Date: Wed, 20 May 2020 13:56:39 +0100 From: Frank Shute <frank@woodcruft.co.uk> To: David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: OT: Weird Hardware Problem Message-ID: <20200520125639.GA64538@lime.woodcruft.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <d554fd51-00a0-ab98-9d55-d72cb1f050af@holgerdanske.com> References: <0a9f810d-7b4b-f4e6-4b7c-716044a9cf69@tundraware.com> <dc56ea8c-0ee8-5115-21a4-186251958229@holgerdanske.com> <299b37be-11af-6c0a-6957-54a788d19fe5@tundraware.com> <0df1c88e-3c7b-8c4d-6b4f-95da54a46226@holgerdanske.com> <a6814843-e8a7-0754-a2a7-79533b032c73@holgerdanske.com> <42405faa-b644-7e90-6cc7-8b63e7bd244a@yahoo.com> <d554fd51-00a0-ab98-9d55-d72cb1f050af@holgerdanske.com>
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On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 11:26:24PM , David Christensen wrote:
>
>
> I have also seen power supplies that were marginal and/or that had
> partial failures (one bad rail). Thankfully, the components they were
> powering did not appear to be permanently damaged once I replaced the
> power supply.
>
>
> I am not the OP -- I was attempting to give suggestions to the OP that I
> had not seen posted yet. The OP stated that he had installed a new
> power supply, and Arthur Chance has already mentioned the power supply.
> Without information about the loads, the original power supply, and the
> new power supply, we cannot verify the OP's choice. I can only assume
> that the OP selected a "correct" part for his application.
>
>
> Of course, the OP could do more testing with yet another power supply as
> a double-check. A 500+ Watt ATX2 power supply should be adequate
> overkill for a desktop box with a motherboard, an optical drive, and one
> or two HDD's.
>
>
> Without full engineering information and (expensive) test equipment, our
> efforts are limited to "monkey see, monkey do". We throw ideas at the
> OP, he tries what he wants, and perhaps he'll get lucky.
>
>
> Understand that this is an obsolete low-end consumer-grade Dell product,
> albeit with big CPU and memory options. It was designed for casual
> Windows Home users, not Linux/ FreeBSD madmen like us who want to flog
> it like a workstation and server. ;-)
>
>
> Perhaps it is time to cannibalize the good parts and junk the rest --
> FCLGA1150 motherboards are still available new, and some are made with
> high-spec parts (for gamers). But, a new motherboard may require a new
> case, as I believe Dell uses the uncommon BTX motherboard form factor.
> Alternatively, Inspiron 3847 motherboards start at $40 on eBay.
>
>
> That said, given the shrinking margin of memory and storage sizes vs.
> bit error rates, and the increasing risk of bit rot, I now put my money
> into computers with ECC memory.
>
>
> David
I'm in agreement with David on this one. It's a Dell, dude...
What one has to remember is that we are technical people and are thus prone to
behaving like a dog with a bone when we come across a technical problem, more
often than not much to our own detriment.
Of course, we all know about our 'sunk cost' cognitive bias but it's still
very hard not to be a victim to it. So we end up expending time, money and
energy chasing problems like this down which means that we then don't have the
money to buy decent hardware; recurse.
Tim, for the sake of your sanity as much as anything, spend some money!
If you haven't got any money then do the usual: sell kids into slavery, wife
into prostitution etc.
If you haven't got a wife or kids then steal your neighbours.
Regards,
--
Frank
--* The Machine stops. *--
\verb# infinity # ----------------> $ \infty $
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