New Computer Joy Part 2 (AKA Don’t Try This At Home), Shirin Restaurant, And Guitar Hero Addictions
No quick-hitters today!
- So after finishing the OS install on my new computer, I had to install my Syba PCI Controller card to use with my two old IDE drives. Naturally, something this simple was going to cause me problems. For some reason, I could not properly insert the card into the PCI slot. It appeared that the PCI slot was about 1mm too far to the right on the card.
(Tangent: Normally, when this happens, it’s because the motherboard isn’t attached properly to the chassis; the tip of the PCI bracket either doesn’t fit in snugly to the recessed area of the case [because the board is too far from the left edge of the case], or it can’t go in to the recessed area at all [because the board is too close to the left edge]. Neither was the case here.)
I could not, for the life of me, figure out why the card wouldn’t go into either of the two PCI slots on my Gigabyte motherboard. It took about ten minutes to finally finesse the card into one of the slots. That’s when I realized that the card was blocking the floppy disc connector on the board. I decided to move the card to the other PCI slot, but I could not remove the controller card! I gently rocked the card back and forth, and the left-end of the card popped out easily. The right side of the card would not budge, though, no matter how gently I tried removing the card.
(Warning: Do not try this at home!)
Out of sheer frustration, and with a forceful tug, I ripped the card out of the socket. I surveyed the damage: a few scratches on the chassis, and a bit of cosmetic damage on the PCI connector on the card itself. I then attempted to re-insert the card into the other PCI slot, and it went in without much force at all. I removed the card and tried inserting the card in the original PCI slot, and it also went in without a hitch. I moved it back to the second slot, connected my IDE drives, fired up the computer (expecting the PCI card to blow up because of the abuse), and it worked perfectly. I had to do some re-partitioning, reformatting, and restoring my backed-up files (My Docs, e.g.).
So now I have ~ 500GB of storage space. Time to fill it all up!
(BTW, for all you AMD-haters out there–and you know who you are–my CPU temps are about 40C idle. On my old P4–with a superior cooler, by the way–I hit 43C idle. So there :P)
(Tangent: Let’s conveniently ignore all the other variables that changed between my old build and this new one: different PSU, case fans spinning faster, etc.)
(Tangent: Everyone go spam Hank’s blog and tell him to build a new computer!)
No, I don’t plan on doing any overclocking. One of these days, I’ll run a few benchmarks on the system.
- Shirin Restaurant was awesome! Both sisters of mine, one friend, and I swung by Thursday night, and we ordered some baked eggplant dish, the chicken tenderloin plate, and the Shirin Special beef plate: two types of rice, filet mignon chunks, ground beef, and salmon. I am a huge fan of the chicken tenderloin, and I can’t help but love filet mignon, but the salmon might have been the best part! It was so incredibly juicy and tender.
(I could picture my loyal readers–all none of you–drooling right now. I know I am.)
The bill came out to a perfectly reasonable $50 or so, and we still had tons of leftovers. One gripe: I wanted the filet mignon to be about medium, and it came out like shoe leather. Oh well.
- After Shirin, the four of us returned to my condo, and that’s when my sister’s friend spotted my PS2 and my copy of Guitar Hero Encore. The next two hours were spent tutoring the three of them on the nuances of playing Guitar Hero…on easy mode. Then my oldest sister asks if she can borrow the console to (her words, not mine) “rock out.” I said yes, amid protests from the younger sister, who also got addicted to the game.
(In fact, she stayed up until 2:30AM Friday night/Saturday morning, beating the game on easy, and starting normal mode. She is normally asleep by 10PM…)
So now I gotta get ready to go home–family function–and I have to pack up the PS2. I think I’ll swing by on Monday to pick it back up 
Next time: more Mike Vick thoughts!
(I could picture my loyal readers–all none of you–drooling right now. I know I am.)
especially since i just woke up and am hungry. grrrr.
I will neither confirm nor deny that I wrote this blog entry, knowing that you would wake up, read this, and feel hungrier.
Lol @ “go spam Hank’s blog”
BTW, I’m joining Krunk in harboring contempt for you and your sumptuous feast, seeing as how tonight I’ll probably be scarfing a chicken sandwich from Arby’s.