So, I've been a bit scarce the last week or so. Here's the story.
On Friday evening, I was all set for Double XP weekend.
Then at around 8:30 Pm central, the thunderstorm rolled through. A very fast moving, unexpected thunderstorm with lots and LOTS of lightning. I had actually
checked the weather not an hour before and thought it would be clear, but this thing boiled up out of nowhere.
The first hint I had that something was amiss was when I heard a crack of thunder that made my windows rattle. No sound of rain (that came AFTER the
lightning), just the thunder. I tried to do a normal shutdown of my PC, but before I could really get started on it, another lightning bolt hit. This time even
closer to the house.
The lights flickered and I heard a very distinct *POP* at the back of my computer.
Aw crap...
I got it shut down and unplugged while the storm passed. (Which only took 10-15 minutes.) When I booted back up, my onboard network card wouldn't work.
Nothing I did could get me back online.
Next day on Saturday, I borrowed a friend's PCI network card that he wasn't using. Installed that. Computer recognized it no problem. But I still
couldn't get online. *SIGH* So something on the motherboard OTHER than just the network card was fried apparently. But it works fine in every regard
except getting online. I'd detail everything I tried to fix it, but frankly there's no need to regale you with every frustrating failure.
I called dad up and told him the bad news. Explained all the steps I'd taken. And asked if we could go shopping for a new motherboard for my PC. In
response, Dad instead said words to the effect of "Hell son, it's been 4 going on 5 years. Lets just get you a new computer outright. Call it early
Christmas."
In my defense, I did mention that we didn't HAVE to do it like that. That I could probably make a new motherboard work. But he insisted. I didn't
complain THAT much.
And it's not as if he doesn't get something out of it. His PC has been giving him problems for awhile. He wants my old computer in trade. And he uses a
USB WiFi to get online on the rare occasions that he feels the need. (And we confirmed that that option still works on my old computer). And I know this system
inside out practically. If anything DOES go wrong. I'm that much better able to help him cope.
SO! Now I have a new PC. An Acer with a Quad Core, 3/4 Terabyte drive and 8 Gigs of RAM. Been spending yesterday and today getting things transferred over with
the help of a friend's 1 Terabyte external drive. And installing various other things, like City of Heroes.
Holy Crap... If I thought CoH looked good on my old machine once I added the new video card, now.... JOYGASM...
The acid test today: Rikti Mothership raid with all graphics sliders at Maximum. Framerate never went to slide show. It dipped into the 18-22 FPS range from a
high of 60 FPS. So it REMAINS at just about movie quality even under that kind of load.
So yeah. I missed Double XP weekend. But Karma has been kind to me in return. ^_^
On Friday evening, I was all set for Double XP weekend.
Then at around 8:30 Pm central, the thunderstorm rolled through. A very fast moving, unexpected thunderstorm with lots and LOTS of lightning. I had actually
checked the weather not an hour before and thought it would be clear, but this thing boiled up out of nowhere.
The first hint I had that something was amiss was when I heard a crack of thunder that made my windows rattle. No sound of rain (that came AFTER the
lightning), just the thunder. I tried to do a normal shutdown of my PC, but before I could really get started on it, another lightning bolt hit. This time even
closer to the house.
The lights flickered and I heard a very distinct *POP* at the back of my computer.
Aw crap...
I got it shut down and unplugged while the storm passed. (Which only took 10-15 minutes.) When I booted back up, my onboard network card wouldn't work.
Nothing I did could get me back online.
Next day on Saturday, I borrowed a friend's PCI network card that he wasn't using. Installed that. Computer recognized it no problem. But I still
couldn't get online. *SIGH* So something on the motherboard OTHER than just the network card was fried apparently. But it works fine in every regard
except getting online. I'd detail everything I tried to fix it, but frankly there's no need to regale you with every frustrating failure.
I called dad up and told him the bad news. Explained all the steps I'd taken. And asked if we could go shopping for a new motherboard for my PC. In
response, Dad instead said words to the effect of "Hell son, it's been 4 going on 5 years. Lets just get you a new computer outright. Call it early
Christmas."
In my defense, I did mention that we didn't HAVE to do it like that. That I could probably make a new motherboard work. But he insisted. I didn't
complain THAT much.
And it's not as if he doesn't get something out of it. His PC has been giving him problems for awhile. He wants my old computer in trade. And he uses a
USB WiFi to get online on the rare occasions that he feels the need. (And we confirmed that that option still works on my old computer). And I know this system
inside out practically. If anything DOES go wrong. I'm that much better able to help him cope.
SO! Now I have a new PC. An Acer with a Quad Core, 3/4 Terabyte drive and 8 Gigs of RAM. Been spending yesterday and today getting things transferred over with
the help of a friend's 1 Terabyte external drive. And installing various other things, like City of Heroes.
Holy Crap... If I thought CoH looked good on my old machine once I added the new video card, now.... JOYGASM...
The acid test today: Rikti Mothership raid with all graphics sliders at Maximum. Framerate never went to slide show. It dipped into the 18-22 FPS range from a
high of 60 FPS. So it REMAINS at just about movie quality even under that kind of load.
So yeah. I missed Double XP weekend. But Karma has been kind to me in return. ^_^
