[See at bottom for update.]
From my previous post regarding technology ahead of its time, I now jump to a current frustration. Within the last few weeks, I decided I wanted to migrate my “gaming PC” upstairs to be close to my new Macbook area (as described here). Yes, the Macbook is an absolute beast, but not many games have been adapted for Apple’s Silicon CPU (“Aren’t all semiconductor chips made from silicon?”), thus the opportunity for even mild entertainment (other than just watching a video of some sort) isn’t really all that vast. Enter “the gaming PC”.
This was a PC (AMD CPU) which had been living on my home office desk “downstairs” next to my regular Linux-based desktop. Now, when I say “gaming PC”, I am not referring to one of the typically overpowered “beasts” of the modern gaming environment. Outside of the previously mentioned dabbling (or somewhat more) with MMOs, I rarely do any sort of online / multi-player gaming, and certainly am not a lover of FPS (“First-Person Shooter“) games – never have been, unlikely I ever will. I just don’t have the lightning-fast reflexes for them. Similarly, I have never enjoyed RTS (“Real-time Strategy“) games, largely for the same reason. I much prefer TBS (“Turn-based Strategy“), as it gives me time to contemplate what I wish to do. [You can contemplate the difference similarly to playing chess with a clock – where opponents are making lightning-fast plays and slamming the clock button vs., say … playing by email or even regular “snail mail” – when you have time to ponder your move.]
So, it was a far-from-overpowered PC, but it was more than sufficient to my needs. And, now, I “needed” it upstairs.
Relocation
Migrating the peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor) was simple enough. I had expected relocating the main computer “box” itself would be equally simple. Fate, however, clearly had other plans in mind for me.
Once everything was upstairs and plugged in (both accomplished with my son’s help to perform the tasks of lifting and carrying), we powered it on. Rather than the expected single beep, followed by it starting up, it beeped several (three, to be specific) and refused to start.
Diagnosing Failure
Oh-kay … That was unexpected. Repeating it a couple of times (after the necessary “Is everything plugged in? Are you sure?” checks) confirmed it was continuing to fail, I checked the diagnostic results for a POST (Power-On Self-Test) failure. For that motherboard, it suggested the three beeps were an indication of a memory failure of some sort.
Great! I didn’t exactly have a bunch of spare memory sitting around. However, my son’s PC used the exact same form-factor (DDR4) memory, so we temporarily borrowed one of his RAM sticks to slot in as a replacement.
Nope – same failure.
Further Down The Rabbit Hole
Nothing changed so the result should have been nothing changed, but that clearly wasn’t what was going on. Next step?
My son had recently upgraded his video card, so we swapped that. Same result. The only things still left were the motherboard / CPU itself. While this made no sense whatsoever, I decided doing a bit of a motherboard / CPU upgrade wouldn’t be a terrible thing – this PC was getting a bit “long in the tooth” and, while I don’t need a beastly system, having one certainly wouldn’t hurt.
New Hardware!
I did a little bit of research and selected a new CPU and compatible motherboard. Since the old motherboard had been intentionally undersized (to fit a smaller case), getting one which was a bit more regularly-sized was fine and I moved forward a generation or two on CPUs (but still, granted several generations behind what’s current).
This evening was the first real opportunity to perform the hardware upgrade. As my son has built (and rebuilt) his own PC several times – and, indeed, was the original constructor of this one – I was comfortable with letting him perform the task. I did some initial oversight, but we both agreed I would be an ongoing bother (providing non-useful and unneeded input – it’s just in my nature), so I left him to the task.
And, The Result?
Once the new hardware was installed (with my old memory and graphics card installed), the PC was, once again, in position and ready to go.
Powered on, and … three beeps.
More Diagnostics? Really???
We conducted the same swaps of memory and video and … still the same result. Yes, even with replacing the memory (with his) and the graphics card (with his), there’s really nothing that should be broken.
I am admittedly befuddled. This was a computer which was running fine.
Literally!!!
Before it was brought upstairs, it had been powered-on and running with no problem whatsoever. I powered it off for a couple of days (to allow for early dismantling and relocation of the “easy” peripherals – mouse and keyboard – as well as migrating some of the cables in preparation.
Now What?
I am going to (on my side) “throw in the towel“. I’m not really physically capable of doing more “strenuous” diagnostics on this. So, I will relent and take it to a PC (and other electronics) diagnostics and repair facility and let them figure it out.
I expect I’ll keep the new hardware – if only because it somewhat was due for an upgrade. But, realistically, we’ve tested this with “replacing the everything” and still getting the same failure condition.
Hopefully the repair service will be able to figure it out. I am utterly befuddled and confused about it.
Update: Annnnd … It’s Working Again
Overnight, my brain was cycling on this problem. One thing finally popped up as a possibility – power?
So, this evening, I had my son try moving the PC case into his room and connect it to his power, keyboard / mouse, and one of his displays. Surprise, surprise! It started right up!
Ah-ha!!! So it is an external issue!
I’ll fast-forward through the subsequent “clowning around”, of which there was far too much. It turns out I failed to do what has been strongly (and amusingly) considered to be “Step #1” for diagnosing problems with hardware.
- Step #1: Is It Plugged In?
- Step #1a: No, Really; It It Plugged In?
- Step #1b: Did You ‘Actually Check If It Is?
While the above may seem to be utterly silly, I suspect many people would be surprised by just how many issues can be solved by simply doing all of Step #1. And, yes, much as it pains me to say it, doing a thorough check of Step #1 would have solved everything days ago.
Specifics, Please?
It turns out the DisplayPort cable for the monitor was not fully connected. And, not even on the PC side, but on the monitor side. I suspect it may have been giving a partial circuit connection and that was messing up a lot from there.
So … once again – simply checking that everything was plugged in would, indeed, have solved everything initially. sigh
