Can I go home now? :P

[calic0cat]

Got into work this morning, and right away discovered that my computer thought it was in hibernate mode - and it wouldn't wake up. After trying all the obvious things (unplug it for a while, reseat all the cables on the motherboard, change power cords, plug it into the outlet instead of the UPS, etc.), I finally gave in and called Dell. First thing the tech had me do was pop the case open (again) and examine the capacitors. Two have bulgy tops, which means the motherboard is toast. A tech will be out on Monday to replace it.

Meanwhile, I have to use someone else's PC, since mine's dead as a doornail.

So, while I have the tech on the phone, I get him to deal with troubleshooting another computer that just came in from a branch location. It's been reporting "unable to find boot device" about 50% of the time, and the other 50%, it only works for a while before freezing up.

Guess which computer I'm using right now? :P

Yeah, of course the stupid thing is working like a charm now that I've tried to recreate the problem with the tech on the phone. Fortunately, he was a very nice guy and he's just going to have the motherboard, RAM, and hard drive all swapped out since we couldn't get it to fail and show which one is the problem.

And let's not even mention the stupid printer/fax which is less than three months old, has already had the service techs out to it three times, and still requires its cover to be opened and closed every three or four pages in order to "clear" a non-existent paper jam. *sigh* I've told the boss that it's the paper that's at fault as much as anything - all of the printers and copiers have been jamming up since we started using this lot - but he insists that we have to use it up. All twenty or so cases of it. :P Yeah, sure boss, you go stand beside the printer and open and close the stupid thing every few pages.

Think I'll see if I can get out of here early this afternoon; I'm owed about an hour in exchange for working late earlier in the week when the main server decided to throw a hissy fit at the end of the workday... *sigh*

Comments

[sunhawk16.livejournal.com]

Yeah, apparently Dell had a rash of those iffy capacitors and all the computers of whatever 'vintage' that was eventually have problems. We had four of the same model go out all in one week, right after a power failure. Every one of them had the bulging or leaking capacitors.
Makes the trouble shooting easy though! ^^;

[calic0cat.livejournal.com]

Blech. That means I can expect more of these, since we bought... hmm... no handy spreadsheet to check for purchase dates since it's on the dead 'puter... but I think we bought at least a dozen in that lot. ^^; Oh, joy. Mine gets the heaviest usage (runs 24/7 to keep watch and log server & router status), so it makes sense that it would go first.

[sunhawk16.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of unclear if it's supposed to be common knowledge, but the first tech I talked to was telling me all about it. When I described the problem, the first thing he had me do was check the motherboard for those bulges. He says that the things were defective but they didn't realize it until a bunch of them had gone out. As soon as I told him there was a leaky looking capacitor, that was that.
Since then, the techs have been more discreet about it and walk me through the normal tests before they send me a new motherboard.
If I just tell them right in the beginning, that I see the bulging capacitors, they never seem surprised, but they don't volunteer anything about it.