Who does that, anyway? (Part 2)

The saga of Jennifer's PC continues.

When we had last visited this beastie, HDD issues were the order of the day. I honestly don't remember what happened, but that the issue is gone. For the moment. This week's disaster du jour was something along the lines of The A+ Team Nightmare From Elm Street. Two weeks ago I had installed Nero, and on the slate for this past week was the installation of a graphics card. As we had some running around to do, we accepted the offer of assistance from our younger son. Upon returning from our errand, he informed us that a PSU (power supply unit) with more power than the stock HP unit would be necessary. Not a problem, I thought, as we have more than a few spares. I selected one, then prepped the machine. I laid down some old newspaper on the table, brought the box in and laid it on its side. I pulled the cover off and proceeded to disconnect the 24-pin main power from the mobo, followed by the 4-pin power and the SATA connectors. Then, I unscrewed the mounting screws from the rear of the old PSU, and grabbed the cables and removed it from the case. I replaced the HP unit with an Antec Earthwatts 380W unit.

Looking down @ OEM PSU

Um, that would be a no-go... the graphics card needs a minimum of 400W. So, Mr. T and I made a trip to our local Tiger Direct store and picked up a very reasonably priced 500W ThermalTake unit and returned home. I unboxed it, and placed it in the case.

It did not fit properly; when the mounting holes were lined up with the holes on the rear of the case, the fan faced up. As this PSU is mounted in the topmost part of the case, this was not an acceptable solution. I pulled it out, and grabbed another- a 600W Rosewill. Same story. Then, it hit me: the problem was not the PSUs, it was the mobo. I took a quick inventory of PCs in our house (living and dead), and discovered

Jennifer and her Mototool

that- other than a gaming Dell that belongs to Mr. T- every other PC in the house had the I/O mounted on the opposite side of the case. So, if you ever find yourself in possession of an HP DC7800, expect a fairly painful video upgrade. Jennifer looked at me, and she had that odd twinkle in her eyes when she said, "Can't we just mod the case"? Ack! I think Bill the Cat was in accord with me. Ack!

I did what any self-respecting spouse would do at that point: "Sweetheart, if you want to mod the case, go for it." For anyone who
does not know us, we have a fairly eclectic collective skillset. Generally, I am in charge of all things I.T. I do purchases, upgrades, and installations.

The finished product

However, Jennifer is in charge of craft and construction. And where installation and construction intersect, we brainstorm. She thought about this for some time, and tried a few solutions out on me; I had to tell her that I just couldn't see what she was describing. We tried several different approaches: the only thing we knew for sure was that the PSU was going in upside down, and that at least one piece of sheet metal was coming off the rear of the box, a blank that was blocking a good part of the power plug.

The only thing I had to offer was something she actually incorporated in her solution- Erector. Remember Erector sets? They're bloody difficult to search for these days, as the French firm Meccano owns Erector. I think. In any event, many years ago, I had purchased one or two small pre-Meccano Erector sets. The really, really old Erector was a shiny stamped steel- not an I-beam, but stiffened by having the edges rolled 180 degrees, sort of like this: n__n. Very strong on one axis, but weak on the other, and when they were bent, they were useless. The sets I had purchased as an adult (pre-Meccano, I think) were simpler flat stampings. They are visible in "The Finished Product" picture above. She used three 2-hole "beams" from the Erector parts, and a pair of 6-32 screws (PC standard), with lock washers and hex nuts from Menard's (a U.S. hardware chain of stores). It looks like the PC has Frankenstein terminals from above!

With the PSU installed, the ball was now back in my court. I checked the sparse XFX instructions, and installed the graphics card in the PCI slot. I made sure the card did not require power from other than the bus, and after double-checking  that everything was seated and connected properly, I closed up the case.

I picked it up and put it back in it's home. I connected the DVI cable to the new video card, as well as all of the other cables. I pushed the power button.

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Nichts. It was dead.

After that bit of panic, I remembered that the new PSU has a power switch.  Okay- we're back in business. I flipped that, and the box booted right up. I go to login...

...and the keyboard does not work.

Now, this is an HP box, and the reseller sold it with a Dell keyboard, mouse and recovery disk. Whatever- I ask Mr. T to grab another keyboard, and he comes up with ANOTHER Dell. No go. Bring me something other than Dell. He does.

Apple compatible.

No go.

At this point, I tell him, "Bring me a PS2 keyboard- round purple connector." He chafes at this, wanting to try something else. I am at my wits end, and inform him that I want a PS2 keyboard, which he finally produces. Progress- I reboot, and the keyboard works. I go to install the video card software, and finally get all of that working, and am left with... no sound. After several restarts, I am mucking around in the startup menu where I discover that internal sound (*somehow*) has been disabled. I *enable* internal sound, and the PC starts normally, complete with Windows XP welcome sound.

The PC works just fine now. Now, I need to do some cable housekeeping.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.