Another One Bytes the Dust

Last Friday, I was majorly annoyed to discover that my secondary computer had stopped responding. Everything would power up, but I couldn’t even complete the POST to the point of getting a reassuring beep.

So, I did what most people I know do…I called me to see if I could tell me what was wrong. After a few hours of card and module swapping, the conclusion was reached that the computer was broken. While the motherboard, and possibly a single capacitor on the motherboard, was suspect, there was no definitive signs than any one thing wasn’t working. The only constant was that upon pressing the power button, the computer behaved in exactly the same way every time.

I was disappointed. Normally I’d just switch out the motherboard with the same model (I run Windows 2000, and it’s finicky about motherboard swaps until it’s with exactly the same model); unfortunately, this is not a young machine. In fact, two and a half years ago, I had a component on the motherboard burn out on me in this same computer (and I do mean burn out…there was melting and black smoke trails and other fun stuff). The computer was showing its age even then when my only option was to buy one of the few motherboards still available directly from the company (and it was a refurbished one, at that).

Realistically, getting a new machine was my only option. Unfortunately, given my current meager state of employment, affording a new computer is a bit of a strain. Still…what must be done must be done.

I’ve built all of my computers for the past dozen or so years. Once you have the components on hand, it’s really not a big deal. The best part is that you can build a really stable system with the bits and pieces that you want. The problem is one of research. If you aren’t building systems all the time, it’s easy for the state of the art to move ahead a little more than you were expecting. That means a lot of research to find good, reliable components. Usually I spend several months researching exactly what I want. This time, I didn’t feel like I had the luxury of time. (You can’t short-change the research phase unless you like to gamble).

I took the easy way out and customized a Dell. Even though money is tight in the short term, I still can’t sacrifice quality for economy. Experience has shown that it ends up costing more than if you’d just gotten something good to begin with. That being the case, the base system ended up being a Dell XPS system. I bumped up the CPU and memory, dropped the monitor, swapped in XP Pro ($$$) instead of Vista (I want the computer to actually work, after all), and did a few minor additional tweaks. I’m hoping it will arrive by the end of next week. I’ll then start the process of re-purposing my computers. My primary machine will transition to being my secondary PC, while the new computer will slowly become my primary system. I own tons of software, and it all takes time to install and configure even a fraction of it. Plus, I still have to deal with the two drives in the secondary machine that still have a lot of bits written to them.

Normally I’m almost giddy when it’s new computer time, but this just happened during a snarky budget period. I’ll get through it, but I’m more stressed about the expense than I am happy about the new system. When I see the jacked-up speed compared to what I’ve been using, maybe I’ll feel better.