A little while back I posted about how everything was going well. Yesterday was one of those days where it didn't.
My desktop PC died about a week ago. I looked at new systems and found a nice one for $530, but decided not to buy it and instead just replaced my hard drive. That went well for a few days and then the system began failing in other ways. The screen would just go black whenever there was much network traffic. No reboot, just a black screen and no response to any keyboard commands.
I started replacing components, trying to keep the cost of the overall repair under $530. That did not work. I've ended up replacing absolutely everything, including the case and the power supply and even then I needed to pay Frys to assemble it. I had assembled it at home and it didn't work. I drove back to Frys and they took it apart and reassembled it and it didn't work for them, either. With their typically excellent customer service, they said they would replace all the new components with other new components. I could either take them home and try again or pay Frys to put it together. By now I was out of time for this project and just couldn't afford any more trips back and forth to the store, so I paid for a full assembly.
The end result was that I paid about $570 to repair the computer. It should be back to me on Wednesday. I would have been better off buying the Vista machine I saw last weekend. Oh well.
The 1966 Mustang I was going to buy as a father-son project car is no longer available. Nor are the other three we tried to buy. Those all fell through yesterday, too.
Lastly, yesterday a very dear friend of mine told me she is getting a divorce. Brutal. I never liked her husband very much. It turns out he was stealing from their business and had decided he was gay. They have two kids and had been married more than 15 years. Her world has been turned absolutely upside down. Their children will be devastated and will lose out for years to come. And for what? Greed and lust. Every time I see things like this it makes me more and more of a Puritan.
I've been meaning to research the origins of the seven virtues and post on that. This gives me another reason to do so.
Thank God today's a new day.
3 comments:
Sorry to hear it didn't work out with your desktop machine. I think the idea is still valid, but if the problem doesn't get fixed by replacing the disk or the powersupply/fan, the most common things to fail on an older machine, it probably is time to punt. Even if it isn't the disk you can always add it to a new machine so its not a complete loss.
One thing to consider, while you can pay $500 for a PC, you may be setting yourself up for another dead machine in three years. It is often more thrifty to to pay for a mid-priced machine. Check the online reviews to see who is making the most reliable boxes this week and go with them.
I agree with your analysis. However, once I had bought the hard drive, I felt like I had locked myself in to rebuilding the machine from components. If not, I would have had an extra hard drive lying around and I'd be down $110 instead of just $40.
After some nine years or so of my kids saying 'you shoulda boughta Mac' every time I had a problem with the PC, I finally did about seven months ago, a used G5, and so far haven't had even the teeniest problem.
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