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Maintenance Mode
Feb. 1st, 2019 11:53 pmUp at 6, no cat, up with the alarm at 7:30, still no cat.
The usual breakfast, two recruiter email messages for a job I've already applied for.
Phone call ignored followed by email for a job in Colorado.
Shut down the PC, unplugged everything, which is saying a lot, took the cover off and put it on my work table.
It took about half an hour to install the SSD drive (which had been in the PC just hanging by its cables) into a bracket and snapping it in place next to the 8TB HDD. The reason it took so long to do a 2-minute job is the bracket's tiny screws had to pass though an access hole on the outside of the bracket and into another hole on the inside, and there is no way a human finger can fit in there. A brainstorm from my field service days saved me - got out my hemostats and held the screw in place with that while maneuvering a tiny screwdriver through the two holes. Once I got that started it was 5 minutes. I did have to pull out the 8TB drive to get the bracket to where I could work on it.
Next, pulled the two case fans out. What I thought was an 80mm fan at the back and a 120mm on the top were actually a 120 in the back and a 200 on top. Both had been in the machine since 2010. The top fan seemed okay, the back fan was lagging, but since I had them out I may as well replace both of them.
Fry's, found one of each with blue LEDs, brought them home, but the 200 had mounting holes which didn't fit the standard screws. One set of holes was too big the other too small. The screws in the box were the standard size. The 120mm fan fit fine, but it took a long time and additional lighting and hemostats to plug it into the motherboard. The pins were right near a capacitor, and the CPU fan cable was in the way.
Back to Fry's, exchanged the LED fan for an old school ThermalTake fan, got that home and it installed no problem.
Closed up the case, re-connected all the cables, and was astounded that everything came up right the first time. Made some BIOS adjustments to the fan speeds, found they work best un-regulated. The best news is there are no more moaning fan noises.
This also reminded me what a pain in the butt it will be to replace the motherboard and CPU.
Lunch was leftover smoked turkey and cream corn.
Watched my usual storm chaser. On TV I found a new MTV show where they send people on blind dates. One hetero and one gay. The gay guys always hook up. The hetero ones not so much.
Watched PTI, and an episode of Floribama Shore in which the only attractive woman in the house went home. They all go home next episode.
Another maintenance chore done is I vacuumed the barf from 3 days ago in the guest room, and the crumbs and such in the living room, and lime leaves in the piano room. Spook was not scared of the vacuum, but she was peeved at me for making all that noise, and meowed a lot. And retreated to the top of the cat tree.
But she came back to park herself on the floor in front of the TV while I watched. Dinner was falafel and mixed veggies, both over-heated. And hummus. Hard, dry falafel is no fun at all. Mochi for dessert.
It's been cloudy all day, and now the wind is roaring outside, but it doesn't look like we're getting much rain. My weather app thinks it will rain clear through the weekend.
Plans for tomorrow:
Grocery shopping. Probably Ranch 99 first for fruit, Lucky's or Safeway for HB eggs & milk & vanilla air freshener and GO for bananas and cheese & GS cookies.
Janice coffee at 5:30 in MV
There will probably be storm chasers online now that temps are above 0.
The usual breakfast, two recruiter email messages for a job I've already applied for.
Phone call ignored followed by email for a job in Colorado.
Shut down the PC, unplugged everything, which is saying a lot, took the cover off and put it on my work table.
It took about half an hour to install the SSD drive (which had been in the PC just hanging by its cables) into a bracket and snapping it in place next to the 8TB HDD. The reason it took so long to do a 2-minute job is the bracket's tiny screws had to pass though an access hole on the outside of the bracket and into another hole on the inside, and there is no way a human finger can fit in there. A brainstorm from my field service days saved me - got out my hemostats and held the screw in place with that while maneuvering a tiny screwdriver through the two holes. Once I got that started it was 5 minutes. I did have to pull out the 8TB drive to get the bracket to where I could work on it.
Next, pulled the two case fans out. What I thought was an 80mm fan at the back and a 120mm on the top were actually a 120 in the back and a 200 on top. Both had been in the machine since 2010. The top fan seemed okay, the back fan was lagging, but since I had them out I may as well replace both of them.
Fry's, found one of each with blue LEDs, brought them home, but the 200 had mounting holes which didn't fit the standard screws. One set of holes was too big the other too small. The screws in the box were the standard size. The 120mm fan fit fine, but it took a long time and additional lighting and hemostats to plug it into the motherboard. The pins were right near a capacitor, and the CPU fan cable was in the way.
Back to Fry's, exchanged the LED fan for an old school ThermalTake fan, got that home and it installed no problem.
Closed up the case, re-connected all the cables, and was astounded that everything came up right the first time. Made some BIOS adjustments to the fan speeds, found they work best un-regulated. The best news is there are no more moaning fan noises.
This also reminded me what a pain in the butt it will be to replace the motherboard and CPU.
Lunch was leftover smoked turkey and cream corn.
Watched my usual storm chaser. On TV I found a new MTV show where they send people on blind dates. One hetero and one gay. The gay guys always hook up. The hetero ones not so much.
Watched PTI, and an episode of Floribama Shore in which the only attractive woman in the house went home. They all go home next episode.
Another maintenance chore done is I vacuumed the barf from 3 days ago in the guest room, and the crumbs and such in the living room, and lime leaves in the piano room. Spook was not scared of the vacuum, but she was peeved at me for making all that noise, and meowed a lot. And retreated to the top of the cat tree.
But she came back to park herself on the floor in front of the TV while I watched. Dinner was falafel and mixed veggies, both over-heated. And hummus. Hard, dry falafel is no fun at all. Mochi for dessert.
It's been cloudy all day, and now the wind is roaring outside, but it doesn't look like we're getting much rain. My weather app thinks it will rain clear through the weekend.
Plans for tomorrow:
Grocery shopping. Probably Ranch 99 first for fruit, Lucky's or Safeway for HB eggs & milk & vanilla air freshener and GO for bananas and cheese & GS cookies.
Janice coffee at 5:30 in MV
There will probably be storm chasers online now that temps are above 0.
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