But really - right now I’m feeling pretty darn pleased with myself.
Recently I have been acknowledging that fact that my computer is O.L.D – to old to perform the way I need it too. I’ve known that poor beastie is an aging behemoth for some time now – it’s the oldest one in this house. Its original tower was purchased in 1999 & over the years upgraded…. by me.
Rather than continue to moan about it – knowing that I can’t have a new one – I decided to do something about it.
But lets wander back in time for a bit….
I had to learn to workings of a computers innards in a hurry – the company I purchased my first one from went bust within months – about the same time that my wee 10GB, Pentium II, 256MB RAM machine (that I’d paid a LOT for) with Windows ME on it crashed….in a big way. Bit by bit I learned how to add memory, sound & video cards format a hard Drive, flash the BIOS, change boot sequences, format HDD’s & Install operating systems…. & a whole ton of other stuff – I even used to fix friends machines for them.
But somewhere along the way I got lazy – when I met Allan he was pretty good with all that sort of thing…you know the rest I found better things to do & just wanted a machine that worked well when I went to use it.
For years I have used 2 monitors & discovered that I really don’t like just having to use one. Two monitors make so many things so much easier – three would be even better!!!
Recently my poor old secondary monitor, a 14” CRT – decided that enough was enough – it was so dark that I could barely see a document open on it.
Now, my reason for still wanting to run a CRT rather than 2 LCD’s, is that recently it was pointed out to me that my listing photo’s looked quite dark.
They don’t look dark on my LCD , in fact they look over bright to me at times, but I do realise that there are a lot of people that are still running CRT’s – so a happy medium had to be reached.
Yesterday I went shopping at a store that deals primarily in pre used (mainly leased) computers & spent some of my money on a ‘new to me’ 17” CRT monitor with a decent enough picture….I might have also bought a ‘new to me’ keyboard (I seem to kill my Microsoft Ergonomic boards quite quickly), & just to be safe I may have also chucked in a 2GB Flash Drive.
I’ve been happy with this beastie for years & it has only been very recently that I have come to accept that further upgrading is futile, my poor old 40GB HDD is just not big enough any more….that could be easily & cheaply upgraded - but
it’s MB isn’t capable of running the amount of RAM needed to run the programs I use effectively…..& it’s been running hot!
Having to pull things out to plug in the new monitor, I decided to open up the case & check for dust…we wont even go there – dust was the understatement of the year when it comes to what was inside that baby!!! LOL!
While I was at it I decided that I’d at least try to put in the USB2 card that I purchased about a year ago – but never dropped in at the time because I was told that my MB “probably wouldn’t support USB2”. It does!
Then I asked Allan if there were any spare smaller HDD’s around – just to give me a wee bit more space. I’ve always resisted second hand HDD’s – you just never know what might have been on them - & if you’ve been virus free for 7+ years – why risk it. But hey .... I’m desperate & as it turns out there was a 20GB that I could try.
So I did & I feel like I have a new machine. It’s still not the fastest – but it has more room, 4 extra USB ports & a new’ish monitor & keyboard – all for $60.00 & a wee bit of fiddling. The MB probably feels pretty good relieved of it’s dust burden too - & the fans will certainly run easier without their share of the inisdious dust.
What’s more I realised that I haven’t forgotten how to hook things up inside a case & also that I quiet enjoy it. Not as much fun as melting glass perhaps – but in it’s own way equally as rewarding.
Recently I have been acknowledging that fact that my computer is O.L.D – to old to perform the way I need it too. I’ve known that poor beastie is an aging behemoth for some time now – it’s the oldest one in this house. Its original tower was purchased in 1999 & over the years upgraded…. by me.
Rather than continue to moan about it – knowing that I can’t have a new one – I decided to do something about it.
But lets wander back in time for a bit….
