Nothing ever goes as planned.  Certainly, it is rare for things to happen as one hopes they might.

I received the final piece for my computer upgrade last Thursday, which was a power supply.  I also received a new hard drive.  This latter piece was secondary in that it was not for my upgraded machine, but primary as my existing machine was to become my roommate’s computer and she was having hard drive issues.  So I pulled the video card and hard drives out of my existing machine (I’ll give it a name:  Yin) and put her new drive in.  I started installing Windows XP and then turned to my new machine (which I will call Yang).  My plan was to use my old, old case, from my previous machine, which currently housed Sam’s current computer.  So I gutted her computer, carefully setting her hard drives aside for later transfer of data to Yin.

Yang then got a motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, RAM, power supply, video card and hard drives.  I can’t swear I have the order for that exactly correct, but I think it’s close.  I plugged everything in and flipped on the power.  The fans whirred and the lights came on…for about a second.  Then nothing.  This was all I could get it to do for awhile.

Meanwhile, Windows XP finished, but there was a problem:  No drivers for the important pieces, including the built-in network card.  Ugh.  So I whipped out the laptop, found the drivers, through them on a USB drive, and got them onto Yin.  (Thankfully, XP was able to install drivers which allowed it to read the USB stick.)  Online on Yin now, I got all its drivers started while researching my problem.  One suggestion was a corrupt CMOS.  Okay, the motherboard was new and the CMOS had never been messed with, but it was possible.  So I reset the CMOS, and a new behavior emerged:  Fans / lights on for a second, then off for two or three seconds, repeat this pattern over and over.  The most common culprit for issues like this is the power supply.

With a sigh, I contacted Amazon and set up for a return.  On this, I give kudos to Amazon.  They shipped out the replacement immediately and sent UPS to pick up the bad one on Friday.  Less than twenty-four hours after I requested an exchange, UPS had the bad one on its way back and FedEx had a new one en route.  That’s right, Amazon shipped the new one before receiving the old one, albeit with a promise of charging me a second time if they didn’t receive the old one within thirty days.

Meanwhile, XP developed a problem.  The product key I had for it was at one time both valid and legitimate.  It came from a place I used to work which was now defunct.  I tried to apply updates and got told I had a pirated copy.  I sighed again and went out and got Windows 7 for Sam.  I planned to do this anyway, but I planned to put it off a week or two.  Windows 7 installed with ease and ran like a champ.  I connected the old hard drives, copied data over, and Sam was very pleased with her “new” system.

The replacement power supply arrived on Saturday while I was at work.  In spite of FedEx’s estimate that they would deliver at noon, I knew it wouldn’t arrive before I left for work at 1330-ish.  I got home, installed the new power supply and voila!  Same problem.  On for a second or so, off for a couple seconds, etc.  I did a little more research and then decided to test the power supply in Yin.  It worked fine.  It was a problem with my old case.  We had another case laying around, so I moved everything there.  Now it powered up, but I got no video from it.  Nothing.  Zip, zero, zilch.

So Monday I went and bought an internal speaker for a dollar and hooked that up so I could hear the “beep code” computers give when booting up.  Sadly, this was silent, which indicated a bad motherboard.  Amazon’s return policy was limited to thirty days and I bought the motherboard in late July, so I had to contact the motherboard manufacturer (ASRock) for an RMA.  I had an email conversation with them on this which involved three outbound emails from me.  In each of them I asked if there was a way to expedite the return shipment, advising them I was willing to pay for 2nd day or possibly even overnight shipping.  This is a yes or no question:  Is it possible…?  The final email I sent asked only this question, and the reply was a reiteration of how long it takes them to process a return.  The tech handling it would not go outside of his script and simply say, “No, it’s not possible” or even just “No.”  I would have accepted this answer, but all he could do was repeat the bit about how long it normally took to process, which technically did not answer my question.

So this is where I sit today.  I am still on my laptop and quite grateful for its possession.  My motherboard is on its way back to ASRock and should arrive there tomorrow.  With luck, I’ll have a new one by the end of next week, but I am personally betting on it arriving the following week.  Sigh.

Meanwhile, I have whine to register about modern banking.  I think I have made this whine before, but I am making it again.  I learned a week ago I had a bit of money in a financial institution.  So that I could easily withdraw or contribute to that fundage, I requested my current bank be added as a financial institution resource.  It took a week for this to happen.  I really, really, really, really, really don’t understand this.  The entire process was, to my knowledge, completed electronically.  Nobody called me to confirm anything or ask any questions.  It just happened.  And yet, in spite of the speed of modern machines and computer networks, it took a damn week to complete.

So today I requested a withdrawal from this financial institution to my bank.  The waiting time on this is four to six business days.  WTF?  Again, this process is entirely electronic.  Computers do not take weekends off.  There is no reason I can think of why this should not take more than twenty-four hours, but it will take four to six days instead.  Lame.

Okay, that’s enough whining for today.  I’ll have a pretty little poem tomorrow to finish the week out with.  See you then.