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Friday, Nov 17, 2006 - 01:56 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

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The Resurrection And Unlife

Last Friday, I was blissfully typing out my Information Systems summary, well aware that although I had a take-home exam and a 3D lab assignment to go, I was right on schedule, when my computer decided to hibernate out of nowhere. No response to the wake key as I frantically CPR-ed it, so I shrugged and pressed the power off button for a manual reboot. It had survived worse before, I figured.

Not this time.

I should add at this time that my system actually ran a GRUB boot loader from an ancient 20GB hard drive, a legacy from when I was experimenting briefly with Linux, and was a mishmash of parts, some salvaged from the computer I had before that, entirely assembled by myself in December 2004. An AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor and an ATI RADEON 9600 PRO graphics card were the highlights, together with a 160GB SATA hard disk that I fiddled with until it could be detected in Windows XP - It never showed up as an IDE device at bootup.

But it worked, which was good enough for me. Yes, the Programs menu soon got clogged up with applications of questionable utility that I never bothered to remove, and the drives got cluttered up likewise; Still, it was home, in the comfy way that happens when one arranges his stuff just so. At first, Windows XP could load partway, then freeze up. After a while, my 20GB boot disk returned an error. Okay, I disconnected it and tried to boot directly from my SATA disk which had Windows installed, and it all went downhill from there.

After spending a night and most of the morning fruitlessly looking for a solution, I got the sinking feeling that tragically, like Mark Anthony, I had come to bury my computer, and not to raise it. Ducked down to Sim Lim Square with my dad on Sunday to get it fixed up, and threw in a new 200GB Seagate hard disk with a copy of Win XP Pro SP2. Retrieved just about everything from my academic folders, and went home with it on Monday afternoon only to watch the system crash every half hour or so.


Alas, poor Perx! I knew him, Horatio

Spent the uptime between crashes rushing my take-home exam and searching for possible reasons, and the help I Googled up on Tuesday indicated that something was probably wrong with my motherboard, graphics card, PSU or memory; I suspected overheating, and sure enough all three fans within were dust-clogged. A spot of cleaning with cotton buds and the vacuum cleaner later, it obligingly lay down and expired for the last time.

Now, that was a bit too much, and the next day, short on time to complete my assignments, I headed right back to SLS to plunk my data into a brand new bare-bones system. Not too shabby really, a Pentium 4 3GHz on a Foxconn mobo with the low-end nVIDIA GeForce 5500 (note the complete architecture overhaul from AMD/ATI) and 512MB RAM for S$600+ (thanks Dad!). With the new A4Tech X7 mouse and generic Logitech keyboard, both in dirt-camouflaging black, I duly finished my summary and contracted the Mailbot.AZ rootkit.

No biggie, this time it was just software, so I just worked around the BSoD crashes it forced on Windows Update and Norton Internet Security installations over several hours, by repairing XP and dragging it out from its API invisibility, finally deleting its alternate data streams. So here I am back up and running, after dozens of wasted hours. Well, I was planning to clean up my system sometime anyway.


Rising from the ashes like its Phoenix Award BIOS

Despite the joys of having a spanking new PC (note to self: get a DVD writer and possibly a better graphics card come the holidays), I can't help but feel slightly down that the first computer I assembled from scratch endured for only two years - it was sweet while it lasted, though. But I believed in it, and so it did not truly die, but have, if not eternal, at least a slightly longer life; The hard drive and floppy drive moved on, and in the case of the 3.5 inch floppy drive, this would be the third computer it served, though this is not as clear-cut as it appears - mull over the paradox of the Ship of Theseus.

One never regrets visiting Sim Lim Square, that mecca of consumer technology, as evidenced by a rather amusing request over the PA system: "Mr. X, please come to the information counter, your wife is waiting for you." My mum also managed to get $5 slashed off my $49 mouse, so don't be too put off by the prices, their margins are not nearly that thin :)

Observing the secondary economy of the SLS microcosm was educational too, as one observes the food vendors catering to shopkeepers on all levels, who are often too busy to leave their store but partake of their meals while working and leave the cutlery in a corner for later collection. Maxis, perhaps a sequel to Simtower in collaboration with Enix - Simtower 2: Sim Lim Square?

Finally, a small unpaid commercial:


If in need of a fix...

I was introduced to this shop by one of those diligent fellas standing at the elevators thrusting pricelists to all and sundry. Just walk around with a ATX case in your hands, and you're sure to get one of them to point you in the right way. Can't fault their service or attitude, and the guys there seem in their mid-late twenties only, with an SAF Provost sticker at the back a nice touch. Reminded me of my days in NS, not too long ago.



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