Wednesday, September 22, 2004
*Kaboom*! My computer asplode!
I bought my computer at the beginning of my Junior year, which means it’s made it through just barely more than 4 years, which is about as much as can ask of any piece of hardware I own, save my chair, which still lets me sit in it 6 years later. My dad dislikes the fact that I still use the same one we bought for m y freshman year in college, and it is showing signs of wear. It’s on the list of things I intend to buy someday. I’ll get to that list later.
But the time has come to set that old, trusty piece of hardware aside. I know I have been talking about getting a new computer, but I was honestly hoping to wait until early next year. It seems like that’s not quite going to happen.
I’ve been seeing signs of wear for a few months now. Aside from just being slow, it’s been having some subtle issues under win XP. More recently, though, the hard drive has begun to wig out on me. There are times when the system simply doesn’t start up, it just hangs there and the hard drive makes these wicked noises like it’s trying to recover data by dragging the hard drive heads over the disks. “Gritch, gritch, gritch. Gritch, gritch, gritch.” You don’t let your computer do that for long before restarting, that’s for sure. And it does that repeatedly, too. The only remedy seems to be to start it up in safe mode, and even that takes nearly an hour to do. I assume it’s doing some sort of disk scan because the hard drive keeps spinning the whole time, and eventually it boots up, and then I can restart it in regular mode. But I can’t afford to be waiting for an hour+ every time I need to turn on my computer. I’ve got stuff to do, classes to watch.
And speaking of stuff to do…
The final insult, Internet Explorer doesn’t work anymore. If I try to navigate to *any* webpage beyond ‘about: blank’, it crashes IE instantaneously. I can still browse with Netscape, to a limited extent, but either Netscape is broken too, or Windows just hates it or something, because I can’t seem to do anything over a secure connection with Netscape, like log into watch my classes. That’s not a want, that’s a need. I need to watch my classes so I can get the bloody things finished. I’m not watching them for their riveting story, that’s for darn sure. (I wonder what’s going to happen to the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator *this* week?) I’ll be watching them on my work computer for now.
I’m convinced that I could probably fix the problems with enough effort. I suspect that formatting the hard drive would clean up some of the issues with boot up, and a re-installation of Windows would probably work as a stopgap measure against the IE problems, but really, I think it’s just time for a new computer. 4 years is a long time to own one machine. And I’ve been blabbing here about how getting one of these things is the first, vital step to the creation of my audio studio. Well, it’s time then.
What will become of my old machine? I’m actually a little excited about it, really, because even though I talk about ‘formatting a hard drive’ like it’s no big thing, the truth is that I’ve never done it. It’s not like the computer is completely worthless, it’s just old, I want a new one, and it doesn’t do what I need to any more. It still processes data. It still computes. I figure this is as good a chance as any to get some experience cleaning up a computer. I can rip out the hard drive and transfer all my important data to the new computer, put the drive back, and then format the beast and see what happens. Perhaps I’ll have two usable computers. I’d use the old one for browsing the internet, word processing, etc. Or, you know, also *not*, potentially. Why use an old computer when you have a new one? It’s just the opportunity is there. And if I totally botch the hard-drive formatting experiment? Eh, wasn’t an important computer anyway.
Or I could donate it to somewhere. I don’t’ know if there are places that could use a machine like mine, assuming I get it working *and* decide I don’t want it. Any civic-minded people out there know of a worthy cause?
Alternative number three is to recycle it. Not throw it away, recycle. There’s a lot of weird metal and other less-than-delicious components in a computer. Would you want that floating in your drinking water? I don’t think so. I know there are programs out there to recycle your computer because someone did a presentation on them in my public speaking class back at CalPoly. I retained the knowledge that such places exist; I just…forgot where those places are. I’m sure even minimal internet research will uncover them again.
