Announcement from me....

[Matt Wynn]

Guys, I hate to say this but, effective immediately all my Repaint work (And Profile Artistry) has had to come to a halt, my Texturing PC has bit the dust and a replacement cannot be purchased, i still have my laptop but the colours in the display are off... massively... making gauging colour etc. extremely difficult

'Dino PC' as i referred to it was a long standing 'friend' of mine, was purchased back in July 2005 (Nearly 8 years ago) out of my first few years wage leftovers... since then she's been with me from my old repaints right through to what i dubbed my 'Next Gen' paints, sad to see her go, but due to near constant use for the past few years (was on constantly for 6 days at a time), and a cooling failure she overheated and gave up the ghost last night, i gave her PC-CPR but to no avail... she'll not be tossed in the trash though, she'll sit by my side as a reminder of where i've come from and act as a base for my sidestick...

apologies to anyone i was doing textures for, i didn't expect her to quit on me so soon... i'll stick around naturally, but i'm effectively out of the texture side of things... just got to hope, and pray my current profile artistry sells so i can at least cover my electricity bills and put some funds towards a new rig...

RIP 'Dino PC' 2005-2013

[Matt Wynn]

here she was (Down and left of the old desk), back in December, shortly after moving into a new room... happier times

[Maarten -]

Guys, I hate to say this but, effective immediately all my Repaint work (And Profile Artistry) has had to come to a halt, my Texturing PC has bit the dust and a replacement cannot be purchased, i still have my laptop but the colours in the display are off... massively... making gauging colour etc. extremely difficult

'Dino PC' as i referred to it was a long standing 'friend' of mine, was purchased back in July 2005 (Nearly 8 years ago) out of my first few years wage leftovers... since then she's been with me from my old repaints right through to what i dubbed my 'Next Gen' paints, sad to see her go, but due to near constant use for the past few years (was on constantly for 6 days at a time), and a cooling failure she overheated and gave up the ghost last night, i gave her PC-CPR but to no avail... she'll not be tossed in the trash though, she'll sit by my side as a reminder of where i've come from and act as a base for my sidestick...

apologies to anyone i was doing textures for, i didn't expect her to quit on me so soon... i'll stick around naturally, but i'm effectively out of the texture side of things... just got to hope, and pray my current profile artistry sells so i can at least cover my electricity bills and put some funds towards a new rig...

RIP 'Dino PC' 2005-2013

Aw Matt! I am so sorry to hear. That's a real bugger. I had the something similar with my old PC 16 months ago. It was 8 years old too. The internal damage was such that it couldn't be repaired as it turned out, without replacing just about half the intestines of the machine. I hope luck a.k.a. a lot of dosh (lottery, whatever) comes up your way.
Dino PC, RIP.

Cheers,
Maarten

[Matt Wynn]

thanks Marten, i'm just looking at the tower now figuring what i can do with the case... maybe repurpose it as i say as a mount for my Stick so i can fly either sidestick or centre-stick (X-52 itself has been modified for my flying, it doesn't self centre but rather stays where i put the stick, so if i want to fly a slow turn i just add a bit of back and left or right and it usually maintains a nice corner)

but these coming months i hope to be fruitful, have applied for several jobs at EGBB including as Aircraft Dispatcher, i have orders in on my profile artistry (Mostly from the Aircraft owners themselves), Martin (T6Flyer) is assisting me there by having things test-printed to see how they look and changes to be made etc... so even if i don't get this job at EGBB then hopefully my Profile Artistry will continue on the up... i plan contingencys... apart from the PC which i expected would last another 2 years if i ran my usual monthly maintenance on it... but anyways hopefully i'll bounce back from this.... this unforseen event....

[Sunny9850]

Have you taken it to a shop or diagnosed it further to see if you can narrow the failure down to one component to the other ??
If other folks around here are anything like me they have a glutton of PC parts in a cabinet that were pulled out at one point or another.
Since I am moving back to Germany from the US at the moment I took four boxes full of that stuff to the local recycling place ....
But maybe someone here has the part you need to do a transplant.

