Digital Art Zone

...alright, there probably wasn’t any reports at all…

Yeah; I’ve been away. Just over a month ago, I noticed that my new super-beast rendering machine wasn’t recognizing keyboard or mouse activity. I couldn’t logon to Windows (yep, I checked to be sure that the keyboard and mouse were working on other machines). It looked like all of my USB ports had been fried. Not cool.

I logged on using Remote Desktop and darn near had a heart attack. In Windows Explorer, two of my hard drives were not showing up. Worse, one of those drives held all my 3D stuff…all the Daz downloads and my runtime libraries. All the usual IT tricks didn’t work - powering the box down and trying again, etc.

I kept it switched off and started to wallow in self-pity.   Best case, I buy a USB expansion card. Worse case, I buy a new motherboard. Very worst case, a new motherboard AND weeks of Daz downloading and installing. I just couldn’t face it.

Yesterday, I steeled myself and powered up. Maybe the drive was salvagable and I could move it to the smaller server? To my very pleasant surprise, everything worked correctly. Just one of those weird IT things and yet another testament to the adage, “always have a known good backup.”

Glad to hear those reports were grossly overstated.

Now about your sig: first time I’ve ever seen “sanity” and “Cararra” used in the same sentence

Sounds more like, even though it’s a new machine, you need to change the motherboard battery…messed up BIOS settings can cause the kind of errors you had.  And with a low battery, the settings being messed up, as opposed to reverting to ‘default’ is very high.  After a month of sitting idle, the settings reverting to ‘default’ is pretty much a given…hence the booting and working.

HI Garstor

I was beginning to thing that HAL had taken over, and wouldn’t open the door for you.

Q: Did it dream ?

mjc1016 - 29 October 2012 09:12 AM

Sounds more like, even though it’s a new machine, you need to change the motherboard battery…messed up BIOS settings can cause the kind of errors you had.  And with a low battery, the settings being messed up, as opposed to reverting to ‘default’ is very high.  After a month of sitting idle, the settings reverting to ‘default’ is pretty much a given…hence the booting and working.

That is a good call. I never thought about that possibility. I was initially blaming interference from the vacuum cleaner motor.

I do need a better desk and setup for these machines just the same.

3DAGE - 29 October 2012 09:34 AM

Q: Did it dream ?

...of electric sheep… 

Garstor - 29 October 2012 09:47 AM

mjc1016 - 29 October 2012 09:12 AM

Sounds more like, even though it’s a new machine, you need to change the motherboard battery…messed up BIOS settings can cause the kind of errors you had.  And with a low battery, the settings being messed up, as opposed to reverting to ‘default’ is very high.  After a month of sitting idle, the settings reverting to ‘default’ is pretty much a given…hence the booting and working.

That is a good call. I never thought about that possibility. I was initially blaming interference from the vacuum cleaner motor.

I do need a better desk and setup for these machines just the same.

Been doing that kind of computer troubleshooting for way too long…it’s gotten to the point where my favorite troubleshooting tool is a 12 ga shotgun…

And the thing is, I’ve seen brand new, still sealed motherboards have dead batteries.  There’s no telling how long it sat on a shelf somewhere or how well it handled the ride from Taiwan or mainland China…or even if the battery was not leftover from the Christmas 2006 ‘rush’...

mjc1016 - 29 October 2012 09:57 AM

Been doing that kind of computer troubleshooting for way too long…it’s gotten to the point where my favorite troubleshooting tool is a 12 ga shotgun…

Often the best thing to do really…but I was reluctant in this case.

mjc1016 - 29 October 2012 09:57 AM

And the thing is, I’ve seen brand new, still sealed motherboards have dead batteries.  There’s no telling how long it sat on a shelf somewhere or how well it handled the ride from Taiwan or mainland China…or even if the battery was not leftover from the Christmas 2006 ‘rush’...

True enough!