R
Rich Grise
So, I've got this W2K comp., running some CAD software, and it starts
screwing up. Like, "Unhandled exception" errors and it dumps all of my
work. So, I reinstall the app, and it's still screwing up. So, I decide
to finally run some kind of virus scan, and the machine is all infected.
Well, since I don't have money to buy antivirus stuff, I decided to just
go ahead and reinstall W2K. I'm prepared for this - I have a partition
that has _nothing_ but W2K on it, and a little 64MB (yes, sixty-four
megabytes) partition right at the boot sector. But still, Windoze is
notorious for rewriting the MBR, so I'm a little worried - the FD is
having problems (like, it won't boot off it), and I had to burn a CD to
boot into Slackware Live - or at least, use its boot kernel, for after
W2K trashes LILO.
So, I get all ready to reinstall, and when the setup disk says it's
time to reboot, it booted, of all things, LILO! Windows reassigned
all of my drives: What used to be "C:", the "BOOT" drive, became "F:,"
and "E:", where I had W2K, became "C:"; interestingly, "D:" was still
"D:".
So I have a clean install, and LILO is still in place - W2K apparently
didn't think it was important enough to bother with, or something.
Oh, wait! Just before I start all that S/W install, I decided to rescue a
couple of RAM modules from the MB of an office computer I had to fix. I
now have 512 MB of RAM, thank you very much. But, while installing this
"new" used RAM, I burned my finger on the CPU heat sink. WHAT??!?!?
There's NO WAY a heatsink should be that hot. No wonder the computer's
acting flaky! I powered it up, and the CPU fan didn't even turn.
So, I put the thing up on the bench, took the fan off the heatsink of
the salvage unit, and went to slap it onto the top of the existing heat
sink, and the screws weren't long enough - entirely different style of
fan.
So I epoxied it. I also re-gooped the old heat sink (with the fan
epoxied to it). The clip was a bitch to get loose.
Anyway, I've just reached in and felt my heatsink, and it's cool to
the touch.
Please cue jokes now. ;-)
And, ironically, I was just looking at the old heatsink that I took
the fan off, and it looks like it's exactly the same clip - I could
have just swapped out the whole heatsink assembly. Oh, well, at least
I have a working computer!
Cheers!
Rich
screwing up. Like, "Unhandled exception" errors and it dumps all of my
work. So, I reinstall the app, and it's still screwing up. So, I decide
to finally run some kind of virus scan, and the machine is all infected.
Well, since I don't have money to buy antivirus stuff, I decided to just
go ahead and reinstall W2K. I'm prepared for this - I have a partition
that has _nothing_ but W2K on it, and a little 64MB (yes, sixty-four
megabytes) partition right at the boot sector. But still, Windoze is
notorious for rewriting the MBR, so I'm a little worried - the FD is
having problems (like, it won't boot off it), and I had to burn a CD to
boot into Slackware Live - or at least, use its boot kernel, for after
W2K trashes LILO.
So, I get all ready to reinstall, and when the setup disk says it's
time to reboot, it booted, of all things, LILO! Windows reassigned
all of my drives: What used to be "C:", the "BOOT" drive, became "F:,"
and "E:", where I had W2K, became "C:"; interestingly, "D:" was still
"D:".
So I have a clean install, and LILO is still in place - W2K apparently
didn't think it was important enough to bother with, or something.
Oh, wait! Just before I start all that S/W install, I decided to rescue a
couple of RAM modules from the MB of an office computer I had to fix. I
now have 512 MB of RAM, thank you very much. But, while installing this
"new" used RAM, I burned my finger on the CPU heat sink. WHAT??!?!?
There's NO WAY a heatsink should be that hot. No wonder the computer's
acting flaky! I powered it up, and the CPU fan didn't even turn.
So, I put the thing up on the bench, took the fan off the heatsink of
the salvage unit, and went to slap it onto the top of the existing heat
sink, and the screws weren't long enough - entirely different style of
fan.
So I epoxied it. I also re-gooped the old heat sink (with the fan
epoxied to it). The clip was a bitch to get loose.
Anyway, I've just reached in and felt my heatsink, and it's cool to
the touch.
And, ironically, I was just looking at the old heatsink that I took
the fan off, and it looks like it's exactly the same clip - I could
have just swapped out the whole heatsink assembly. Oh, well, at least
I have a working computer!
Cheers!
Rich