"Then why can you take it out?"

[Tigress]

OEMs tend to use strange parts (such as miniATX mobos that are just a hair off spec from real miniATX, various bizarre connectors, and leads that on first glance work, but when you try to give a OEM computer a new case the front panel leads don't match up at all).

Plus the computer was 3 - 4 years old. Even if we could replace the motherboard, we'd probably have to give it all new parts, like RAM and video card, etc. Because the old parts wouldn't work. I really is just cheaper all around to buy a new one.

[mariamousie1]

Hmm. There seems to be some kind of thing installed into the back of my computer. I wonder what it is? It's attached to the computer with pins. Hmm...I know! I'll rip it out! It's brilliant! Why didn't I think of this before? *crunch* My computer seems to be broken now. How could this have possibly happened?

[Kogarashi]

Won't stop them deciding the keyboard and mouse need a wash in the sink with lots of soapy water but might save something.

Would you believe I've actually washed my keyboard with soapy water before?

Admittedly, I completely dismantled it first, and didn't wash anything that looked like it was electronic. My keyboard was just seriously filthy underneath the keys (it's something like five years old, minimum). So I popped off all the keys (after taking a photo so I'd remember where some of the odd keys went), unscrewed the back, and carefully separated the parts. Then I gave it all a good scrubbing, let it dry completely, and painstakingly reassembled the thing. Apparently the cushion layer in my keyboard isn't one solid piece like it was in my roommate's keyboard (which died of orange juice poisoning; we disassembled it for fun). Mine is an individual piece for every pressure point under the keys. Ouch. But my keyboard is squeaky clean now! And works just fine.

And admittedly, I know more about my computer than the average joe on the street. My parents' computer-tech friend helped me build it so he could troubleshoot over the phone while I was halfway across the country for college. I get replacement parts on Newegg now and install them myself.


Tigress, did the fried mobo happen to be in a laptop? I can see how that would be cheaper to replace wholesale than just an individual part.

[Tigress]

Tigress, did the fried mobo happen to be in a laptop? I can see how that would be cheaper to replace wholesale than just an individual part.

It was a rather old Dell desktop. A brand the Big Box does not sell. A brand that often uses its own proprietary parts. And I'm not touching it.

If the other techs are feeling generous, they may make the attempt if the client provides the parts. (We don't sell mobos.) But they'd have to be feeling really generous... on the level of sainthood. And I'm sure certain... favors of a physical nature would have to be involved as part of the payment.

[Foxglove8778]

Then how come you can take it out?

Similar to sticking a fork in a light socket, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[RichS]

Tigress, did the fried mobo happen to be in a laptop? I can see how that would be cheaper to replace wholesale than just an individual part.

It was a rather old Dell desktop. A brand the Big Box does not sell. A brand that often uses its own proprietary parts.

To make it clearer - I've been asked to work a few days at my former employer, and one job I got was an emachines, about 3 years old, that had 'won't turn on' on the tag. Found out something electrical went bad and took out the power supply and fried the BIOS chip on the motherboard. BIOS chip was soldered on, so the motherboard was shot.

So I went shopping. I needed the same motherboard as was in the machine so the restore CD's would work if she needed to reinstall. New motherboard wasn't available from emachines, but refurbished was for around $210-$300 (darn proprietary parts!). Now, $210 + $60 (power supply) + $100 (2 hrs. labor) = $370. Not worth fixing an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ machine when you can spend $200+ more for new and a lot faster.

I told the customer as such, she agreed, and told us to scrap her machine.

[protege]

I told the customer as such, she agreed, and told us to scrap her machine.

Good call. Computers, like most machines, eventually reach a point that it's cheaper just to replace them. I just scrapped 2 old 400Mhz machines, a Compaq and a Gateway. The Gateway was scrap--it wouldn't boot, and even if it did, it simply wasn't powerful enough to run our software. Took that home and scrapped it. The Compaq...same thing--not fast enough, not enough RAM. Since this one worked, it went home, solely as a Wolfenstein machine

[rerant]

Who randomly yanks hardware from heir computers anyway?
He deserves to be out a bunch of money and possibly an entire computer for his stupidity.

[Dreamstalker]

It was a rather old Dell desktop. A brand the Big Box does not sell. A brand that often uses its own proprietary parts. And I'm not touching it.

I had one of those dumped in my lap; the case power button was fubared. Upon seeing that the front panel header on the mobo was not labeled at all (and knowing Dell, using my rig's panel header as a reference would not have helped), I advised the user to purchase a new desktop (setup and copying of data was discounted from my usual rate).