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... not when they're systems I use daily.
About a year ago I did the Final Upgrade on my old Main System: the Intel Rose. Over the years I've upgraded the RAM, several graphics cards and lastly - the CPU - replacing the original 1st gen i5 with a compatible Xeon processor.
And quite a number of years ago I had to replace the motherboard with a second hand one. I have to admit, I've gotten over 14 years all told from the box and it has been 'retired' to the basement so I can be online when I'm doing the laundry. The washing machine will try to 'dance' if unbalanced.
So when the box started boot looping... I was a little upset. But hey, no biggie, I've got an even older system I put together a few years ago! I'll just boot it up...
... and the CMOS battery is dead. Where is the CMOS battery? Under the graphics card, of course!
Pull the card, Replace the battery, reinstall the card. All good now, except I had installed a newer version of Ubuntu Studio on it's and it's just pokey. I'll reinstall Xubuntu which is lighter and faster.
It took a little longer than I expected but we're up again! Okay, let's install updates!
It freezes.
Reboot. Looks okay. Install updates! Seems good! Install Brave web browser! All good now. Let's launch Brave and set it up!
If freezes.
Let's run MemTest see if it's a memory problem. Meanwhile...
Take the Intel Rose to the bench and check for error messages. It locks up on Error 21 - which when I look it up it says basically, 'I don't know... maybe the motherboard? Try replacing the BIOS battery?'
Where's the BIOS battery? UNDER THE GRAPHICS CARD.
Remove graphics card, check battery... seems okay. Reinstall battery, reinstall graphics card, reset BIOS - boot loops.
Remove graphics card, install very small one. It doesn't boot loop.
WHAT? Is my newish graphics card bad?
Reinstall graphics card - no boot loops.
WHAT? It healed itself?
Any engineer/technician will tell you that the worst problems are the intermittent ones.
Meanwhile the other machine has been passing memory checks without issue. Now... it's got a really old graphics card and I'm using a new monitor with HDMI, VGA and DVI inputs. I'm using the DVI port but the monitor cycles through the inputs with DVI coming up last. Could it be the graphics card doesn't like the monitor?
The saga continues.
About a year ago I did the Final Upgrade on my old Main System: the Intel Rose. Over the years I've upgraded the RAM, several graphics cards and lastly - the CPU - replacing the original 1st gen i5 with a compatible Xeon processor.
And quite a number of years ago I had to replace the motherboard with a second hand one. I have to admit, I've gotten over 14 years all told from the box and it has been 'retired' to the basement so I can be online when I'm doing the laundry. The washing machine will try to 'dance' if unbalanced.
So when the box started boot looping... I was a little upset. But hey, no biggie, I've got an even older system I put together a few years ago! I'll just boot it up...
... and the CMOS battery is dead. Where is the CMOS battery? Under the graphics card, of course!
Pull the card, Replace the battery, reinstall the card. All good now, except I had installed a newer version of Ubuntu Studio on it's and it's just pokey. I'll reinstall Xubuntu which is lighter and faster.
It took a little longer than I expected but we're up again! Okay, let's install updates!
It freezes.
Reboot. Looks okay. Install updates! Seems good! Install Brave web browser! All good now. Let's launch Brave and set it up!
If freezes.
Let's run MemTest see if it's a memory problem. Meanwhile...
Take the Intel Rose to the bench and check for error messages. It locks up on Error 21 - which when I look it up it says basically, 'I don't know... maybe the motherboard? Try replacing the BIOS battery?'
Where's the BIOS battery? UNDER THE GRAPHICS CARD.
Remove graphics card, check battery... seems okay. Reinstall battery, reinstall graphics card, reset BIOS - boot loops.
Remove graphics card, install very small one. It doesn't boot loop.
WHAT? Is my newish graphics card bad?
Reinstall graphics card - no boot loops.
WHAT? It healed itself?
Any engineer/technician will tell you that the worst problems are the intermittent ones.
Meanwhile the other machine has been passing memory checks without issue. Now... it's got a really old graphics card and I'm using a new monitor with HDMI, VGA and DVI inputs. I'm using the DVI port but the monitor cycles through the inputs with DVI coming up last. Could it be the graphics card doesn't like the monitor?
The saga continues.
