So Much For The Lazy Way

My mom's computer cooked last week. Actually it had had us on slow boil for a while. Intermittent problems are the worst. Anyway, last week intermittent became frequent and I declared it dead before mom took a hammer to it. From there we looked at all the available paths.

Swap out parts, starting with memory. But even though the problem had gotten frequent, it still wasn't constant. Not like I could put in a new part, turn it on and say 'that was it'. The drama of 'I think it's fixed, I think it's fixed, nope there it goes again' wasn't something we wanted to go through.

Build mom a new machine. I knew this was the right thing to do. She actually doesn't need much of a machine to start with. Ethernet card, DVD player, minimal hard drive, and enough processor and memory to play games on Yahoo. To buy a machine with a DVD drive is to pay for about three times the basic machine that she needs. But if I built it I'd really be responsible every time something got sideways.

So the lazy way. Off to Costco and buy a Compaq. Which did something odd right out the gate during the Windows initialization, but seemed to get over it. Then it started having a mouse problem.

Check the system log, it's not really the mouse, it's a DVD drive disappearing and reappearing. While the system tries to figure out what to do about that the mouse buffer overflows. The error code suggests replacing the IDE cable, I write a politely scathing e-mail to Compaq tech support...they tell me it will be okay if I do that. I was actually hoping they might think to PAY FOR THE CABLE, if not my time.

Anyway, the new cable didn't solve the problem. I think it's probably the connector on the motherboard. I have no further interest in working on their machine, so Compaq is gonna get this fine specimen back. I will build her a machine.

Like I should have done in the first place. Lesson learned. I just wish I could stop needing life to crack me in the head.