Computer issues

On Friday night, after Margaret had finished her lengthy festival summary document, I continued to try to sort my files in an attempt to get the computer running better. It was getting hung up on various files, not wanting to move them between drives. I figured it likely needed a reboot so I turned it off and it wouldn't turn back on. I would get only a dell screen and no keyboard or mouse control and no processor running. I gave up for the night.

Chrystene Ells developing film

On Saturday I helped Berny Hi and his hand processing team develop some film at the Balkwill Centre for a while and then had kids all day. I managed to negotiate a break from kids (dropped them at the friend's place) and went to consult computers at OTV. They agreed with me that the likely culprit was the motherboard, which is now 3 years old and not keeping up with HD video so I'm inclined to upgrade it anyway. I bought memory, motherboard, and brought them home. When I removed the motherboard from my Dell, I discovered that the slot to access the built in ports on the back of the casing was not exchangeable. It was one solid unit and the motherboard can only be exchanged for an identical one. I made some calls and hit paydirt with Janine Bernat who had a broken computer (not sure what went wrong, probably the motherboard) and could drop it at my house. It seemed perfect at first but I quickly discovered that it had a riveted together internal section which accommodated an exchangeable drive (I don't know if they make anymore) and it would require hack sawing to allow me to put the hardware I needed inside again. I managed to make one more trip to the store before supper to buy a new computer case. Saturday evening was spent wiring it all together. It was sometimes difficult because the new case was slightly larger and my existing cables were stretched to, or beyond, their limits. Margaret went to the opening at Neutral Ground and hired a babysitter but I opted to stay home so William watched tv with the sitter leaving me to work uninterrupted. By eleven I had all the parts connected that I knew how to and put it away for the night. Mike once carried around a lottery ticket for weeks after the draw, showing it off and explaining that it might be winning ticket for millions of dollars. Until tested, anything might be true.
In the morning I discovered that I had successfully saved myself a sleepless night of disappointment. Sure enough it didn't work. The fans turned on but nothing else. I called Paul and combed through help sites until he arrived. Most of his suggestions I'd already tried by the time he came but he did feel that this one power cable, which would not possibly reach from the power supply to its spot on the motherboard, might be the issue. Janine's machine a power supply with a longer cable so we hooked it up. It did even less than mine. In fact, it did nothing. We concluded that her computer died because the power supplied failed. We then tested again with my power supply but holding it while it was plugged in and managed to get it connected to the motherboard (although not the c drive at the same time. Success! The monitor lit up and we had something going on again. All it would take now is a cable extension and bob's  your uncle.

inside computer

I went shopping for one this morning and discovered that the extension cable that I need doesn't exist. I'd be able to cobble together a makeshift thing but that didn't seem safe or practical, so I bought another power supply. After lunch (pizza that William made at school as part of his nutrition class) I set to putting this power supply in. The computer booted up and required a few driver updates but otherwise it is humming. I now know that I'm running 32 bit and not 64 so I won't be able to use the RAM I bought. I'll see if it works for William. I've still got the video card, one hard drive (the c drive with the operating system), and the monitor. Otherwise, the whole computer is new.