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Friday 10 February 2012

Where's that box?

ffion crashed - that's the computer that I use for pqs from Groundspeak. So I popped down to the garage to reboot it. I couldn't see it. I looked at my database of where each computer is - rack 2, shelf 2. The other four computers were there, but a big hole where ffion should have been. 

OK, we do this the hard way. I looked at the label on each computer, thinking I must have moved it and forgotten. No joy. So I put the flourescent lights on, and tried again. Still no luck. Then I had a think - computers don't just disappear, where could I have put it?

Then I remembered - the computer that controls the Night Mail railway failed last time we had a power cut, and I decided to make ffion do that job in addition to what it was already doing. That means I moved it to the top room. Bingo! So I've rebooted it, and changed my database to reflect the move. I knew that computers don't just vanish!

On of the 2 terabyte drives that I just bought, was claiming that it only had 1 tb. I was thinking about sending it back (hassle for me and for Bluepoint) and then I thought, let's run the Seagate Dos Tools on it. Huh. That also reported only 1tb, but then I used the option "Make the drive show its full amount" and voila! 2tb.

And one of the computers in my workroom has been making a continuous annoying beeping, a sort of nee-naw noise. Not loud, but insistent. And I just got a coomplaint from ladysolly about it, so I had to do something.

First, I built a replacement, because this is an elderly box (it's Pentium 933 MhZ, about 12 years old) and with a box that old, if you power it down, you can never be sure that it will power up. So I moved all the things it was doing onto the new machine I'd made, and powered it off. I took off the case, and it was immediately obvious what the problem was - the cpu fan looked dark brown, and sure enough, it wouldn't spin. So the cpu wasn't getting the cooling it needed, and the nee-naw was alerting me to that. Actually, I'm surprised that it continued to function. So a quick fan replacement, and it's back in action.

But the new computer is making a high pitched whining noise ... it's very high pitched, and I'm hoping that ladysolly can't hear it, I know she can't hear the mosquito-scarer that I can (just) hear.

... yes, she can hear it ... OK, I'll have to fix it ...

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