But if there’s an ‘out with the old’, there has to be an ‘in with the new’, right? Here’s the new:
Dell Dimension 8400
3.4 Ghz Processor, 800 Mhz. FSB.
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x512M)
19 in 1901FP Dell Ultrasharp™ Digital Flat Panel Display
256MB Nvidia® GeForce 6800 GTO Graphics Card
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
16x DVD Drive
16x DVD+RW/+R w/ dbl layer Drive
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
Note the absolutely atrocious sound card option. That’s because it will eventually get replaced with an audio interface, recording-studio style. That’s thinking ahead, kids. I’m also going with a flat panel monitor, on the advice of many a person. Hopefully it matches the hype. Now do note that audio work requires a *lot* of hard disk space, and a *really fast* hard drive. I’m not entirely sure if just running it off the normal hard drive will be enough. Additional options include a second internal hard drive or an external fire wire drive. Those are upgrades, though, and hard drive addition/replacement I can do. *Very* plug and play. And yes I got a big, beefy graphics card. I am a gamer after all.
I did order from Dell. There was a very timely coincidence of special offers that matched my needs quite nicely. 15% off, free shipping, hard drive and DVD upgrades, and a student discount that my parents were quite keen to turn me on to; it ended up saving me about a hundred bucks. So I got pretty much exactly the computer I was hoping for, and saved some good money in the process. Derek was pretty quick to point out that it’s probably a little expensive for the ‘amount’ of computer I’m getting and he’s probably right. Whenever a Computer engineer tells me about a computer, I tend to listen. Just like you should listen if I tell you not to lick those two wires. I’ve been trained; I know what I’m talking about. But there are intangibles that I get too. For one, they build the darn thing for me and send me all the documentation and required software in a dandy little package. I know a thing or two about computer hardware, but there’s no way I’m going to build my own. It’s just worth it for me to pay to have someone else do that.
I put in the order earlier this morning. I would have done it last night…but my internet was broken. Pshaw!
So here’s a list of other miscellany that I need to buy at some point in time or another.
New computer chair
Battery backup/UPS/Surge protect
New printer (It’s functional, but as old as the chair)
Some good art
And, of course, what qualifies as ‘good art’ is a Blog entry unto itself.
Other than that, not terribly much new to report. I’m holding back on the ‘amazing dramatic occurrences’ until I can get my schedule better under control. I think I’ve got it, so the next thing to worry about are my finances. Perhaps I’ll talk about that next time, and perhaps I won’t.
Same bat time, same bat channel,
-N
I bought my computer at the beginning of my Junior year, which means it’s made it through just barely more than 4 years, which is about as much as can ask of any piece of hardware I own, save my chair, which still lets me sit in it 6 years later. My dad dislikes the fact that I still use the same one we bought for m y freshman year in college, and it is showing signs of wear. It’s on the list of things I intend to buy someday. I’ll get to that list later.
But the time has come to set that old, trusty piece of hardware aside. I know I have been talking about getting a new computer, but I was honestly hoping to wait until early next year. It seems like that’s not quite going to happen.
I’ve been seeing signs of wear for a few months now. Aside from just being slow, it’s been having some subtle issues under win XP. More recently, though, the hard drive has begun to wig out on me. There are times when the system simply doesn’t start up, it just hangs there and the hard drive makes these wicked noises like it’s trying to recover data by dragging the hard drive heads over the disks. “Gritch, gritch, gritch. Gritch, gritch, gritch.” You don’t let your computer do that for long before restarting, that’s for sure. And it does that repeatedly, too. The only remedy seems to be to start it up in safe mode, and even that takes nearly an hour to do. I assume it’s doing some sort of disk scan because the hard drive keeps spinning the whole time, and eventually it boots up, and then I can restart it in regular mode. But I can’t afford to be waiting for an hour+ every time I need to turn on my computer. I’ve got stuff to do, classes to watch.
And speaking of stuff to do…
The final insult, Internet Explorer doesn’t work anymore. If I try to navigate to *any* webpage beyond ‘about: blank’, it crashes IE instantaneously. I can still browse with Netscape, to a limited extent, but either Netscape is broken too, or Windows just hates it or something, because I can’t seem to do anything over a secure connection with Netscape, like log into watch my classes. That’s not a want, that’s a need. I need to watch my classes so I can get the bloody things finished. I’m not watching them for their riveting story, that’s for darn sure. (I wonder what’s going to happen to the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator *this* week?) I’ll be watching them on my work computer for now.
