Tag: technical difficulty

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Pieces

My TV is in pieces and I still can’t get at the god damn control board. From the pictures I’ve seen of the other similar models, it’s like this thing is purposefully designed to be impossible to get at. I would pretty much have to remove every single damn panel, cable, plug and screw to get the chassis out. And even then, getting the chassis open to get at the board would be no picnic.

After reading more forums, it seems like this might be even deeper than the four big capacitors, there’s stories of
every single capacitor going bad on this line.

I think I’m going to just put it back together and call Mitsubishi and give them hell like I’ve never given hell before. This TV is only three years old, barely out of warranty (which I probably voided when I opened up the back anyway). TVs should last more than three years. We didn’t even watch it that much.

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[Title]

[Obligatory “I’m not dead, I’m just bored” post]

Got my Powerbook back, with no cost to me. Yay AppleCare.

We had to mail off our XBox 360, stupid red rings of death. So no DMC4 for Hung and no Lost Odyssey for me (which I haven’t even bought because it came out after the rings showed up). We did, of course, get Smash Bros. I keep forgetting to look up the friend code when I’m at home, though.

I finally used up my 7 day trial of Lord of the Rings Online. It took a bit to get into it, but I think it could have been a game I could play, if I knew anyone else who played and I had the free time to do so. It has a system that is dangerous for obsessive compulsive collectors: the Deed system. They’re like quests in WoW that you don’t have to sign up for, and when you’re done you get a slight upgrade to your character; cosmetic or functional. So you have to go around and do things like kill 60 spiders in the Bree-lands or visit all nine ruins in the Shire, or use a certain ability 350 times, and each one is tracked separately. It’s a smart way to keep people playing and to give them a real incentive to do things instead of just grinding through monsters for experience points. All in all, though, the game felt like a less-polished version of WoW, but with hobbits.

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When it rains, it pours

A new chapter of computer troubles begins:

My PowerBook seems to be having memory issues. Hopefully buying a replacement DIMM will fix the issue, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see.

Edit: It may not necessarily be memory issues, I have two DIMMs, and removing them one at a time didn’t fix the problem…

*HEADDESK*
*HEADDESK*
*HEADDESK*

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Like I needed another computer…

So, this is a bit late, but I finally did it. I know I’ve been talking about it and getting mocked about it, but I finally got another computer up and running right next to my other computer.

The last bit I needed was a second monitor. Since the LCD I’d been using before was my old and non-standard SGI flat panel, I ran into a unique problem. The SGI’s always had weird issues with DVI input, but when I bought a new, inexpensive (yet slightly more powerful than the top-of-the-line card I had bought a few years ago) video card, it just refused to work properly at high resolutions. I was planning on just using an old monitor for the second computer, but since my primary monitor wasn’t working with my primary machine, it was time to upgrade.

I ended up getting a Gateway FPD2275W, because I wanted to get something widescreen that also took video in. This also had the added benefit of component in, in addition to the composite, S-Video, VGA and DVI. It’s very nice and does things like picture-in-picture and autoselecting inputs.

The other component I needed for the other computer was a hard drive, so when I was at Fry’s I also bought an inexpensive, small hard drive. But when I put it into the new computer (with the older motherboard), it refused to recognize it…

And this is where things start to go horribly wrong…

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So I finally took the last step to transfering hamusutaa.com from Yahoo! Domains to Dreamhost.com. This meant I could easily use their own hosting solutions for hamusutaa.com (which is my website I never update and my email). I spent a little time getting everything set up before the transfer, then got everything working as far as I can tell on the other end. Email is always a bit complicated, as there are weirdnesses with IMAP and webmail and pine and procmail and the web configuration all interacting. I can send myself email and it shows up, I just haven’t received anything on my mailing lists to see if they’re filtering right.

So if you send me an email and I don’t respond, it might be because I never got it.

Also, I have finished The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I do not own a Wii. I borrowed ‘s. Now I don’t have to rush out and be all crazy to get one because I was dying to play Zelda, I can wait until January when things are saner. Never again will I try to get “the thing that everyone wants for Christmas this year.” In. Sanity.

And in FFXI news:

My Paladin hit 75, very little buffer, and I still have some skills to cap. Except:

The last bit of sword skill I’ll ever get. And the last bit of shield is not too far behind. And of course, I have to work on all the stupid skills like Polearm, which are a very low rating for Paladin but are still there. I did get this lovely nugget, though:

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Can it be? A PC?

