While diagnosing my computer last night, the real problem revealed itself. My motherboard is cracked, or broken in some way.
I was testing my 4 RAM chips individually, to ensure my RAM was the problem when something happened. The computer just quit. It wouldn’t turn on, nothing.
Since I’ve had many power supply failures, I thought it was worth a shot to test it. I found a thread on how to test a power supply by running a jumper between the green and a black wire on a power supply. If it is good, the power supply will turn on, if it is bad, it won’t. My power supply came on.
Since I know my processor is good, and I have tested most of my RAM, it’s just a matter of deduction from there.
Finding parts for a computer built 3 years ago is surprisingly hard. Newegg only has 2 motherboards available, but both seem very cheap. Looking around the internet, I found many suppliers but most of them were out of stock. So I went to the “last resort,” eBay.
We found a OEM model that includes 8x AGP. The auction ended in 10 hours, but I decided to “buy it now.” Hopefully this thing will be as good as the reviews I’ve seen for it.
I also purchased a new IEEE 1394/Firewire card and 3 new 80mm cooling fans.
Now it’s just a matter of delivery and assembly. I wanted to dis-assemble everything to prepare, but Rachel wants me to relax tonight as we have a early start tomorrow.
We are now discussing purchasing, dare I say it, a Dell for our normal “personal” computer. This way we can separate everything physically. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but finances have dictated otherwise.
This wouldn’t be possible without the help of Editor B. I want you to know that I will always feel in your debt for the things you have done for me.
I hope to keep on track for Holiday season availability for ROX season one.