Ryan
Chasing greatness

So my final semester is about half over.  My computer decided to have a meltdown this go round.  Apparently some time ago the fan on my video card stopped working.  I put this about a year ago.  I wasn’t doing anything but using Windows, so it kept on working fine.

Then I decided to play a game, and all hell broke loose.  The computer started locking up, restarting, and generally making me wanna scream.  I found out the video card was hosed, so I replaced it.  I thought everything would be happy again, but it wasn’t.  The damn thing just started restarting all day long.

Then I thought I had a weird virus or some such, so I formatted and reinstalled Windows.  No backups.  I don’t really keep anything important on my computer because I don’t trust its loyalty.  Still kept restarting.  So I figure it was getting too hot, and it was.

I buy some more fans, and that helped for a few days, then the temperature shot back up through the roof.  So then I had to go buy a new heat sink setup for my processor.  Apparently my computer is so damn ancient that nobody really carries them anymore, so I had to buy a clearance one for $1.  I’ll never be able to buy a computer part in change again.  I take this thing home, and it’s missing a piece that makes it connect to the motherboard.  I go and bitch out awkward nerd salesman by saying something like, “I don’t care that its a dollar, why the hell are you selling something that can’t possibly work!”  His only response was, “Thats why its a dollar.”  He gave me the missing part for free.  I bought another $1 heat sink as well, because these things are like tiny Egyptian pyramids in your case, and they’re not really made to fit anywhere.

I start trying to put the son of a bitch on, and sure enough its so big it doesn’t fit without knocking other components.  So I have to rip some of the aluminum off to make it fit.  I get it trimmed to size and start trying to put the bastard on.  Now for those of you who don’t know, there’s this thermal paste that ensures that the heat gets to the heat sink.  If you don’t have it, your computer will be too hot.  It took so much work getting the thing in the computer that the paste was rubbed off everywhere but where it needed to go.  Glad I bought the second heat sink.  That one went in much easier after I had screwed up the first one.  Everything is working again, for now.

Otherwise classes are good, but my Senior Design teacher is stressing me and my project team out.  She is an English major, and knows nothing about computer science.  This is a problem because she requires a lot of documentation, and not everything warrants a lot of documentation.  Her way of dealing with that situation isn’t to try to understand, but to say we’re wrong and grade us down.

I have headaches every day because of her.  This has never happened before.

October 7th, 2007 at 6:45 pm by rl

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