Joshy Has My Computer
12/19/1
I got an email from Aisai around two in the afternoon asking if I had called the computer shop. I hadn�t, so I did.
The gal told me that Josh, or some other name that�s similar enough, had been working on my machine and that he was helping a customer now. She took my number and said he�d call back.
About 20 minutes later he called back and said that the beeping was keeping him from working on the machine, but there didn�t seem to be any conflicts with the hardware from what he could check. And it looks like I need a new motherboard.
That�s fine, I suppose. I only paid around 80 for my motherboard about 2 years ago. A replacement should be super cheap.
Not so. There are no replacements except if I want to search on the internet. We�re talking an AMD motherboard for a 400 MHz chip. If I could find it, it would be around 12 dollars, I�m guessing, and then I�d have to wait a week for it to come in. All the time, my cable modem would be sitting upstairs, constantly connected to the internet, the little green light mocking me.
Joshy says that they have a motherboard for $112 and a chip for $50 that would get my machine up to 700 MHz. I tell him to hold on, that I�ll call him tomorrow, which is now today, and tell him what we�re going to do. I call Tom and leave a message about this.
See, Tom knows computers pretty well and is usually wading through old obsolete parts. Well, I saw him at the show that my niece was in last night and he�s got state of the art only at this time. And four computers running in a network, too. This is in his house.
Tom does say that he�s not sure that the power supply that I have is good enough to supply a nice steady stream of power to the higher MHz chip. Also, he feels strongly that my memory isn�t compatible with it.
Adding to that, the guy, Josh, didn�t see any hardware conflicts. Of course he couldn�t realize that the computer would crash if the CD drive and the CR-RW were both plugged in at the same time, he can�t get the thing to do anything. And currently, the options for the messed up operating system, the real reason I took it in, are to just wipe the drive.
So, I see these as my options:
1. Call Joshy and tell him that we�ll do the upgrade. This will mean that before he starts working on the machine today it will be a $200 bill, since he already worked on it for 30 min [$60/hr is their rate]. Now, if he finds out that the memory doesn�t work out, that�s another $50. If the power supply doesn�t, that�s another $30. If he has trouble with the CDs, then that�s a dollar a minute.
2. Email Tom and ask him to find a motherboard that will work with my computer on the internet for next to nothing and wait for it to show up. Install it, and hope that Josh knew what he was talking about since all the stuff I heard about the beeping not booting thing was loose graphics card related. And when I get the motherboard in, I have to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows 98. I�ll still have the hardware conflict with the CDs though, and it�s pretty important to me to be able to rip an audio CD directly from a CD loaded with MP3s.
3. Look in the BestBuy ads.
I call Joshy in 12 minutes.