I built a guy a new PC with the following specs:
Antec 900 Case
Corsair 750W PSU
AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition
Gigabyte ATX Motherboard
Western Digital Velociraptor (150GB for Windows and Programs)
Western Digital 1 TB drive for data storage
LG Blu-Ray Drive
LG standard DVD ROM Drive
Thermaltake SpinQ fan for CPU
Kingston HyperX RAM (4 GB)
Windows Vista Ultimate
and the ATI 4870 x2 Video Card (the crown jewel)
I assembled the PC, installed Vista, downloaded and installed latest drivers for all hardware, and had no problems. The only issue I had was that the SPD on the RAM was set to 800MHz instead of the advertised 1066MHz. I tried to overclock the RAM to its ADVERTISED speed, but the MB wouldn't let me push enough power through for it to be stable. In the end I had to set the clock speeds to AUTO. Now, the RAM runs at 800MHz and NOTHING is overclocked.
It scored a 5.9 Vista Score and did Amazingly well on the benchmarks I ran. Then, I installed FOLDING@HOME, maxed out it's settings and let it run for about two and a half days without a break. She was rock solid and I wore a big smile on my face. It was the most powerful computer I had ever built.
I shipped it Thursday in the same box the case came in with the same packaging material and he received it yesterday. I called yesterday afternoon to check in. He said he had received the computer earlier in the day but had not turned it on because he thought somthing was wrong.
Visually broken, he could tell that the acrylic on the side of the case was cracked and that something was slanted. After some research, I discover that "something" turned out to be the $500 video card! There is a plastic clip and two screws to hold the card in place, but it didn't hold. The video card popped out of the PCI-E slot. The plastic clip is cracked and the metal on the video card where you put the screws in is bent. I explained to him how to install the video card and prayed that he could bend the metal back while putting the screws back in place. He had no trouble there, but couldn't get the plastic clip back in place. He claimed that the card wouldn't move at all so he decided to fire up the machine to see what happens.
He only had three of his four drives in "Computer". We found out later that the SATA power cable had come loose from the DVD-ROM drive. He reattached that and got the drive back. So, in the end, we wound up with a working PC with a small crack in the acrylic on the case.
It was late, but this was his first experience with Windows Vista so I walked him through some stuff over the phone (Dreamscene, Window Flip 3-d, etc.) When our small demonstration was complete, he had several windows open and we got off the phone. We were both tired and going to bed. He called back about five minutes later with a problem.
He said that he minimized all of the windows so he could get back to the desktop. He said he sat in front the PC while brushing his teeth so he could watch the DreamScene background. After brushing his teeth, he was going to close all of the open windows and shut the computer down.
In the middle of closing the windows, the PC locked up! He didn't even have movement from the mouse. Isn't that usually a hardware issue?
I've e-mailed him instructions on how to check his two Hard Drives for erros. I'm hoping he will do that today so I rule out damaged HDs.
Is there anything else anyone can tell me to check off hand.
For now, I'm hoping this was just a glitch, but due to the other damage of the computer from shipping, I'm not holding my breath.
Thanks,
Magus
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