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Author Topic: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead  (Read 4779 times)

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Offline EagleKeeper

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Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« on: June 25, 2012, 08:22:33 PM »
Geek alert! If you don't like to tickle computers run away.

So I got 4 boxes out of storage...Pentium 4, 3.2 gig each.

pretty much identical hardware wise.

From memory 1 was running vista, 2 were running windows server 2003 server r2 and 1 was running vmware esxi 3.x.

All antec chasis.

The first one I fired up was the vista box, it came up allright but in order to use the only monitor I have I had to pull the ATI visiontek x1600xt xge video card because it only has the digital interfaces and the monitor is vga. The only other vid card I had was a raideon 9200 se which means no vista drivers and no directx 9 support so no service pack 2. I set that one aside and will deal with it later.

The second one is a 2003 r2 domain controller running DNS. It came up ok but it has a service failing according to the error message that pops up when I log in. I've looked at the event log a little bit, not sure yet where it's having a problem but I ran it through Microsoft update a few times and will revisit that problem later.

The third one was a file server. It came up ok and even had a video driver is storage that I'm going to take a second look at.

The 4th one is the esxi box...this one is in trouble, the main board gets power but no fans spin up.

I've taken the cpu/cooling fan/heat exchanger apart, reseated the cpu and tested again, still no fans spin up and no boot.

I have to admit I'm a little disappointed that this last box is resisting, I think that it was running 3 virtual machines, a DNS server, an exchange server and another DC.

Oh well, I've got a hanger queen so I'll stay after it.

Oh I forgot mention out 4 pc's i've had 2 case fans that don't work...antec, whatever, I don't know if that means anything.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2012, 08:33:06 PM by EagleKeeper »
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Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2012, 08:03:25 AM »
Sounds like a bad motherboard.  The symptoms are identical to the ones I have here.
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Offline LC EFA

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2012, 04:52:45 PM »
Several years ago I looked at my IT junkpile - that had working machines dating back to a 486DX2/66 in it - and said "****it" . Dragged the lot outside and into the pickup truck.

I got a perverse amount of pleasure from huckin' them all into the pit at the local garbage dump - and that was for both loads it took to empty out my office.
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Offline Eupher

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2012, 12:00:39 PM »
I've got 3 PC's up and running, with another two laptops only one of which is used once in awhile (a good Toshiba), the other is a paperweight; and there's one or two more PCs sitting on a shelf somewhere.

I need only two PCs, but getting rid of electronic stuff is such a PITA I've procrastinated about getting rid of that stuff. Oh, then there's the weed whacker engine, about 3 gallons of old oil, an old car CD changer, and a few other odds and ends including about 500 cassette tapes, a few hundred VHS tapes, and a couple hundred LPs that I gotta shitcan.

So little time, so much shit to get rid of.....
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2012, 12:34:16 PM »
I dump everything off at the electronics recycler.  You can't miss them... they have an enormous billboard right off the interstate.
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Offline thundley4

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2012, 12:56:58 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on June 27, 2012, 12:34:16 PM
I dump everything off at the electronics recycler.  You can't miss them... they have an enormous billboard right off the interstate.

It's mandatory in Illinois to recycle all electronics since January 1st.   I've been told that if something has any circuit boards/chips in it that it can't just be thrown away anymore.
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Offline Kyle Ricky

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2012, 02:59:53 PM »
Here in Happy Valley, they have a electronics recycling facility as well. They charge you by the pound. Is that how your guys works also?

My uncle still have a commodore 64 that I first started out on. That thing brings back memories.

I can remember when the 386 and 486 first came out. And the Compaq all-in-one with windows 3.1 in it. They were so expensive.

Speaking of Mobo's. This one makes me droll. It is a beast.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188121

If I was ever going to build a new windows machine, that would go into it. Just throw a six core processor in that, with 32 gig of triple channel memories, an nvidea GTX 600 series video card, and you will be in heaven. That is if you like Intel anyway. I'm not much of an AMD fan.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2012, 03:08:31 PM »
I don't know what they charge.  I just leave it on their doorstep because they're usually closed when I get there.  The only thing it costs me is gas and time. O-)
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Offline Kyle Ricky

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2012, 03:11:49 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on June 27, 2012, 03:08:31 PM
I don't know what they charge.  I just leave it on their doorstep because they're usually closed when I get there.  The only thing it costs me is gas and time. O-)

You can't do that here.
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Offline I_B_Perky

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2012, 07:53:13 PM »
Quote from: thundley4 on June 27, 2012, 12:56:58 PM
It's mandatory in Illinois to recycle all electronics since January 1st.   I've been told that if something has any circuit boards/chips in it that it can't just be thrown away anymore.

Same here in WV now. I usually just toss it in a contractor trash bag with some odds and ends from projects around the house and toss it in the trash.   :-) :-)
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Offline EagleKeeper

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #10 on: July 06, 2012, 08:04:30 PM »
Heh, I got an old HP laptop running ME.

