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whats most stressful, flashing mobo bios, or putting/taking off cpu HS? POLL!!!

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Originally posted by: txxxx
Originally posted by: JBT
Originally posted by: txxxx
Where's the option for "none of these, its friggin computer hardware" ?
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Well it does cost money and some people do not have the money so easily accessible to to replace a broken part ASAP. I don't worry to much now that I have two systems and wouldn't really suffer any down time but when I only had a single system it was a bit stressful.
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If you dont have monies or backup's - dont mess with it.

Ha I knew you were going to say that. But sometimes Flashing a Bios or taking off the heat sink is necissary...
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damn, almost tied.

my heatsink bolts through the mobo... it is pretty much impossible to mess up because of that. you'd have to tighten one side down all the way without tightening the other side to even think about damaging the cpu. the bios flash is a bit more stressful, but i have a UPS so i'm good even if the power goes out.
 
If you want stressful, walk down the middle of the street in Iraq trying to draw sniper fire so your buddies can spot the guy that has you in his sights. The rest of this stuff means nothing in comparison.
 
To me, installing a HS/CPU is as easy as cake, thanks to my small hands! But flashing a BIOS is more stressful/scaryier than anything else I've ever experienced. One screwup during the flashing process and you've got a dead computer.
 
Originally posted by: ElFenix
damn, almost tied.

my heatsink bolts through the mobo... it is pretty much impossible to mess up because of that. you'd have to tighten one side down all the way without tightening the other side to even think about damaging the cpu. the bios flash is a bit more stressful, but i have a UPS so i'm good even if the power goes out.
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A UPS does not protect you from a bad bios flash.

I had a bad flash for no particular reason on a circa 1998 Dell that I was working on for a friend. Those proprietary mobos made by intel had soldered-in bios chips, meant not only that the mobo had to be replaced, but since Dell (at that time) used a proprietary mobo, PSU and front panel connectors, needed to get a new PSU and jury-rig the front panel connectors.
Took more time and money than that old computer was worth, but when you're doing something for a friend, you have an obligation to try to make it right.
 
Neither.

I haven't done either yet. ;P

If I had to guess it probably would be the bios. I would like to update the bois on my Compaq but I'm afraid of ruining it. If only I could have more confidence in the quality of the hardware.
 
I htink we need a new category - "installing more RAM".

This is in honour of my brother who successfully released the magic smoke from a motherboard and 1 GB of PC3200 RAM, by trying to install the RAM.
 
lol, funny how close this poll is. flashing the bios is pretty nervewracking. i usually pray before i flash that the power doesn't suddenly go out on me but technically speaking it's easy to do. putting/taking off the cpu isn't really stressful but more of a pain in the butt. i'm lazy, i hate having to clean off and reapply thermal compound and trying to get the hs/fan to clip on without having to take out the motherboard is a chore.
 
bios flashing i guess though since i have never had a bad flash i dont really worry

as for taking of a cpu HSF with p4 style you never have to worry at all
 
I voted Bios Flashing, I've yet to have a bios flash go bad (knock on wood) but I always flash from dos and from a HDD and not a floppy, so I'm kinda paranoid about it hehe. I've been installing and removing HSFs since the P1 days and as much of a pain as it can be it's not very stressful if you have the right tools and/or a properyly designed HSF. Just my 2 cents...
 
Even though I've flashed bioses before, and even had one go bad (I hate bios flashing), I have to vote installing a heatsink requiring a screwdriver is a more stressful/annoying event. Notice I say socket A, most others are not that bad.
 
I've flashed my BIOS about 15 times total and neverhad a problem(i'm knocking on wood as I type), but I've only done maybe 5 cpu/hs applications.
 
In theory, the bios flash should be less stressful, especially with the new utils that allow you to flash from Windows. I always have this bad feeling that I'm going to lose the comp in the middle of the flash. :Q

Installing a heatsink should be more stressful for me since I've nuked one cpu, one mb, and almost nuked a second cpu! :Q 😱 I just don't think about it when I'm installing. Can't worry what you don't think about. 🙂
 
If you're talking about PIII or earlier Intel procs and pre-64 AMD procs, I'd have to vote taking on/off HSF. Since the P4, that's been easy.

Flashing the BIOS is nerve-wracking, yes, but I've never had one go bad on me.
 
HSF... until I stopped being lazy and started taking the mobo out of the case to do it, no problem since then. Trying to apply a decent layer of Shin-Etsu was never any extra fun for the proceedings, just stick with the dead easy Alumina now. Never come close to damaging anything when installing a HSF on any of my athlons.

BIOS flash... eek. Once I killed a mobo on my first self-built PC because I had a bad bios file, rescued it about a week later when someone came up with the amiboot.rom trick (a trick the manuf's engineer thanked me for when I passed it on 😀). A second time on a different mobo, floppy screwed up and it was bad flash, rescuded thanks to gigabyte's dual bios.

bios flashing wins 😉
 
oh yeah, that dual bios kicks ass. all mobos should be dual bios, i mean how much more expensive is it?? i guesse it could add up though per 1000's quantity and up though
 
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