PC Fixes in the Field: The Whine Has Got to Go

by Lee Hudspeth
(This article appears in The Naked PC #6.04, February 13, 2003)

** 03. PC Fixes in the Field: The Whine Has Got to Go
       (by Lee Hudspeth)

I am beset by hardware problems. To fix them all is going to 
require a mix of low-tech and hi-tech problem-solving. Plus I 
want to spend as little money as possible, and that means instead 
of drop-kicking the misbehaving PC out the window (oh, I'm sorely 
tempted) and replacing it with a brand-new one, I'll explore 
component repair, replacement, and upgrade options. In this 
series I'll share with you the minimalist approach I'm using to 
solve these problems, along with the budgets (time--as in my 
labor--plus out-of-pocket costs).

Systems and symptom summary: a PC I'll refer to as Whiner is 
connected to my DSL modem (no gateway/router at this time), and 
it is in turn connected to a two-node Ethernet network comprised 
of one other PC I'll call Whisperer. Whiner's main hard drive has 
developed an extremely annoying whine, probably due to bearing 
wear and tear. I MUST stop this whine. Also, recently this PC has 
decided it's not happy serving as the host of my network's 
Internet connection sharing (meaning, it has two network cards, 
one for its connection to the local area network and one for its 
connection to the DSL modem). It consistently takes way too long 
to boot (two and a half minutes longer than when the second DSL-
modem-to-PC network card is removed), it often reports networking 
errors the cause of which I haven't been able to track down (see 
my article "Featured Tips - Network Card Diagnostics" in this 
issue), and I can get it to reboot spontaneously by doing certain 
things like trying to print across the network or load a PDF via 
the Internet. I've fiddled and twiddled, swapped network cards in 
and out, and read too many Microsoft Knowledge Base articles... 
clearly it's time to scorch this PC.

Where "scorch" means: replace Whiner's hard drive, start from 
scratch with a new drive (or possibly clone from the old to the 
new drive), remove the second network card altogether, and let 
the trouble-free PC (Whisperer) become the host PC. Although 
using a gateway/router so that no PC on the network is dependent 
any other for an Internet connection would be ideal, but I'm in a 
minimalist mode here so that's a separate discussion.

The first part of the scorching process is to switch over to 
Whisperer as the Internet connection host, at which point I can 
turn off Whiner. Which of course eliminates the annoying whine 
from my work environment. Then I can install a new, quiet 
replacement drive when it's convenient for me. I'm off to the 
local electronics store to spend $12 for an RJ45 CAT-5 Ethernet 
cable (a "patch cable" for connecting hardware destinations in a 
local area network). I need a new cable because my existing cable 
is too short to reach over to the other PC. Although I'm on a 
budget, I think it's going to be cheaper to spend a few bucks for 
a longer cable than sink my time into physically rearranging two 
PCs. To come: quiet hard drives on a budget; migrating settings 
when replacing a drive; Windows operating system and Office 
upgrade considerations.

(Thanks to my colleague Al Gordon for suggesting that the network 
problem-plagued PC may simply have decided it doesn't want to 
deal with two network cards, for whatever reason, and to consider 
solutions that involve removing the second card from the PC.)

(c) 2003, Lee Hudspeth
You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
mailto:LeeHudspeth@TheNakedPC.com

You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com

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