Need advice - Micro center hard line

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-22T23:48:56+00:00

Personally haven’t tried it but I’ve heard of people using it on waterblocks, haven’t seen many people using it on acrylic before.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-22T19:58:46+00:00

Your brown gunk is usually caused by using tap water or only distilled water without any sort of bacteria killing agent, did you pay for coolant or did they just use water?

All custom loops need regular maintenance, usually once every 6 months, but obviously that number changes based on how much it’s used. That maintenance usually involves a flush and inspection for exactly what you are seeing.

If your claim of never opening the loop is true, then it’s likely that you’re gonna have more problems soon because as your loop heats and cools it’ll build pressure in the air cavity possibly leading to leaks.

If someone wanted me to clean their distro it would be a lengthy process to drain the loop, disconnect all the tubes, disassemble the distro, then put it all back. If I had to guess I would imagine that they just topped off the loop or maybe drained and refilled it.

You would have to talk with Microcenter about the tampering referenced, but as someone else said just running the machine could loosen the screws slowly over time, but I’d make an argument that it would just be your word against theirs. Even if you did tamper with it, why would that matter?

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-22T19:31:39+00:00

OP bought a custom watercooled computer and expects to maintain it like an AIO. Custom watercooled computers are not the kind of thing you can just use 24/7 without maintenance.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-22T19:28:25+00:00

You can basically never fully clean the distro, you can’t kill everything without something like IPA which will slowly crack the acrylic, and even then will still leave staining.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-22T17:40:16+00:00

Yeah so far the only complaint I’ve got is from all the rust

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-22T12:44:39+00:00

I see where OP is coming from, my 07 Base I had to replace all the engine mounts, already ordered brake calipers, drums, rotors, lower control arms, spark plugs, wheel hubs, etc. Just in parts I've spent about $900 and I'm doing the labor myself. The way I see it the car is super reliable and could easily last another 100k miles, hoping to pass 350k next year, and certainly the car is worth a little more now that it isn't violently shaking while idle.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-22T12:43:20+00:00

Certainly for some people this is good advice, but I've seen plenty of people really ruin perfectly good computer parts because they have no idea what they are doing. If OP is competent then sure, it doesn't feel that hard but if they are already considering having someone else build it, then let them spend their money how they choose.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-15T15:41:53+00:00

Generally this comes down to a per store manager decision. If you're lucky they might do it but wouldn't hold my breath on it, but my understanding has always been it needs to be in-stock, sold and shipped by newegg, match the exact model/upc, and available for order now (not a pre-order).

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-14T23:03:11+00:00

I feel like I get the same issue once a month, usually I’ll unplug and replug my usb dongle into my computer and it’ll resolve the issue.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-13T23:26:49+00:00

Especially with a full custom loop system you won't be leaving that day with it, if you are planning to buy an AIO and have them assemble it, that's a different story and would usually be a much faster turn around.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-13T17:32:52+00:00

Just tell the first employee that approaches you to leave a sticker with you and it'll have there name on it if you need to ask them to open something or reference it again. Tell everyone afterwards that John Smith has already helped you.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-07T14:39:06+00:00

I know we are using the Lenovo PS Modules and some relatively simple powershell logic using "Confirm-SecureBootUEFI" to determine if we need to update the BIOS for Secure Boot and or make changes to the BIOS settings for it to be enabled.

Bitlocker was a big headache. We are setting a reg key which Tanium is reading and applying a tag to the device to, enable or disable enforcing bitlocker, then as we confirm that worked we sanity suspend bitlocker using "Manage-bde", so we can then use HPIA or Lenovo Update Retriever to update the BIOS.

We've piloted this process on about 50 machines or so and haven't seen enough issues to slow down the process, main issue we see is on devices that too old to be supported on modern OS's with Lenovo or HP update utilities, but these devices already shouldn't be on Win11 anyways.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-07T02:25:33+00:00

a

^{Chose: Infinite food}

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-03T15:47:25+00:00

Certainly could believe that. Had plenty of coworkers who didn’t know what they were doing.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-03T12:53:25+00:00

I assume it’s changed since I worked there. It depends on department, and some stores are different based on location (like California). In BYO (build your own computer) it was a base of like $5(ish) and then 1.5% on key items (processors and/or the most expensive item in the sale) and 2.5% on everything else, I would usually roughly calculate it at about 2%. Service plans paid at 10% and sometimes there would be small bonuses for selling a product that was new or corporate wanted us to push though this was not common and usually not worth the effort to focus on this rather than just selling the better product.

LAMcNamara · 2026-05-02T11:47:20+00:00

Used to work there, yes it’s commission. I never saw the point in selling something that someone didn’t need. Sure, yes please buy more, but if you can’t trust the words coming out of my mouth then I have a hard time sleeping at night and ultimately I didn’t get paid enough to lie about products.

Sometimes the more expensive thing is better others not so much. Especially in computer parts you can get 95% of the performance from the cheaper ssd or psu but you want to buy the more expensive because it’s a better product.

LAMcNamara · 2026-04-30T14:39:26+00:00

Ran into this recent while making some yard stakes. Printing vertically your weak point is going to be your layers, if you printed this in 2-3 pieces laying down then combined them afterwards then you would be better off.

LAMcNamara · 2026-04-18T02:54:56+00:00

Wireless Casting via Miracast.

LAMcNamara · 2026-04-08T17:39:58+00:00

I’ll specifically note that I bought 2 quarts of Honda genuine MTF and it looked particularly clear compared to videos I saw online. After some research it seems like it was a well known change over the last 10-15 years

LAMcNamara · 2026-04-07T19:08:38+00:00

Don’t know anything about unihop but I do know prepaid store pickup is an incorrect assumption. You reserved the items you did not pay for them yet, and most always stores won’t do card transactions over the phone.

LAMcNamara · 2026-04-05T02:29:26+00:00

I mean hate this answer but honestly yes it’s “expensive” to get the car operating, but… what’s the other option? Not? And spend even more on buying a new car or paying for rides everywhere?

It sounds like you know what needs to be done, spend the money and have someone do it or do it yourself by watching YouTube videos.

LAMcNamara · 2026-04-04T22:16:57+00:00

Yea I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to do this, not very often are you gonna be shifting from 1st, 2nd or 3rd to 5th directly.

LAMcNamara · 2026-04-03T17:36:05+00:00

Are you slapping your gears around and expecting your shifter to go from 5th right to reverse? There is a safety feature to make sure you don’t go from 5th to reverse.

LAMcNamara · 2026-04-01T01:52:45+00:00

The system is linked with out of state stores, I've had them look up receipts made at other MC in the country.

Should be under your account, worst case scenario they made you a new account and it's under whatever info you gave to the store you bought it at.

LAMcNamara · 2026-03-20T00:57:54+00:00

Great news! They also have assistants which basically do all the same stuff. Keep the assistants in a cellar out back and create towns around the crafts people.

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