ChipDoc Posted October 21, 2010 Share Posted October 21, 2010 How can the slot be wrong and still work like I am seeing?First, it was a good idea to test the other DIMM in the A slot. Here's how it happens: The sockets are all physically the same but in the assembly there's either too much or not enough solder on one of the pins. It makes either a short or a disconnect somewhere. Now when they put the RAM in and powered it up before packing it in the box, it booted fine and didn't reveal the problem. But now that you're asking it to do more (and have confirmed that what you're doing is within spec for the motherboard) then this HAS to be the problem - somewhere, somehow, the DIMM isn't being properly read.Technically it could also be the main chip or a subsystem on the motherboard, but the principle of Occam's Razor forces us to look at the most simple and obvious solution first - and the solder points on a stressed piece like the socket are the obvious choice.There you go - I actually had something to say in my 250th post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 21, 2010 Share Posted October 21, 2010 That makes sense, thanks for the info Chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 21, 2010 Author Share Posted October 21, 2010 Thanks for the help in getting this figured out.You guys rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 21, 2010 Share Posted October 21, 2010 No problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 21, 2010 Share Posted October 21, 2010 You've helped me; I'm just returning the favor. Besides, I've been doing hardware for quite a few years now and it's good to be answering questions rather than asking them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 Called IBM/Lenovo warranty repair service today.They agree that it can be nothing else but what you guys say.Repair tech to bring new motherboard and install this week.Easy peasy. That's why I buy IBM ThinkPads for my work computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 Called IBM/Lenovo warranty repair service today.They agree that it can be nothing else but what you guys say.Repair tech to bring new motherboard and install this week.Easy peasy. That's why I buy IBM ThinkPads for my work computer.Wow!! Now thats service Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 Wow!! Now thats service I buy all my laptops online, new in box with factory warranty. But not newest specs. Get nice discounts for buying a computer that has been warehoused for a year or so.This is my third Lenovo, loved every one. Made money reselling the first two.Their warranty service is exceptional. Tech called and scheduled for Tuesday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 As a little bonus...They don't care that I did not buy the new SSD or RAM from them.They don't care that I am running Linux, not the OEM Windows.They just warranty the hardware to whoever owns it during the warranty period. No registering, no transferring, no proving it's yours.Simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urmas Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 As it well should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 As it well should be. Maybe it should be.But with other manufacturer's you need to 'hide' the fact that you have modified it from what you bought.It's usually a 'take it the way we sent it to you and don't mess it up' Attitude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 Maybe it should be.But with other manufacturer's you need to 'hide' the fact that you have modified it from what you bought.It's usually a 'take it the way we sent it to you and don't mess it up' Attitude.Much as I dislike Dell, I've got to say that their warranty service was top-notch, at least on the corporate side. We bought about 250 machines a quarter from them and got to know Mike The Dell Guy pretty well. He'd drop by a couple of times a week and replace everything that had given up the ghost in the past few days - all for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 23, 2010 Author Share Posted October 23, 2010 Much as I dislike Dell, I've got to say that their warranty service was top-notch, at least on the corporate side. We bought about 250 machines a quarter from them and got to know Mike The Dell Guy pretty well. He'd drop by a couple of times a week and replace everything that had given up the ghost in the past few days - all for free.But did you heavily customize hardware and software or just use them out-of-the box so to speak?Many companies provide quite good support to their corporate customers, but fall down when customizations are part of the customers routine.Retail customer support generally sucks across the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 But did you heavily customize hardware and software or just use them out-of-the box so to speak?Many companies provide quite good support to their corporate customers, but fall down when customizations are part of the customers routine.Retail customer support generally sucks across the board.Mike did exclusively hardware - he neither knew nor cared what software was running on the box. The work he needed to do was detailed on the ticket that went with each repair, and each had been documented and approved by the RMA folks at Dell so Mike generally had everything he needed when he walked in the door. When he was done, we generally ghosted a new image onto the machine, if the hard drive had been replaced. If not, it generally worked fine when we got it back from Mike. "Got it back" was probably the wrong term to use. Mike did all the work on-site. He could have the box open, clean, repaired, and back together in just a couple of minutes. 20 machines would be a half a day for him - and we rarely had that many. Generally about four or five - though four or five twice a week does add up pretty quickly over the length of the year.And yes, we were Corporate customers and that made a heck of a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Well the one time I did send back a machine, I reinstalled the system discs (windows). Not only because of them not supporting Linux but I did not want my information out there for any tech to look at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 24, 2010 Author Share Posted October 24, 2010 Well the one time I did send back a machine, I reinstalled the system discs (windows). Not only because of them not supporting Linux but I did not want my information out there for any tech to look at.Good plan.We techs are all closet voyeurs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Nevermind. I see you got it. :)Sometimes you can just send it in without the hard drive for hardware issues so you don't lose your drive. They often restore when they work on hardware if you leave the drive in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Well the one time I did send back a machine, I reinstalled the system discs (windows). Not only because of them not supporting