I had to learn to workings of a computers innards in a hurry – the company I purchased my first one from went bust within months – about the same time that my wee 10GB, Pentium II, 256MB RAM machine (that I’d paid a LOT for) with Windows ME on it crashed….in a big way. Bit by bit I learned how to add memory, sound & video cards format a hard Drive, flash the BIOS, change boot sequences, format HDD’s & Install operating systems…. & a whole ton of other stuff – I even used to fix friends machines for them.
But somewhere along the way I got lazy – when I met Allan he was pretty good with all that sort of thing…you know the rest I found better things to do & just wanted a machine that worked well when I went to use it.
For years I have used 2 monitors & discovered that I really don’t like just having to use one. Two monitors make so many things so much easier – three would be even better!!!
Recently my poor old secondary monitor, a 14” CRT – decided that enough was enough – it was so dark that I could barely see a document open on it.
Now, my reason for still wanting to run a CRT rather than 2 LCD’s, is that recently it was pointed out to me that my listing photo’s looked quite dark.
They don’t look dark on my LCD , in fact they look over bright to me at times, but I do realise that there are a lot of people that are still running CRT’s – so a happy medium had to be reached.
Yesterday I went shopping at a store that deals primarily in pre used (mainly leased) computers & spent some of my money on a ‘new to me’ 17” CRT monitor with a decent enough picture….I might have also bought a ‘new to me’ keyboard (I seem to kill my Microsoft Ergonomic boards quite quickly), & just to be safe I may have also chucked in a 2GB Flash Drive.
I’ve been happy with this beastie for years & it has only been very recently that I have come to accept that further upgrading is futile, my poor old 40GB HDD is just not big enough any more….that could be easily & cheaply upgraded - but
it’s MB isn’t capable of running the amount of RAM needed to run the programs I use effectively…..& it’s been running hot!
Having to pull things out to plug in the new monitor, I decided to open up the case & check for dust…we wont even go there – dust was the understatement of the year when it comes to what was inside that baby!!! LOL!
While I was at it I decided that I’d at least try to put in the USB2 card that I purchased about a year ago – but never dropped in at the time because I was told that my MB “probably wouldn’t support USB2”. It does!
Then I asked Allan if there were any spare smaller HDD’s around – just to give me a wee bit more space. I’ve always resisted second hand HDD’s – you just never know what might have been on them - & if you’ve been virus free for 7+ years – why risk it. But hey .... I’m desperate & as it turns out there was a 20GB that I could try.
So I did & I feel like I have a new machine. It’s still not the fastest – but it has more room, 4 extra USB ports & a new’ish monitor & keyboard – all for $60.00 & a wee bit of fiddling. The MB probably feels pretty good relieved of it’s dust burden too - & the fans will certainly run easier without their share of the inisdious dust.
What’s more I realised that I haven’t forgotten how to hook things up inside a case & also that I quiet enjoy it. Not as much fun as melting glass perhaps – but in it’s own way equally as rewarding.
Clean Mean Fighting Machine!
The New Set Up(can you see what is perched on the coner of my monitor Mallory?)
4 comments:
Love your new set up, Deb! I can see something on your monitor, but I can't tell what it is! Looks great!
I am amazed at your expertise. I wish you lived closer! I need a computer tech!
You go Deb. I leave all the computer fixing to DH. He's the IT guy around here. I just end up breaking things. Like my notebooks screen and then our old CRT which ended up with half a screen but if you banged it a bit it fixed itself until yesterday when it shot out a blue spark and died a sudden death after it's final abuse. I now have a 2nd hand gorgeous 17 inch CRT. But now I'm thinking, I'd also like two screens. Not sure how well that would go down with hubby. LOL
No more excuses for not melting. You just got to do it as I soon learnt. LOL
I am in awe of all you've done, Deb. I couldn't even understand half of what you described, much less do it! P.S. I wish my desk looked half as neat, too :)
Thanks ladies - lol!
I'm kind of in awe of me too - in awe of the fact that I could remember what to do that is...half the time I can't remember what day of the week it is ;o)
For the record - my desk only looks like that when I have just rearranged everything.
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