workshop

20/01/06

computer / diagnostics / HP / Compaq nx8220

symptoms: annoying repetitive clicking noises (not loud), nearly every second, from laptop's hard drive

checked: disk fitness, fragmentation - OK

solution: for Hitachi HDD: download Power Booster ® from manufactures website, install

resume: THE NOISE ARE COMPLETELY GONE

IMPORTANT: IF YOU HEAR A LOUD CLICKING OR OTHER UNUSUAL NOISE from your computer,
and your computer freezes or takes too long to boot up — shut it down IMMEDIATELY.
Your drive has gone bad and will be completely unusable within a short amount of time.

If you get your computer to us when it first starts exhibiting these symptoms,
we can usually save your drive's data (your files and programs) intact.
Each time you try to get it to boot up after this first happens,
you are considerably decreasing the possibility of a simple copying of what's on your hard drive.
If copied within a reasonable amount of time after the initial symptoms
you can be back up and going in a matter of a couple of hours.

The alternative is to shut down your computer and call us, or to keep trying to boot up —
and then you will end up calling us with a completely dead hard drive.

19/12/05

computer / repairs / Apple / PowerBook 15" 1Ghz Aluminum

symptoms: won't startup, when pushing a power button can hear a fan noise for about one second

first check: battery good, power supply good, memory OK (checked on the other PB)

in depth: after lifting up top case with built-in keyboard and track pad,
and disconnecting one by one cables, right display cable appears to be faulty.

The cable shield inside of display assembly was damaged in one place and one of the wire lost an isolation.
It was touching metal case and shorting some circuits on logic board.

damage: a logic board became damaged - lover memory slot giving an error message
(despite test results), when checking by Apple Hardware Test:

AirPort Extreme® Card crashing the computer before user login window - Kernel Panic dialog box appears.

fix: an isolation on the wire was repaired, shield attached to the cable.

resume: Powerbook still can be used, but without second memory module and an Airport® card.

cost: $0, but the time

savings: $?,000

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