Project “Desktop Revival” Terminated

I have finally declare Project Desktop Revival a failure and terminated any further efforts to be put into it. My desktop’s power supply encounter an unfriendly storm in Redwood City during a December weekend last year when I headed to L.A. to visit a friend. Power surge had killed the power supply, which was claimed to be defective by the many users that had power problems with the Dell Dimension 4600. The lack of computer stores and the terrible transit system at the area I was living in delayed my attempts to revive this desktop. Also, my new laptop has just arrived a month ago. So, I was in no rush to fix a computer in an unfamiliar town. I brought the desktop home with me during Christmas holidays and took it back to Waterloo in hopes of getting more help from the people at the tech school I attended.

Some research through Google showed that faulty power supplies were frequently found in the 4600 and many had recommended changing to a more reliable brand and upgrading the maximum wattage output. I chose the Antec SmartPower 2.0 400W unit. Upon installation, the previously lifeless desktop was able to power-up. The excitement didn’t last for more than 10 second as nothing was outputted to the monitor. While frantically searching for answers through support forums, tech websites etc, I came across an article that suggested the backup battery for the motherboard might have died during the months I have deserted the lifeless PC. The idea of testing the battery at one of the engineering labs at school was raised by a friend of mine, Zuka. However, laziness among other factors prevent the idea to actually be carry out.

In July, about 7 months since the desktop entered into a dormant stage, I came across the backup battery that I have taken out of the computer, originally waiting for testing. I presented the battery to my dad, who was a lot more knowledgeable in electrical matter than myself, and asked if he could test whether it was dead or not. My dad took out a somewhat ancient camera (It used film and was not a professional camera.) which used a similar looking battery. However the little writing inscribed on the front of it was CR2025 and not the CR2032 on mine. Fortunately, there is a store which sells these batteries for $2 (plus 26cents of tax). I bought the battery today and inserted into the circular slot on the motherboard. I re-mounted the hard drive into the computer, reconnected the power cables and flipped the rocker switch at the back panel. The computer fired up, and hard drive made slight turning noises. I quickly looked up at the monitor sitting on my table. It was unwilling to give in to the colours that I wish would be appearing and remained a pitch black screen. That was around 7:30pm.

At 11:25pm, exhausted (and a little dizzy) from reading millions of pages of forums, website and pulling out almost every removable component, including modem, video card and RAM upgrades, from the motherboard, I have concluded that the motherboard might have been damaged from the storm. Whether to replace the motherboard or not hardly took time for me to contemplate about. It was a most definite “no”. Last thing I want to be unscrewing from my computer was the motherboard and I certainly don’t have nearly enough confident to be removing the CPU and reinstalling it onto a new board. Last time when I poked around the CPU heat sink, I felt like I was breaking something. I vowed to not touch it again until I have proper instructions to do so. Economically, it would also be a bad decision to exchange the motherboard. Being the Dell computer my desktop was, I would be required to purchased a replacement from Dell which would cost around $100 with shipping, tax and another other unforeseeable charges unaccounted for. However I don’t actually want to order a motherboard unless I was certain that it was the main issue. Solution to that would have to be taking it to a shop for examination, costing another notable amount of money. Lastly, installation by a technician equals more money needed. The total amount that needs to be invested for the replacement is most likely several folds higher than the close to junk value that the PC was worth. Feeling smart about my decision, over a hundred dollars is now saved for my next PC which has a tentative purchase date of a year or so from now.

R.I.P to the desktop that has caused me much grieve, probably increased my near-sightedness, and forced me to inhale countless dust particles flowing within your casing. Hey, at least I have gained some (possibly useless) information about computers. That would be my attempt to be optimistic about the unfortunate event in a nerdy way.

Note: Upon searching for solutions, I came across an article on PC World naming the Dimension 4600 #10 in The 10 Worst PC of All Times. What jokes….

Posted in Tech
Tagged as die