[Tfug] Hardware reliability

[John Gruenenfelder]

On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 12:18:23AM -0700, Bexley Hall wrote:
>I had to replace the cooler on the graphics processor in
>a machine tonight -- which got me thinking...
>
>Aside from fans (and one CD-RW), I can't recall any real
>hardware failures in any of my machines (that's over the
>course of 30 years -- and I tend to hold onto machines for
>much longer than the average joe  :-/  )
>
>I know there have been certain systemic failures in the
>industry caused by bad *components* (e.g., bad Ecaps).
>But, it seems like most of this stuff just keeps on
>ticking (or, the bathtub is a lot wider than I had
>imagined!)
>
>Have other folks had similar experiences?  Have I just been
>"lucky"?

I think it's like the others have said, half luck and half knowing components
well enough to generally buy decent hardware.

Thinking back to the first PC I used extensively as a kid (a Tandy 1000-SX)
through to the machines I have today, I think I've also manged to fall mostly
in the "lucky" camp.

At home, I've had video card fan and a power supply fan die on me, but I
replaced both before anything bad happened.  And... actually that's about it.
No bad caps, never even lost a hard drive.  I have had a CD/DVD drive or two
get progressively worse, where it became harder to get it to recognize/read a
disk, but they were replaced before becoming useless.

At work it's only slightly different, and includes machines I've built and
those built by others.  We came close to losing an HD back in the P3 days
(don't remember what year that was).  I actually thought it was fan or PS fan
noise, but it turns out that god awful sound was from the HD.  Oops.  :)  Got
the data off it, though.

We did lose about 3 memory modules in our current two main systems.  Corsair
memory, too.  But I'm going to have to chalk that up to manufacturer defect
since they came as a group and largely failed as a group.  The new modules are
fine.  And just a couple of weeks ago we lost our relatively cheap UPS.  At
first all it needed was a new battery.  So I purchased a replacement, put it
in, and the damn thing wouldn't shut up with its alarms.  Finally stopped
after charging for a few hours, but then refused to use line power, only
battery.  Que?  So we replaced it with a better model that can handle more of
our equipment.  Oh well.


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
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