I guess its still running ok although I think it's having some problem with power managment (the screen is a little too dark).

I think I might load _*nix on it just to mess around.

Just out of curiosity, any body got a favorite flavor, personally I favor Fedora.
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Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
- Napoleon Bonaparte

If you wait by the river long enough the bodies of your enemies will float by.
-Sun Tzu

Offline Chris_

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2012, 08:06:05 PM »
Changing distributions is like changing underwear.  I liked Fedora.  I had plenty I disliked, mostly because I had an oddball video card that I could never find drivers for at the time.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #12 on: July 06, 2012, 08:08:11 PM »
Quote from: EagleKeeper on July 06, 2012, 08:04:30 PM
Heh, I got an old HP laptop running ME.
Are you a glutton for punishment?  :-)

I remember ME had an issue supporting more than 128Mb RAM.  Did they ever fix that?
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Offline Kyle Ricky

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #13 on: July 06, 2012, 08:11:52 PM »
I had ME for about ten minutes. In that time the PC crashed six times. I took it out and put XP in and never looked back. I used the ME disk for the same thing I used all those hundreds of AOL disks I got in the mail for, target practice.

As far as distributions, Red Hat (Fedora) is one of my favorites as well. I hate having to find drivers for it, and installing them. As of this moment and time, OSX is my absolute favorite.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #14 on: July 06, 2012, 08:14:27 PM »
XP is probably Microsoft's most successful OS.  I use it at home and we're still running it at work in Microsoft's Virtual PC.

Windows 7 is not bad -- at least Enterprise is mostly stable.
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Offline EagleKeeper

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #15 on: July 06, 2012, 08:18:11 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 06, 2012, 08:08:11 PM
Are you a glutton for punishment?  :-)

I remember ME had an issue supporting more than 128Mb RAM.  Did they ever fix that?

Heh, I just turned it on and there it was...

ME 64 meg of ram.

As far as the 128 threshold...I may have known back in the day but not now. I had to find my niche in switches, routers and firewalls, oh and snort sensors with the BASE frontend.
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Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
- Napoleon Bonaparte

If you wait by the river long enough the bodies of your enemies will float by.
-Sun Tzu

Offline Kyle Ricky

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #16 on: July 06, 2012, 08:58:57 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 06, 2012, 08:14:27 PM
XP is probably Microsoft's most successful OS.  I use it at home and we're still running it at work in Microsoft's Virtual PC.

Windows 7 is not bad -- at least Enterprise is mostly stable.

Windows 7 is a great OS. I love it, except the limited things you can do with the task bar. Other than that, I really like it. Windows 8 on the other hand is total trash (Speaking of which; Microsoft announced the other day that Windows 8 upgrades are going to run around $40.00. Then anyone who knows about computers knows that you should never upgrade a Windows OS)
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Offline zeitgeist

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #17 on: July 06, 2012, 09:01:49 PM »
I been painting the bathroom all day.  So much cutting in around stuff my back is trashed.  

My favorite Linux disto would be:

http://www.knoppix.com/


The boot disk system has saved me many times by being able to read trashed Windoz disks.  



I currently have a pile of hard dirves with varrious systems.  I still have one  98 that boots.  I also support Red Hat on one of those disks in the closet.

I have one computer that I need to play with to get back on line but I have three laptops and three desktops on line running Xp and or 7.  One of the laptops needs a battery change out and a repair on the power supply but other than that it is a kick butt machine.

I built one of the desktops out of spare parts.  It is the only Intel based desktop machine in the house.  How that happened I haven't a clue but knock on wood it has been runnng for years.  The other two are AMD's as are two laptops. I forget what the netbook is at the moment does  Intel Atom sound right?  


ME?  Yikes,  I remember fixing ME for a gazillion people.  Worst one was a couple who had wedding photos on the machine with no backups.   :thatsright:  They offered to name the first child after me. :-)

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Offline Kyle Ricky

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #18 on: July 06, 2012, 09:06:56 PM »
Yes, Knoppix is a great distribution. I used to have it on a tools boot disk I made to help repair pc's.
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Offline EagleKeeper

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #19 on: July 06, 2012, 09:25:52 PM »
Quote from: zeitgeist on July 06, 2012, 09:01:49 PM

My favorite Linux disto would be:

http://www.knoppix.com/


I'm familar with knoppix but I always thought of it as a rescue cd type of thing, is it really a full blown OS?
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Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
- Napoleon Bonaparte

If you wait by the river long enough the bodies of your enemies will float by.
-Sun Tzu

Offline Kyle Ricky

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Re: Bringing some of my old pc's back from the dead
« Reply #20 on: July 06, 2012, 09:56:05 PM »
Quote from: EagleKeeper on July 06, 2012, 09:25:52 PM
I'm familar with knoppix but I always thought of it as a rescue cd type of thing, is it really a full blown OS?

It is a full blown os that was used on rescue disks.
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