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Posted by: Jonboy on Mar 10, 2008 - 07:30 PM
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I woke up on Sunday morning to find that my desktop computer had died. Adventure ensued.
My first clue that something was wrong was that my computer was off. I leave my computer on all the time, so I knew something was up. I hit the power button. The lights came on, the computer beeped, and then the computer turned off. All in under a second. For some reason, this made me think there was a problem in the power supply. So I got on my laptop and immediately checked the Sunday hours of the two closest stores that were likely to stock power supplies. Best Buy didn't open until 11AM. Circuit City, however, opens at 10AM. It was about 9:30 at the time, so I waited for a bit, and then I was off to Circuit City.
Sunday was also the release day for Super Smash Bros Brawl, so I was a little disappointed I didn't see any rabid Nintendo fans at Circuit City. I guess they all got their copies from Gamestop's midnight release ten hours earlier. Circuit didn't have much selection as far as power supplies were concerned. They had two power supplies in stock. The 350 watt power supply (40$) was out of stock. Remaining were two 500 watt power supplies, one at $70, and one at $90. I grabbed the cheaper one and got out of there.
Once I got home, I installed it and discovered conclusively that the problem was not the power supply. The problem was either the processor or the motherboard.
By this time, Best Buy was open, so I headed there (Best Buy is closer than Circuit City). When I got there I discovered that Best Buy doesn't carry motherboards or processors ><... To Circuit City! They don't have processors or motherboards either =[
The only positive thing about the trip is I ran into a guy I used to play Mechwarrior with at Circuit City.
Without a local parts supplier, I had to order from the Internet and wait for the parts to come in. I of course went to my go-to computer parts site, newegg.com. I spent about $300 for a motherboard and an AMD Athlon 64 X2. I've now officially stepped into the dual processor world!
Now I anxiously await the arrival of my parts. Needing something to do in the meantime, I decided to take on a long delayed project today: fixing my Linux Box. The hard drive died a few years ago, and I never got around to replacing it. I had even ordered a hard drive, and the unopened box had been sitting next to the computer for quite awhile. I opened my the computer up and found a massive amount of dust. Fortunately I had picked up a couple of those electronics cleaner spray stuff when I had been at Circuit City early. A few minutes later and the box was clean. Err... cleaner anyway... close enough for me I guess...
So now I opened the hard drive box and found a hard drive... but no SATA cable. I need a SATA cable, stat! Back to Best Buy/Circuit City. Neither of them had it. Determined to have my SATA cable today, I remember that there is a small computer shop in Lemoyne... Alliance Computers. I head there and the shopkeeper grabs me a SATA cable in about 30 seconds, and it only costs $5! Sweet! To celebrate, I bought a burrito at the Neato Burrito! next door. Delicious!
Unfortunately I quickly ran into another problem when I arrived home. Newer SATA drives use the new SATA power connector instead of the classic four prong power connector. I need an adapter. Boo! Having zero faith that Best Buy or Circuit City have the item, and not wanting to trek to Lemoyne again, I ordered the adapter from newegg.com.
So now I'm just trying to kill time until my parts arrive. And thus, this article.
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