ufh logo Upgrades from Hell: Mongrel!

Originally posted to alt.peeves and aus.talk.ltuae, Feb 21 1999.

WARNING: followups set to aus.talk.ltuae.

WARNING: Compunerdypeeve ahead.

WARNING: Don't say you weren't fucking told!

I sometimes write about my experiences with upgrading or maintaining various PC's that I'm involved with. I do this to share knowledge around, and also to provide people with more 'dirt' on me, apparently.

So here we go again.

My partners machine is a mongrel, made from bits and pieces of my old hand-me-down hardware, mixed with brand new bits. Currently it's a Pentium 90, overclocked to 100Mhz, running on a TX chipset motherboard with 24Mbytes of memory, and three hard disks (540mb, 1200mb, 6400mb). The lack of CDROM and the crippling amount of memory, mean that Val has to work very patiently with her machine, waiting for things to happen.

Around October '98 I priced a couple of 32MB SIMMS. They were outrageously expensive ($160 per SIMM). Seems that SIMMS have gone down the gurgler, and DIMMS have overtaken and become the cheaper commodity. Paying $320 for 64MB of memory was just too much, so I didn't (and Val wouldn't).

This month I finally got my tax return, and splashed half of it out on buying my Dad a new system. A Celeron 300A processor, Abit BH6 ATX motherboard , 64MB DIMM, 6GB hard disk, ATX case, 32X CDROM. I put it all together, with nary a problem except for the Network Interface Card, which was software-set to Twisted Pair, but I wanted BNC -- a search of the net fluked an archive which contained the SETUP.EXE program for UL0020 network cards.

The deal I made with Dad was that he would move over his existing 3.2GB and 6.4GB drives into the new box, as well as his floppy drive, Voodoo1 3D accelerator card, and sound card, then he would send me back the case with his P133, 64MB SIMMs, old 8X CDrom and left-over 1GB hard disk. I could then use this hardware to upgrade Val's machine to P133 with 64MB, and then upgrade her daughter's machine from a poxy 486 with 8MB, to the old P100 with 24MB, and an additional 1GB hard disk!

Last week Dad sent back the box to me from Adelaide to Canberra but somehow mislaid the P133's built in fan's power cord! Grr. I took all the bits out of his computer case, and laid them out on the kitchen table. The motherboard + memory + cpu, the old video card, the 1GB disk drive, cables and connectors.

In order to put the new motherboard in Val's machine, I would have to reload Windows 95, or upgrade to Windows 98. Val isn't keen on the idea of upgrading, and considering the bits and pieces in or connected to her computer (SCSI card, TWAIN driven flatbed Scanner, etc.) I wasn't keen on the idea either. So I suggested that I just upgrade her existing machine with the 64MB of memory, and use Dad's motherboard to upgrade her daughters machine. Val agreed, and so today I set out to put in 64MB of memory and an 8XCDROM.

Taking her machine out of its resident shelf, revealed gross amounts of disgusting brown dust + nicotine (Val's a multiple-pack-per-day smoker), all over the back of the case and on the motherboard. The external cables and connectors were snarled up [speakers, parallel printer cable, serial cable, mouse cord, keyboard, SCSI cable, BNC network cable, power cable, video cable], and of course they fell behind the Ikea shelving unit, so when it was time to set it up again, I would have to be crawling around trying to grab recalcitrant cords and stuff.

Drag machine into kitchen, remove case, and blow off the larger chunks of dust. When I see where the memory is located, it becomes obvious that I'm going to have to remove all the various cards and cables (and a hard disk or two) before I'd be able to access that location. I dutifully removed each card, blowing off the dust from each one, unhooking cables left right and centre, and putting the pieces on the table, within easy reach. Finally get to access the existing memory ( 2 * 8MB and 2 * 4MB SIMMS) and they were BLOODY awkward to get at. I even undid the screws holding the motherboard to the case, but the motherboard supports were those nylon clip-in kind that require a pair of pliers and some 'wiggling' to remove. Way too much hassle, so I put the screws back in. Finally extricate the existing memory, and manage to bung in the new SIMMS.

Next came the CDROM. There was a lovely space for this down at the bottom of the case, but no way to use the existing double-connector IDE cable because of the flawed case design. Also noticed that I was short a power connector -- and that was with an existing power-cable-splitter already in use. The floppy disk drive was some ancient 3.5" in a 5.25" case, with the old blocky interface connectors, and a full size molex power connector. I snaffled my floppy disk drive from the Linux box, which I'd use d to build the Celeron 300A, and was able to use the smaller power connector, freeing up the molex one for the CDROM drive! It was unfortunate that the floppy from the linux box, wouldn't fit into the 5.25" enclosure, because I have no 3.5" -> 5.25" adapter kits left; the floppy drive now sits in a 5.25" opening, sitting to one side. It looks dodgy, but it works, so fuck the aesthetics!

