HCAF, I come to you for help. ( I needz a new desktop)

[EvilMeow]

 

Maybe blame should be placed where it is due though. Look at the name on the chip. It's intel, not dell.

 

 

Subpar cooling ftl.

 

Then again, you never know what horrible things the owner did to it, either.

[5ththrax]

HP's/Compaqs as far as desktops are nightmares. They are like import cars, everything inside them is SO cramped or integrated its impossible to DIY when it comes to fix them.

 

 

Dell has always been great in my experience.

 

Heres a way to get them cheap too. Go to

 

http://techbargains.com/dellcoupons.cfm

 

Copy and paste the codes when you add items to the cart.

[OverDriven]

Subpar cooling ftl. Then again, you never know what horrible things the owner did to it, either.

 

Usually a hole like that is caused by internal combustion of the chip. It's almost always caused by a factory defect in my experience, but of course can also be caused by applying improper power, a short, etc. Usually poor cooling won't cause something like this though.

 

I recently did a build for a friend. We used an Nvidia 250 GTS for the vid card. After about a week, the computer just wouldn't turn on and my friend called me over to look at it. The power supply wouldn't turn on because it detected a short somewhere in the system and disabled itself for safety. I opened the side of the case and started looking around. There were no obvious shorts that could be causes by power cables touching something metallic or improperly installed components. I decided to take a chance and force the power supply to engage. The computer began to boot, then smoke started pouring out of the vid card. After a few seconds, a flame erupted from a chip on the vid card. It was a good 2-3" flare. Toasty! We had found our problem Afterward the chip looked exactly like that pic. There was a manufacturing defect in the chip and it had a short internally apparently. I RMAed it and the new one has worked perfectly ever since. That's only the second time I've ever seen an actual flare erupt from a chip, but both times it was due to manufacturing defects. Looks pretty cool though

[OverDriven]

 

HP's/Compaqs as far as desktops are nightmares. They are like import cars, everything inside them is SO cramped or integrated its impossible to DIY when it comes to fix them. Dell has always been great in my experience. Heres a way to get them cheap too. Go to http://techbargains.com/dellcoupons.cfm Copy and paste the codes when you add items to the cart.

 

 

I can tell you this...I do agree that HP/Compaq USED to be this way. They were nightmares to even get the HD out if you needed to replace it. Everything was basically riveted together with a metal subframe. However, I don't think more recent HP's are this way. My GF has one and I had to remove the hard drive recently to back it up after an OS failure. It was just as easy as a home built PC. They didn't use any tricks to make it hard to work on, and the inside was clean and well laid out.

[MattACaster]

 

Maybe blame should be placed where it is due though. Look at the name on the chip. It's intel, not dell.

 

 

Nah, I'm going to blame Dell since the boards were made for them to conform to their specs and pricing.

 

My HPs or Gateways with Intel boards never did that.

[5ththrax]

 

I can tell you this...I do agree that HP/Compaq USED to be this way. They were nightmares to even get the HD out if you needed to replace it. Everything was basically riveted together with a metal subframe. However, I don't think more recent HP's are this way. My GF has one and I had to remove the hard drive recently to back it up after an OS failure. It was just as easy as a home built PC. They didn't use any tricks to make it hard to work on, and the inside was clean and well laid out.

 

 

Hmmm, maybe they listened to their customers? I'll have to see them. (Im sure i will eventually, i used to help fix people's {censored} all the time and build pc's).