in the dark

the blog has been silent, or dark, for a few days now. these have been the days where i've been sitting half-under my computer desk, encircled by thumb screws and computer components with an anti-static strap attempted to slowly strangle my right hand. i've done just about everything i can think of to try and fix my pci problem without success. so right now things look a little bleak. my options are A) live with the problem or B) RMA the board to Abit and get a new, hopefully working, one. (This is the reason for the picture. I'll write a review of Abit's RMA service if i ever have to use it.)

Usually I wouldn't worry about an RMA but doing so involves removing my processor and therefore having to apply a new layer of thermal material. The setup i'm running now came with the thermal material already applied, basicallyidiot proof. I guess idiots don't get broken boards where they have to remount the heatsink and processor. In theory this should be a doable process. Thousands of 12-year-olds do it every day without a problem, so why can't I? My answer is, because i'm chicken shit.
Today's processors run at such a crazy speed that if you turn one on without a heatsink and thermal interface they will burn up in about 10 seconds. So if i screw this up, i no longer have a working computer. Here's a link to a good walkthrough on how to reapply thermal material.


looks easy enough right? Let's hope it never gets to that. i have another hard drive in transit right now (paid for with the RMA money from my sound card [because it didn't work because of the pci problem {and i would rather have another hard drive than a better sound card than what came on the board}]) so i can do a fresh install of the os without disrupting my current install - because once the wife starts using windows and customizing everything again she's not happy when all her pretty changes go away. With a second hard drive with a clean install of XP available i'll be able to run a gambit of tests and reformat at will. Eventually i even want to have a seperate gaming OS installed with none of the useless junk i usually install running in the background. this is probably overkill, but i like overkill.