Thursday, March 12, 2009

More is Less!

Less than a year ago, I decided to buy a new computer. For some strange reason (which was not so strange back then), I decided to keep my old computer. Since me & my friends spend most of our time in front of computers, I thought this would be a great way to spend more time together. Not everything goes according to plan and this is a good example. My friends didn’t fancy coming over regularly & so, the only time the computer was used was when my mom or dad decided to play cards & thus eventually getting my dinner delayed. That aside, I still managed to find some rare use for my old computer. But that can barely be called a reason considering the troubles I’ve had with it.

Time and again, either the motherboard has problems or the processor overheats or the hard disk has trouble or the network won’t work. I don’t even use that computer much and I’ve spent more time repairing it than using it. The past month has been the worst with the HDD failing & motherboard giving me all sorts of troubles. Three days back, I made the routine trip to Rashi Peripherals which is the customer care for Asus in Chennai. Their shop was closed since they were on a company trip. So, I made another trip today.

When I was waiting at the main desk, I was gazing at the numerous awards & certificates they had bolted onto the wall to show their excellence in service. I was mildly surprised as I couldn’t understand what was so special about a service center. I mean, you just come here, they’ll check the device & if it isn’t working, they’ll replace it. It seemed like a simple procedure to me. They did the same with my motherboard & I got it replaced in less than half an hour. When I reached home, I started to realize why it was special.

I spent hours if not days trying to find out what the problem was when my computer wouldn’t boot. After taking it apart, changing parts and assembling it back & repeating it a couple of times with different parts, I came to the conclusion that it is probably the motherboard. After all that trouble, they replaced it with a completely different board in just half an hour which was nothing at all compared to the hours I spent juggling with different parts.

Unfortunately, as I said in the first paragraph, not everything goes according to the plan. I assembled everything back without sparing even a single bolt & with full of confidence, I pressed the magic button. The magic stopped at the booting screen & it didn’t go any further. Without losing hope, I said to myself that the processor might not have been mounted properly & so, I took it apart & assembled it again. That didn’t change anything & so, I’m back to square one. The obvious reason here is probably that the people in Rashi Peripherals replaced my faulty board with their faulty board. The lesson in the end is, don’t bite on something that you can’t swallow. Meaning, there is no point in buying something (or in my case, not selling something) which we don’t really need. If we do, we’ll end up having to waste more time & energy in maintaining it, for which our return is just the thought that we have more (of what we don’t need).

Update: I made another trip to Rashi the following day, only to find out that the board is indeed working. The engineer there suggested that I check my HDD & he was right. So, next stop, Seagate Service Center. As a result of all this confusion, we decided to get an UPS for the old computer. Though technically I've learned more, the moral remains the same.

3 comments:

  1. Thats a nice write up of your love towards the old warrior !! :D

    Keep up the good work ...

    Cheers !

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  2. Hm... Should have checked all the H/W with your new PC before concluding to the Motherboard..
    Hard disk is also at times the reason for not working of PC(Not starting at all coz it prevents the motherboard from blowing off due to short circuit/ bare or burnt wires) else may be RAM too . Happened with me too, thats why can tell you this xD. . .@ writeup = too good. Keep it up \m/
    laterz....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you guys..

    The new PC is an enthusiast's configuration & so, I've done some cable management with the PSU wires & stuff. I wouldn't remove it unless it was a worst case scenario.. :p

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