Hardware Restoration Tools and Equipment

Hardware Restoration Tools and Equipment

by Coral1

Hmmmm.... I guess this is as good a time as any to say something about the tools you might like to have handy.

While everything listed below is not necessary to work on computer hardware, the more the better. However, I will try to group things according to the level of need.

A beginners toolkit has to have:

• A #2 Phillips-head screwdriver.

That's it. Really! Oh, OK. You will need a Slot-head screwdriver for unhooking most of the heatsink clips still out there. But most of the repairs/upgrades you do can be done with a Phillips screwdriver.

Alright, so you want to do more than just swap out video cards. These should get you going.

The Basic Toolbox

Here is a list of things you will need to start your adventures in hardware.

• Something to put your tools in. It does not have to be a toolbox, some people prefer a toolbelt.
• Screwdrivers. <see notes>
  • #2 Phillips head - with a 4in.(10cm)shaft. That's Not counting the handle.
  • Slot head - same as above.
• Knife - every tool box needs a knife. It is an unwritten rule. A Boxcutter (or some kind of razor knife) is an added bonus.
• Small flashlight - one you can hold in your mouth. <trust me>
• Pliers - for pulling off stuck power cables.
• Needlenose pliers - for getting dropped screws out of tight places, and pulling off jumper caps.
• Small wire cutters - useful for cutting those nylon ties that keep the cables so nice and neat.
• Brushes - a selection of old tooth brushes, 2" to 4" (5cm to 10cm) paintbrushes, and maybe some medium artist paintbrushes. To get the dust from fans, heatsinks, power supplys, and out of the case.
• Compressed air - Some people prefer canned air for cleaning dust. Be sure to get the electronic rated stuff. It doesn't contain any moisture. <see notes>
• Multimeter - A cheap analog one will do to start with. Just make sure it has settings to test 120/240v AC <aka 110/220>, up to 20v DC, and Ohms.
• Some kind of notebook and a pen/pencil. Making diagrams and writing down component info WILL "save your fat from the fire".
• Books/Manuals - A good repair and upgrade how-to book is a must. It will have all kinds of helpful information in it. Buying one is better than piecing one together from the web because of the amount and variety of info involved. I like Upgrading and Repairing PC's by Scott Mueller. Any of them from the 8th Edition on up will be fine.
• User Manuals for specific hardware can be picked up from the web as you need them.
• Magazines - Similar to Books/Manuals except these are good for keeping up with whats new and what might be "coming soon to a system near you". There are a lot of mags out there to choose from, so find one or two you like and get a subscription ( a lot cheaper than to keep buying them off the rack). I would suggest at least one that does good benchmarking and comparisons. Currently I like:
• Smartcomputing - Has pretty good info, faq's and tips. Geared for the new to mid-level users.
• CPU (Computer Power Users) - more for the die-hard hardware types. Has benchmarks and head-to-head comparisons on all types of computer hardware. Also seems to be Smartcomputings answer too.
• Maximum PC - One of the first hardcore hardware mags to come out. Proud of being considered radical. With an in-your-face style of writing.

notes

• Magnetic tip screwdrivers are nice, but there is talk that you CAN scramble chips if not careful; but I haven't had any problems .... yet.
• A while back I got one of those multi-screwdrivers. It has changeable tips (3 phillips, 2 slot) that fit in a rubber collar on the handle. It also has an extendible magnetic wand, and a builtin flashlight that points toward the tip. Very nice. You can also get Torx tips, Socket tips and even drill bits that will fit in it. Makes for a nice little all-in-one rig.
• Battery powered ones are OK for cover and easy to get at screws, but I find them a PITA when trying to work inside the case.
• If you are going to use an air compressor you have in the garage, install and maintain a good line filter/dryer. To remove the water that builds up in the tank. And keep the line pressure under 40psi. Water sprayed at high pressure, is NOT a good thing for a computer.

Even better

When you get the chance, add these to your collection.

