The Jade King
Another excuse to use the “chess” tag. Click for biggie size.
So over the weekend my main computer died. It was an eMachines comp which has actually served quite well for the last 3 years. I was trying to upgrade the graphics card, which required a power upgrade from a measly 300W.
What I didn’t know is that eMachines comps often require a proprietary power supply. To my sorrow, I only deduced this after buying one, returning and swapping for another one, having that not work and finally testing an old power supply I knew was problem-free.
By that time, the motherboard was fried, so I had little choice but to get a new motherboard and CPU. Having little time to do research, I took one of Fry’s mid-priced combo deals, one which included the odd triple-core processor Phenom X3. I’d probably have been better off with one of Intel’s dual-core offerings. (FYI, few programs today take advantage of more than two cores. Oddy, I actually have at least one.)
The final stroke was the RAM. After spending a bit trying to shove my original memory sticks in the new motherboard, it dawned on me to take a look at what types of memory I was dealing with. Sure enough, I was trying to shove DDR sticks into DDR2 slots.
After 4 trips to Fry’s, 3 to Best Buy, and 1 to a local shop, I finally had a working system again.
It was a very aggravating day.
“trying to shove my original memory sticks into the motherboard….”
i could be high on half a bottle of zinfandel but i am giggling endlessly.
Reply to annieannie, were you sharing the zinfandel with Donnie whilst he was trying to shove DDRs into DDR2 slots?
HAHAHAHAH. Man. I’m sorry D. Sounds like we’ll have to do dinner sometime, yeah?
Reply to Sworn Enemy :)Ouch. Yep, DDR vs DDR-2 and then there are speeds like 667, 800, etc to worry about. Part of me really wants to build a new super-powered PC for Rybka 3. But my better half’s frugal and reminds me that’s not how you get better at chess!
Reply to likesforestsLOL
This happened to me last year. My computer died and I went to get a new motherboard and chip etc…
It took me three trips to realize that there was nothing wrong with the board, but I was actually not plugging something in correctly because, well this kind of connection didn’t exist 3 years ago when I built my last computer.
Reply to wangThans to all that exercise (walking to the store(s) you may now eat an extra sweet, sugarcoated, food. So go out and buy yourself the biggest ice-cream you can find, add extra toppings and sauce to celebrate the new Egg-plant eueueueueh Egg-computer.
Reply to chesstigerI tried using that as a pick-up line: “Hey, baby, I want to shove my memory stick in your motherboard!”
It didn’t work too good.
Reply to The MascotNice looking jade king.
Reply to Polly@Annie: You’re high
@Sworn Enemy: No, but the Zinfadel would have reduced the frustration level considerably.
And STANK!
@Likesforests: The costs of the upgrade will be offset by the extra tournament money you’ll win studying with a more powerful Rybka.
@Chesstiger: In the United States, we drive!
(Actually, I do like to walk, but the stores are too distant to walk to in a reasonable amount of time.)
@Mascot: Same as your other lines. What’s new?
@Polly: Thanks! Although I think the thumbnail’s better; it’s a little too empty full-sized. And the shadow maybe should be slightly stronger.
Reply to DonnieYour experience makes me feel better about just skipping all the DIY PC repair steps when my eMachine died two weeks ago and just buying a new computer.
Reply to Kate Dino