Desktop

Thanks for the sympathy & the theories. I do, supposedly, have surge protection for power & the phone (DSL) line through the UPS. I like your suggestion about a line conditioner. The power supply "event" theory also makes sense, perhaps as a cascade respose to whatever happened when the old cpu fried, since perhaps the power supply was running at near max.

I do appreciate the sympathy. But, although there's no way to know, I just don't think the problem was caused by my system being a mongrel. In fact, I'd done lots of research before putting my system together. You're correct that the problem precipitated by my ignoring odd fan noise for a little while, but I already knew that. I'd also figured out the the big corp. store decided to **** me off when they'd spent as much time as they felt like. I don't like the Tech Republic's ratings as "acceptable" or "unacceptable" -- it seems sort of harsh. So, I'm focusing on the "Didn't help me" part. I did spend some time moping, but it didn't delay anything -- I moped in between waiting for the various status reports from the people working on my computer. I'm new to Tech Republic, and hope I'm not violating the culture by dividing the points among those whose feedback helped me personally.

I do appreciate the sympathy. But, although there's no way to know, I just don't think the problem was caused by my system being a mongrel. If problems like this were unknown among brand name computers, they'd all give lifetime guarantees.

Although there are probably some laptops that are unrepairable, because the specially designed parts are no longer available, I appreciate your comment that there are no non-repairable desktop computers. I think you're also right -- I should mention CompUSA by name, since they screwed this up. No point in being dainty about it. It was really maddening to have them make this absurd statement repeatedly, directly. One approach might have been to have a sufficient tantrum that they would have given me my money back right then, but that's not my style. In going after them, my next step will be a certified letter, beginning "I am typing this letter with the computer you said was unrepairable." It is premature to assume they're going to get off lightly.

My tech tried my old motherboard w/ an old 133mhz bus Duron he had, before applying the BIOS upgrade to speed up the bus to take a 333mhz XP. So, no, he didn't fry my new CPU. It's working fine.

The story of two drives is a little more complex. My old 2nd drive was weird -- 2nd tech. concluded some minor damage to the internal controller ("minor" in the sense that it wasn't just totally dead). As mentioned, it was interfering w/ the system during reinstall. Some files could be accessed, but could not write to it and files became increasingly unavailable. Fortunately, there was nothing I needed on the 2nd drive, since I used it solely for backups.

My old drive #1 was working fine. My 2nd tech made a full Ghost backup of it, just to be careful, for which I'm grateful. I think it was just more serial bad luck that it then physically broke (clunk, clunk) before he could get the system back to me. Or, maybe it was good luck. If he'd reinstalled the OS on my old drive #1 & given it back to me as a working system, he'd probably have erased his Ghost backup and then when my drive #1 crashed I'd have lost everything because my backups were on drive #2.

As to the RAM, yes, it was replaced and it's the RAM that is now working fine. (Extraneous details: while the computer was at CompUSA & I was told it needed a new CPU & MB, I got the KV7 & an XP 3200, to use the 'new' 400 mhz bus. So, I got 512 mb. of 400mhz DRAM. When tech #2 was trying to get the KD7 to work, I got an Athlon 2700 instead since the KD7 couldn't take the Athlon 3200. So, when tech #2 moved on to the KV7, it was too late to get a refund on the Athlon 2700 so I'm only using 333 mhz bus speed. I thought "OK, I'll end up w/ 1gb of RAM, using my old 512 mb 333mhz stick and new 512mb 400 mhz stick." Tech #2 found that either stick would work, but they wouldn't work together. So, I've sold my old 333mhz stick.)

You also mentioned the problem w/ AMD. It was the AMD fan that failed, despite the 3 year warranty. At best, I'd get a new, old processor from them. If I get time, I may submit the claim, and sell whatever processor they send me. I had a problem before with the AMD, which turned out to be incompatible w/ one family of video cards (a fact they'd failed to mention). I stayed w/ the AMD originally in the hope it'd be compatible enought that I'd not have to reinstall all my software & peripherals. That didn't work out, obviously, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Next time I'll take your suggestion and go with Intel.

Thanks for the sympathy & the suggestions.

I have now boosted the processor fan & sink for my new CPU (a cool looking Zalman something-or-other, so feel pretty confident about that. The breakdown occurred when I heard an odd fan noise and thought "I'd better check into that sometime" instead of "I'm shutting it down immediately until I replace that fan!" It was late, I was tired ... oh well.

I like your suggestion re Motherboard Monitor5. Had a bit of trouble finding it -- apparently it is most often called "Motherboard Monitor 5" but it is shown both ways. Found a reliable download at:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7309,00.asp

I have no idea whether the techs at Comp*** remembered to re-set the cmos. My 2nd tech theorized they'd failed to do that, because he was able to get the system up & running w/ the KD7 (except for those pesky occasional reboots).

Interesting point about the power supply My old one was 350W which, as you said, is supposed to be sufficient. My new one is 400W. Interestingly, my 2nd tech felt the re-boots w/ the KD7 were reduced. Maybe if I'd gone to an even bigger one, that would've solved it but I'll never know. I work with the 2nd tech, and am very comfortable that he did a good job. I also believe that computers are so complicated that something like artistry or talent is involved when the solution isn't obvious.

Posting here, this time, wouldn't have solved my problem, unless I was willing to try to fix it myself. It turned out that w/ multiple problems, and my not having resources (like extra CPUs to try), I'd probably never have gotten this one solved, even with everyone's help. My initial idea of taking it to CompUSA for a quick and reliable repair turned out to be an even bigger mistake than thinking "I'd better look into that funny fan noise ... later."