At least it isn't MORE broken...
May. 13th, 2015 04:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwangoMy DVD drive in my PC died. I watch a lot of DVDs on my PC, so this is a problem.
I opened up the case and jiggled some cables to see if I could magically make it work, to no avail. I also took a look at what sort of connection type and such it was using so I could then purchase a replacement that would work with my system.
However, I've been cannibalizing old parts to keep Frankenstien's Computer running for quite some time now, and it's such an old DVD drive that it's IDE. That's so out of date it would be more expensive to replace than getting one that's SATA, and a review of my motherboard indicated plenty of open SATA ports.
My shiny new SATA DVD drive arrived yesterday, but just before opening the box I realized "Damn. Cables." I hadn't thought to also order different cables. But wait, I turn out to actually have a spare SATA data cable!
I crack open the case again and attempt to install the new drive. Step 1 is to remove the old drive, which DOES NOT WANT TO GO. I very nearly gave up and left it in place and put the new one in the next bay down, but in the end finally managed to get cables unplugged from it.
New drive goes in. Yay! Only...the SATA power cable can't reach it. I move the other SATA device closer to buy a few more inches, and it still won't reach. (This is a stressful operation, because said device is my pirmary hard drive, with my OS on it, and I would rather leave something that vital alone. Mucking with the guts of computers is not something I'm entirely comfortable with.) If the ports were on the right side rather than left it would just barely make it, but no. I try rotating the other SATA device 180 degrees in its tray, but even that won't buy me enough distance. Sigh.
I would like to just go buy a cable at a real live place to make this all work, but poking around the internet at the websites of local likely businesses reveals them not to carry such items. I will need to have this $0.91 cable mailed to me for $2.32...which is less than I'd have paid for it in real life, but I'll have to wait several days for it, which is what I'd hoped to avoid.
So I put everything back the way it used to be so I could at least use the machine for everything but playing a DVD in the meantime. By now I've managed to get my fingers good and sore from trying to unplug uncooperative cables, bled a bit from reopening an earlier injury to my hand, and sent unthinkable amounts of dust into the air.
But at least when I turned the thing back on I hadn't made things any worse.
I opened up the case and jiggled some cables to see if I could magically make it work, to no avail. I also took a look at what sort of connection type and such it was using so I could then purchase a replacement that would work with my system.
However, I've been cannibalizing old parts to keep Frankenstien's Computer running for quite some time now, and it's such an old DVD drive that it's IDE. That's so out of date it would be more expensive to replace than getting one that's SATA, and a review of my motherboard indicated plenty of open SATA ports.
My shiny new SATA DVD drive arrived yesterday, but just before opening the box I realized "Damn. Cables." I hadn't thought to also order different cables. But wait, I turn out to actually have a spare SATA data cable!
I crack open the case again and attempt to install the new drive. Step 1 is to remove the old drive, which DOES NOT WANT TO GO. I very nearly gave up and left it in place and put the new one in the next bay down, but in the end finally managed to get cables unplugged from it.
New drive goes in. Yay! Only...the SATA power cable can't reach it. I move the other SATA device closer to buy a few more inches, and it still won't reach. (This is a stressful operation, because said device is my pirmary hard drive, with my OS on it, and I would rather leave something that vital alone. Mucking with the guts of computers is not something I'm entirely comfortable with.) If the ports were on the right side rather than left it would just barely make it, but no. I try rotating the other SATA device 180 degrees in its tray, but even that won't buy me enough distance. Sigh.
I would like to just go buy a cable at a real live place to make this all work, but poking around the internet at the websites of local likely businesses reveals them not to carry such items. I will need to have this $0.91 cable mailed to me for $2.32...which is less than I'd have paid for it in real life, but I'll have to wait several days for it, which is what I'd hoped to avoid.
So I put everything back the way it used to be so I could at least use the machine for everything but playing a DVD in the meantime. By now I've managed to get my fingers good and sore from trying to unplug uncooperative cables, bled a bit from reopening an earlier injury to my hand, and sent unthinkable amounts of dust into the air.
But at least when I turned the thing back on I hadn't made things any worse.
