I got a new computer over the weekend.
My old PC was only five years old, and it is probably adequate, but it’s had a whine somewhere within, and I was reluctant to tear it apart to find it. I actually did at the beginning of 2024; my employer provided an annual $200 stipend for office supplies, so I opened it up and gave it a listen and thought it was the power supply fan, so I replaced the power supply. But that was not it. Audio playback was starting to fade in and out as well, and it was laden with cruft–basically, in the five years I’d had it, I had installed all sorts of frameworks, servers, and databases that left behind detritus when uninstalled–so it was taking 30 minutes to come to the desktop after a reboot. So I decided it was time.
I am about to disappoint you, gentle reader, but I did not build my own rig.
Actually, it’s been, what, 20 years? since I built a computer from scratch. I’ve done it, and I can do it, but I am not really as much into the process of it now: the research, the aligning of the parts that work together, and then fitting them together. The waiting for the multiple orders and then maybe for the replacement parts for anything that fails the burn-in. No, I wanted just a single order that I could take out of the box and start installing software. We cannot all be as cool as some people.
Which might have been my first mistake. Maybe my first several.
You see, gentle reader, I wanted something custom. A pile of RAM. A DVD reader/writer if possible. And my go-to vendors, Dell and HP, don’t make it easy to spec a computer and get it these days.
Oh, no. You have to go into each named line of computers (Elite/Precision/Alienware/Omen/Etc.) and to look for a custom option. And even if the “search” feature might have said it supported 64GB of RAM, you get into customizing it and it tops at 32, so you have to choose another line and start again. I asked the chatbot/underpaid overseas rep if it was possible just to list specs, and no.
So: I got something that fit my criteria and ordered it from Dell with some trepidation. It fit the bill, and it seemed a little less expensive than the HP that I specked out. So three weeks later, it arrived, and….
On step two of Windows 11 setup, it failed to recognize the keyboard. Then it blue screened.
You see, I ordered with some trepidation because when we’d ordered a Dell laptop for my beautiful wife some years ago, it had a crashing problem that put me on the phone with Dell tech support. We eventually resolved it, and she’s been pleased with that laptop, but trepidation. Well-earned trepidation.
I thought maybe it was a problem with the wireless keyboard combo, so I used the mouse and keyboard that came with it. And it blue screened. Something like seven or eight times the evening and morning I messed with it. I dicked with the support options on Dell, including running a diagnostic which indicated a PCI bus failure. I called Dell support, and they had me run some diagnostics after telling me the stuff on the Web site didn’t really do anything, but it remotely triggered the local Dell software that the tech support guy had me trigger manually. The first manual run indicated a PCI bus failure, but I messed with it and got clean runs. The tech support guy tried to have me enter the recovery environment on startup, but that failed. He then had a tier two person call me, and she wanted me to boot into the recovery environment on startup, but I used the Shift key on power-down to reboot into it instead, and she had me reset the machine. And when it came back up to the Windows 11 setup, it blue screened after a couple of seconds on the first step without me touching anything, and I was done. I asked for a call tag and got one and shipped it back.
So I waited for that refund and specked out an HP. And waited another couple of weeks. I went though the gaming system line, so it’s got lots of LEDs that light up. And I started installing things and burning it in, and, you know what? No blue screens. Kind of like you want. If I wanted a PCI bus failure, I could have built my own for less.
At any rate, the cutover was on Monday and Tuesday. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time to install the couple things I use.
Microsoft Office 365 proved an adventure because I’d had a small business license and could not renew it because it needed Microsoft Authenticator on my phone, and since I never used that app, I removed it. But to reinstall the app on your phone, you need to enter a code sent to the app. Look it up; it’s a well complained about problem. So I used a different Microsoft account for a family account, which means I can have it on the old box and this new one at the same time. It turns out I don’t use the Microsoft apps much for business–I use it mostly for my resume, writing my grandmother, tracking books I’ve read, and tracking where I send my resume. To be honest, I don’t wonder if I could move completely to Google. My clients all use it.
I was pleased to see that Paint Shop Pro 7 from 2002 continues to install and run. I’d be afraid if I had to use Paint, although I guess I have used it on work laptops where I couldn’t install my basic Triassic tool on them.
I am not pleased that you cannot move the taskbar to the right edge of the screen in Windows 11. Jeez, Louise, I’ve been doing this for thirty years since Windows 95. And even now, days later, I mouse right when I want to display an application on the taskbar (I know, I know: Real men use ALT+TAB, but sometimes my hand is already on the mouse).
I’ve spent time trying to detach as much of the AI as I can and kill Microsoft’s “Run it through our servers so we can mine your every move” features. When I was in Excel early on, I was peeved to find that I would hit a key and milliseconds later, the letter would appear after it had–what the hell was it doing? Interpreting a “Microsoft Experience” or something? Dammit, man, I did not spend to get faster application response to accept slower typing response. I am not that fast of a typist anyway.
But I guess the transition is going all right.
I have not installed Civ IV which might help my productivity a bit. I do that every couple of years, maybe with every computer. Time will tell how long I resist the siren call.
At any rate, I don’t know what I’m missing from the old box yet–I’ve copied over the data folder–and am a little reluctant to look too quickly into wiping it and upgrading it to Windows 11 (after finding and fixing the whine). I guess I have until October.
I did hope to reconfigure my office a bit. Don’t think I was going to go too crazy–I mean, there are only a couple ways that all the bookshelves, the large desk with the tall hutch, and the Arkanoid can fit into this space. Maybe only one. I have the PCs under the desk and the printers on it, and I hoped to have a shelving solution under the desk where I could fit the two remaining towers and two printers under the desk so I could put a small flatscreen television (currently upstairs hooked to a PlayStation 2 probably last used in 2020) to which I could hook up a Commodore 64, Commodore 128, TI 99/4A, or whatever as the mood struck me. I picked up a cheap plastic shelving unit at Walmart, and when I tested it, Big Iron was an inch too tall to fit on the shelf. So it’s back to the existing configuration. But… someday….
I did spend a couple of hours fishing old cabling out from behind the desk. I apparently splurged for several 10′ VGA cables and a 10″ DVI cable back in the day (and a VGA A/B switch). I pulled out disconnected Cat5 cables and unused power adapters from long-lost peripherals. And I found a few CDs the cats had knocked off of the hutch.
So I’ve made a long story short here, as this really was an endeavor. And it’s mostly invisible (except for the bright LED lights when I’m working). I am not sure whether it’s because I don’t like change because I’m a curmudgeon or because I’m lazy, but this might be the last computer I buy (but probably not).
