[Leica] Computer help!!!

[dennis at hale-pohaku.com (Dennis Painter)]

Hi Ken,

Your parishioners are sharp! The likely hood of it being the IDE controller
(chip) is very high. I friend has seen many many of these problems and
Tina's symptoms fit. I had forgotten his rants and tales of woe.

Problem is, with Dell, the IDE controller is on the motherboard. The IDE
'chip' will be soldered to the motherboard, not a field repair option.

Well not too big a problem. If in warranty or service contract they can
replace the motherboard. Otherwise a less expensive option would be a plug
in controller.

Tina, good luck and make sure the  tech checks this out.

Dennis

Kenneth Frazier wrote:

> images@infoave.net (Tina Manley) wrote:
>
> >I think I'm
> >just
> >going to shut down the big computer and wait until I can get somebody
> to
> >help me with it.  The more I mess with it, the worse it gets.
>
> Tina,
>
> As I promised, I passed your information by several of my parishioners,
> three, to be exact, who are knowledgable.
>
> They all responded:
>
> 1.  It is NOT the hard drives.
>
> 2.  It MAY be the power supply, but very unlikely, since a faulty power
> supply would show up with other symptoms.
>
> 3.  It is probably what used to the called the IDE controller, which is
> located on the motherboard.  (I don't know what it's called now.)  You
> can check your documentation and find out what version you have on your
> motherboard.  There are, apparently, some known glitches with Windows XP
> and certain controllers.
>
> 4.  It is "simply" a matter of replacing the controller chip, and that
> is generally not a big problem, if there aren't any other problems.
>
> FWIW, I had the same problem several years ago with an IBM laptop.  It
> ate the hard drive, and at first I thought the hard drive itself was
> bad, but my computer tech (who has now retired), knew better.
>
> Now, the immediate problem is getting somebody to do this for you.  I'll
> see if I can help further on this.
>
> Peace,
>
> Ken