It seems that all I’ve done over the last few days is build computers.
I upgraded my Dad’s, which is always fun. By fun I mean a journey into the depths of despair and beyond, because inevitably it won’t work. Although it seems that we always manage to figure it out in the end. For example, the XFX Nvidia 650i Ultra board we used for the upgrade came with its CMOS jumper set to clear. That threw me for most of the evening; I haven’t seen a board with CMOS jumpers in ages.
I left the house in a cheerful mood, because everything seemed to be well and good. Until today, this is, because the machine died this morning. So, a new motherboard has been ordered, and I’ll fit that tomorrow.
Then at work I built my new workstation machine, because that’s significantly quicker than waiting for Dell to get their finger out and ship a similar spec. Fitting the Abit P35 Pro motherboard into the Arctic Cooling Silentium T1 Pro case was a bit of a nightmare, and I had to forego their clever velcro hard drive fastening mechanism in favour of the old fashioned drive-bay approach, because the motherboard’s power connector was in the way.
Still, it’s a lovely bit of kit, and seems to be suitably speedy. And my Asus MW221U screen is lurvely.
Then I come home, and I have to swap out my dead Fatal1ty F-I90HD board for the Asus I liberated from my Dad’s machine pre-upgrade. I should probably have seen it coming with a name like Fatal1ty, but the VGA port died, and then the whole thing decided not to boot. So, back to Ebuyer it goes, and I’m happy with the well tested Asus board.
During the extraction of the Fatal1ty, I gouged a large chunk out of my finger. Not on the case, incidentally, but on the blanking plate for the motherboard (you know, the one with all the holes on). And it struck me that, maybe, you have to have a good bleed into a case before the thing will actually run correctly. A little ritual bloodletting during construction hopefully means your PC will lead a stable and happy existence.
Maybe I’ll bleed into Dad’s machine when I have another go at it tomorrow.
Dan,
I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a computer without getting blood on it at some time or another! I like to think of it as DNA marking my builds and given how many build I’ve done that a lot of my DNA out there
Glad to sdee you’re use teh AC case – I really like mine as you know. You’ll have to let us know the rest of the system spec – CPU, RAM, graphics, HDD etc.
Mark
Posted by Captain Literal | 31. Aug, 2007, 12:05 amSurely this would be far easier if you used, say, chicken blood? Or maybe the blood from an ox? Certainly less painful (unless the ox kicks you of course) and means that you’re not whittling away bits of your own body. Don’t forget that you can’t grow a finger back once it’s gone!
Posted by The Monkey | 31. Aug, 2007, 12:49 pmI’m sure these things should be BANNED if they create a DANGER to Society.
We can’t have people going around bleeding all over the place!
Did you report the incident? Was there a Risk Assessment in place?
How can you be so relaxed about this? You could have lost an ARM!!!!
Honestly, you’ll be trying to play conkers next and that is just DEADLY!
Posted by Andy | 01. Sep, 2007, 12:14 amIf there aint blood in the case, it’s not a pc, simple as that
Oh and from having no overtime, I’ve just clocked up a 25 hour shift on a saturday/sunday……….
The boss aint gonna like that (yipee)….
Posted by Ashleigh | 02. Sep, 2007, 7:26 pmCaptain – I never thought of that; DNA coding your machine is a great idea. Imagine if it got nicked “yep, that’s mine officer, that’s a piece of my lower intestine right there.”
Monkey – Has to be human, has to come from the owner of the PC. I don’t make the rules.
Andy – Computers are, without doubt, a menace.
Ashleigh – Nice work
Posted by Dan | 06. Sep, 2007, 8:59 amHaving seen how Nepal airlines fixed their plane problems, I wonder if there may be something in this blood letting idea.
Sacrificing things to fix computers could be a way forward.
Maybe a small cut for a phone or i-Pod. Broken arm for a desktop. Black eye for a monitor.
You could even sacrifice a virgin or three for an impressive server of piece of kit ….
Posted by Andy | 06. Sep, 2007, 5:32 pm