DIY Hardware Failure, Lessons Learned

One of the computers I built a year ago stopped working the other day. The monitor went blank and the Network - 'computers near me' folder would not show an icon for it. So I began the swapping process... monitor, video card, other items. But the problem was not corrected. Then I got out the manual for my MSI brand mother board and realized that it has self diagnostics on it... COOL. I found the problem was a bad CPU that is under warantee.


The lessons learned here are:

• Know your PC, read the manuals. They usually have a trouble shooting guide.


• Don't bother with manufacturer warranties, they have so many exclusion clauses that you will never get a replacement without pain and cost.


• Buy a good motherboard with self diagnostics. I have become a big fan of MSI boards, I have experienced problems with Gigabyte, and Soyo mother boards.
  

So I will be ordering an AMD Athlon™ XP for the board that I have... in fact, the AMD site has a recommended list of mother boards and other components that work well together. Nice.

DIY PCs

Since I have a R&D style electronic engineering minor and seven years of professional hardware experience, I build my own PCs. You may not have a degree, or even know what does a transistor do? If you have 'hardware' savvy and know the difference what BIOS, CPU, AGP, PCI and other acronyms mean, you can make DIY PCs. PC Magazine and Maximum PC are great publications to get a balance of industry recommendations and leading edge DIY PC construction. The reason to subscribe to these two magazines is that six months later, you can reference the evaluation of the products after the prices have dropped to a reasonable level.

PC Magazine has an article about customer statisfaction and PC reliability. Dell Computers always seems to win every year. But this year, DIY computers scored high in reliability. This indicates that PC components and the Windows software are starting to become more compatible with each other and the retail stores are careful on selling 'good' hardware components.

Anyway... go for it. Raise the bar in your life. Start simple and upgrade your memory. Add a harddrive. Add a DVD writer. These tasks are not as hard as they seem. When looking at the static electricity warnings, just use common sense... don't use a vacuum to clean out your PC. One tool I would recommend is a torque adjusting electric drill ($20 at your local discount store). One final tip: ALWAYS UNPLUG YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE WORKING ON IT.