The Old Desktop
For this part of the larger project, we will be working
on an old desktop. It's time to to put another stack of 'junk' parts together. Just as
we did with The Old Laptop, a teardown and good cleaning
came first. The heat sink/fan (manufactures model) refused to stay in place if you tipped
the computer. No need to be tipping/moving it around, but still,that won't do. So, we
dug up a better set and tossed them in. (Luckily nothing broke from it) Then we went back
and put them in properly, even used some thermal paste (imageine that).
We then tested all the parts one by one (mostly, ::rolls eyes::). You can see a
list of the hardware specifications below . We've included the command/s with each spec to
get the info from the command line (bash). Each links to more details about it, as well as
more examples/ similar commands.
Before
After
System Specs
ASUSTeK P8H61-M sudo lshw -class bus
Intel i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz lscpu
Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8814AU Wireless Adapter lsusb
8GB (2x 4GB) Corsair DDR3 (1333 MT/s) sudo dmidecode --type 17
500 GB Western Digital hard drive sudo lshw -class disk
32 GB PNY Micro SD Transfer Media sudo lshw -class disk
4 GB PNY USB 2.0 FD Installation/Transfer Media sudo lshw -class disklsusb
Dell Optical Mouse lsusb
(click the Commands/Code Samples for more information/tutorials on their use.)
We put it all together, unfortunately, random system reboots... A little
trial and error revealed a bad cable probably damaged when the media reader was installed.
A possibility exists that someone upgraded this system, damaged the cable while doing it,
suffered random reboots after, and completely missed why. The poor sob 'broke it' and
possibly tossed it because of a bad cable... Sad... Moving on..
The 'Fix'
We then grabbed our 4GB USB drive with the Fedora install media on it and plugged in.
Hit the power button, and pressed F8 for the boot menu. We selected UEFI 4GB PNY
from the menu and hit enter. After a few seconds, we were greeted by anaconda. Next
we selected 'Test This Media and Boot' and pressed enter. A few min later....
'success!' is declared. Press enter to boot, or it will time out and boot
automatically... Unless.. it didn't test as ok. Then it will just say 'fail' and wait
(which sucks,but,make new media and try again). Anyway, after a successfull media test,
we will be booted into a live desktop.
At this point, The Old Laptop and The Old Dektop are both repaired and
ready to to have their Operating Systems Installed. That's up next for them, but, it will have to wait
a few minutes. We are going to repair the Sans Battery Phone first.
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