Strangest PC repair I had to do
I've been fixing and building computers since high school. In fact, I started my first business in high school selling and repairing computers. So when I say I have seen some shit, you know I have been at this for a while.
When I first found Steem, I was mining for Ethereum. I had around 10 mining rigs with anywhere from 2 to 6 GPUS in them. I sold them all when I felt GPU prices were about to drop and Ethereum mining because less profitable (I wish I had them all now though).
One particular computer I three Nvidia 1060's in it and eventually took them out and sold them except for one. I gave this system to my son so he can play Fortnite, Minecraft, and Dark Souls with me and or his friends. When pulling out one of the graphic cards the retainer clip didn't undo properly and the entire PCI-E slot plastic ripped off the board.
This isn't my picture but this is exactly what happened, oddly this is nearly the exact same motherboard (mine is a UD5H). In my case the plastic came off completely.
I mostly just ignored the problem, and put the GPU in slot 3. I just avoided touching the pins but I knew it would be a problem at some point. This is one of my older computers, but it is plenty fast enough for most games with a 1060 but it is starting to show it's age.
I was going to upgrade his computer today to a Samsung EVO 1TB SSD. I've been meaning to this for a while but haven't gotten around to it until today while my wife took him to a pump track with his friend.
I swapped the drive out and was going to just do a clean install of Windows, he primarily only plays Hunt: Showdown, Apex, and Fortnite now, so it's pretty easy to just install these on a new isntall, plus his machine was acting funny and requiring frequent reboots due to FPS drops. These reboots took almost 5 minutes due to Steam processing the game library every boot. Figured he would be ecstatic when he got home to way faster PC.
After a few attempts at troubleshooting why I couldn't boot of the Windows 10 USB flash and why I couldn't even enter the bios I noticed this.
Again not my board, but similar problem although more extreme than mine. I wish I took before pictures but I was just frantically trying to get it back up and running before they got home. In my case, the pins were not all bent, just the right side but instead they bent inwards towards each other. Who knows what may happen when your PCI-Express pins start to short each other out. Most of the pins were fine and straight up but about 10 of them were bent.
As this is very tight work and very hard to work with, and there was no chance I'd get the bracket back on, I decided to surgically remove all the pins. Eliminating the possibility they would short out. Armed with a vacuum cleaner and a nail clipper, that's just what I did.
It was not easy, but it was effective. It eliminated the problem for now and in the future and I was able to install Windows 10 Pro on the SSD and get him up and running. He was so impressed with how fast it was he just stood up and said "I'm out of here". Kind of his thing he does when something blows him away. His boot times went from 5 minutes to about 10 seconds. Previously he dreaded rebooting and it was becoming a frequent thing he needed to do. He likes to collect his Save the World daily rewards in Fortnite but it was so slow to get into it, he never bothered. Now it is nearly instant.
I've been dragging my own latest PC upgrade as I want 3000 series Nvidia and the newer AMD 4000 CPUs that come out in October. He will likely end up with my old system for Christmas with a new Nvidia 3070 and 165Hz monitor.
I am glad I was able to get it up and running, this isn't the ideal time to buy a PC as new technology is coming out in the next month.
My current system is getting a bit dated, but I have a lot of other hardware around that does a lot of the processing.
Current System:
Intel 7700K @ 5GHz
32GB Mushkin ram
2x NVME 1TB Samsung EVO
2x Nvidia 1070 (MSI Gaming X)
27" Acer 165Hz GSync Monitor
2x 24" Dell Monitors
I plan on going with the new AMD 4000 series processes, my first primary AMD system. I will likely end up with two Nvidia 3080's. 32-64G of ram depending on the prices. One of the things I'm most excited about is the new PCI-Express 4 NVME drives. I have zero tolerance for slow disks, and always use the fastest disks I can get my hands on. If you haven't seen my NAS Series where I built a 16 drive 10Gbit NAS that pushes around 800MB/s with 60TB, it's a pretty cool project I was able to do for less than the price of a commercial NAS with no drives.
Why you should vote me as witness
Now that is an unusual repair!
Well done.
Its so frustrating that motherboard components are so tiny and cramped that they are basically not repairable from most problems.
Hi friend.
You stopped voting for me, maybe I'm doing something wrong?
Tell me I'll fix it)
Have a good mood.
I love stories about starting a business. In your case, it was even at the High school. It is really amazing because you love it.. it's your passion and you are earning money from it. I hope that your new PC will help you to earn even more.
Wish you the best,
Lyubo
https://twitter.com/MarkyHive/status/1303619192529223681
Oh wow, that is horrible. I can't imagine tackling that. I thought the expanding capacitors on Dell motherboards were a pain back in the day.
I have been spending a bit of time diving into the deep end of computer repairs and I started with my old laptops. This one in particular is about 2 years old - the hinge broke off, busted screen, power issues, speakers are dead and could not even detect a LAN cable until I pulled the CMOS to restart bios.
If you turn it off the issue comes back.
I ripped the screen off and have it connected to an external monitor via HDMI, got one of those usb to Lan adapters and now I am cranking 90's in Fortnite on this potato. 😂😂😂
Posted using Dapplr
Working with laptops is such a pain. I have an old Alienware m9700 from around the time they were bought out by Dell. The screen backlight randomly turns off. Closing and reopening the lid or rebooting will cause it to come back on. Barely moving the panel will cause it to go off again or it will just go back off by itself after a few seconds or minutes. I partially disassembled it to reseat cables but that didn't help. Based on the behavior, it almost seems to be a problem with whatever sensor or switch turns off the monitor when the lid is closed. I'll have to see if I can locate that...
Based on experience, if your screen is acting up you are better off buying a new one. But based on what you are saying, if it is more likely to be a connection issue. Maybe one of the cables going to the screen is damaged or maybe the board for the display has issues.
Either way, I don't envy you in any way trying to troubleshoot that issue.
I am getting ready to do a repair on a Google TV power module. I purchased a repair kit, so let's see how my solder skills are. Haven't soldered in years so plan to do some practice before I commit.
Neat to hear how you started your own business while still in high school, very entrepreneurial.
I freaking hate soldering, only aliens with 4 arms can solder well.
Yes, and it gets worse as you get older and not as steady with the hands.
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Is mining worth it again? I still have several rigs with modded RX580s (22 cards) in the closet.
If you already have GPUS, yes. As long as your electricity KWH costs are not too high.