New CPU/Case Fan. New memory. It runs hot, but it runs and it’s not blazing. (And supposedly, according the the thermal paste manufacturer’s website, it takes a while for it to fully bond blah blah blah should get a bit cooler over time.) I also managed to get a fairly decent boost in benchmark scores, so it was actually worth it. Well, maybe not totally worth it, but at least it wasn’t for naught.

I got my video and audio drivers, got windows updated and patched and crap.

Now, the ever so fun process of reinstalling FFXI.

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Day two without a PC… or car

Took my car in to have its brakes checked, turns out they needed to order new rotors, so I was without car today. Not having the forethought to go to Fry’s before the mechanic, I had to wait for someone to take me to Fry’s to buy thermal paste. That someone turned out to be Albert.

I put way too much on the first time, had to remove it and try again. I succeeded in lowering the operating temperature of the CPU by 10C, it runs around 70C now, which is still hot, but not blistering.

I’ll give you one guess as to whether or not that fixed my problem.

You’re right! It didn’t! Still got BSoDs when trying to install Windows. So I decided to see if I could just take the damn thing and put it in my old case, so I double checked to see if my old motherboard could support it. I went and checked and… it couldn’t. Which put up a flag in my head. If my old processor works in both, and the new one isn’t supported by the old motherboard, they might have a different front side bus speed. Yes, I checked, the new processor is supported by my current motherboard… which leads me to my next little revelation.

I came across the FAQ for my shuttle model and it gave an example of a system they used for benchmark testing. Note, the processor they used is the exact one I’m trying to put in… so I’m now certain that’s not the problem. I then noted that the memory they were using is DDR400. I currently have DDR333. You know what this means, right?

That’s right! It means another trip to Fry’s to spend more money!

At least now, if this all works, I’ll have a second processor, duplicate memory, and an old motherboard known to support both of them. I’m just a hard drive and a video card away from a second PC. Okay, technically a third PC… but the Linux machine doesn’t count. (It can’t play FFXI.)

Hopefully the mechanic calls me tomorrow morning like he expects and I can get my car back. Ironically, I’ll be spending the same amount on new brakes as I’ll probably be spending on new memory.

I also managed to watch The Village on cable just now. I totally called the ending, although not as early as I’d have liked to feel totally intellectually superior.

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Monday: “It’s been a while and my graphic card’s performance is starting to get out of date.”

Tuesday: Go to Fry’s. Buy new video card. Install new video card. Video card sort of works. (Sometimes the screen goes blank and sometimes the sync isn’t working) Video card also doesn’t give any performance increase based on benchmark program. Video card is returned to Fry’s, better video card is purchased. Better video card is installed. Better video card gives a piddly 10% increase, and also has line noise on the DVI port. Better video card is removed, old video card reinstalled.

Wednesday: Second video card is returned to Fry’s. New processor is purchased instead. New processor is installed.

All hell breaks loose. Explorer.exe starts crashing whenever I try to do anything. Might be a BIOS problem. Check BIOS. Nothing there to change. Might be a windows problem. Reinstall Windows. Get the oh-so-fun BSoD during Windows install. (a.k.a. hello, this is a hardware problem, dumbass!)

I skipped a few of the snafus and brainfarts in that last part, but the net result is still the same. I have a computer that worked, put a new processor in, and no longer worked right. And now I have a fresh install of Win2k on a freshly formatted hard drive, and it BSoDed during the install…. and trying again and that’s where I am.

Have I mentioned how much I hate Microsoft?

Update 9:39pm: The install seems to have frozen while trying to “Register components.” The hard drive is making noises like it’s working, but the bar hasn’t budged in 15 minutes. Going to try restarting, reformatting, and reinstalling again.

Update 10:33pm: A likely culprit has been found. Your friend and mine, heat. (The CPU was running at 79C… while sitting on the BIOS screen.) I need to buy thermal paste, and possibly a better cpu fan at Fry’s tomorrow. So no FFXI for me tonight. And no Half Life 2, which was what I did on Monday when I couldn’t play FFXI because of scheduled mantainence. I… don’t know what to do.

I think I’ll go eat dinner.

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We are not cool…

… because the air conditioner is out of commision. It was going bad, and the repairman had to take out the parts that weren’t really working, anyway. He said that when we were using it, it wasn’t cooling well (which pretty much fits the behaviour I was seeing) and that it was on the path of breaking down completely. So by Monday, I’ll be out a chunk of money, but have a working a/c again.

For the time being, I went to Fry’s and bought a floor fan, and now we have a breeze in the house. It’d work, except that I really don’t want to have to leave my bedroom door open to get it working.