Showing posts with label hardware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hardware. Show all posts

Sunday, January 27, 2013

It was DOA

Yes my new hard disk was dead on arrival. I picked it up on Friday from Canada Computers at their West Island store. If you work or live in the area and you're a geek check it out. 

So I was all happy to have gotten this Samsung 1 TB 2.5" laptop drive. I take apart my Thinkpad Edge E40 to insert the new hard disk. I power on laptop and it hangs at the Lenovo Splash screen. I put back the old defective seagate and it finds a bootable device and attempts to boot.

So I try the Samsung in my monoprice docking station and it just makes clicking sounds. So back to Canada Computers I went. They took it back and ordered me another one. Crossing fingers and toes that this will be a good drive.

I miss my Thinkpad Edge E40. It's such a nice laptop. And I was on the Lenovo site just now, and I see they are going to support Windows 8 on the laptop. I noticed they had a new BIOS and new drivers for Windows 8. I'm not likely to ever install it, but I love the fact they provide the support.  I can't wait to get hrd disk and be up and running again.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Hardware Woes

I've been far less verbose in 2013. It doesn't help it's been at least a week or two since my laptop's hard disk has been giving me issues. It figures that the drive that came with my Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 was a SEAGATE. I tend to find them really flaky.  Usually when I have dead drives they are almost always SEAGATES at work. 

I've got a Samsung 1TB drive on order from Canada Computers. I found the price was right and it had a 3yr warranty

Then my desktop decided to act up. Suddenly it started just shutting down after 15 minutes. Sunday morning, not only did I wake up to the storm from hell but also to no electricity. So we went for breakfast then to Canada Computers. I bought a 750W Antec Power-supply and a cooling fan for the CPU. I knew one of the two was the cause of the problem. The power-supply was close to 4 years old and seem to be on it's last legs. The CPU fan had seized in the past couple of weeks. Before it had spent the past year making obnoxious noises that even WD-40 and other methods did not quiet.

So I changed both parts and I'm still having the same problem. It was because I was too delicate in screwing in the heatsync onto the bracket, hence the paste was not making contact with CPU and it was still overheating. After a bit of tightening screws now system is stable and very quiet. I should never underestimate my skills as a PC technician. I can generally figure out most issues.  It did take me most of the day Sunday but I figured it out!

Then I noticed that the fan on the Case cover is also dead. They don't have it in stock for pick up at the store but they have one 80x80x25mm with blue leds like my old one on the Canada Computer's website. I just have to order it.