The computer is dead, long live the computer

kw: pastimes, computers

Here's where the time went:

• Saturday afternoon: boxes arrived, built computer, with much help from son (MB MSI P55-GD80, Intel I5-750 CPU). Got it to start booting, but CPU would not complete initialization sequence.
• Sunday afternoon: played around, finally gave up.
• Monday midday: took to a technician.
• Tuesday afternoon: picked it up, paid technician. I'd found the exact one way to mis-locate a jumper and get a partial bootup.
• Tuesday evening: fail to load operating system for a few hours, until I took out the DVD to check it. It was upside down! Load operating system (Win 7 64 bit).
• Wednesday evening: remove old computer from workstation; move new computer to workstation. Obtain antivirus software and get it set up. Load printer/scanner drivers and conrol utility for scanning. Start getting familiar with Win 7 (old computer ran XP).
• Now it is almost 10 PM. Will crash for the night. Must arise early tomorrow, as usual.

I think I've learned my lesson. This is the second build for my son and I, and both times we've needed the technician's help. Building systems is for those more skilled in "lab" work than I. You'd have thought I learned that in grad school, where as a chem major I blew myself up regularly. At the moment I have a shiny new computer, all up to date. The prior one lasted eight years. Whenever this one gives up the ghost, I'll just buy something at one of the box stores, or take advantage of a Dell customization deal (or the ~2020 equivalent).