A little more than a month after ordering the components for my computer, I now have all of the (presumably functional) components together again.<\/p>\n
I have the new case, the new CPU, the new fan and CPU fan, the new memory–and another new motherboard.<\/p>\n
The replacement motherboard finally arrived this Thursday.<\/p>\n
(Tip for NewEgg returns: take a picture of your item before you take everything out of its packaging so that you can remember exactly what needs to be returned should something go wrong. I missed the CPU fan mounting bracket on my first return attempt–and lost myself a couple weeks.)<\/p>\n
Since it had been a slightly-less-long day at the office, I decided I would go ahead and get the installation process started.<\/p>\n
I installed the motherboard, the CPU and CPU fan, the memory. I connected all the various power cords and the like. Then I pulled my “big” hard drive from my old (current) computer and got it and my (also recycled) DVD drive hooked up too. <\/p>\n
Now for the fun part.<\/p>\n
Powering up.<\/p>\n
Err, maybe I better flip the power switch on the back first.<\/p>\n
There we go.<\/p>\n
Punch my “del” key and examine my system. <\/p>\n
Adjust a couple settings, insert my Windows OS DVD, begin installing my OS.<\/p>\n
“Loading files”. A bar slides across the bottom of the screen. All good.<\/p>\n
“Starting Windows” the screen tells me–<\/p>\n
and then it freezes.<\/p>\n
I wait, because sometimes installing an operating system takes forever. I know that.<\/p>\n
But this doesn’t seem to be a productive wait.<\/p>\n
I turn off the computer, turn it on again. “Del”. Check my system again.<\/p>\n
Yes, I have it set to boot from the DVD drive.<\/p>\n
Start it up again.<\/p>\n
Same thing.<\/p>\n
Text my dad.<\/p>\n
Repeat. Multiple times.<\/p>\n
It’s getting late. Dad wonders if maybe my DVD is broken. He tells me to try the DVD in another computer and see if it gets past the “Starting Windows” screen.<\/p>\n
I move my DVD player (and the hard drive) back over to my current computer and try booting using the DVD. <\/p>\n
It doesn’t work–my current computer is 32-bit and my new one (and the corresponding Windows 7 OS) is 64-bit.<\/p>\n
I try the disc on every computer I can find until I get to one where it works. Okay, it’s not the disc. It’s something else.<\/p>\n
An idea grows in my mind. What if it’s my DVD drive<\/i>?<\/p>\n
I remembered reading something when I bought it about it being a great secondary<\/i> drive–but not so great as a primary. I paid it no attention then, because I already had a CD-Rom drive that I used to install XP on my computer. All I wanted was something so I could watch the documentary DVDs that I get from the library so I wouldn’t have to borrow Anna’s computer. <\/p>\n
I hadn’t imagined that I’d buy a new computer and try to save money by using that same DVD drive. I hadn’t imagined that operating systems didn’t come on CD-roms anymore–making my perfectly good CD-Rom drive absolutely worthless as a primary drive. <\/p>\n
There was nothing more I could do–except to send out a desperate Facebook plea:<\/p>\n
“Anybody have a spare DVD Drive (component) I could borrow to see if that might be why my OS isn’t loading properly? I’d return it promptly :-)”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After work on Friday, I saw that I had a response.<\/p>\n
Eric has one, Cathy said. Do I still want it?<\/p>\n
Of course I still want it.<\/p>\n
She’ll deliver it Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
Which means I’ll be offline.<\/p>\n
Lord willing, I’ll be getting my new computer set up (and, once the operating system is installed, I’ll be returning Eric’s DVD drive and using my own again).<\/p>\n
I apologize to all you faithful readers who have had to sit through my technological tale telling. Really, I’m just bragging here. “See, I can build my own computers too.” (Albeit in a rather muddled manner.) I just don’t understand why men aren’t falling all over themselves to get me. I can cook, I can sew, I can read and semi-intelligently discuss issues–and I build computers! :-) Ha!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A little more than a month after ordering the components for my computer, I now have all of the (presumably functional) components together again. I have the new case, the new CPU, the new fan and CPU fan, the new memory–and another new motherboard. The replacement motherboard finally arrived this Thursday. (Tip for NewEgg returns: … Read more The Saga Continues…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}