jedihobbit
Rated XXX
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 Posted: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:55:02 Post Subject: |
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Midmorning 03/16/08
So time to hook it up to power to see what might have come loose during the packing…….
Hooked everything up, checked connections, mobo power leds lit, and pushed the power button…….and pushed the power button…..AND PUSHED THE POWER BUTTON….. nothing. Spent 20 minutes looking and pushing to make sure everything necessary is plugged in. Then I happen to look closely at the front and………
 
The method of assembly for this case will require me to do a 50 – 70% disassembly to get to the part that needs repair. Oh well, kinda sorta wanted to revamp how the front cables ran anyway!
03/26/08
While I’m waiting on the repairs etc., thought I should again start thinking about how to set this unit up software wise. Yep back to me being “software challenged”.
As a reminder, this is what I plan on using the unit for….. a home unit for only 2 adults and 2 other desktops and 1 laptop. Along with the usual shared text files there would be ripped music, photos, and occasional video editing. Added to this unit’s duties would be to share two printers and a scanner with the other ‘puters.
Originally had planned on going RAID for redundancy and for the novelty, however if I use M$ Home Server that is out the window. Also it seems the general consensus is it would be a waste. Speaking of Home Server, at close to $200 its appeal is sinking fast. However it is my understanding that the latest version is what a NOOB like me should use. XP Home doesn’t have anything in it that would work? How hard is Linux? I believe someone also suggested FreeNAS.
Again, let me remind you I need something SIMPLE as I’m VERY software challenged. The other primary reason for this build was to justify building a third computer to the wife.
03/27/08
Late last night I finished up most of the assembly work with the idea of testing BHrDx this morning. The first mechanical issue I came across was the wiring for the speaker. Now that is one of the main things I don’t like about this case, speaker location. It is on the bottom with the back exposed to everything and needless to say with my heavy hands it is easily damaged. As a matter of fact I had to re-solder the red lead as it had be pulled off during the assembly when the power harness was damaged. Then as I was relaying out the cables last night for the final assembly I noticed the black lead had now been pulled off. So that had to be soldered before getting the rest of the stuff crammed in.
 
As you can see it is defiantly a tight fit and not the best in cable management!
Well I’ve had an interesting morning to evening with BHrDx v2.0!!! Thought all I was going to do was put it back together and start it up. Man I should know better by now!!
Got set up for an ambush early as the initial start up went like nothing else. Even managed to get the SATA expansion card software loaded as well as a Window update. After the reboot for the updates everything started sliding down hill. Any way here you have it “running” in the beginning.
The rear 60mm fan was not running but that didn’t affect anything so I just kept on trucking with the initial startup. After everything was running I investigated that and found out that I had a bad 3-pin extension cable, which was quickly replace after shutting down the system. However when I turned it back on I was greeted with
Actually I had been greeted by that earlier and had swapped out the DVD-R from IDE 0 to 1 to see if there was a header issue. And yes there would be a “Floppy Disk Fail” as there isn’t a floppy. Ended up having to go into bios and delete the A: drive. However never could get rid of the ref to the 80-pin cable.
Then at start up it would request a systems disk to boot from the optical drive, so go into bios and set the hdd as first boot. Nothing it would just hang. So set the optical back as first boot and tried with my OS cd in hopes to repair. No go as it went into a loop of “load OS” reboot “load OS” reboot……. Then I noticed at boot up I didn’t show the Raptor! As it turns out the SATA cable was knocked loose from the mobo header when I swapped out the 3-pin fan cable. Then it really went down hill.
Could not get the OS to do a repair so tried for a total re-load. Must have done that 5 times complete with reformatting and partitioning. Finally said screw it shut everything down and decided to take a shower, chill, and then try again. While I’m not the greatest troubleshooter, finally figured it out as everything is up and running. Took the two WD5000KSs and the SATA expansion card out of the loop before doing the formatting and load. Not sure why but with them “missing” everything loaded up. It is just that whatever was on the HDD is now gone and forgotten. Hooked the 2 drives and card back up and reloaded the controller software and haven’t had any issues.
Did end up with two other hardware failures though, one I will eventually have to fix and the other is a “hell with it”. It seems the sensor for the front mounted temp gage broke, and will need replacement when I can find another and have the desire. Until then case temp will show “Lo C”. I installed what I call a running led memory mod, which looks pretty cool under the “bling” area. However it seems on of the pushbuttons that changes pattern either is broken or the wiring is messed up. This leaves me with only one pattern, big deal.
And in closing for now I’ll leave with what that mod looks like and the variety with one of the units that still lets me.
Now just to figure what I want to do OS wise and how I want to partition & format the two 400GB HDDs.
04/06/08
While I’m still trying to figure out what to do software wise I did play a little with oc’ing before dropping everything to stock for the server thing. That can be found over at BluHaz reDux v2.0’s Last Hoo-Rah
Mechanically going to call it 90% finished as I have two or threes issues to be addressed, depending on what one what’s to call “necessary”
1. One running led memory mod switches is not letting me select the different patterns. Forget it, as it looks fine the way it is and it would require taking the case apart.
2. It appears the sensor has broken for the front mounted temp gage. Will have to check and see if I can find a new sensor and make sure the soldering for repair will not interfere with the resistance for the reading.
3. The front USB ports are not working. Hopefully that is an easy fix and will only require me to change board headers.
Here are three “shots in the dark”………
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