Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - I'm almost through with the computer from hell

Marvelous Marv · 11-13-2005, 08:38 PM

This is somewhat long and drawn out, but I thought it might amuse some people.

I had managed to get an afternoon away from the office. For almost an hour and a half. Phone call: "The server smells like it's burning and none of the computers work."

Apparent fried motherboard. I had an identical machine, so I took that box, put the server's hard drive in it, and connected it in the server's room. The network came back up without a hiccup, but that meant my office workstation was kaput. No problem, I thought. Bought a motherboard and CPU. Wouldn't power up. Brought in a more knowledgeable friend. No dice.

Second trip to Fry's: Exchange motherboard.

Third trip to Fry's: Ask them to give me the CPU back, which I had left in the motherboard.

Now the new board would power up without the CPU, but when the CPU was inserted, it would cut off after three seconds or so.

Fourth trip to Fry's: Exchange CPU. Talked a tech into testing it for me. Motherboard worked fine with new CPU, wouldn't work at all with the old one. This might have been because the return clerk dropped it on their cement floor, but who cares? Got back to the office, the motherboard wouldn't let me into setup.

Fifth trip to Fry's: Talked to another tech. He ran some tests; said my Mobo was bad. Didn't trust him--waited until the first tech got back from lunch. First thing he said: "That sounds like a memory problem." He tested the memory--one of the two was bad. Bought more (and some cooling fans) and went back to the office. Figured now that I had gone through a bad mobo, a bad CPU, and bad memory, what else could happen? Everything worked, but the computer had come with a restore CD containing WinXP that will only install on one of their computers. So my new Mobo is incompatible with the restore CD.

I have a legal copy of every consumer version from Windows 98 (first edition) to XP Pro. Unfortunately, my Win 2000 (for a new computer) doesn't want to install for some reason. It locks up at the "Installing Windows 2000" stage. Both my XP Home and Pro CDs are upgrades. So I can't put them on a hard drive that doesn't have an operating system installed.

So (I'm not asking for anything illegal) can anyone tell me how I can convince this new computer to run one of the Windows programs that I legally bought?
Or do I have to donate to Bill Gates once again?

Thanks.

11-13-2005, 08:38 PM	#1 (permalink)
Marvelous Marv Cunning Runt Location: Taking a mulligan	I'm almost through with the computer from hell This is somewhat long and drawn out, but I thought it might amuse some people. I had managed to get an afternoon away from the office. For almost an hour and a half. Phone call: "The server smells like it's burning and none of the computers work." Apparent fried motherboard. I had an identical machine, so I took that box, put the server's hard drive in it, and connected it in the server's room. The network came back up without a hiccup, but that meant my office workstation was kaput. No problem, I thought. Bought a motherboard and CPU. Wouldn't power up. Brought in a more knowledgeable friend. No dice. Second trip to Fry's: Exchange motherboard. Third trip to Fry's: Ask them to give me the CPU back, which I had left in the motherboard. Now the new board would power up without the CPU, but when the CPU was inserted, it would cut off after three seconds or so. Fourth trip to Fry's: Exchange CPU. Talked a tech into testing it for me. Motherboard worked fine with new CPU, wouldn't work at all with the old one. This might have been because the return clerk dropped it on their cement floor, but who cares? Got back to the office, the motherboard wouldn't let me into setup. Fifth trip to Fry's: Talked to another tech. He ran some tests; said my Mobo was bad. Didn't trust him--waited until the first tech got back from lunch. First thing he said: "That sounds like a memory problem." He tested the memory--one of the two was bad. Bought more (and some cooling fans) and went back to the office. Figured now that I had gone through a bad mobo, a bad CPU, and bad memory, what else could happen? Everything worked, but the computer had come with a restore CD containing WinXP that will only install on one of their computers. So my new Mobo is incompatible with the restore CD. I have a legal copy of every consumer version from Windows 98 (first edition) to XP Pro. Unfortunately, my Win 2000 (for a new computer) doesn't want to install for some reason. It locks up at the "Installing Windows 2000" stage. Both my XP Home and Pro CDs are upgrades. So I can't put them on a hard drive that doesn't have an operating system installed. So (I'm not asking for anything illegal) can anyone tell me how I can convince this new computer to run one of the Windows programs that I legally bought? Or do I have to donate to Bill Gates once again? Thanks. __________________ "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher Last edited by Marvelous Marv; 11-13-2005 at 08:40 PM..