PC Crash problems solved

I solved my crashing PC issue today.

I didn’t need a new power supply, just a different card.

I upgraded from the 256MB AGP 8x fx5500 by Gigabyte, to a 256MB AGP 8x GeForce 6200.

I have to say, the difference is pretty good:
Games run smoother.
Passmark’s BurnInTest (the 3D Graphics test) scores around 15fps, and it looks nice and smooth.
And, my regular few games I play (when I do play games) do seem a fair bit smoother.

On top of that, I did some other things today, such as:
1. Move a 120GB drive to a 320GB drive. – Ghost, FTW.
2. Installed my AGP card.
3. Installed my old AGP card into the same system I was stealing the 120GB drive from.
4. Worked with the two 120GB HDD’s, tomorrow’s post will go into detail :).

I’m coding a few items at the moment too.

One of which is a different page display method for OzVoIPStatus.

The idea is to make it so dynamic, and flexible, that I won’t have to edit multiple files to make changes, and make it a bit more modulated.

And with that, I can extend the feature set better. For example, I could code features knowing several services would be active, so time with error checks is saved to a degree, not that I would allow many errors to escape untrapped either.

Oh, and here’s something else interesting that happened today.
I was under the impression I would need a new PSU, so I began ringing around a few of the PC shops from white pages.

First off the list was CAT computers, a local computer shop in the same area I live. Check out their lame attempt at a website here: http://www.categorycomputers.com – made in 2006. Pretty poor effort, for a business if you ask me. I’ve actually coded tools that keep shops in sync!

I contacted them, and explained what I wanted, and why I wanted the PSU, stating that it was blue screening due to what seems to be high power consumption, during game play.

The logic behind this is simple, a graphics card which wants to power two monitors with a TV, a P4 3.0 – 630 CPU all sucking full load to process the sudden real time workload thrown at it. I came to this after proving that all other hardware was good, another graphics card was good, and with the problematic graphics card in, disconnecting 2 HDDs saw it work fine.

The idiot at the other end of the line told me a few things, one was that they were out of stock on anything over 430W – great, what’s the point?, the case they sold me a little while ago states 400W on the PSU, but can’t actually supply 400W reliably, and “My diagnosing method is incorrect.”, “That’s why I don’t run a computer shop, and he does”, “I should bring my system in and let them look at it”.

Let me answer one question now. I don’t run a computer shop, because I’m far too good to be selling fans and PSU’s on my Saturday for a measily $5 – $10 off each sale.
Further, I can earn a lot more doing my much more enjoyable tasks that match my skillset, and not bother with formatting drives cause Papa decided that tax”xxx” time comes every night with a pr0n website crawl.

I find that very insulting, considering how in depth I went into, to investigating and finding the issue, and proving it beyond a simple imaginary concept, see my blog posts:
http://www.tocpcs.com/2007/04/16/system-error-kernel-panic-linux-and-windows/
http://www.tocpcs.com/2007/04/17/system-error-the-solution/

Now, just reading those posts alone, would you say my testing method is incorrect? That the issue isn’t as I found to be a power issue, and something else wrong with my system?

The point is anyway, insulting a customer is simply not right.

I don’t buy much from them. Only large purchases and the once in a while cheap purchase.
For example, from them I have bought the following:

My case.
Another person’s case.
A web camera.
A case fan.
A case fan.
A case fan.
Some extension cables.
and just those general other odd purchases.

Anyway, those purchases, they won’t be getting. It’s an extra 20 minutes to Tuggerah, but I think there’s businesses over there that likely deserve it, and without the insults.

I didn’t spend several years with computers, researching hardware, software and receiving:

3650A – Connect Hardware Peripherals – Credit
3650G – Operate Computer Hardware – Credit
3650J – Maintain Equipment and Consumables – Credit
3652A – Connect internal hardware components – Distinction
3651C – Run Standard Diagnostic Tests – Distinction
3650C – Maintain system Integrity – Credit
3651F – Migrate to new use of technology – Pass
3651D – Provide Advice to Clients – Distinction
3653D – Determine and Action Problem – Distinction

… among others also completed to be told…

“Your diagnostic method is incorrect. You need to bring it in for us to look at.”.

I think that in completing a Certificate IV in Information Technology, and receiving a Credit Grade well and truly demonstrates that I can at the very least troubleshoot a problem, and get to the bottom of it.

You see, they only make $5 or so off a sale in the computer hardware industry. I consider myself better than that, and I generally make more coding the crap that empowers some businesses in the industry, or subsets of it.
But stating to me that I didn’t know what I was doing was rude, and disrespectful. Such a business doesn’t deserve my business.

It’s just me. I can find an issue, even if it takes all week to zero in on it. I’ll get to the bottom of it, and I’ll find a way of fixing it. I’m a problem solver, its a personal quality of mine, and I use my problem solving skills in better areas compared to simple computer hardware troubleshooting.

Moving off that topic, before I do take my system down and show him “I > him”.

Tomorrow’s post (assuming a cable gets here) should be about the HDD that I worked with today and had some fun with.