[tech] cephalopod and monitors

[Anil Sharma <Grand Poobah Maset>]

I'm amazed that people didn't mention that we throw stuff out at clean 
ups.

We've all suffered through having shitty equipment clogging th clubroom, 
but the reason we hold off just ditching it any old day of the week is for 
reasons such as below.


On Mon, 3 Aug 2009, Alex Dawson wrote:

> Bob,
>
> After buying it in 2001 with money from her grandmother's will, 
> using it for several years, my wife donated that monitor to UCC. 
> The monitor did that unless it had hsync. It had been repaired 
> once and they forgot to turn that feature off in a new IC that 
> was installed. We never made an issue of it, remembering to turn 
> it off when we turned the computer off.
>
> If the computer it was connected to had problems, there would be 
> no hsync, and of course it would just display "burn in". Yes, 
> it's kinda annoying, but you should have tested it with another 
> computer.
>
> So basically, by my reading, UCC threw out a working monitor we 
> donated. Thanks.
>
> Kinda glad I didn't leave my media PC there now.
>
> On 03/08/2009, at 7:32 AM, Bob Adamson wrote:
>
>> Ok, time to clear some things up on the tech front, as there 
>> seems to be some misinformation floating around about monitors, 
>> and lingering questions as to what was/has been done to 
>> Cephalopod (aka problematic end computer).
>> 
>> 1. When I got to Cephalopod, all that would show up was a white 
>> screen with the words 'burn in' showing. This message showed no 
>> matter what computer the screen got plugged into, even when the 
>> screen wasn't plugged in, and a cable problem was ruled out. 
>> The screen menu wouldn't show up either. A google of the 
>> symptoms returned nothing. Conclusion: the screen is broken, 
>> and Rufus can confirm this. The screen sat under a table for 
>> four days before it was decided by numerous people that it 
>> should be chucked out. I did not personally throw it in the 
>> skip, but I agree with the decision. I have since been informed 
>> that I should have left this to committee to do, my apologies, 
>> I didn't know. This is the ONLY monitor I had ANYTHING to do 
>> with throwing out today, and I had nothing to do with the 
>> monitors that were later switched and (maybe) thrown out.
>> 
>> 2. Once I knew I had a working monitor, though the process of 
>> elimination I came to the conclusion that the Cephalopod 
>> motherboard was screwed/fried, and subsequently switched it out 
>> for another that was floating around the club room. Today I 
>> finished doing that by putting some thermal paste under the 
>> heat sink.
>> 
>> 3. Once the Cephalopod hardware was finally working, I booted 
>> it only to find that there were additional software problems, 
>> please see the email from zanchey (below) regarding the current 
>> status of that.
>> 
>> I think that's everything covered, sorry for the lengthy email 
>> but the misinformation was bugging me.
>> Bob
>> 
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "James Andrewartha" <trs80 at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
>> Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 6:19 PM
>> To: "David Adam" <zanchey at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
>> Cc: <tech at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
>> Subject: Re: [tech] (no subject)
>> 
>>> On Mon, 3 Aug 2009, David Adam wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On Mon, 3 Aug 2009, bob at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au wrote:
>>>>> btw, "problematic end computer" is having issues loading 
>>>>> windows, and > won't
>>>>> let anyone log on to ubuntu. As I have NO IDEA how to fix 
>>>>> this, could > someone
>>>>> else please do it?
>>>> 
>>>> To give some more detail: when you try and boot the Windows 
>>>> partition, it
>>>> reboots just before getting into graphical mode (i.e. just 
>>>> after loading
>>>> mup.sys). Probably needs a repair install at least, and 
>>>> possibly a total
>>>> reinstall.
>>>> 
>>>> The Ubuntu problem has been fixed: it wasn't mounting /home 
>>>> because Ubuntu
>>>> loads NFS mounts when eth0 comes up; thanks to udev.rules 
>>>> stupidity there
>>>> was no eth0.
>>> 
>>> #ucc Wednesday 29 July around 2pm:
>>> <bob> oh, and the far end computer in the common room is fixed 
>>> --> nuked screen and motherboard
>>> <trs80> bob: can you email tech at ucc with the details?
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> # TRS-80              trs80(a)ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au #/ "Otherwise 
>>> Bub here will do \
>>> # UCC Wheel Member     http://trs80.ucc.asn.au/ #|  what 
>>> squirrels do best |
>>> [ "There's nobody getting rich writing          ]|  -- Collect 
>>> and hide your   |
>>> [  software that I know of" -- Bill Gates, 1980 ]\  nuts." -- 
>>> Acid Reflux #231 /
>> 
>> 
>> 
>
> --
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