[Qagak]

Okay.... I just might be getting a little smarter....

There's something I've overlooked all this time, which is 0 then Diagnostics. (~lol~ It helps to have a MBR on your drive.) A really *really* nice gentleman in Dell Chat told me to try it.

I had done 1 before, but I really had not paid attention to it & did not know what it was called. (I believe when I updated the BIOS, there was a utility to test the system.)

~lol~ I had erased my MBR ages ago when trying to do a fresh reinstall. It was really funny trying to run Diagnostics w/o the MBR. All I got was a blinking _ on the screen.

Snow was really agreeable today, & she stayed on long enough for me to reinstall Dell Ubuntu 8.04+ LTS or at least for the MBR to get on there.... The computer did turn off but that was after the external DVD player popped out the LTS DVD.

Well, I'm going to try the Diagnostics again, if Snow will stay on long enough. I might have to give her a few hours/days break, though.

Somehow, after dealing with Dell for like 3.5 hrs, I got a dispatch # for the service depot. (I just don't know if I'll get the box.... I'll see how it goes....) ~fingers crossed~

Edit: Snow passed all the diagnostic tests.

[Qagak]

Update: There might be hope for Snow yet (now that I have an idea of what's going on with the warranty). I'll see how much it will cost.

[Qagak]

Alrighty.... The Mini 9 from this thread is working. I found a deal that was hard to resist for a used but working system board. After replacing the old board with the one I ordered, the computer turned on just fine.

As much as it works, I have one screw left over after piecing it back together. I don't really feel like taking it apart again at the moment

I will see how it goes!

[lswartz]

What a process you went through! Nice that it is still working.

[rc3105]

my mini9 worked fine for 2 yrs & then died completely w/o any warning. would you mind sharing where you found a reasonably priced board?

alternately, feel like selling the old flaky board?