I’m convinced that I could probably fix the problems with enough effort. I suspect that formatting the hard drive would clean up some of the issues with boot up, and a re-installation of Windows would probably work as a stopgap measure against the IE problems, but really, I think it’s just time for a new computer. 4 years is a long time to own one machine. And I’ve been blabbing here about how getting one of these things is the first, vital step to the creation of my audio studio. Well, it’s time then.
What will become of my old machine? I’m actually a little excited about it, really, because even though I talk about ‘formatting a hard drive’ like it’s no big thing, the truth is that I’ve never done it. It’s not like the computer is completely worthless, it’s just old, I want a new one, and it doesn’t do what I need to any more. It still processes data. It still computes. I figure this is as good a chance as any to get some experience cleaning up a computer. I can rip out the hard drive and transfer all my important data to the new computer, put the drive back, and then format the beast and see what happens. Perhaps I’ll have two usable computers. I’d use the old one for browsing the internet, word processing, etc. Or, you know, also *not*, potentially. Why use an old computer when you have a new one? It’s just the opportunity is there. And if I totally botch the hard-drive formatting experiment? Eh, wasn’t an important computer anyway.
Or I could donate it to somewhere. I don’t’ know if there are places that could use a machine like mine, assuming I get it working *and* decide I don’t want it. Any civic-minded people out there know of a worthy cause?
Alternative number three is to recycle it. Not throw it away, recycle. There’s a lot of weird metal and other less-than-delicious components in a computer. Would you want that floating in your drinking water? I don’t think so. I know there are programs out there to recycle your computer because someone did a presentation on them in my public speaking class back at CalPoly. I retained the knowledge that such places exist; I just…forgot where those places are. I’m sure even minimal internet research will uncover them again.
But if there’s an ‘out with the old’, there has to be an ‘in with the new’, right? Here’s the new:
Dell Dimension 8400
3.4 Ghz Processor, 800 Mhz. FSB.
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x512M)
19 in 1901FP Dell Ultrasharp™ Digital Flat Panel Display
256MB Nvidia® GeForce 6800 GTO Graphics Card
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
16x DVD Drive
16x DVD+RW/+R w/ dbl layer Drive
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
Note the absolutely atrocious sound card option. That’s because it will eventually get replaced with an audio interface, recording-studio style. That’s thinking ahead, kids. I’m also going with a flat panel monitor, on the advice of many a person. Hopefully it matches the hype. Now do note that audio work requires a *lot* of hard disk space, and a *really fast* hard drive. I’m not entirely sure if just running it off the normal hard drive will be enough. Additional options include a second internal hard drive or an external fire wire drive. Those are upgrades, though, and hard drive addition/replacement I can do. *Very* plug and play. And yes I got a big, beefy graphics card. I am a gamer after all.
I did order from Dell. There was a very timely coincidence of special offers that matched my needs quite nicely. 15% off, free shipping, hard drive and DVD upgrades, and a student discount that my parents were quite keen to turn me on to; it ended up saving me about a hundred bucks. So I got pretty much exactly the computer I was hoping for, and saved some good money in the process. Derek was pretty quick to point out that it’s probably a little expensive for the ‘amount’ of computer I’m getting and he’s probably right. Whenever a Computer engineer tells me about a computer, I tend to listen. Just like you should listen if I tell you not to lick those two wires. I’ve been trained; I know what I’m talking about. But there are intangibles that I get too. For one, they build the darn thing for me and send me all the documentation and required software in a dandy little package. I know a thing or two about computer hardware, but there’s no way I’m going to build my own. It’s just worth it for me to pay to have someone else do that.
I put in the order earlier this morning. I would have done it last night…but my internet was broken. Pshaw!
So here’s a list of other miscellany that I need to buy at some point in time or another.
New computer chair
Battery backup/UPS/Surge protect
New printer (It’s functional, but as old as the chair)
Some good art
And, of course, what qualifies as ‘good art’ is a Blog entry unto itself.
Other than that, not terribly much new to report. I’m holding back on the ‘amazing dramatic occurrences’ until I can get my schedule better under control. I think I’ve got it, so the next thing to worry about are my finances. Perhaps I’ll talk about that next time, and perhaps I won’t.
Same bat time, same bat channel,
-N
Comments:
Post a Comment
