Tom Is A Blog Neglector This is a great site, it's not like I'll update it or anything.

My Computer Nightmare

So my neice gets The Sims 2 for Christmas.  She has an old P3 500 computer with some crappy low end video card in it.  The game won't play on her computer.  So I have an older Compaq P4 1.8 ghz computer that I never really use anymore.  So I thought for her birthday I would get her a pretty decent video card and put it in the old computer and give it to her so she can play her game.  So I blew it away and set it all up and everything and got a GeForce 6800 Xtreme video card for $130 bucks.  Its older but faired very well on tests with the Sims 2.  So I was happy. There was a $30 rebate on it so I sent that away immediately because the deadline was approaching.

So I put the card in the computer and notice that it came with a Y-connector for one of those 4-pin molex power connectors. So I said "hmmm I wonder what this is for" and thats when I realized that it requires a 500W or better power supply to run the card.  So I'm like Christ theres another 70 bucks. (that I dont have because I haven't had a job for 14 months).  So I ordered a power supply and it arrives and its too slim for the case.  theres a huge gap in the back of the case and the screw holes don't line up. So I sent it back (with a 15% restocking fee - which is total bullshit.  I will never order from Acortech.com again.)

I wrote to Compaq to ask them if I can upgrade the power supply to 500w and asked them to give me a part number that will fit that case.  They wrote back and said I have to take it to an HP Repair center to have the motherboard tested.  Don't they have specs and information about this?  I hate Compaq.  They have nothing online about their motherboards or anything.  They are not user-friendly.  I still don't know what kind of motherboard it is etc.  I'm telling you, never again with the Compaq. 

So I went to CompUSA and asked them because they are authorized HP repair center.  They said it doesn't need to be tested, but the power supply size was specially designed for Compaq to fit in the case correctly.  SO I had an idea to buy a cheap case and transfer the motherboard etc into the new case so a regular store bought power supply will fit and I will finally be done with it.  So I bought a $30 case and an $80 power supply and went to work taking it all apart.  I've never built a pc so I don't know where to plug in the LED and power switch cables. The Compaq case has a wire with a special connector so its really easy to know where it goes etc.  Anyway, the new case doesnt exactly match the old one, there aren't any screw holes in the new case for the clips that hold the heatsink down on the motherboard.  Its hard to explain.  So I had to rig a way to keep them on the board, and because of that I had to drill a hole in the case to allow for the bolt thing to poke through.  It doesn't stick out of the outside of the case, just a hole under the motherboard.  Again hard to explain. 

After everything it doesn't power up.  It doesn't do anything.  I took the power supply back and got a new one because they said that it should do something.  The new one doesn't do anything either.  If I plug in the old power supply the computer starts (but if I plug in the new ideo card it beeps, but I think its because the wattage of the old power supply is only like 250w).  So what does that mean?  What are the odds that 2 brand new power supplies from two different store locations are bad?  Maybe the motherboard can't take the wattage?  I don't understand electricity.  I don't know what else to try.  I might take it to CompUSA and have them make it work.  But I should know how to do this. Personally I think that Compaq wires the power supply so that you have to buy from them in order for it to work right.  I have no proof, it's just my assumption. 

So I'm at a loss.  I'm so sick of looking at it.  All this because I was trying to be nice.  I can't return the case because I drilled it (though I could try to), and I can't return the video card because I cut the UPC symbol off the box.  What a waste.  This is why I hate computer games.  Lol

Anybody have any helpful thoughts or ideas?

No good deed goes unpunished.