$100 Blowjob
And I was on the profitable side of it for once!
My parents called me a while back to tell me that their computer wasn't starting up.
"When you try to turn it on, it just beeps and nothing happens."
Hmm. Beep codes. This ought to be easy to figure out.
Hah!
I had built this computer for them a couple years ago, so the first thing I did when I got there was try to find the motherboard manual. No luck. Probably thrown away or put someplace "safe" long ago. Ok, no big deal. That's what the internet is for. I pop open the case, get the model number off the mobo, hook up my laptop, and.... dead link. Damn. Ok, still no big deal. Google. Hmm...lots of hits, but not really what i'm looking for... ah, here we go.
Find the page on MSI's (the motherboard manufacturer) website that defines the beep codes. It doesn't show this specific model, but maybe they haven't changed them... hmm... "base 64k memory failure". WTF, mate? That's all you have to say?
Undaunted, I go to plan "B". The motherboard came with a diagnostic LED bracket. Normally I don't bother to install these things (though I think after this experience that may change), but it also added some USB ports so I went ahead and installed it when I built the machine. Managed to find the page on MSI's website that decoded that output. And hit another snag. The graphic was in black and white. Didn't say whether the LED's that were shaded black were "on" or "off". Still optimistic, I crawled back under the desk and started up the computer believing I could figure that part out easily enough.
Hah!
The LED's didn't do variations of "on" and "off". They were either green or orange. So. Is black green and white orange? Or the other way around? Going back and forth between the LED's and the website I managed to determine that (most likely) black was green, orange was white, and up was down. Assuming this was correct, it once again pointed to a problem with the memory.
Now that I had two diagnostics pointing to a memory fault, I was ready to believe that that was where the problem was. What to do? I don't have any means of testing memory modules, so I resorted to Standard Field Repair Techniques. Namely, I took it out, blew some dust off of it, and reseated the module.
Started right up.
Now, this was a pretty easy repair. But it could have been, and should have been, a whole lot easier. MSI isn't some rinky-dink little company. They're a serious player. But you wouldn't have known it from the half-assed way their online product support looked. I mean, you make and sell sophisticated electronic equipment in a global marketplace and you can't spring for color graphics?
My stepdad insisted on giving me a c-note for my "work". I was (almost) too embarassed to take it. I've been doing a lot of "tech support" for friends and family lately. I never ask for money. I know people can make a decent living doing this sort of thing, but it just seems so ridiculously simple to me that I can't bring myself to take money for it. Probably why i'd never make it being self-employed.
My parents called me a while back to tell me that their computer wasn't starting up.
"When you try to turn it on, it just beeps and nothing happens."
Hmm. Beep codes. This ought to be easy to figure out.
Hah!
I had built this computer for them a couple years ago, so the first thing I did when I got there was try to find the motherboard manual. No luck. Probably thrown away or put someplace "safe" long ago. Ok, no big deal. That's what the internet is for. I pop open the case, get the model number off the mobo, hook up my laptop, and.... dead link. Damn. Ok, still no big deal. Google. Hmm...lots of hits, but not really what i'm looking for... ah, here we go.
Find the page on MSI's (the motherboard manufacturer) website that defines the beep codes. It doesn't show this specific model, but maybe they haven't changed them... hmm... "base 64k memory failure". WTF, mate? That's all you have to say?
Undaunted, I go to plan "B". The motherboard came with a diagnostic LED bracket. Normally I don't bother to install these things (though I think after this experience that may change), but it also added some USB ports so I went ahead and installed it when I built the machine. Managed to find the page on MSI's website that decoded that output. And hit another snag. The graphic was in black and white. Didn't say whether the LED's that were shaded black were "on" or "off". Still optimistic, I crawled back under the desk and started up the computer believing I could figure that part out easily enough.
Hah!
The LED's didn't do variations of "on" and "off". They were either green or orange. So. Is black green and white orange? Or the other way around? Going back and forth between the LED's and the website I managed to determine that (most likely) black was green, orange was white, and up was down. Assuming this was correct, it once again pointed to a problem with the memory.
Now that I had two diagnostics pointing to a memory fault, I was ready to believe that that was where the problem was. What to do? I don't have any means of testing memory modules, so I resorted to Standard Field Repair Techniques. Namely, I took it out, blew some dust off of it, and reseated the module.
Started right up.
Now, this was a pretty easy repair. But it could have been, and should have been, a whole lot easier. MSI isn't some rinky-dink little company. They're a serious player. But you wouldn't have known it from the half-assed way their online product support looked. I mean, you make and sell sophisticated electronic equipment in a global marketplace and you can't spring for color graphics?
My stepdad insisted on giving me a c-note for my "work". I was (almost) too embarassed to take it. I've been doing a lot of "tech support" for friends and family lately. I never ask for money. I know people can make a decent living doing this sort of thing, but it just seems so ridiculously simple to me that I can't bring myself to take money for it. Probably why i'd never make it being self-employed.
posted by def at 9:41 AM
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