[tech] cephalopod and monitors

[Bob Adamson]

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 /