So I put this in Tech Humor because I can laugh about it now. Hopefully everyone else can get a good laugh at this as well :)
This weekend I received a call from one of my clients stating their computer had locked up and when they rebooted it there was an error message during POST that stated "your 233MHz process is not supported on this bus, system performance will be degraded". I thought that was kind of odd since it was a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo. So I brought their computer home poped the case open and found that the Processor fan had stopped working, so I replaced the fan all's well right... wrong.. during POST it says the following...
Detecting 3rd master HDdrive.. etc
Detecting 4th master CDRom drive.. etc
Inconsistent data in CMOS
no date/time set
press F1 to enter Setup
Well that’s a good idea why not go into setup and check things out
Of course why not now the computer is not accepting keyboard inputs with either a PS2 or a USB keyboard.
So at this point I'm real upset/confused you name it.. So I decide to try different SATA cables.. no good. Unplug the HD and try booting to my Whoppix CD gets to the boot screen and... doesn't accept keyboard inputs. So decided to put the HD in my wife’s computer and try booting to it... doesn't even see the HD... So Decide to put my Wife’s HD in this computer... Same thing gets stuck at Detecting 3rd master.. but at least its seeing it.
So I come to the conclusion that its either the Proc or the board, and since I have no way to test the Proc and board for sure since all my stuff is much older. I take it back to the store we got it from... I'm so glad she decided to get the warranty! So the guy tests both board and processor out and determines it’s the Processor... board works fine :)... Giggity.. free replacement because of Warranty and we should be out within a few minutes and I can have it back at her house in no time.
Well after about 3 hours in the store going back and forth between 3 different departments (Customer Service, Service, and Parts) because I swear each person we talked to it must have been their first day. no offence everyone has to start sometime... but 15 minutes typing randomly on a keyboard and THEN asking a supervisor what he should do for this issue is ridiculous.. Oh and something else that was funny… the guy at the Service department after I explained the situation to him he looked at the Proc and says “Yeah It looks fried”… I thought that was kind of… interesting that he could determine that since there was no burn marks or any discoloration on it at all.
Anyway to end a long story after replacing the Proc she is running like charm.