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That’s what happened to my crusty, not-so-trusty desktop computer on Tuesday.
Well, okay, maybe not exactly like that. I was at work when it went tits up, so the specifics of its ever so timely demise are unclear at press time.
In fact, I didn’t know a thing about it until my wife mentioned during dinner that something’s wrong. She’d tried to add some movies to the Blockbuster queue.
“I couldn’t get the stupid thing to turn on,” she said. Her relationship with computers is adversarial at best, dysfunctional at worst.
“There’s no reason for it to be off at all,” I said as I got up from a steaming plate of whatever it was we had for dinner that evening. I ignored her pleas to sit back down. My relationship with computers is, um, well… yeah.
Let’s just say my wife sometimes wonders if I’ll ever return from the Vortex of the Seventh Level of Mind Rotting Hell once I step into our home office.
Anyhoo, the smell in the office was distinct and immediate. Something had burned up during the day. To be honest, I wasn’t really surprised.
Last fall, I’d begun to try and save a seven year-old motherboard with a cobbling of pieces-parts… a dark stab at avoiding the inevitable expense of buying a new computer. It started with a new case and a RAM upgrade.
Then I added a new CPU cooling fan and power supply. Propping up the sad illusion, I also upgraded the video card and optical drive. Then came the USB 2.0 port PCI because the old board only supported USB 1.1. Imagine the suckage when loading up the iPod.
Of course, I did all this on the cheap. Newegg and I became best friends. It got to the point where the Web site would exclaim “Hello, lovah” when I’d sign in.
The new config ran like a top for about three months. But it got to be more than the old board — complete with a Duron 950 MHz processor — could handle. So, sometime on Tuesday, the old goat met its maker, sparing me the pain of seeing it die.
I’m touched.
My solution? I’m writing this post from my dining room table… new notebook… wireless router. I stepped into 2008.
At least my wife can see me now.
Tags: buying a new computer
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Nugroho Pratama 05.02.08 at 1:28 am
hehehe funny story……’
woman and makeover PC; it’s natural for them for not able to get along; poor PC, duron…….mine is athlon xp 1700, sometime i wonder if anyone out there using older processor than mine; xixixi…… anyway if i’m not mistaken those processor has problem with heat