You'll need a lot of tools but eve that won't guarantee a repair. Just buy a new pc or build one yourself its not too hard
th e fact that it came with two unmatched sticks of ram is a bad sign. Just go to PC part picker dot com and you can build your own pc and it automatically tells you what parts are compatible with each other
Hi Nick. Not sure if you caught it or not but this thing is fixed. I removed the damaged portion of the trace and soldered in a jumper wire and it's up and running.
I picked up the computer because it was only $5 cash out of my pocket, and I figured worst case if it was malfunctioning /dead it still likely could offer up more than $5 worth of parts. Best case, ..... it might work..... and that's exactly where we're at now. Seems like a nice little machine.
I don't just automatically disregard a machine because it doesn't work, then run out and buy, or build, a new one. For the record I've built several systems over the years. My office computer, all four of the kids computers, media computers for the bedroom and family room. Last year I built a cool little "silent" machine with zero moving parts using an AMD apu, Gskill RAM, Asrock mobo, a laptop power supply, Solid state drive and Arctic fanless chiller.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....-parts-desktop-pc-build.768105/#post-10498349
I also inherited ( $0) and modded a cool system from a friend that I use in the basement. A bit dated as it uses an Intel 9550 processor and is housed in a beautiful Lian Li aluminum case . Currently I've got another system I'm cobbling together from some new parts I have laying around. AMD x4 860k processor, Gigabyte MATX mobo, Gskill RAM, SSD and HDD, DVD-RW. Just waiting on my PS and SSD to show up in the mail. Got a monster Zalman CPU chiller to mount on there.....it might get the job done without a fan.... we'll see.
Anyway back to the $5 system I agree with you about the mismatched RAM. Unfortunately no way I can go back and find out the history of this thing. For all I know the previous owner might have tried to install that second stick of RAM while the machine was running...... who knows? Or maybe there was a power surge at the house, or lightning or ?????? I'm just gonna' leave it's 8gb in place and call it a day.