Strange... Best Buy called me yesterday and left a message stating that they can't detect any problem with the HDD. They booted the PC up just fine and ran it for 24 hours, even ran diagnostics on them without detecting a problem... now why would it not even detect the HDD for me, but run just fine without a hitch for them?
Were they testing your whole system, or just the HD? If the latter, it sounds like you either have a bad IDE (or SATA) Controller (or other MB problem), or that the PSU is failing.
Pull that socket and put a new one in...check the power with a DMM and see what the voltage is reading and if it's steady. If it's fluctuating go check the breaker box and find out what's happening on the breaker that plug's on and tighten it up if need be. The wife's could well be on another breaker. If that still doesn't cure it run an extension cord (the big industrial type) over to your desk from the wife's plug and be done with it.
Were they testing your whole system, or just the HD? If the latter, it sounds like you either have a bad IDE (or SATA) Controller (or other MB problem), or that the PSU is failing.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that this is the notebook. I wouldn't trust my real system to anyone but myself. Their voicemail said that they ran HDD diagnostics, I doubt they ran anything else.
Pull that socket and put a new one in...check the power with a DMM and see what the voltage is reading and if it's steady. If it's fluctuating go check the breaker box and find out what's happening on the breaker that plug's on and tighten it up if need be. The wife's could well be on another breaker. If that still doesn't cure it run an extension cord (the big industrial type) over to your desk from the wife's plug and be done with it.
I plan on replacing all of the outlets and switches in the office (almost immediately); the house was built in 1971 and all of the branch wiring is aluminum - I'll be using all modern aluminum-rated stuff.. There's not much chance that my wife's outlet is on a different breaker, because all 3 bedrooms are on 1 breaker - ah the wonders of 1970's electrical code.
GH, if the wiring in the house is aluminum, I highly recommend that you terminate to the receptacles with a copper pigtail for the hot and neutral lines at least. They make a special goop to put into your wire nuts to stop oxidation and electrolysis between the aluminum and copper connection and with copper pigtails, you don't have to worry about the wire/receptacle connection oxidizing or working loose. My mother's old house had some rooms done in aluminum and that's what I ended up doing to cure the electrical problems
GH, if the wiring in the house is aluminum, I highly recommend that you terminate to the receptacles with a copper pigtail for the hot and neutral lines at least. They make a special goop to put into your wire nuts to stop oxidation and electrolysis between the aluminum and copper connection and with copper pigtails, you don't have to worry about the wire/receptacle connection oxidizing or working loose. My mother's old house had some rooms done in aluminum and that's what I ended up doing to cure the electrical problems
For all of the outlets that see a high load (such as the PC connections) I'm pigtailing all 3 leads with the IDEAL Al/Cu Twisters (scroll down - the purple ones). For all of the outlets that see low load conditions, I'm installing CO/ALR rated receptacles and switches, after applying antioxidant compound to each of the leads. I'd pigtail all of them, except each of those purple wire nuts is $2.50 - that runs me $7.50 per receptacle that I pigtail, more if I screw up, since the Al/Cu wire nuts are one-time use. I also plan to eventually run new copper straight to some of the locations, such as he office outlets for the PC. Until then, I'm pigtailing them.
Before I bought the house, I did as much research as I could - I even called the local fire marshal, who told me that there is no record of any house in my town that was wired with aluminum branch wiring burning down, or even having a fire due to the wiring, so I'm pretty confident that my precautions will be enough - most people don't even go to the level of precaution that I'm going to, I'm sure. All of the Aluminum wired homes that I know of in my town(several hundred) were built by the same builder, Ryan Homes, back in the early '70s. I tried contacting the builder for details on the Aluminum wiring, but they told me that all of the records from that era are stuck in deep storage, never to be seen again.
Sounds like you are well aware of and are on top of the situation, GH. I'm glad to hear that you are attacking the problem aggressively too. Aluminum wiring can be done safely, but it ends up being just as expensive as copper once all the extra steps and parts are used for house wiring. After all, most of the power lines run are aluminum due to it's lighter weight, strength and cheaper price to do the job. Once I did the pigtails to the sockets in the 2 rooms that had aluminum wiring, all the problems went away at my mother's house.
Asus accepted my RMA and I've mailed the S754 mobo to them. I should be getting a refurb board back from them in 10 days or so.
Antec replied to my tech ticket by telling me to fax them an RMA request form, which I did last week. I haven't heard back yet.
The 3000+ CPU, stuck to its HSF with AS Ceramique, fell off of the cabinet in the office. I don't know how it fell, maybe me, maybe the dog knocked it down... anyway, the thing hit the edge of an old 17" CRT pins first, and crushed about 1/3 of the pins flat. I've managed to get most of them relatively straight, but I'm not holding out much more hope for this CPU.
I got a fortune cookie on Saturday that said "Your luck is about to change"... on Sunday the CPU fell. I don't think my luck changed yet.
I was talking on the phone last night to a friend of mine. Meanwhile, l33t wife says "Uh oh" from the kitchen table, where she is working on a C++ program on her notebook.
She had just spilled an entire 16 ounce glass of apple juice through her notebook, from the keyboard down. Apple juice literally poured out of every orifice the notebook has.
Luckily, she shut it down immediately (it did not short out and power down that way) and we used a roll of paper towel, a fan, and her hair dryer on it (I took out every user-serviceable part and dried each individually). A few hours later, we booted it to see the damage... and it booted into Windows! Unfortunately, we couldn't get past the logon screen because each keypress yielded about 6 characters in the password box.
