My desktop, which would shutdown a few mins after booting was the first of my computers to go ka-put. I initially suspected a RAM problem and prayed it was not a hard disk problem.
The RAM was cleared by trying it on my friends system and the hard disk seemed fine in the few minutes the system stayed on. So I decided to get the motherboard checked and tried to locate a computer service center near my place.
Justdial.com informed me that there was a computer service center right in front of my home(apparently the residence of the guy, hence no sign boards). I called up the guy and he was busy, so he sent his colleague over. His colleague was not exactly his colleague, apparently these service centers have an internal deal with each other to share customers in case of being overloaded.
Now since the guy was already home and I didnt have the heart to tell him that I don’t want the comp at his office(which was relatively far away), so I let him have a look. He told me that he would need to take it his office. Considering I needed the computer badly I agreed.
The next day was the weekend and I only heard from him on monday, he informed me that the motherboard was indeed the culprit and he would fix it. I thought about it and said ok… only later realizing that it might not be smart to let someone meddle with the mother board, the better option would be to simply get a new one. But the guy insisted that he would fix it without a problem. I thought ‘what the heck, its gone anyway’.
The next day he tells me that he could not fix it coz the components weren’t available. I told him to deliver the cpu so that I could get a new mother board and get the system working again.
Meanwhile my colleague told me to check if the motherboard was in warranty, I had assumed a 1 year warranty but apparently some mother boards come with a 3 year warranty. To my luck this was one such board, I wondered how close I had come to voiding the warranty by letting him change the components.
I came home that evening and he had not delivered the computer. I tried calling him and he was not reachable. A little confused I called him early next day and he informed me that he had been hospitalized due to some infection in his mouth! Of all the weird things to happen!
He said he would drop the machine by in the evening, I told him take rest and come when he was fine. The next few days were frustrating, added to the mix was the possibility that it would take a week to fifteen days for the motherboard to be replaced once returned to the company.
Three days later he was ready to return the comp but it was my parents marriage anniversary and they were going to a temple and all that jazz so no one was home :P Considering that my laptop too was going thru the bad phase at this time, I just wanted to hit something :D
Eventually he delivered it the next day. I went to the service center with the mother board half expecting him to say that the warranty was void or that I had to wait a month for a replacement. But instead he looked at the mother board, took it inside for a while, came back with a few papers he asked me to fill. Once I was done he bought another mother board and gave it to me! I was like “awesome”.
I spent the day putting my computer back together, this was my first time rigging up a system and it was easier that I thought :P
Finally my desktop was back on track :) marking a clear end to my computer problems… so much for a frustrating few weeks :P