[tech] malki problems, monitor warning

[Nick Bannon]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2000 at 09:37:32AM +0800, Nick Rohrlach wrote:
> a)  What does malki do?

Low end console box.

> b)  What is it's components

It's the 32MB Pentium-133 (Socket 7, AT) we got from Tam (from CS).

> c)  Why do we need to replace the motherboard?
[...]
> I mean by this question - don't we have something already lying around or
> is this box really worth spending money on, those types of things.  I was
> not questioning the merits of replacing a flaky motherboard - just the
> merits of replacing this particular one.

There was no video - it's happened before apparently, but the problem
came back.  Extensive testing yesterday and over the past week (Grahame,
me, Mark, Richard Sather, etc) has determined that it's not just a
dead video card, it's probably a flaky motherboard. Sometimes it boots,
sometimes it boots but can't display anything at all (to the point of
being up on the network happily), and sometimes it doesn't boot at all.

There's plenty of options other than going to the shop and
buying a brand new replacement. eg ;
 * do without
 * see if CS have any left and ask for a swap (way too late, I'm sure)
 * someone might well have a suitable spare lying around and we have but to ask
 * dismember it for parts
 * use the parts to build a cheap new system that's several times faster
   (though that's more expensive than simply fixing it, most likely).

I have to say, it was very nice to have a decent machine to point to
whenever someone whinged that we didn't have <insert random OS here>
in the clubroom. "Well, why don't you install it on malki?"

BTW - our two nicest VGA monitors, a Labtam 17" and another 14", have
cable issues. Unless the cable at the back is bent properly, they have
syncing or colour problems. Should be easy to fix, but someone's going
to have to take a look.

Nick.

-- 
  Nick Bannon  | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick at it.net.au | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal