Silly Recap on Compaq

[bgavin]

I just finished the most useless recap so far: Compaq Presario 5000, with 1Ghz T-Bird, and VIA chipset. Yuck.

Client wants to preserve their investment in PC-100, two IDE, two burners, new PSU, etc. Machine had random rebooting for no apparent reason.

I replaced 21 Choyo craps. None bulged.

[kc8adu]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

i fix old stuff all the time.
if its doing the job why not?
many folks also dont want a new box due to vista.
just recapped an abit va6,bh6,and bp6 for the same customer.

[i4004]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

Client wants to preserve their investment in PC-100, two IDE, two burners, new PSU,

old ram aside, he could carry all of that to new machine...
he would just need pci ata controller card.

how much did you charge?

[severach]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

He can't carry his forked up Win95 to the new machine and often times the set of installed applications is worth way more than the cost of a new system. I repair motherboards instead of replacing them because I get paid for 100% of the time and the customer gets their exact computer back with nothing lost or changed.

If they are trying to preserve their $5 of trash bin parts to keep from buying a new machine for $250 that does way more, that's not worth it.

[kc8adu]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

special industrial software often is protected by touchy hardware hashing schemes.
often the mfr of this stuff is long gone so good luck getting it reactivated.
spare identical hd with a image on it is a must.
i see this every day.
i keep a list of boards used in such machines to pick them up when i can.
i often tear down perfectly good boxes to get parts as fixing this type of crash and burn is quite profitable.
the folks i do most of my work for dont care what it costs.
only way to make em happier is to turn back the clock so the failure didnt cost them loss of production!

[Wizard]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

Another reason I take notebook castoffs and try to revive them is I don't have the money to spend on $1,500 machine but that Asus Eee PC is within my budget (right now not right time as I have insurance coming up for my 1987 2.2L caravan. I do maintain that van!) and I don't mind the Linux!

Oh, I recall the 800 buck shock when I paid for pair of 8MB EDO sticks in 1994 for a pentium 100 and you can know for sure that I hung on it for long time till I got my PII 350 in 1999.

Cheers, Wizard

[Newbie2]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

There's no reason why fixing older equipment is not right, if the machine is doing the job very well then why replace it?

There are older Boeing 747-100 jets still in the skies for third-world airlines and cargo carriers, and they're still flying good.

[zandrax]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

I agree: if your customer needs that computer for a big reason, then better repair it. World is full of old hardware still in working state because a) it cannot be replaced without losing all data archives or b) computer equipment is a minor part.

I remember a tale about a mid sized precision lathe controlled by a custom program on embedded 286 class hardware: the owner didn't wanted to replace it because it was in perfect order and replacement would have been too expensive. 720 KB floppies were used to send data to the controller, so people worked on pcs running Win 2000 because it was the last NT os supporting 720 KB disks; when the controller floppy driver got damaged, the owner discovered the lathe didn't recognize a new drive so he had to look for dismissed PCs, XTs and that age clones. Eventually he succeded in getting two drives, one as spare.

Zandrax

[bgavin]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

I billed him $75 for an hour's time, and $1.50 each for the 21 caps.

I noticed how much more expensive MCZ caps are now at Wai Fong... I have to buy in 200 pc bags to get a decent price, but they are still expensive. Factor in the FedEx charges, and I should probably raise the cap unit price. The bummer is, Wai Fong is out of stock on several values that I need, such as 16v / 1500uF. They don't stock any of the ZLH I want.

The machine is certainly not a 747 in the performance department, but it works well for them. The point above about software tied to the hardware hash is a very good one. I don't have that issue on this machine, but it is still good thinking.

[bgavin]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

The reported bug on the machine was unexpected restarting.
It's back.

I recapped everything on the board from 470 and up, and it runs fine for a long time. Cooler is hardly warm to the touch. I can warm it up with CPU Burn7 for K7, but that doesn't take the machine down.

The Bestec PSU was replaced with a new Sparkle ATX350-PN. I've been installing these Sparkles by the pallet, and they are rock solid.

Other than an internal circuit problem, the only thing that comes to mind is a jiggling contact in the power-on push button switch. So.. I unplugged the combination berg jumper for the button, LEDs, etc. I started the machine manually with a jump across the start pin.

The bug is intermittent for the customer, and I've seen it only once. I've lost my ass in hours on this box now, but I'm determined to find the bug anyway. I stripped it down, and tapped all over everywhere. Two drives, two CDRs are still plugged in, as is the floppy and a rear case fan.