Moving around the floppy enabled me to put the CDROM drive on top of the existing 1.2GB hard disk, and thus solve the IDE cable difficulty. Getting the power cord to the floppy disk was a chore too, but I managed it.

Finally I had the computer ready to test. I only put the video adapter card in the case at this stage, in case I needed to get access to the memory. I get my spare monitor, and Val's keyboard, and hook up the system. Apply power -- 64MB memory counts up! Floppy disk drive works, CDROM has its access light on and the computer sits there like a lump, before stating (confidently) that all three hard disks have failed. I'd flubbed the IDE cable orientation (yet again.) Turn off, fix up IDE cable orientati on, turn on, wham boot bang! Into Windows 95, and the CD worked.

Put rest of cards into the case, including the parallel port and serial ports, slam on the case, walk back to the lovely air-conditioned computer room, and plonk the case down. "All fixed, I'll let you hook it all back together". Haha, big joke, I smiled, and got down to reconnecting the case to the external world. Unsnarling the cables was a chore, but I did it all, hooked it up, powered it on, and up she came! Windows 95 logo ... whirr whirr, desktop background and then a message "No mouse found, p lease insert serial mouse to continue". Ah shit. Getting those COM port cables onto the motherboard connectors is always a hassle, especially with the orientation! So I scrounge the motherboard manual, check the orientation of the COM ports on the motherboard diagram, and yes, I've flubbed the cable orientation, again.

Unhook case (sob, all that work), take off cover, take off connectors, turn them around, put them back, all of which was terribly fiddly. Screw case back on, reattach cables etc. cetera. Power up, same 'lack of mouse' failure. I stamped and screamed a little bit and shook my head in despair. "Why did I agree to do this fucking task in the first place, it's ALWAYS a disaster!".

There was nothing else to do but unhook it all again, and take the box back to the kitchen and have a fiddle.

So I did that, and fiddled about with connectors and cable orientation. I fiddled with mouses (I used three different ones), and I fiddled with comms programs, to see if I could establish any kind of serial links. With the mouse plugged in, I could make Telix (comms program) 'echo' characters from the serial port - remove the mouse, and the echo stopped working. So I figure the serial port is still kinda working. I mucked around for 30 minutes or so, but to no avail. Even tried the mouse from my Linu x box (it now has no floppy drive, and no mouse connected to it.), but nothing worked.

Eventually I went to have a shower so I could have a think. It was something like three hours since I'd started this 'two times 5 minute' job, and I was very hot and bothered indeed.

Shower complete, I sat down and re-evaluated the situation. Obviously I'd done something horrible to the COM ports when I hooked up the cables backwards and applied the power -- something I'd never fucked up in a permanent way before. I had Dad's other motherboard, minus fan power, but he's sending that cable to me soon, so it should be right for a few days. I made the unilateral decision to try a motherboard transplant, and proceeded to rip out the old motherboard (get the pliers to remove the nylon spacers), rip out the 64MB of memory, and transplant Dad's motherboard (remove 24MB of memory, put in 64MB of memory), put in nylon spacers, magically it fits into the case without any awkwardness. Hook up motherboard power, hook up floppy cable, IDE cables, go to put in serial cables, need to know orientation of COM ports due to it being a different motherboard -- of course, these com ports are oriented the opposite of the other motherboard, pick up serial cables and try to connect them t o COM port pins - - they won't fit! I tried again, and they woulnd't fit in the orientation I was trying. That was ludicrous. I looked at the 25pin and 9pin ports, with their little ribbon cables and the connectors that wouldn't connect, and THEN it hit me.

I had grabbed the wrong piece of hardware.

*CLICK* went the lightbulb, "you fucking OAF, Dac!" I said to myself.

Yes, when I had disassembled Dad's old box, and laid all the bits on the table, and subsequently disassembled Val's machine and laid THOSE bits on the table, I managed to mix up the (almost identical) 25/9pin COM port connectors from the two machines!

The COM port problem was entirely due to using hardware meant for a different motherboard! Now you wouldn't think that ribbon cables going from motherboard COM connectors to the 25 and 9 pin connectors would be wired differently between motherboards, but they -definitely- are.

Rip out Dad's motherboard, move memory around again, replace nylon spacers, hook up motherboard power, IDE, Floppy, COM, Printer connectors, put in adapter cards, hook up mouse, keyboard, monitor, switch on, flash boom bang, up comes Windows, and the MOUSE WORKS! YAY.

Unplug everything, take box to computer room, hook it up, turn on, sit back, grin a lot. The CDROM worked perfectly, the 64MB worked perfectly. I think the floppy works (well DIR A: works), and after a small problem with the mouse driver being incorrect, it's all working like a bought one.

Moral of story -- don't mix and match internal serial connectors between different motherboards.

In the next week or so I get to upgrade Val's daughters computer from a poxy 486 to the P133. I expect a buncha peeves to occur with that one, especially since I KNOW that she's running some dodgy hard disk software to enable access beyond 540MB on her 1.2GB hard disk. GRRR.

Dac

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