I didn’t really have time to flesh out the details of my computer problem when I last wrote, so here goes:

After my computer froze, I naturally reset it. After doing this, I left the room to go do something productive while it booted. When I came back, the screens were black. I’ve had other computers randomly not POST before, so I once again reset it. Alas, the restart button didn’t do anything. I then tried to shut it down, no dice. So, I moved onto trying a hardware shutdown (holding the power button). That didn’t do anything either!

Seriously worried that there was something wrong with my computer at this point, I flipped the PSU power switch (yes, that killed it). I take a quick look inside the case to make sure everything’s okay in there and it doesn’t smell like burned electronics. Looks and smells fine!

I’ve had a case of a dead computer that came back to life when I gave it a good cleaning, so I decide to do the same here. I was very thorough, so it took me all day to do this. When everything was put back together, I threw the switch. Nothing happened. The fans didn’t even spin up this time. Ready to pull my hair out at this turn of events, I call my brothers who are also skilled with computers.

My brothers advise me that the PSU is usually the cause of these problems in a computer, so I borrow a compatible PSU from a friend and try once more. Again, nothing. I remove the memory and sound card and repeat. The fans spun up this time, but no POST beep. I notice that the HD light is solid and there’s no power light. Crap!

The rest is rather unexciting: I got an RMA number from Asus (my motherboard manufacturer) and sent it off. Cue where I am now.

I called Asus this morning to check on my RMA, and to my surprise they gave me a fedex tracking number for the replacement! Now, I should be overjoyed that the new motherboard will be arriving in two days, but there’s a downside. I was using a ThermalTake Big Typhoon CPU heatsink/fan, and you have to irrevocably stick a mounting plate on the back of your motherboard in order to install it. I had to leave this mounting plate on the motherboard when I shipped it off. So, I quickly ordered a new heatsink this morning that’s supposed to be comparable to what I had and pay an extra six bucks to rush shipping. Hopefully it’ll be here when my motherboard gets here!

Running my own garrysmod server has been interesting. It’s a lot of money, so I’m just hoping that sporadic donations and clients will help keep it afloat. I’m not sure I’d have the heart to kill it simply due to lack of funds though. Besides, it’s always priceless when the players do something like this. It has also been nice to run a server because it’s helped me focus my scripting efforts. Imagine that, it’s easier to know what to do with an admin mod when you’re actually running a server!

Now, to go away from computers… Pippin’s doing fine! He jumped our six foot fence yesterday so apparently his physical strength is back too. You have to wonder if the poor little fella knows how close to death he was (most people would put an animal down than hospitalize them).

I went hiking with a friend a few days ago, and it really makes me realize how much I’m going to miss the mountains and drinkable water here in Utah…