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From: William R. Walsh on 29 May 2010 20:33 Hi! > I get the feeling that that is reason enough to turn around and > run the other way, once you see the 'Bestec' name Their 230/250 watt PC power supply has no overvoltage protection circuit. If something goes wrong, the motherboard usually gets it. I've found that nearly everything else (optical drive, hard disk, etc) survives. The later 300/350 watt supplies are better and do appear to have an OVP circuit. I think the often-highly-questionable wiring that some people have in their homes only serves to accelerate the demise of these supplies. Some of the wiring messes I have come across while servicing computers are dangerous. I'm not an electrician, so I can't fix it for someone else, but I do strongly suggest that they have it fixed ASAP. Out of the ones I have, some of which run 24/7, I have never lost one. As to your hard drive, perhaps they had a virus that was resident in the MBR or a similarly difficult-to-eradicate location? Or perhaps it really has been damaged and is not reliable. William
From: Michael A. Terrell on 30 May 2010 05:53 "William R. Walsh" wrote: > > Hi! > > > I get the feeling that that is reason enough to turn around and > > run the other way, once you see the 'Bestec' name > > Their 230/250 watt PC power supply has no overvoltage protection > circuit. If something goes wrong, the motherboard usually gets it. I've > found that nearly everything else (optical drive, hard disk, etc) survives. > > The later 300/350 watt supplies are better and do appear to have an OVP > circuit. > > I think the often-highly-questionable wiring that some people have in > their homes only serves to accelerate the demise of these supplies. Some > of the wiring messes I have come across while servicing computers are > dangerous. I'm not an electrician, so I can't fix it for someone else, > but I do strongly suggest that they have it fixed ASAP. > > Out of the ones I have, some of which run 24/7, I have never lost one. > > As to your hard drive, perhaps they had a virus that was resident in the > MBR or a similarly difficult-to-eradicate location? Or perhaps it really > has been damaged and is not reliable. Sometimes you get lucky and can fix an infected drive with the command 'fdisk /mbr'. You have to boot with an emergency startup or diagnostics disk with a copy of fdisk. You can run the command manually, or run it from an autoexec.bat or other .bat file. -- Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
From: mike on 30 May 2010 17:29 William R. Walsh wrote: > > Their 230/250 watt PC power supply has no overvoltage protection > circuit. If something goes wrong, the motherboard usually gets it. I've > found that nearly everything else (optical drive, hard disk, etc) survives. Huh, they're still in business? That's a surprise... > The later 300/350 watt supplies are better and do appear to have an OVP > circuit. > > I think the often-highly-questionable wiring that some people have in > their homes only serves to accelerate the demise of these supplies. Some > of the wiring messes I have come across while servicing computers are > dangerous. I'm not an electrician, so I can't fix it for someone else, > but I do strongly suggest that they have it fixed ASAP. Good point, a lot of people don't know they need electrical work until after a problem has already cost them money. > As to your hard drive, perhaps they had a virus that was resident in the > MBR or a similarly difficult-to-eradicate location? Or perhaps it really > has been damaged and is not reliable. > Hmm, I hadn't thought to do a virus scan on it, if that's what it was I hope it's gone. Thanks, Mike
From: mike on 2 Jun 2010 14:41 Michael A. Terrell wrote: > A server is designed to run 24/7, and should have at least two power > supplies. They generally have three or more hard drives for a small > RAID array. They are better built than a consumer grade computer. You > can use them as a regular computer, but it my not have a high resolution > video card. A consumer type OS may not support multiple processors. Huh, I had a feeling there was a reason I wouldn't be able to do anything with it when I bought it. Thanks for thew info.
From: Michael A. Terrell on 2 Jun 2010 15:04
mike wrote: > > Michael A. Terrell wrote: > > > A server is designed to run 24/7, and should have at least two power > > supplies. They generally have three or more hard drives for a small > > RAID array. They are better built than a consumer grade computer. You > > can use them as a regular computer, but it my not have a high resolution > > video card. A consumer type OS may not support multiple processors. > > Huh, I had a feeling there was a reason I wouldn't be able to do > anything with it when I bought it. > Thanks for the info. Doesn't it have at least one empty slot where you can install a better video card? You can use multiple drives without installing a RAID driver. Don't pitch it out, if it works. Play with it. Install a version of Linux or use it for a test bed computer. You can remove the rack mount brackets on a lot of server cases and use them as a big desktop computer, or you can use some scrap lumber an made a crude rack for it. Hand it under your computer desk if it is a one or two unit size. Be creative. If all else fails, sell it on Ebay or Craigslist. :) -- Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to have a DD214, and a honorable discharge. |