PC just died, oh noes! What's your rescue plan?

Hardware Build a PC
1

My PC died before the weekend started... my fault... I tried to modify an 8x pcie slot to fit a second graphic card on a board obviously not meant for that... Seriously i think i wasn't suppose to install the first one... Let alone a second card... The idea of a VM with VGA Passthrough was too appealing i guess...

I did this before on a 4x slot, burned/cut of the end of the socket with a hot knife so i could install a longer card... It did work long enough to install kvm and use the card with a vga passthrough... At least long enough to "almost" finish the Windows install... But, then, my computer magically turned off... humm...

I knew i had a problem... But i have too much time on my hand so... i could not resist trying the 8x slot, i though that power could be an issue with the 4x slot... Made sense at the time...

Anyway, this is when it happened, just as i started asking myself; What the heck am i doing? The knife i had in my hand slipped, popping off a few components along the way... oops...

The board was a intel server board(s3420gplc), but it was old enough that i had it for free from a client 2 years earlier, so no harm done... Except that; What do i order my new computer with??

Thankfully, i still had a client's computer on hand, so i ordered a 6700k with a Gigabyte Z170X Gaming G1 board along with 3200mhz of g.skill memory... Now i feel better! I almost ordered a Z97 board but looks like the chipset doesn't support vt-d... At least i avoided that problem...

Except, what do i do without a computer... i'm in the middle of nowhere, 12km away from the nearest computer shop...

i could use my client's computer, its been lying there for forever... but i just can't, my conscience just wont let me... Beside its almost as slow as my BeagleBone Black.

So that's what i decided to use to get access to the web(the BeagleBone), and i'm still using it to write these lines... Thank god for my interest in 3D printing... i might not have any idea of what i could print but at least i have access to the web... With my conscience still intact... My ego is another question though... Learning is fun...

Anyway, next issue, the Beaglebone is not fast enough to play any youtube video... I ended up paying 10$ to my sister for a lift and bought a roku player. i might return it as soon as i get my new stuff... Money doesn't grow on trees, same thing for the credit cards.... Ouch... And i was just about to finish paying for the 3D Printer... wow what a waste of money that was... Its not even working properly after 1500$ and a year of tinkering with it..

So this is my question, what is your life saver if this happens to you? If you have 10 days to wait for parts, do you have a rescue plan? Do you get stuck buying a cheap laptop from a local computer store instead of buying the parts you want? Do you have the presence of mind of keeping your credit card empty as much as possible? Do you keep your old parts just in case something happens?

Hey, by the way, i'm new in this forum, loving it...

2

Well, it only sounds like your mobo died, so at least you still have your data, shame that you are in nowhere though.

My backup plan is basically the shit ton of computers that I have at home. As long has my HDDs are fine, I'm fine. And at some point when I have the funding I will build a backup server/storage server that will give me a partial guarantee on the non-recoverable data (a lot of it).

3

I don't have one
however I did have my monitor break on me last weekend out my main rig for 2-3 days had to use my mom's craptop in the meantime
I repaired my monitor (the caps blew). So it wasn't a hard fix I actually used a blow torch to do it (almost set the house of fire like 3 times).

4

I don't have a plan I just sorta roll with the punches and try to keep important things backed up, like my skyrim saves, and I have bunch of other PC's like the the itx z97 I built for no apparent reason.

5

I did repair a laptop with a blow torch once, not the small portable lighter sized ones, more like half an inch hole with 2 inch flame... :)

The GPU was desoldered because of the heat caused by the dusty fan...

Its really cool to be able to fix a dead computer like that...

6

IKR two years ago I would never have thought of using a flame on a computer I wouldn't have thought of putting it in the oven either

7

yeah and file backups are important as well, i think i'm gonna mirror my home drive with a raid 1... for starters.. i should really have an incremental backup on a networked drive as well just in case... i was thinking that an orange pi might do the job, it has a sata port.. to bad there isn't two...

8

Well, my only back up right now is a windows 8 tablet, so I got nothing, I'd probably just get a really cheap APU rig after i sell a kidney to raise money for it. Or bone marrow. I also have graveyard of parts, so I could probably put together some ancient machine running some form of linux.

Also it sounds like you were doing some kind of crazy mod.

9

yeah, cutting off the end of a pcie slot just so you can fit a card longer than the slot is not really a smart thing to do. its not something i would do with a board i care about.

10

i did end up choosing the best board i could find just so i could sleep easy knowing i wont have to try this on the new board... :)

11

I noticed a few months back that the gpu in my imac was starting to run hot, so I made sure to backup more frequently & ordered parts for a new pc. As expected, it got progressively worse until giving me the white screen of death last weekend. New computer was already up & running, so no issues, although I do miss having it there for music/movies.

I also have an old laptop sitting in a box for emergencies. It something terrible does happen, its nice to be able to look up solutions on the net on something bigger than a phone.

12

My computer has almost no data on it it's all on my nas which is then backed up onto the server.
i would only lose my game data and my games are online based so it's just the game files no real data on the local host.
As for getting back up and running quickly. amazon prime order a new pc within a few days.

13

I usually keep my old rig for such occasions, I also have a eee pc I bought for 4 euros that required soldering a new flash chip and runs Debian perfectly fine. All data backed up on separate cold drive once in a week plus offsite backup at friend's company. But that mod man, I never tried something like that :D

14

http://pcpartpicker.com/ to build a new pc!

15

Out of lego!

16

aw damn

17

that would be badd ass, a case made out of legos.

18

Well there is a certain guy, close by, that's a pro at it.

19

I have an 8 year old laptop and some spare parts from my current build. I just have to hope, that the right part gives up on me.

[EDIT]

I might be even safer I just realized. I have pretty good friend circle and we all give our parts to each other. If something happens, I might be able to build a backup PC out of my friends parts. One of my friends just got new old PC from something equivalent to Craigslist and he might be able to give his old PC to me. Also one other friend of mine has his Raspberry Pi he doesn't use. I might be safe.

20

I currently have 5 desktop computers including my main one, an old Dell notebook, a Raspberry Pi Model B 1 and Model B 2, and my Sony Xperia Z1 C. I pretty much never throw away old hardware especially if it is working and that is why I have so many computers but at least it gives me options if something happens to my main rig.