here. It's hard to talk
people into buying good surge protectors. One surge destroyed over 60
computers in our town. That was about 4-5 years ago.


Steve R.



--
Reply address munged to bugger up spammers

"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote:

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:10:41 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

BTW, to you remember when PB made overpriced consumer electronics?
The old game shows, like 'Lets Make a Deal' stated that the retail
prices were over $1000, for a $400 color TV. I only saw ONE PB color TV
in Ohio. We had the only shop that would touch it. I was VERY happy
that I worked for the industrial electronics group, that day.

Oh, that brings back nightmares, all right... Uncle Wes helped
engineer that 19" all-tube monster, I think one of his co-workers was
Earl "Madman" Muntz with his insulated side-cutters... ;-P


The world would have been better off if someone had pinholed those
dammed cutters.


He got us a deal, but told us to get the extended warranty. (He
knew the MTBF was abysmal, but you can't come out and say it and keep
a job...) And over the course of about 12 years every single
component in the set was changed at least once. Two picture tubes.
One or two complete tuners.

And I was in there in between calls, the young kid with the plastic
tuning screwdriver cleaning up the color when things drifted. Even
had my own Killer Cord and degaussing coil.

(Amazing what you pick up when you quietly watch what the repairman
is doing, and exactly how he does it. And you take it to heart when
he says "Whatever you do kid, do NOT touch here, or here, or here!" as
he points out the flyback and the HV anode pickup cup and such. And
since I never got knocked on my ass, I must have learned something.)


You couldn't understand the guy who worked for Sears, when our Tv
failed under warranty, and he didn't know what not to touch. I cringed
as I watched him shove a metal shank screwdriver against the output
electrolytic in the double circuit, while holding the steel chassis. He
threw the screwdriver and screeched, 'OOOOHHH dat stil got jook in der'
as he rubbed his hand that stopped him from going through the wall.


When they wouldn't renew the contract any more, we dumped the set
the second time it died - the first retail repair call was a very
expensive lesson. And by then solid state sets were starting to hit
the market.


I have the first color TV my parents bought, in 1966. One of the
very first Motorola Quasar TVs. It was repaired five times in 42 years,
including one new CRT to get rid of that lousy 23EGP22, and two
lightning strikes that blew out the RF stage in the VHF tuner.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

In article ,
Ned Simmons wrote:

On Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:57:58 -0600, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

I need to order a new supply. i see newegg has a huge selection. Any
particular suggestions on which to order?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2&N=2010320058

After suffering several failures of cheap no-name power supplies over
a short time period, I started buying Antecs. Antec supplies are
mid-range in price, and my impression is that they're a good value. I
haven't any failures with three supplies in 3 or 4 years.

Antec is fairly decent, but wander over to the badcaps.net forums, and
you'll see plenty of complaints about them -- for instance:

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthr...ighlight=antec

If you open up those 3-4 year old supplies, you'll likely see some
bulging and/or leaking capacitors. I did on mine.


--
Norman Yarvin http://yarchive.net

DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2008-03-05, Karl Townsend wrote:

My other computer just died... FWIW, it just completed a 2000 trip. Ran fine
before the move. Nothing after.

When you push the button in front to boot the computer, the fans just spin
for a second and nothing else happens. Any suggestions on what might be
wrong?


My first thought would be to open it up and check that all
connectors are fully seated. Pay special attention to any cables from
the power supply to the system board.


Its an older Dell P4 2 Ghz model.


Dell? Sorry. :-( They tend to be less standard than any three
other PCs combined.

Good Luck,
DoN.

The Dell Optiplex machines have been the MOST standard,
universally compatible machines I've used. I tend to be most
focussed on the parallel port and Linux compatibility, though,
so I may have missed other stuff that wasn't compatible.

Jon

Ignoramus24341 wrote:
On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:

Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.


Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.

Well, I have FIVE Dells I use here, two are on 24/7, the kid's
one is on all day every day, and my desktop at work is on 24/7
too. I have found them to be great. All are Optiplex desktops,
from their commercial-grade systems. I did have to replace the
CPU fan on my desktop at home, and the kid's computer crashed
when the CPU heatsink clogged up with dust. Otherwise, they
have been running for years. I have sold about a dozen
off-lease Dell Optiplex machines to EMC cnc customers, and had
only one that had a problem.

