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Death of the PC, birth of Tek
My mission this weekend was the try and fix the PC. I just want a machine to play games. Is that so much to ask? I got a new video card - an NVidia GeForce FX 5200 with 128 MB of DDR VRAM on it, and I wanted to use it so much... but the machine refused to work.
New processors to put on chip's board (2 CPUs: Pentium III 1GHz), two heatsinks = $274.96
Still no joy. Locks before the 'start' button appears. Repeatedly. Lots of troubleshooting.
New motherboard to replace chip's board which didn't seem to support the processors = $129.99
(((I think they charged me for other things I didn't buy on that occasion...)))
Still had no luck (windows installs now, but locks up immediately) until I tried loading windows ME, installing the MB drivers, but not installing the video card drivers - using an old old matrox video card for PCI - and patched the HELL out of windows before I tried anything. That finally worked.
Conclusion: I have finally hit the watershed point. The motherboard, processors and everything are pushing the limits of a 5-year old operating system (98se - 3 years in the case of ME) and in order to just play games, I will be forced to do the thing I hate and dread.
Upgrade to Windows XP.
As it currently stands (with ME) I have a working PC, but I can't play games - the video card is too old to support it. I still don't understand why the NVidia card drivers (for both my new and old NVidia AGP cards) cause the OS to become unstable and die. More testing is required. However, one thing is for certain. I've replaced almost all the major components of the machine over this project - Hard drive, CPUs, Motherboard, video card, sound card - so it's essentially a new machine now. I have removed the name 'ARIEL' from it, and was thinking of calling it 'TAK' from Invader Zim, but then I had a revelation. Not 'Tak' - 'Tek', in reference to the queen of the unicorns and Jan's mate from the Firebringer trilogy.
TEK
===
Processor: Pentium III 1GHz (2 CPUs)
Motherboard: TYAN Tiger 2507 running at 133 Clock speed
RAM: 1 GB PC133 SDRAM (in four 256 MB units)
Video Card: Matrox Millenium (TEMPORARY)
HD1: 40 GB IBM
HD2: Zip 100 IDE
Ethernet: DLink 10/100 full duplex
Sound: Soundblaster PCI128
CDROM1: CDROM 52X
CDROM2: CDRW 24x4x
Current OS: Windows ME
Last night I talked to a ex-reporter friend Beth Mitchrony from Martinez about the book Leva and I have been struggling over. She wouldn't even look at it, citing my works from 2-3 years ago, stating I needed a refresher course in style. Needless to say I was hurt. Kenny Mitchroney (comicbooks and storyboarder) says that Leva and I need an agent - that no one will take us seriously until we do. In the meantime his ex-roomie Steve Boyett fired his agent when his agent read Steve's new book and went 'I don't get it...' We won't ask him about agents right now.
I am bound and determined to print this book, even if collecting reject letters becomes a hobby.
In good news, we signed for the new car yesterday.
In the meantime, there's newer MV writing getting posted (still very rough and mostly dialog).
I'm now a paid honest livejournal user now.
I'm off to work now, making $200 less money a week than I was at Brocade...
New processors to put on chip's board (2 CPUs: Pentium III 1GHz), two heatsinks = $274.96
Still no joy. Locks before the 'start' button appears. Repeatedly. Lots of troubleshooting.
New motherboard to replace chip's board which didn't seem to support the processors = $129.99
(((I think they charged me for other things I didn't buy on that occasion...)))
Still had no luck (windows installs now, but locks up immediately) until I tried loading windows ME, installing the MB drivers, but not installing the video card drivers - using an old old matrox video card for PCI - and patched the HELL out of windows before I tried anything. That finally worked.
Conclusion: I have finally hit the watershed point. The motherboard, processors and everything are pushing the limits of a 5-year old operating system (98se - 3 years in the case of ME) and in order to just play games, I will be forced to do the thing I hate and dread.
Upgrade to Windows XP.
As it currently stands (with ME) I have a working PC, but I can't play games - the video card is too old to support it. I still don't understand why the NVidia card drivers (for both my new and old NVidia AGP cards) cause the OS to become unstable and die. More testing is required. However, one thing is for certain. I've replaced almost all the major components of the machine over this project - Hard drive, CPUs, Motherboard, video card, sound card - so it's essentially a new machine now. I have removed the name 'ARIEL' from it, and was thinking of calling it 'TAK' from Invader Zim, but then I had a revelation. Not 'Tak' - 'Tek', in reference to the queen of the unicorns and Jan's mate from the Firebringer trilogy.
TEK
===
Processor: Pentium III 1GHz (2 CPUs)
Motherboard: TYAN Tiger 2507 running at 133 Clock speed
RAM: 1 GB PC133 SDRAM (in four 256 MB units)
Video Card: Matrox Millenium (TEMPORARY)
HD1: 40 GB IBM
HD2: Zip 100 IDE
Ethernet: DLink 10/100 full duplex
Sound: Soundblaster PCI128
CDROM1: CDROM 52X
CDROM2: CDRW 24x4x
Current OS: Windows ME
Last night I talked to a ex-reporter friend Beth Mitchrony from Martinez about the book Leva and I have been struggling over. She wouldn't even look at it, citing my works from 2-3 years ago, stating I needed a refresher course in style. Needless to say I was hurt. Kenny Mitchroney (comicbooks and storyboarder) says that Leva and I need an agent - that no one will take us seriously until we do. In the meantime his ex-roomie Steve Boyett fired his agent when his agent read Steve's new book and went 'I don't get it...' We won't ask him about agents right now.
I am bound and determined to print this book, even if collecting reject letters becomes a hobby.
In good news, we signed for the new car yesterday.
In the meantime, there's newer MV writing getting posted (still very rough and mostly dialog).
I'm now a paid honest livejournal user now.
I'm off to work now, making $200 less money a week than I was at Brocade...