• Hemostats - Curved and straight. Even better than needlenose pliers for dropped screws and jumper caps. Plus they can be used as clamps when soldering things.
• Wire strippers/crimpers.
• Digital Multimeter - for accurate voltage reading.
• Power Supply Testers - These plug into the mobo connector of the PSU. A quick and easy way to see if the PSU is wanky.
• One of those six piece small screwdriver sets.
• Assortment of small files.
• Torx wrenches - You probably will not use these much, unless you are taking apart HD's or Printers, but a few computers still use them.
• AC to DC Adapter. You can get an Universal AC Adapter at most Department or Electronics Stores. While these have about six different voltage settings and plugs on them, they only put out around 300mA (milliAmp) or 1/3 of an amp. This is enough for a lot of the smaller external gear. One amp is better. Or you can just start collecting adapters from dead gear to get a range of outputs.
• Soldering Iron and Electronic Grade solder. - 10-15 Watts MAX!!! Do not use a soldering gun (unless you are doing case modifications), as they will mess up a circuit board faster than you can let go of the trigger. They are just too hot.
• Solder Sucker - Hey, I didn't name it. But like the name implies, it is used to remove solder when you need to remove a bad 'whatnot' and solder another one in. Once you get the hang of using it, it works pretty good. If that leaves you laughing too much, you can get a desoldering wick.

While this is by no means a complete list, it should get you well on your way to becoming the "Go To" person when friends and family need work done on their systems.

Odds and Ends

This list is almost endless, so I will just mention a few things. The good news is that you can get most of it when stripping old systems down.

• Both molex and header-pin wires and connectors.
• System speakers. The little ones that beep during the post.
• LED's and On/Off switches.
• CMOS Batteries.
• Screws and Jumper Caps.
• Data Cables for drives. Floppy, IDE 40/40, IDE 80/40, SATA, SCSI, USB.
• Harddrives, CDRoms, Floppydrives
• Mobo's, cpu's, and memory.

Basically you want to become a packrat.

Serious Hardware Geeks

This is where the REAL fun begins.

• Eye protection - for the things below.
• Dremel tool - with a nice selection of bits .... The Ultimate Tool. MUHAHAHAHAHA
• Hand Drill - Battery powered or a small electric one is all you need; and drill bits.
• Propane solder/brazing kit. For Case work ONLY.
• Hole Punchouts
• Oscilloscope - these are lots of fun.
• Pop Rivet Gun and Pop Rivets - A good alternative to soldering/brazing for working on cases.
• Airbrush, paints, decals. Hey, if you are going to be a hardcore modder, why settle for Beige?
• A source for trick fans, fancy lights, clear case covers, water-coolers, and other do-dads. Imagination is the only limit when you get to this level.

I feel I should warn you though. While working on computers is usually not dangerous, you will get nicks, cuts, burns, and even shocked from time to time; then there is the occasional vampire system.

When you get to the Serious Hardware stuff, you can Really get hurt if you are not careful. I am talking about losing chunks of meat and big-time body damage.

Benchmark Programs

I don't use these much myself. Not being a gamer or running resource intensive apps, if I do not notice an improvement after an OC (overclock), a setting tweak, or hardware swap, I usually put it back the way it was. For stability. On a hardware swap, I will leave it in.

Still, a few comments on the subject are needed.

Other than bragging rights, the main reason to run benchmarks is to optimize your system for whatever you are using it for.

There are a lot of tricks to tweaking your system, but to put it simply:
The first thing you do is BackUp any data and info you do not want to lose!! Then fire up a benchmark that tests the part(s) you want to optimize and run it on your system, as it is now. This is called a baseline reading. You can either get the latest bios and driver updates before or after you run the baseline (if you want to see they how much they help). Then you start playing with the settings IN SMALL INCREMENTS, and run the benchmark between each change. You keep doing this until the score starts to drop or the system hangs/crashes. Set it back to the last working setting. Now you need to run a BurnIn test to make sure there are no BSOD's or random memory/harddrive errors. If there are, you need to back it down a little more, until it is stable again.

The other reason is to see how different hardware combinations work together (or driver versions). Say you have 2 video cards. One has a slightly better frame-rate with a certain mobo setup. But the other one has the better frame-rate on another setup. Now you know which card to use in which rig.

The same with drivers. If the new drivers (for whatever) give a worse score than the old ones, you sure don't want to keep using the new ones, do you?

The two main types of testing are:

• Synthetics.
  These run standardized tests. Currently popular are: Futuremark's PCMark04 and 3DMark05 (free and not-free versions); SiSoftware Sandra Professional 2005.SR1 ($39.99 USD and up). Plus there are a pile of freeware programs for testing just single subsystems. There are also business suites that cost up to $400-500.00 USD.
• Real World.
  These are how fast actual programs run on your system. Mostly a do-it-yourself kind of thing. Includes something as low-tech as using a watch to time how long it takes to copy a file, or rip/burn a cd/dvd. Most games will have some way to check frames-per-second by running the demo or recording a couple of minutes of gameplay.

