So, in the last few days, the Stealth died, the main home computer died, we had to go to three different pizza restaurants to find one that was open and had tables and then had to wait and wait, but, the last twenty four hours have been pretty good...
Even though the Stealth is still dead at the dealer, based on some information they provided about what appeared to be the problem, I was able to find some really good sites (overview, removal, capacitor replacement) with information about what the likely cause is, and how I can fix it for much less than the $700 the dealer wants for a new Main Powertrain Control Module (PCM) (also known as an ECM (engine control module) or ECU (engine control unit) - otherwise known as the "engine computer"). The dealership (Rick Keffer Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep) agreed to remove the module and give it to me to let me repair it - I expect I'll have it in my hot little hands this evening. I'll still end up having the pay them ~$400 for the diagnositics and removal/installation, but that's better than the original $2200 estimate using a new PCM, or the revised $1100 estimate using a remanufactured PCM.
Our first Pizza stop was at Pizza Hut on the island. The place was fairly empty, seemed somewhat dirty, and the staff was totally inattentive. So, we left. Our next stop was Big Daddy's, but it turns out that they only do delivery or take-out - there's no place to eat in the store. So, we wandered over to Moon River Pizza. We had to wait a while to place our order, and then had to wait a while to get our dinner, but the wait was worth it. Jeanie had a slice of their special "garbage" pizza, and I had a cheese calzone. The calzone had just the right blend of mozzarella, ricotta, parmigiana, garlic and spices.
All of a sudden, in the middle of reading email, my PC rebooted itself. Upon restart, it would just get finished displaying the initial Windows screen, then reboot again. By reconfiguring the BIOS to have the system perform a full memory test at boot, and rotating the DIMMs, I was able to determine that either one of the modules or one of the memory slots was bad. By removing one of the two modules I was able to get the system to boot, although the performance was horrid. I had just finished searching for cheap memory and placing a couple of new 512MB PC2100 DIMMs in the cart at NewEgg, when I remembered that I had two PC2100 DIMMs in my old dead Soyo MB. I put the two Crucial DIMMs from the Soyo MB into my system, but still had problems. After more trouble shooting, I discovered that one of the two Crucial DIMMs was also bad. I was able to get the system back up using one of the "old" 256MB DIMMs, and one of the Crucial 256MB DIMMs. In the process, I discovered a few BIOS settings to tweak, so I now am enjoying slightly better performance than before the problems.
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Posted by David at July 13, 2006 09:35 AM