My computer has been giving me the same old B.S. (bluescreen, that is) that it always has, and I've had it. I'm supposed to be this knowledgeable person about computers, and yet why is it that I have worse computer problems than any of my friends? Granted, it has less impact on me than on many of them, because having done it so many times, I've more or less streamlined the process of installing all my software, which I've consolidated onto one DVD. I've even made ISO images of my install CD's and put them on there to mount virtually. It's still a pain in the ass, but it's much less painful for me than for most of the people I know.
Kind of like my sister, who has lost her wallet so many times she has streamlined the process of replacing her driver's license, credit cards, etc. Funny, the similarities in the lives we lead on opposite sides of the planet.
Anyway, after three years of struggle, I think I've found the culprit, by a painful and expensive process of elimination.
You see,
I've tweaked my BIOS settings.
I've reinstalled my drivers.
I've reinstalled Windows.
I've flashed my BIOS.
I've replaced my hard drives.
I've replaced my fans.
I've replaced my memory.
I've replaced my motherboard.
I've replaced my power supply.
I've replaced my case.
In fact, I've replaced every single thing inside my computer except ...
yes, you guessed it. The CPU.
The cursed CPU. (How do you write the word "cursed" with two syllables in text? That's how I intend it to be read. Shakespeare style.)
I should have gotten suspicious when it MELTED THE ENTIRE CPU BRACKET OFF MY MOTHERBOARD back in Boston, but no... I blamed it on the fan, the fan controller, ANYTHING but the CPU!
That CPU was my baby... I did everything for it. Replacing parts, jacking up fan speeds... Everything to take care of it, but in the end, the CPU was the one that betrayed me.
Anyway, it's outta here. As soon as I can get on down to Den-Den town, I'm buying a new one. The ironic thing? It's an old Pentium 4, far cheaper than a single stick of memory, or a single hard drive. Cheaper even than the motherboard it's running on.
---------------
And although I want to end here, can I say? KORG SUCKS! There's this weird hardware problem with adjusting the gains on my D-888 multitrack recording console that makes it nearly impossible to get good mic level settings during recording. I've been struggling with this problem for months, but there's no good solution in sight. Korg apparently knows about this problem and refuses to do anything about it.
Buying individual preamps for each mic would probably solve the problem but probably also cost more than the recording console itself. The closest thing to a solution I've found is an impedance-balancing connector I have, which makes it easier to adjust the volume but attenuates the treble range a lot, causing the recordings to sound somewhat dull.
*sigh*
On the plus side, I'm making some progress with cleaning my room. It's amazing how much time magically appears when your computer is tied up running low-level diagnostics.
By the way, you may wonder how it is that I'm able to write this...
My PC's cover is off and I have a huge room fan blowing on it to bring the CPU core temperature down to a level where it runs stably. :P
4 comments:
My laptop used to overheat on a regular basis, I also ended up allocating a room fan to it full-time, just to keep it in operation. I used it that way for about a year before it finally died and could not be resurrected.
I just blamed it on Osaka. :)
Yeah, I can't really blame this on Osaka, since my first meltdown happened in Boston. I can only blame it on the thermal characteristics of the Prescott architecture. :P
I've thought about getting a water cooling system, but I feel like those are supposed to be used for crazy, overclocked, heavily modded systems for 31337 g4m3rZ. I just want to check my email and manage my music and photos...
A similar thing happened to me when I cheaped out and bought a Duron instead of an Athlon. Although my temperature sensors all pointed to the CPU, I did try switching from using the onboard graphics to an add in board. That worked for a bit, but then it sucked again. It's comforting to know that others have suffered worse than I. :)
I wouldn't mind technology so much if only they didn't build their parts with so many sharp edges. Fixing a computer is like dipping your hand into a bucket of nails!!!
Getting a Mac relieves one of many of these issues :)
Post a Comment