I have a client that I’m at my wits end with. It’s a pool supply company. They are housed in a small building where they store pool chemicals and supplies. Their “office” is in the back of this building and is not sectioned off from the rest of the building. I have been doing their computer work for years as I am friends with their daughter and in exchange I get free supplies and maintenance for my pool.
Here’s the problem. Their computers “die” after 2-3 years. No matter what they have. I have been telling them for years that I believe it’s the chlorine/bromine and other chemicals in the air inside the shop. They won’t accept this.
3 years ago we purchased a new Dell to replace one computer and 2 years ago another Dell to replace the other computer. Within 3 years, the USB ports have all stopped working except 1 or 2, they come and go. I’ve replaced a video card on one, an ethernet card on one. The power switch is not working on one, had to take it off and touch the wires together for it to start. The other one is getting Fan Failure issues and doesn’t sound too good so I’m sure the power supply is going out.
This is just a small sample of the stuff that I’m dealing with. And it’s just not Dells, the computers before these were Compaqs, before that we built them computers. ALL of them have behaved in this manner. Also, I might add that yo can smell chlorine when you open up the box and the metal is rough, almost corroded looking. Am I out of my mind to think it’s the air in this building?
So, now that you have the background, here is my issue at the moment. They had a virus on the newer Dell, it was running really bad and I was planning on reinstalling Windows anyhow. So I brought home and preceeded to format the drive and reinstall the OS.
So I take the HDD out and slave it to another PC and reformat it. Put it back in the Dell and put the Windows CD in the CD Rom, which by the way are so corroded they will not open with the buttons, you have to use a paper clip or use the Eject command in windows to open them. So I get the Windows CD in and restart the computer, it won’t boot to the CD. Try the other CD ROM, same thing, go into the BIOS, it shows the CD Roms are not installed. They have power, I see the lights when they turn on. After messing with the IDE cables it finally sees one CD Rom and boots tot he Windows Disk. I get Windows installed and then restart – get into windows, still no CD ROM drives – showing uninstalled in the BIOS.
I figure okay maybe the IDE cable is bad, I go buy a new one, still nothing, try the HDD on the new cable in the same IDE port – works fine.
I have tried everything, but these drives will not show up.
My gut reaction is to throw it in a dumpster, however, they do not want to spend MORE money on another computer when this one “should be just fine, it’s not that old!” UGH!
So what am I looking for here? Well 1) anyone with experience in this type of environment and how can I keep these computers from dying like this so quickly. 2) Any idea how to get these CD ROMS back?