Jon

On 2008-03-08, Jon Elson wrote:
DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2008-03-05, Karl Townsend wrote:

My other computer just died... FWIW, it just completed a 2000 trip. Ran fine
before the move. Nothing after.

When you push the button in front to boot the computer, the fans just spin
for a second and nothing else happens. Any suggestions on what might be
wrong?


My first thought would be to open it up and check that all
connectors are fully seated. Pay special attention to any cables from
the power supply to the system board.


Its an older Dell P4 2 Ghz model.


Dell? Sorry. :-( They tend to be less standard than any three
other PCs combined.

Good Luck,
DoN.

The Dell Optiplex machines have been the MOST standard,
universally compatible machines I've used. I tend to be most
focussed on the parallel port and Linux compatibility, though,
so I may have missed other stuff that wasn't compatible.

We are talking about brackets and connectors here.

i

On 2008-03-08, Jon Elson wrote:
Ignoramus24341 wrote:
On 2008-03-06, Karl Townsend wrote:

Thanks for the help, everybody.

Followup. It was the power supply. I had a spare in a CNC control computer
I'm not using right now.

METALWORKING CONTENT. Dell's power supply has no switch and the metal case
was made just for it. So I had to make a bracket to hold a hole saw and saw
a piece of the case out to fit the new supply. Took over an hour.


Now you know why those of us who mess with our own computers, do not
like Dells.

Well, I have FIVE Dells I use here, two are on 24/7, the kid's
one is on all day every day, and my desktop at work is on 24/7
too. I have found them to be great. All are Optiplex desktops,
from their commercial-grade systems. I did have to replace the
CPU fan on my desktop at home, and the kid's computer crashed
when the CPU heatsink clogged up with dust. Otherwise, they
have been running for years. I have sold about a dozen
off-lease Dell Optiplex machines to EMC cnc customers, and had
only one that had a problem.

I have two Dells at home (both Precision 470, a New Year present to me
by a relative). While I appreciate the present, and they are working,
I can see some things that I do not like. One is that they run
HOT. Another is that the case is too cramped.

Yet another is those special brackets.

i

On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:14:33 GMT, "Steve R." wrote:


"Tom Gardner" wrote in message
t...

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
Tom Gardner wrote:

Thanks for the interesting site! I've had caps blow and sound like a
gun shot.


A woman at my church asked me to look at her computer. A small
electrolytic exploded in the power supply and shot out through the fan.
That bad power supply destroyed the hard drive, the CD-ROM drive, the
RAM, the CPU and the motherboard. The only thing that was still usable
was the cheap case.

--
My sig file can beat up your sig file!

Did you tell her it was a message from God? I would have...


Sounds like power surge damage. We get a lot of it here. It's hard to talk
people into buying good surge protectors. One surge destroyed over 60
computers in our town. That was about 4-5 years ago.


Steve R.
It was running on a high end dual conversion UPS

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:56:20 -0600, Norman Yarvin
wrote:


Antec is fairly decent, but wander over to the badcaps.net forums, and
you'll see plenty of complaints about them -- for instance:

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthr...ighlight=antec

If you open up those 3-4 year old supplies, you'll likely see some
bulging and/or leaking capacitors. I did on mine.

This machine is due for a dusting so I'll have a look when I open it
up. The older boxes are away at college, so not my problem 'til they
die g.

--
Ned Simmons

Jon Elson wrote:
(snip)
The Dell Optiplex machines have been the MOST standard,
universally compatible machines I've used. I tend to be most
focussed on the parallel port and Linux compatibility, though,
so I may have missed other stuff that wasn't compatible.

Jon

We have several Dell Optiplex 320s where I work. Their PSU is a off size,
and slightly smaller than a normal ATX, so you can't replace it with a
normal unit if it goes bad. (Only 320W too) The motherboard may be BTX,
but it mounts upsidedown and backwards in the case compared to an ATX
board (not all that familiar with BTX format). Oh and while the clock
chip in it is capible of 400 FSB, anything above 200 FSB isn't allowed by
the BIOS, so don't think about upgrading from the E2140 chip that comes in
it.