It's Really, Really Dead

Back in November I posted about the apparent demise of my cherished Dell XPS super computer.


At the time, I blamed a Microsoft Service Pack download and was milking their customer support for all it was worth. When was the last time you had a Microsoft technical resource from India spending hours on the phone with you trying to solve your problems?


I was absolutely giddy with geeky infatuation.

But as it turned out, Microsoft was not to blame. I was.

A CSI-like post mortem by the awesome logtar made an initial assessment that I had cooked my motherboard via suffocation. I had allowed so much dust to clog the ventilation that the computer overheated and fried the capacitors.

What I needed to bring my dead XPS back as Frankenputer was a new motherboard.

After much procrastination on my part facilitated by the charitable donation of a replacement computer by my friend Kanga, I finally ordered and received a new motherboard!

Arrangements were made for myself and logtar to converge on Kanga and MySpyderWeb's casa today to loft the kites, flip the switches, culminating in a frenzied "IT'S ALIVE" by yours truly.



But, alas, it was not to be.

Due to Dell douchebaggery, there was no way to connect the "On" switch from the XPS case to the non-Dell motherboard and actually turn the computer on.

So I now have a motherboard to return to Tiger Direct, some components to sell on E-Bay, some components to cannibalize for re-use, and some components to safely recycle.

I also have the memory of an awesome afternoon spent in the company of friends.

We capped things off by swapping comic books and enjoying a Watchmen related DVD containing "Under The Hood"



and "Tales of the Black Freighter"

It was a good Saturday.