I shut it down and stripped it again, and, against all of my instincts prohibiting the mixture of water and electronics, I sprayed the keyboard with purified water. I was literally shaking as I performed this act. Then, we applied paper towel again, then the hair dryer, and finally we had the fan blowing on high on the keyboard, with the notebook on its side, all night.
This morning, I was able to boot into Windows, and every single key worked. I think we dodged a bullet this time.
Now, aside from running memtest and Hitachi's HDD utility (assuming they have one for the Travelstar drives) is there anything I'm forgetting that I can do to verify this thing survived intact? And will my string of luck ever get better?
I would say that your luck changed when you didn't have to get your wife a new laptop. The fact that you gave it a bath should be reason enough for you to believe that your luck has changed. Any normal person gets liquid (especially something sticky like juice) on a notebook and still has a functioning piece of equipment has just met their quota for good luck for the next few months.
Comments
Sorry if you've already answered this - I'm too lazy tonight to re-read the whole thread.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that this is the notebook. I wouldn't trust my real system to anyone but myself.
I plan on replacing all of the outlets and switches in the office (almost immediately); the house was built in 1971 and all of the branch wiring is aluminum - I'll be using all modern aluminum-rated stuff.. There's not much chance that my wife's outlet is on a different breaker, because all 3 bedrooms are on 1 breaker - ah the wonders of 1970's electrical code.
I don't currently have a multimeter, but I was planning to pick one up.
Thanks guys!
I'm not going to complain about that. THANK YOU, PROF!:celebrate
Ohm sorry about that, amp I promise to put up no resistance if you want to rectify this shocking situation. I can be such a volt at times...
Sometimes (and I mean most times) I really don't even know how to reply to what you say.
For all of the outlets that see a high load (such as the PC connections) I'm pigtailing all 3 leads with the IDEAL Al/Cu Twisters (scroll down - the purple ones). For all of the outlets that see low load conditions, I'm installing CO/ALR rated receptacles and switches, after applying antioxidant compound to each of the leads. I'd pigtail all of them, except each of those purple wire nuts is $2.50 - that runs me $7.50 per receptacle that I pigtail, more if I screw up, since the Al/Cu wire nuts are one-time use. I also plan to eventually run new copper straight to some of the locations, such as he office outlets for the PC. Until then, I'm pigtailing them.
Before I bought the house, I did as much research as I could - I even called the local fire marshal, who told me that there is no record of any house in my town that was wired with aluminum branch wiring burning down, or even having a fire due to the wiring, so I'm pretty confident that my precautions will be enough - most people don't even go to the level of precaution that I'm going to, I'm sure. All of the Aluminum wired homes that I know of in my town(several hundred) were built by the same builder, Ryan Homes, back in the early '70s. I tried contacting the builder for details on the Aluminum wiring, but they told me that all of the records from that era are stuck in deep storage, never to be seen again.
Asus accepted my RMA and I've mailed the S754 mobo to them. I should be getting a refurb board back from them in 10 days or so.
Antec replied to my tech ticket by telling me to fax them an RMA request form, which I did last week. I haven't heard back yet.
The 3000+ CPU, stuck to its HSF with AS Ceramique, fell off of the cabinet in the office. I don't know how it fell, maybe me, maybe the dog knocked it down... anyway, the thing hit the edge of an old 17" CRT pins first, and crushed about 1/3 of the pins flat. I've managed to get most of them relatively straight, but I'm not holding out much more hope for this CPU.
I got a fortune cookie on Saturday that said "Your luck is about to change"... on Sunday the CPU fell. I don't think my luck changed yet.
I was talking on the phone last night to a friend of mine. Meanwhile, l33t wife says "Uh oh" from the kitchen table, where she is working on a C++ program on her notebook.
She had just spilled an entire 16 ounce glass of apple juice through her notebook, from the keyboard down. Apple juice literally poured out of every orifice the notebook has.
Luckily, she shut it down immediately (it did not short out and power down that way) and we used a roll of paper towel, a fan, and her hair dryer on it (I took out every user-serviceable part and dried each individually). A few hours later, we booted it to see the damage... and it booted into Windows! Unfortunately, we couldn't get past the logon screen because each keypress yielded about 6 characters in the password box.
I shut it down and stripped it again, and, against all of my instincts prohibiting the mixture of water and electronics, I sprayed the keyboard with purified water. I was literally shaking as I performed this act. Then, we applied paper towel again, then the hair dryer, and finally we had the fan blowing on high on the keyboard, with the notebook on its side, all night.
This morning, I was able to boot into Windows, and every single key worked. I think we dodged a bullet this time.
Now, aside from running memtest and Hitachi's HDD utility (assuming they have one for the Travelstar drives) is there anything I'm forgetting that I can do to verify this thing survived intact? And will my string of luck ever get better?
I would say that your luck changed when you didn't have to get your wife a new laptop. The fact that you gave it a bath should be reason enough for you to believe that your luck has changed. Any normal person gets liquid (especially something sticky like juice) on a notebook and still has a functioning piece of equipment has just met their quota for good luck for the next few months.
l33t wife's notebook is still working just fine (whew!)
Asus tells me my RMA'd mobo is on its way back to me. We'll see how things go when it arrives!
Good point, MiracleMan. I guess it was good luck that the notebook survived.