Linux but I did not want my information out there for any tech to look at.LOL! This is like Cindy fretting over me hunting through her computer or phone records checking on where she's been and what she's doing. Sure I could do that. It would even be easy. But the honest truth is that I simply don't care. Didn't care about the stuff the user's had on their drives either. Life's too short and the workload's too high to be caring about stuff like that, Josh.If it brings you hope and comfort, then ok I'm not going to harass you about it. But I swear to you that folks who can look at that stuff don't generally bother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 I understand that more than likely no one would snoop but I have some "sensitive" stuff on my computer and would rather not take the chance of someone looking at my data. Maybe I am paranoid or just respect security but even on my main desktop I use a bios password and encrypt my /home partition. In my opinion, there is never enough security especially with today's digital world. No matter what security you have in place, if someone has physical access, there is not much they cannot do. All it takes is one nefarious tech to install a trojan, keylogger, copy your ssh keys or PGP keys, steal your identity or turn your machine into a bot. It happens everyday to thousands of users. Just because someone has a technical job, it does not make them ethical.Yes I am paranoid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Believe me, I would never try to make the point that techs are ethical. I was trying to say that techs are generally trying to get away with doing as little work as humanly possible... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Oh I know, I was just giving my reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 24, 2010 Author Share Posted October 24, 2010 You guys are describing a few of the guys I've worked with over the years.There are the slimey, dirty dealing ones Josh is protecting against.There are the ones who just don't care at all, they just want to finish the machine and check it off the list, like ChipDoc mentions.Every big shop you work in will have someone that fits, loosely, into one of these molds and more.But, the majority are just trying to do a good job and treat people right.Usually, my problems have been with corporate 'POLICY' rather than the employee attitudes.@Josh - no such thing as being paranoid enough. Keep up the good work. Make 'em work for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 You guys are describing a few of the guys I've worked with over the years.There are the slimey, dirty dealing ones Josh is protecting against.There are the ones who just don't care at all, they just want to finish the machine and check it off the list, like ChipDoc mentions.Every big shop you work in will have someone that fits, loosely, into one of these molds and more.But, the majority are just trying to do a good job and treat people right.Usually, my problems have been with corporate 'POLICY' rather than the employee attitudes.@Josh - no such thing as being paranoid enough. Keep up the good work. Make 'em work for it.Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 (edited) UpdateThe techs in Atlanta on the phone reached the same diagnosis 'we' did. They don't care that I am running an unsupported OS on a non-OEM SSD with non-OEM RAM.The IBM tech was here Tuesday as promised.He ran a few preliminary diagnostics to confirm what we and the telephone techs figured. (actual english speakers who know what they are doing, not scripties in some 3rd world country) No problems found with quick memtest, boot diagnostics and misc. hardware tests.He then tried the memory module shuffle I posted about here This topic post #12. Same results we had.It passed POST and booted multiple times with factory ram and new ram in A slot as before.5 minutes gone, agreed that it had to be the motherboard.40 minutes later, computer boots with the factory memory installed. Great.Installs the Corsair RAM, same BIOS error beeps on POST as before. I couldn't believe it. You should have seen the look on his face.10 minutes of wracking our brains. What the heck?We decide to install the factory HDD which I saved with all factory utilities. We try to boot with the new memory modules one at a time. With the second one, the boot process proceeds slowly and then stops cold. We re-install the SSD with Arch 64 bit. The boot process gives us the usual output and then stops with a mess of memory errors with the second DIMM.He puts his 'blank' CD in the drive and tries to boot into Knoppix (not IBM authorized tech tool). Same problem, memory errors.Returned the memory to NewEgg for replacement, it is already on it's way back to me. Mailed the RMA to California Tuesday afternoon, the replacement was mailed out to me Friday afternoon. Not bad.Hope this round goes better than the last.Thought you might like to know it was an undiagnosed, intermittant memory failure. Edited October 30, 2010 by amenditman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Sorry to hear that Amenditman. Hopefully the machine will be fine once you get some more ram. Atleast, you basically know what the issue was. Also, it is pretty cool that the tech had a Knoppix cd and did not just blame the problems on Linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 So it did turn out to be a hardware issue, but it was with the new RAM rather than with the sockets? Did he at least leave the new MB in your machine? Glad you've been getting what seems to be excellent service all the way around on this issue!You should take the time to send a quick note complimenting those folks on their promptness and professionalism. Don't mention the Knoppix though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
striker Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Late to the show but nevertheless: those corsairs, was that a kit made for dual-channel use? If not, you may know the answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbdietz Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 You might consider the possibility of a marginal power supply.This sounds a lot like an adventure I had years ago with a desktop machine.Either 256 MB module was good in either slot but not both at the same time.256 MB + 128 MB would also work - no matter which slot the 256 MB was in.Pulling the sound card and nic allowed 256 MB + 256 MB.A new power supply made it all work at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 You are so right rbdietz!Those marginal power supplies can have all kinds of phantom symptoms! Can drive you nuts till you figure it out too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 Also, it is pretty cool that the tech had a Knoppix cd and did not just blame the problems on Linux. What Knoppix CD, I said he put in a 'blank' CD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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