The Work Area

I have repaired systems on every surface from the Living-room floor, to my bed (when I have been sick and bored), and everything in between. While any place that has some elbow room can be used as a work area, certain things need to be kept in mind.

1. When working on carpeted floors, static electricity can be a major problem. Work on a piece of paneling turned upside down or at least a thick layer of newspaper or cardboard. Read up on and understand how to ground yourself properly! Regularly touching the metal part of the case while it is plugged into an AC outlet, will usually do the trick (system does not have to be turned ON). Anti-static mats and/or straps are not that expensive anymore.


2. When working on counter-tops, Dining-room/Kitchen tables, coffee tables, or any other finished surface, putting something between it and what you are working on is also a good idea: for a different reason. It seems that nothing irritates the 'Love of Your Life' more than scratching up the furniture.

I have a small stack of 1" x 1" x 12" (2.5 x 2.5 x 30cm) pieces of wood that I use for this purpose. Two or three will let you lay a case on its side without scratching up anything. Even better under a mobo when testing it outside of the case. This also solves the problem of putting in addon cards without having to put the mobo on the edge of the table so the metal tabs on the bottom of the cards don't stop them from going all the way into the slot. I prefer using three of them under a mobo to keep it from flexing when pushing down on whatever I am trying to install. It also allows for good airflow from the "casefan" I have blowing on it.

The most functional setup I have seen (and currently use) is a wooden workbench that is high enough so that you can work at it standing up without having to bend over. Add a stool (padded of course) tall enough to let you sit or lean on it. This way you can move around as needed, while what you are working on stays in a comfortable work position. The main work area is wide enough so you can grab the tools you need on the left, right, and across it, without having to stretch for them. For me this is about 4 ft (1.2m) high, 5ft (1.6m) wide, and 30in (75cm) deep. After loading the edges with tools, shelves, and everything else you need to get the job done, I still have an area a little over 3ft x 2ft for work.

A word of warning. No matter how large the room, no matter how many benches, shelves, and cabinets you put up, you always end up running out of space!

The TestBed

To put it simply, this is a working computer that is not in a case.
Actually, by the time you finish putting it together, it's about 5 or 6 computers. Check this out. My testbed consist of:

• AT and ATX power supplys (200 - 300 watts are OK for this)
• 386, 486, Socket7, Super7, Slot1, SlotA, Socket370, and Socket462 motherboards AND cpu's.
• Dip chips, 30pin simms, 72pin simms, 168pin sdrams, and 184pin ddr memory.
• ISA, PCI, 1x-2x-4x AGP video cards. Ranging from cga/ega, vga, to svga types.
• A stack of ISA and PCI sound cards.
• Ditto for network cards and modems.
• Add on IDE and SCSI controllers.
• A nice selection of heatsinks/fans and casefans.
• Along with miscellaneous LED's, switches, speakers, video/mobo chipset heatsinks, etc...
• ... and you can not forget about the user manuals for everything. A lot of my earlier stuff was acquired by playing "Link Tag". A pre-Google game that was sometimes frustrating, but always a learning experience.
• I also have a shelf full of cases. Ranging from totally stripped, to fully running systems.

Granted, I have been putting this thing together for years and some of the stuff is mostly just gathering dust now; but it gives you an idea of what you will need to be able to test all the things you will be working on. Think of it as a kind of do-it-yourself Leggo set.

One Common Scenario:

Let's say a computer comes in that sounds like it is booting up. The front LED lights up, the HD's and fans spin, but nothing shows up on the monitor. After unhooking, taking out, and/or disabling everything but the power supply, cpu, video card and ram, it still doesn't boot.

Now you need to figure what is bad. The cpu, ram, video card, or mobo.

So you need to try known working parts (from your pile, err.. stock) in this computer. As a double check, you need to test the parts from the non-booting computer in a known working system (your testbed); one thing at a time.

After doing these test, you have either found out what is bad, or that you need to go to the next level of testing.

Quitting Time

I think that just about covers it. Since I am starting to get hungry, we will call it a day. I am going to see what I can scratch up for supper, and then temporarily lower my IQ by watching some TV.

Until next time ...

May you spend many happy hours cursing your decision to ever start this line of endeavor.

NS,NR!!