I Really, Really, REALLY Miss My Computer

August 14th, 2009 4:43pm by rusty-halo | 3 Comments »

I got a ton of vegetables from my CSA on Wednesday. Three eggplants, four green peppers, lots of regular and cherry tomatoes, a head of lettuce, broccoli, arugula, and a massive amount of basil. This is good in the sense that it’s cheap, fresh, locally grown, organic food. It’s bad in the sense that I have to figure out what the hell to do with it, quickly, before it goes bad.

Wednesday I made an eggplant and tomato dish flavored with garam masala, cayenne, and cinnamon over brown rice (from The Vegan Family Cookbook) and a salad of bulgur wheat with cremini mushrooms, arugula, and cannellini beans (from Veganomicon). Yesterday I made basil-cilantro pesto (also from Veganomicon) and a green pepper and tomato salad (from Rachael Ray, of all people). The pesto is so good (the basil was unbelievably fresh and strong) that I could probably eat it plain, but I’m going to use it this weekend to make basil-cilantro pesto linguine with artichokes (Veganomicon again) and I’m also planning to make Simply Heavenly’s eggplant with tomatoes recipe.

I enjoy cooking, but unfortunately this has coincided with the arrival of my new computer parts, so I’ve had to rush through it to get on the phone with my dad to try to get my computer up and running.

When I got back from Writercon, my computer wouldn’t turn on. After opening the case I found that pressing the power button turned the LED light on briefly and gave the fan (the one connected to the power supply) a quick spin, but that was it. (And even that only would only happen once after unplugging/replugging the power cord–after which nothing would happen.) After some testing (directed by my dad and brother via phone) we concluded that the motherboard was dead. So I spent $350 at NewEgg buying a new motherboard and the processor, graphics card, and RAM to go with it. According to my dad and brother, my existing power supply, CD/DVD-ROM drive, and hard drives would be okay.

So Wednesday night, after all the cooking, my dad walked me through the process of removing the old motherboard/processor/RAM. As I’m really not good at… basically anything in the physical world… this took several hours. Then last night my dad walked me through repositioning the screws inside the case, putting in the new motherboard, screwing it down, adding the processor, adding the processor fan, adding the RAM, adding the graphics card, plugging the power back in, and pushing the power button.

At which point the exact same error happened. The light blinked, the fan gave a brief spin, and nothing else happened.

So I probably spent $350 for no good reason. Maybe the problem is with the power supply. Maybe the new motherboard is broken. Maybe I fucked something up in the installation process.

At this point it was 2am, I could barely keep my eyes open, and my cats were on the other side of the door yowling (they really hate being locked out, especially when they can hear me talking). So we called it a night, and I collapsed into bed. Right now I don’t even have the energy to be pissed off.

Long story short: god only knows when I’ll have a working computer again.

At least I am able to hook up my MP3 player to my speakers and keep the David Bowie flowing. Without Low I don’t think I’d even be functional right now. (Yes, it took long enough, but between “Always Crashing in the Same Car” and “Subterraneans,” I am finally in love with the album.)

Current Mood: drained