Journey into Pi

Okay, so my enclosure came in the mail yesterday and I spent all night playing with my new little mini-computer. It was a great experience snapping the enclosure around the powerful system-board and I was ready to load up the Raspbian OS for the first time.

Sadly, the wireless USB keyboard/trackball combo stopped working five minutes in. The device still worked on my laptop, which is odd because it’s like the Pi just stopped accepting signals from it for no reason. So, with no other wired keyboards, I had to cancel all activity on the device. I’m going to have to remedy that by picking up a wired USB keyboard (I already have a wired USB mouse) just for situations like this. I’m also going to pick up a wireless USB keyboard/trackpad combo after work today, then return the keyboard/trackball.

I feel like this is a good opportunity for me to get used to things not working right away, or even on the second or third attempt. My understanding of the IT field is that it’s constantly dealing with things going wrong and trying to keep your cool long enough to figure out what to do about it.

When I was studying for the A+ exam back in 2000 I don’t think I had the patience to deal with one problem after the next. But after working in customer service for over a decade and a half I’ve mellowed enough to the point where I know I can do it.

Progress

Okay, I gotta admit- I had a lot of fun messing with those old computers today. Back when I first took the A+ exams in 2000, I was in a much different place than I am now. I was only interested in the end result and was in too much of a hurry to enjoy the experience of working with computer systems. I think I was snobbish when the tech school I attended didn’t have cutting edge systems for me to explore and operate on. Now I can appreciate it a lot more.

I’m looking at the motherboard and trying to understand it, because even if it’s older tech it’s still a start. And I have to admit, working in my lab made me feel a bit like Tony Stark or Reed Richards (or maybe Forge- bonus points if you know who that is.) Being able to take apart, put together, and trouble-shoot a computer after 12 years of only using PCs to play games should count for something, right?

A+ Lab: Day One

I got my two new (old) HP Compaq PCs today and, wouldn’t you know it, there were already problems. This is good, mind you. The whole idea of me buying $40 computers online is in hopes that they don’t work 100% and I’ll get some experience fixing them up.

The first computer booted up fine- except for the fact that it didn’t have a hard drive. I wasn’t given a manual, so I had to look up the PDF online. Low and behold the system required PATA hard drives. Sadly, all I had were IDE drives so I had to ordr a pair for the two HPs. The second computer proved to be a bit of a problem.

While the system powered on I didn’t get any output to the monitor. I’m guessing the onboard video card was bad. This leaves me with the option of trying a PCI video card in hopes that the problem just stems from a bad onboard video processor, but I’m a bit worried as to what that means for the motherboard. If an onboard component is bad, could that be a sign that the rest of the motherboard is FUBAR? If that’s the case, I’ve decided to buy another of the $40 HPs.

At this point, I really can’t do anything else besides wait for the hard drives to get here. I also have a friend who’s willing to give me some of his old parts that could be used to fix these PCs up.