Cheers
Stefan

[Matt Wynn]

not as of yet Sunny, but given my luck of recent times it'll be a foregone conclusion, been talking about getting a new Rig for years... will take it fully apart later and do a visual check on all the components, i think the HDD can be salvaged (and therefore my work) and am looking at getting a SATA-USB adapter to check, if so that's a bit of a bonus, the rest, given it's age might be a bit 'past it' (was a Dell Dimension 5100, only added a new Sound card (Soundblaster X-Fi thingy) and RAM), and have an eGeforce 8800GTS 'Superclocked' 640mb GFX card that's never been installed (Due to not being able to install it in the tower due to lack of space and the PSU being a weak unit... though i'm sure Dell themselves would be pleased to know that the 5100 lasted nearly 8 years almost constantly powered up... ... what are the common parts to be affected by heat? i'm guessing processor (i noticed when i ran maint on her a bit back the 'thermal paste' was a bit erm... thin on the ground), i also noticed when i was trying PC-CPR that the PSU box itself felt hot to the touch and the fan was idle... was making a noise like it was spinning the fan but fan was idle, if so that's delay moving the warm air out of the rig (Possibly why i could smell that acrid plastic smell?) so possible bearing failure in the fan? i'm just trying to think my way logically round the tower, piecing together a logical chain of events.... PC repair/Diagnosis i cannot do, as over here it costs an arm and a leg, and i need my arms and legs, just got to put up with this (not much younger) laptop until i can somehow accrue the funds to replace 'dino-PC'... but i'm not looking back, these things happen for a reason, it is for me to decipher what that reason was...

....anyone know of any lightly guarded banks, or armoured convoys i can possibly go 'play' with?

[Odie]

Matt, sorry to hear. It's hard to say goodbye to an old friend that's been with you day-in and day-out. My internet PC is going on 10 years now and has been a good soldier.

[Sunny9850]

not as of yet Sunny, but given my luck of recent times it'll be a foregone conclusion, been talking about getting a new Rig for years... will take it fully apart later and do a visual check on all the components, i think the HDD can be salvaged (and therefore my work) and am looking at getting a SATA-USB adapter to check, if so that's a bit of a bonus, the rest, given it's age might be a bit 'past it' (was a Dell Dimension 5100, only added a new Sound card (Soundblaster X-Fi thingy) and RAM), and have an eGeforce 8800GTS 'Superclocked' 640mb GFX card that's never been installed (Due to not being able to install it in the tower due to lack of space and the PSU being a weak unit... though i'm sure Dell themselves would be pleased to know that the 5100 lasted nearly 8 years almost constantly powered up... ... what are the common parts to be affected by heat? i'm guessing processor (i noticed when i ran maint on her a bit back the 'thermal paste' was a bit erm... thin on the ground), i also noticed when i was trying PC-CPR that the PSU box itself felt hot to the touch and the fan was idle... was making a noise like it was spinning the fan but fan was idle, if so that's delay moving the warm air out of the rig (Possibly why i could smell that acrid plastic smell?) so possible bearing failure in the fan? i'm just trying to think my way logically round the tower, piecing together a logical chain of events.... PC repair/Diagnosis i cannot do, as over here it costs an arm and a leg, and i need my arms and legs, just got to put up with this (not much younger) laptop until i can somehow accrue the funds to replace 'dino-PC'... but i'm not looking back, these things happen for a reason, it is for me to decipher what that reason was...

....anyone know of any lightly guarded banks, or armoured convoys i can possibly go 'play' with?

I understand funds are tight, and it may not be worth resurrecting the box, but I would check along the lines you outlined to see if you can narrow it down to component level and then check on ebay or something like that, and as I said here to see if someone has the bad part laying around.

Does the PC still do anything...like boot to the BIOS screen or nothing at all but a few beeps from the internal speaker. Dells have a BIOS diagnostic system built in as I recall. Running that if possible might give more clues to the problem.

Even those beeps are clues to what is going on. The frequency and number of beeps is a very basic diagnostic tool.

Cheers
Stefan

[UKVoodoo]

If you've ever thought about building 1 yourself this video worked wonders for me when I built my current rig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh455l3348s

was just over £450 for mine but ended up with an i5 @4.8ghz with 16gb of Ram and a Radeon 6870HD running it, eats most games up with the exception of Crysis 3 which while recording only runs around 40fps :salute:

Thanks
Matt

[Matt Wynn]

Even those beeps are clues to what is going on. The frequency and number of beeps is a very basic diagnostic tool.

