TC's PC's Innards

[muckshifter]

The four screws you see are not the same as the ones used to mount an Intel CPU HSF ... I assure of that.

If you look again on the video, when the bottle is shaken, you will see four screws already holding the mounting bracket, which, is already monted on an AMD MB

However, if you do indeed "see" the screws used in the Intel vid, than I can only assume they fitted an Intel mounting bracket to an AMD MB ... that would explain the overheating.

Have another look inside your case ... look for that yellow retention clip (it will not actually be yellow ) in the video ... if indeed it is missing, then I for one will be raising my eyes to the almighty computer being in the sky.

TC, remember CoreTemp, it plainly tells you what CPU you have ... it don't lie.

 

[Taffycat]

However, if you do indeed "see" the screws used in the Intel vid, than I can only assume they fitted an Intel mounting bracket to an AMD MB ... that would explain the overheating.

I've got a horrible feeling you might be right. We both saw those screws and "yellow" (...but not yellow) bracket. It was a bit too awkward to get the camera in there due to that bird's nest of wiring. We were in good light though. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like when we get it back - at least we shall now be in a position to compair

The specs have all checked-out (even the apparently "nameless" RAM, which I could see clearly today, bearing the name "Corsair" - as ordered.

 

[Taffycat]

Just to bring things up to date ... PC Specialist tell me that the RMA should be delivered back to us some time today, (it was picked up eight days ago, so that's not too bad really.) I have a copy of their Fault Report which states:

The computer was resting at around 60+. The CPU fan was loose and causing the computer to overhead. It now rests at 33 deg and when I ran a full burn in test the temp was 35-37 deg.

We're very sorry that your computer had to be returned to us. We hope you have no further problems.

Still feel surprised that the fan was "loose" though, it all looked and felt pretty stable here - but must have missed something I guess Will be great to have it back though

 

[Adywebb]

Glad the problems sorted TC - if their temps are correct, they look good now for your system

 

[muckshifter]

I say, spiffin what!

ah, now that's better ...


It don't matter what was loose, as long as it was fixed.

Another Brownie point to PCS.

 

[Taffycat]

Yes, we're looking forward to getting it back I've been tracking it and it is currently "loaded on a van" so every time we hear a vehicle sound from the road outside, we're trotting to the window to look Oh the anticipation, it's like being a five-year-old waiting to see Santa

 

[crazylegs]

Glad you got it sorted TC I knew that HSF looked askew and not right...Lets hope you have many hours of fun on it...

 

[Taffycat]

Aww thank you Crazylegs, nice of you to say that

 

[muckshifter]

At 55 I'm still waiting to see Santa ...

 

[Taffycat]

It's back! Whooopeee

 

[muckshifter]

... and crunchin

It's back! Whooopeee

* temps please *

 

[Taffycat]

I will certainly post some temps Mucks but I've not quite finished hooking it back up yet. I need to move the desk a bit, so that I can reposition things a wee bit, so I plan to do that in the morning. Meanwhile though, we've made another stand for the CPU - trouble is, one of the cats kept "helping" which made the job take twice as long

 

[muckshifter]

ah, helpers ... they hinder more than help.


OK, I'll let you do it tomorrow.

 

[Taffycat]

Huh! RMA Vista PC was returned to me, but does it damn well work? No it does not! I'm guessing that they must have formatted the HD or something, because when I tried to boot up, (for the first time since getting it back) it said that there had been a previous boot failure, I think it said that the Post sequence hadn't been completed (?) and I should press Enter to enter set-up.

When I did that, it asked for the Windows CD - so I popped that into the drive and it was refused. So I popped it into the other one, and it began to boot - as I thought. Then, it indicated that it would have to reinstall Windows Vista. But here is where I run into problems, because it just will not. It tells me to load the drivers, but it will not accept any of them. It just scans and tells me that they are not the correct drivers.

basically, it has had me going around in a loop. I eventually had to give up, but couldn't exit the set-up so had to power off at the switch.

(I didn't get any problems when I installed XP a couple of weeks ago - I know that the OS's are different from each other and didn't expect it to be exactly the same, but...!)

I honestly don't know what to do with the darned thing now, PC Specialist doesn't work after 5 pm or over weekends, so I'm too late to get any sense out of them. Rats, but I feel cross.

You would think that they would have had the decency to send back the blasted PC in a repaired, but instantly usable condition.

 

[muckshifter]

Hmmm, seems silly to have even bothered looking at the HD, or doing anything to it, if the log-in sheet for 'repair' says overheating problem?


The Vista DVD has 'Startup Repair' built-in ... pop along to;

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html

... a very good 'How To' with pictures.



Just one reason why anybody buying a new PC with Vista should insist on getting a real DVD with their system, and NOT, a recovery CD.

 

[Taffycat]

Oh thank you Mucks, I shall pop over and take a look at that right now. I did notice the repair feature when I popped the CD in, but being unsure, went for the install.

 

[muckshifter]

Oh thank you Mucks, I shall pop over and take a look at that right now. I did notice the repair feature when I popped the CD in, but being unsure, went for the install.

Ouch!!

No, one should have tried to repair first ... hopefully, as the install seemed to fail, you can use repair and get it to work.

Still, very naughty of PCS if they did anything to your HD, even if you did give permission in the small print ... smacks of BAD tech support to me.

 

[Taffycat]

I don't think it is detecting a HD at all - I have tried the tutorial on your link, but my screen is not saying what their's is.

At present I am in the BIOS set up screen.

It is giving the correct time and date but beneath that it says
Legacy Diskette A: [1.44M, 3.5 in.]
Primary IDE Master [LITE-ON DVDRW LH]
Primary IDE Slave [LITE-ON DVD D LH]
SATA 1 [None]
SATA2 [None]
SATA3 [None]
SATA4 [None]
SATA5 [None]
SATA 6 [None]
HDD SMART Monitoring [Disabled]

Installed Memory 2048MB
Usable Memory 2047MB

And all the usual stuff at the bottom F1:Help etc etc.

 

[Taffycat]

PS forgot to say - when I reached Fig 4 on the tutorial, there was no OS Listed at all.

 

[muckshifter]

this is silly ....

Oh great stuff ... NOT!!!!


Time to get the screwdriver out, or does it use 'thumb' screws on the side of the case ... open it up Gal, take a peak inside, make sure nobody stole the HD, more important, make sure the cable is connected and has power to the HD.

Check the BIOS is set to Auto-detect the HD ... err, you got a SATA drive, ain't you? no matter, check anyway.

The SATA drives have thin-ish red cables, unlike the CDRom drives that have wide grey ribbon cables.



now, where is the pick of your insides gone ?