big fat handicap

as some of you have already noticed, I've been acting a little weird lately. Little explanation to that:

First of all, my hard disk surprised me with a little thing called "physical damage and loss of data". Well, not all data, I managed to get some of the files I need back from the dead.

So I wandered off, trying to get me another hard disk. Most of you guys know how big picturefiles and videos can get, so I figured "Get half a terrabyte, that should be enough for now."

So I did. 500GB samsung thing, got loads of prices for speed, volume and quality per se. Installed it. Didn't work. Got me thinking again... "There are two cables man. A datacable and one for electricity. No jumpers. What is wrong with you?! A six-year-old should be able to do this..." (SATA-II really is foolproof)

Surrendered. Took everything to the IT-specialist of choice. Got a little embarrassed (as I seemed to be unable to connect a cable the only way it fits).

Got everything back later that day, needed to work on a lot of things. They told me the halfgig is defect (was from the start), that's why it didn't work. While the guys were checking the system they found another problem that turned out to be waaaay worse than the ones I was already dealing with.

The northbridge (if you don't know what it is, don't bother. It's some computerthingy that handles dataflow) was down to 20% due to heat problems. Can't repair it. Gotta exchange it. But no can do. The northbridge is more or less part of the mainboard, exchanging it would be SO much more work than just getting a new mainboard. New mainboard, ergo new CPU and RAM. Oh, and a couple of better fans. The old ones kinda sound like an airbus.

Stuff's been ordered now and is on the way (going for a doublecore 5000+, 2 gb ddr2, heatpipetechnology). Computer's gonna be reassambled next week. Looking forward to it, as I am pretty sure that operation will reveal the next problems I'll have.

Anyway, that's why I've been pissed lately (costs me an arm and a leg plus time that I hardly have) and why I am still going to be pissed for the next couple of days. It's probably all gonna be fine in a week or so, until then I'll just hang on and go for pen and paper work.

Uh, positive side effect I should probably mention: spent way more time with the Mrs. and finally managed to read through that Flash-book I got. Wish I could see how much I understood, but without a computer at hand THAT'S F***ING IMPOSSIBLE.

have a blast,

sand