Cheers
Stefan

i thought those were what my PC had learnt from me, and it pre-empting my next word but seriously no beeps

basically the fan tries spooling up, but there's no movement in it, i can flick it round by hand but the motor whines and has no effect, all i get on my monitor at a similar time is a 'no signal' so i powered it down and took the Graphics card out (Old ATI X600 series) checked the contacts, nothing wrong there so i checked the outputs for video, knowing sometimes it's just signal not getting through, likewise, no issue... so my next check was wiring loom, a few were a bit...well... you know when you heat plastic and it scrunches up? a few were like that but with little exposed wire, nothing that some Electrical tape wouldn't fix, soundcard looks fine, clear contacts and clear ports, so that's salvageable at least, next port of call was to check the HDD which was making a slight scratching noise i had noticed before it copped it(Hopefully i can glean some data off that if i can find a SATA-USB (most hopefully my paintkits!)), CD/DVD drive is toast, had been for a couple of years so that's a non factor...

.... so could this mean it's a Mobo/Processor and PSU issue? i can't think what else it would be... plus side is i have an eGeforce 8800GTS that's still boxed up, a Soundcard, some DDR2 RAM... all my Peripherals are fine... can likely get a new case in May (a birthday gift from my family perhaps...), then that'd leave a CD/DVD/Bluray drive, new HDD('s), a Mobo, Processor, Cooling Kit (Heatsink for Processor, fans etc...), PSU and wiring loom to be acquired... it MIGHT be do-able as i say if these Profile arts i have sell and i get this job at the airport, otherwise my £90 a month for food will have to start taking a knock.... biggest cause for concern to my mind is that i work for IRIS Simulations on the FSX side of things, and designing a 'new build' around that will inevitably bump the price up a little bit more than designing around FS2004... i'm not missing anything on my must-get list am i? apart from tools and bits which i have zero knowledge about (My trusty 14lb lump hammer might not be great if i build anew....) and will have to acquire as well.... i'm beginning to think Building is better than buying with PC's, only downside is it's not in my knowledgebase, knowing what works with what etc...

[Sunny9850]

No beeps and no BIOS is pointing towards the MB for me. Exposed wires might have caused a short or might have turned crispy because something had a larger current draw than it was supposed to have.
Depending on the power supply wiring you might get juice to some parts and none to others.

For example some fans simply run as soon as the power supply is on and others are MB or GPU controlled. I would start with a volt meter and check if you have power where it needs to be.
5v 10v and 12v DC depending on wire color and location.

I would check my friends list and see who is most qualified to assist for a few cold ones

Stefan

[Willy]

I've had a similar issue a few times and it was just the power supply fried. No problem to changing out one of those. I always try to put in a bigger PS that what the comp actually needs. Less stress on it that way. If it came with a 400, I'd put a 450-500 in it. (I'm a firm believer in over-engineering things)

[Sundog]

If I had an old one here I would send it to you, but I built this box about four years ago and it's the only I have now. I hope things look up for you soon. Good luck on the dispatch job!

[Matt Wynn]

cheers guys that's clarified a few things for me... i think the best thing i could do is try to reclaim bits from my old HDD and start afresh, build myself so that i can upgrade as/when needed... i guess at least i have a few parts salvageable, Soundcard and Graphics Card.... so shopping list looks like;

-MOBO
-PSU
-RAM Sticks (Have DDR2 which will be a bit of a stopgap... hopefully, although DDR2 is not most Mobo's now.....)
-CD/DVD/Bluray drive
-HDD
-Cooling System
-Case
-Wiring

what tools would i need, screwdriver, thermal paste for the Proc. cooling?.....

[Naismith]

Good advice here for a build, if nothing else she's good to look at.

[Matt Wynn]

thanks Nai... :salute:

[Tom Clayton]

Most systems now only require a Philips screwdriver to put everything together. As for paste, you'll get that if you get a CPU that's boxed with a fan.

[Matt Wynn]

thanks it's already driving me insane not being able to see colours properly... all i can really do with my laptop is lighting layers on my profile arts, can't touch the schemes.... really annoying....