[bgavin]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

Intermittent bugs just suck. The machine ran all night last night without problem.

I installed the berg strip connector this morning, no problem. The power switch is still suspect, so I changed the Power Off switch function from "Shutdown" to "Ask Me". This way the user will be notified if the switch is jiggled for any reason.

I found a faster 1400 T-Bird in the bin, so I'm installing this in place of the 1000 chip. After this, I'm calling it fixed, and giving it back to them.

[i4004]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

if the problem resurfaces you'll be forced to put new mobo there, right?
and be about 100$ and many hours lighter.
(if you need to do this, i can give you a link that explains how to swap mobo and stay on same windows installation...)

yeah, intermittant sux: report back what happened.

btw. you replaced all the 470 and up AND psu prior to machine being returned by cistomer, right?

that psu is probably same as this
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5105
and yeah, should be just fine.
(perhaps lack of 'f'(on your model) means it doesn't have big choke for passive pfc(?))

[bgavin]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

Sure did. A complete recap for me is 470 and up. PSU gets replaced every 3 years, but this machine had a Bestec installed and it was bulging.

The client is using the machine now. I changed the power button handler from "Shutdown" to "Ask Me" in case there is jitter in the power switch. That way Windows will present a Shutdown, Restart, Cancel message instead of just powering off.

I've never had any success replacing board with different chipsets. I get the BSOD always, so I just rebuild it. My unattended install CDs are painless for this. They prompt for the serial, and I reenter the clients serial, and away we go.

[i4004]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/...4/m/1400925745

[yanz]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

I billed him $75 for an hour's time, and $1.50 each for the 21 caps.

I noticed how much more expensive MCZ caps are now at Wai Fong... I have to buy in 200 pc bags to get a decent price, but they are still expensive. Factor in the FedEx charges, and I should probably raise the cap unit price. The bummer is, Wai Fong is out of stock on several values that I need, such as 16v / 1500uF. They don't stock any of the ZLH I want.

The machine is certainly not a 747 in the performance department, but it works well for them. The point above about software tied to the hardware hash is a very good one. I don't have that issue on this machine, but it is still good thinking.

Off topic: The only ZLH i can get here are 680uf 35v (10mm) ones, for $1/10 pcs. Those shops kinda ignored my demand: 1500uf/16v or 2200uf/6.3v 1 in 10mm dia.

Well those ZLH aren't bad for PSu recapping and mobo recapping (<1000uf)..

[bgavin]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

The customer called back, and evidently the machine continues to drop power. It is not restarting, just plain dropping dead like somebody pulled the plug.

Q: can a USB device crowbar the system for an instant power off?

I can not get it to fail on the bench, but it fails for her. This tells me it is environmental, i.e. her peripherals, power, etc.

I installed a new power cord and went straight to the wall. Still fails. Her USB keyboard is different, as is the USB connection to her Palm receiver. Sound is plugged into different speakers, and the LAN is plugged into a D-Link router.

I can loan her a USB keyboard, disconnect the Palm and the speaker connection. I really doubt there is anything in the router that is killing the machine through the NIC. This is certainly a puzzler... and I really hate to lose my nice recap job.

[kc8adu]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

is it set up to shut down in an overheat condition?
trip point set to low?
had a customer with a soyo dragon plus doing this after a recap.
had f@h on it and ran 24/7 here.
the office it was used at was a bit warmer and it shut down every few hours.
bumped the setting 5 c and end of issue.

[bgavin]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

Nope. I checked that. This is a Compaq machine, and the bios isn't anywhere close to that sophisticated.

To be sure, I ran the machine for 30 minutes with CPU Burn running. It warmed up the base of the HSF quite a bit, but not to the point where I had to remove my fingers. No crash. I closed the program, it cooled down, no crash.

It crashed for the customer, not on my bench. The only difference is their speakers are plugged in, a USB keyboard is in place, and a USB Palm receptable is plugged in.

I have an 845 Intel board with 1.6 P4 that is micro atx and will fit that case. Time for a swap. I need to get this !@#$% thing off my back.

[kc8adu]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

sounds like a power glitch on their end.
try running it on a ups at the office.
it would suck if you did a board swap but still had the problem.
i would run folding@home team 49813 over the weeekend to beat it up.

[Newbie2]

Re: Silly Recap on Compaq

Just like kc8adu said, it sounds like a power problem with your client.

If it works with burn-in at your place, then there's no problem with your PC.

I would get a spare PC and run it at the client's place. If it shuts down then that proves there's a problem with the client's electricity and an electrician should be called in to deal with his/her issue.