Category: Computer

What is this noise?
clickingNoise.wav 177kb
I hope the clicking (near the end) is not a sign of my hard drive dying.

What is it with me and hard drives? Why do they die around me? What am I doing that causes them to keel over?

My machine usually has WoW running … nearly 24/7. Usually at the login screen.

Saturday, May 19th, I logged into WoW to play. After a few hours of play, I heard the clicking noise and my machine would pause for a few seconds, while clicking, and resume normally after the clicking.

Then, one clicking session did not end for 3 or so minutes and I shut off the machine. I haven’t turned it back on yet.

Unix has had this for a long time, Microsoft added a powertoy, but its very sad.

I asked for some recommendations and tried out:

http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net
http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/
http://www.xdesk.info/
http://dexpot.de/

VirtuaWin was ok, but wouldn’t let me name the desktops. I didn’t try xdesk as I heard it was difficult. Microsoft’s version is limited to 4 windows.

Virtual Dimension is pretty nice, configurable, as many desktops as I want, I can name them. So far I’m impressed.

dexpot came recommended. Looks polished. I have to give it a try.

Dexpot annoys me because when I switch desktops, the windows change order on the task bar. I like to have Outlook first (left) and the rest I’m not so concerned about. When I switched back to the desktop with Outlook, it ended up on the right side.

It does have some very nice options that Virtual Dimension does: Window Catalog, which shows you all of your windows (mini-preview), and you can then click the one you want. Also has: Full-screen preview, which puts up all of the desktops so you can click the one you want (looks weird if you don’t have an appropriate number of desktops: 4, 9…something that fits evenly).

I use PuTTY, but it needs some improvements

1. Opening a new session should not require using the mouse.
2. Shortcuts/sessions are clumsy at best.
3. Tabs are useful for organizing logically groups of terminals (I’m ssh-ed into the web, app and DB server for the “dev” environment).
4. Scripting. I found the -m switch, but it runs the commands and then exits. I wanted to have it run and stay open so I could script a shortcut that would take me to a specific location (say dev logs).
5. Auto login. I found -l and -pw so it works pretty good, but the password is unencrypted. I guess that’s what keys are for. Oh well.
6. Session properties/settings are hard to apply/create.
7. Terms used for SSH tunnels are confusing.

Update: My friend Rob H. suggested I slide it, which worked great. Now I have the CPU separated from the heatsink. 

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So, I disassemble the mobo to send back to Asus, and the CPU will NOT come out. I disconnected everything, but it wouldn’t move.

I know about the arm/lever you’re supposed to lift to get the CPU out of the socket, but its blocked by some plastic that’s there to hold down the heatsink/fan combo.

Seems the CPU stuck to the heatsink. I eventually pulled it out, but I might have bent the pins some (see picture below). I assume I can use a razor (or something else REALLY flat) to separate the CPU from the heatsink. What do you think?

 

Update:
I sent of the burnt mobo, with the original northbridge fan. I also included the firewire cord that was destroyed and instructed them to replace it as the burnt mobo was the cause of its demise.

I received a replacement mobo in the mail, with little/no indication of the problem, pretty much nothing included other than the mobo itself. Seemed a little strange.

However, I put it in and everything appears to be working fine, except I have the DVD-R problem I had when I first got this machine put together. If I attached the DVD-R to the nVidia SATA connector, it burns the disc 99% complete and then locks the machine HARD. If I connect it to the Silicon Image SATA controller, I can’t boot into windows. I fixed this before, but I forgot how I fixed it. I downloaded some updates from Asus so hopefully one of those will help me.

7/24/2006 – Update:
I sent off an email (to rma@asus.com) on Friday, but it was probably after business hours. I was hoping for a reply today. Nada. So I decided to call. Waited on hold for 5 min (not too bad) and the woman took my info and I should be getting the RMA instructions in email from them shortly. Strangely, she said to leave on the “northbridge” fan, but I really don’t like that idea. Maybe I’ll put on the original one (instead of the Vantec one I bought to replace the original that squeeked like mad!)

She said they are going to test it and determine the cause, this should be interesting (how could it be my fault?).

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Came downstairs this morning (Friday, July 21st) to find my desktop was not running. It should always be running and I never shut it down. So I hit the power button and the UPS beeps. So I decide to unplug the desktop from the UPS (and everything else) and plug it directly into the wall. Hit the power button again and hear a short noise like its about to start up and then it quits.

I look down and there’s a little smoke. I disconnect everything, pull the tower out and open it up, some more smoke! Nice burn spot in the lower left corner.

Turns out to be the USB/Firewire connector for the front of the case, which I NEVER use!

So I go online (with another computer of course) and chat with newegg (cuz that’s where I bought it from) live chat. I ask what I should do, and they say to contact Asus cuz I bought it over a year ago.

I go to asus.com and create a login, register my mobo, only to find out their support site says “contact the reseller”. I take a screen shot and email it to newegg. Newegg, after checking my invoice number/date, says its more than a year old and to contact Asus. I forward the email to Asus and now we wait.

Here are some pictures:

Luckily nothing was in the slot, so it wasn’t hurt. Doesn’t seem anything was damaged. Obviously I’ll need a new mobo and a new cable. I might switch back to Abit after this, depending how Asus treats me.

I also remembered, the mobo had a bad “northbridge” fan. It squeeked HORRIBLY until I replaced it. If I get a replacement mobo, I hope its not the exact same revision with the same faulty fan, because the one I put on this board is stuck with thermal tape. I guess (hope) Asus won’t need me to ship them this mobo, and then I can take the fan off, scrape off the tape and reuse the fan (very good Vantec fan).

I ordered a Shuttle PC. It arrived recently and I’m gonna put it together today/tomorrow/this weekend.

I opened it up, following the instructions, and noticed something inside of the cpu socket.

http://gabe.misura.org/img/cpuSocket.jpg

http://gabe.misura.org/img/cpuSocket_closeup.jpg

Wife thinks its a tag that can be removed. Looks like there’s some metal inside of some melted plastic.

I don’t think its supposed to be there, but I’m worried about removing it.

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Ok, found the answer:

http://www.shuttle.com/share/fae/hq/faq/sff/qa/Shuttle%20XPC%20SK21G.htm