Half A Cup of Coffee: 30 September 2004 Refill
*slosh*
it's me again! the long absence was mostly due to my malfunctioning computer, and last night i FINALLY FINALLY found out wat's wrong with the poor fellow. here's a quick recap of the last two weeks:
a) 2 weeks ago (d-day): left computer on for 16 hours, then played wolfenstein 3d. it crashed as the screen corrupted horribly. restart computer and windows was corrupted as well.
b) d-day + 1: windows back to normal. all games disabled. decided to uninstall all my games since i couldn't play them... much to the delight of carol and my mum. haha! surprisingly the lack of games caused me to finish my work way ahead of time... microp, finance, analogue all got extra attention coz i was bored.
c) d-day + 2-3: computer behaving erratically, with random restarts. unable to finish certain programs, especially uninstallers. suspect that something was seriously wrong when I couldn't install ICQ.
d) d-day + 4: bought new SDRAM, in case the RAM is damaged. even if it wasn't, i needed more RAM eventually... found 256MB for RM150, sold by a guy called AGM119Penguin. decent price.. and my wallet bled dry. cash transfusion from mum! thanks mum.
e) d-day + 4 and a few hours: with the new RAM, programs could be installed and uninstalled. yippie! then tried the sims 2... was fine too! yippie... not. crashed again after half an hour. same screen corruption. ok, so it's not just the RAM?
f) d-day + 1 week: erratic computer behaviour throughout. only seems to work when i'm doing work on the computer. even mirc seems to crash randomly.
g) d-day + 2 weeks: suspecting 3D card, asked around for the price. but always felt that i shouldn't buy... unlike RAM, an extra 3d card would be useless if it wasn't the problem. there was always a little voice that said i should identify the problem first. aaron's computer went kaput so borrowed his card to test. savage ran fine for an hour. but still.. something was wrong with the picture... FX 5700 is rock solid usually.
h) Just Last Night: ran the computer with the computer casing open and saw something that shocked my socks off. the little fan in the middle of the motherboard stopped spinning whenever the temperature rose. YARGH! had a closer look and saw that the power cable for that motherboard fan was stuck against the heatsink of the processor. YARGH TIMES TWO! moved the poor scorched cable (insulating was intact, no signs of melting). left the computer to cool. and hey managed to play both savage AND the sims 2. hopefully no permanent damage was done...
Diagnosis (in retrospect):
Turned out the poor computer was having a raging fever everytime i tried to run games. Screen corruption wasn't due to a faulty card after all (PHEW), rather, the motherboard was shutting itself down due to the excess heat with the card running. So it was just a heat problem, and so far things are fine. THANK GOD! (maybe he wants me to study more and pay less attention to the computer... hehe. he's always doing things to make u think, eh?) Buying extra fans later tonight to make sure the computer stays cool.
So there u have it! a great adventure ;)
btw, i found out my mum reads this. so uh, HEY MUM WASSUP! *hug* haha. erm. i don't usually hug my mum, but yeah kinda thankful for the extra financial support (else i would have had to eat grass) and the useful computer advice ("leave it alone and go to sleep"). :P so uh thanks mum. haha! thanks dad too, in case he feels left out. coz i know he's concerned deep inside.. ;)
right. just read rom's blog. hope he'll do fine in manchester!! here's to let him know that we're all back here cheering for the budding architect, water-in-the-brains and all... :) hehehe....
well that's it. gotta get back to work.. EMT test tomorrow. study study.
*slosh*
nerdook
it's me again! the long absence was mostly due to my malfunctioning computer, and last night i FINALLY FINALLY found out wat's wrong with the poor fellow. here's a quick recap of the last two weeks:
a) 2 weeks ago (d-day): left computer on for 16 hours, then played wolfenstein 3d. it crashed as the screen corrupted horribly. restart computer and windows was corrupted as well.
b) d-day + 1: windows back to normal. all games disabled. decided to uninstall all my games since i couldn't play them... much to the delight of carol and my mum. haha! surprisingly the lack of games caused me to finish my work way ahead of time... microp, finance, analogue all got extra attention coz i was bored.
c) d-day + 2-3: computer behaving erratically, with random restarts. unable to finish certain programs, especially uninstallers. suspect that something was seriously wrong when I couldn't install ICQ.
d) d-day + 4: bought new SDRAM, in case the RAM is damaged. even if it wasn't, i needed more RAM eventually... found 256MB for RM150, sold by a guy called AGM119Penguin. decent price.. and my wallet bled dry. cash transfusion from mum! thanks mum.
e) d-day + 4 and a few hours: with the new RAM, programs could be installed and uninstalled. yippie! then tried the sims 2... was fine too! yippie... not. crashed again after half an hour. same screen corruption. ok, so it's not just the RAM?
f) d-day + 1 week: erratic computer behaviour throughout. only seems to work when i'm doing work on the computer. even mirc seems to crash randomly.
g) d-day + 2 weeks: suspecting 3D card, asked around for the price. but always felt that i shouldn't buy... unlike RAM, an extra 3d card would be useless if it wasn't the problem. there was always a little voice that said i should identify the problem first. aaron's computer went kaput so borrowed his card to test. savage ran fine for an hour. but still.. something was wrong with the picture... FX 5700 is rock solid usually.
h) Just Last Night: ran the computer with the computer casing open and saw something that shocked my socks off. the little fan in the middle of the motherboard stopped spinning whenever the temperature rose. YARGH! had a closer look and saw that the power cable for that motherboard fan was stuck against the heatsink of the processor. YARGH TIMES TWO! moved the poor scorched cable (insulating was intact, no signs of melting). left the computer to cool. and hey managed to play both savage AND the sims 2. hopefully no permanent damage was done...
Diagnosis (in retrospect):
Turned out the poor computer was having a raging fever everytime i tried to run games. Screen corruption wasn't due to a faulty card after all (PHEW), rather, the motherboard was shutting itself down due to the excess heat with the card running. So it was just a heat problem, and so far things are fine. THANK GOD! (maybe he wants me to study more and pay less attention to the computer... hehe. he's always doing things to make u think, eh?) Buying extra fans later tonight to make sure the computer stays cool.
So there u have it! a great adventure ;)
btw, i found out my mum reads this. so uh, HEY MUM WASSUP! *hug* haha. erm. i don't usually hug my mum, but yeah kinda thankful for the extra financial support (else i would have had to eat grass) and the useful computer advice ("leave it alone and go to sleep"). :P so uh thanks mum. haha! thanks dad too, in case he feels left out. coz i know he's concerned deep inside.. ;)
right. just read rom's blog. hope he'll do fine in manchester!! here's to let him know that we're all back here cheering for the budding architect, water-in-the-brains and all... :) hehehe....
well that's it. gotta get back to work.. EMT test tomorrow. study study.
*slosh*
nerdook
coffee served by nerdook at 9:31 AM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home