So, I've been a little busy. Not in the 'actually doing anything important' sense, but I'm about to post about it anyway.

Back on April 2nd, I got a box. An expected box, containing computer parts. A box that rattled in an unsettling manner....

It was packed well enough, though. Of course it was. Because my parents packed it, and they both know how to send computer parts so that they don't get broken.

The source of the rattling. My mom [or possibly my dad] thought to include some screws. Thoughtful...but some warning would've been nice. Unless it was my mom's idea to scare me, since the 'Regular' thing didn't really work last Christmas....

My new motherboard. Except it's kinda old. But new to me, and that's what counts, right? It's not much, by today's standards, but it beats the hell out of my old one. It's a Socket 939, and my old one is a Socket A. The difference may not seem like much [I was at 1.9ghz before, and now I'm at...2.1, I think], but it's...enough.

The videocard my parents sent along. Not as good as the videocard that's in my old machine, but, well, I'll get to that later....

The book for the motherboard, and the CD that goes with it.

...it's been a while since I cleaned it. But, hey, I'm about to take it apart, right? So, I can do that now....

The old board.

And the new one.

And the fan's nice and...well, okay, it's only kinda clean. But that's okay. It's time to get this thing up and running.

But, it's not that easy. Oh no, it's never that easy. Because, first, I go through this whole 'oh, what the fuck?' thing where I'm looking for the right bit of the power supply to plug into the special part of the motherboard that my old board didn't have -- and, of course, it takes me half an hour to find it, because I'd tucked it away so it wouldn't get in the way. I was about to swap everything out because I had myself convinced that this one didn't have the right bits....

I found it, though, and got everything plugged in.

Then came the really fun part. The part where it wouldn't power on. At all. Until, after an hour of experimenting, I unplugged the DVI cable, and it magically powered on.

Another WTF moment. It's on, though. So I can't complain too much.

Which, of course leads to 'oh, hey, I'm an idiot. I have to reformat this thing to get it running right again'. Which I knew. But...I kinda forgot to back everything up, and, since I haven't got any other computer up and running so I can do that [not counting Gremlin's], and my rescue gadgets are all dead...so, I get to back everything up in 800x600 hell.

I did find something neat while I was doing all that, though.

Somehow, I have spam from 1970! I discovered this because, while backing up my email, I happened to notice that the largest file was actually the junk folder. I kinda never cleaned that out. Oops.

Once all that was done, I managed to get it reformatted. And I ran into another problem.

My videocard -- my good one -- just didn't want to work in this machine. I don't know why, but it's a good thing my parents sent that old videocard with it. I'm currently stuck with a 128mb videocard, but it's better than nothing.

The 256mb card that I had is now living in the TV tower...on my old motherboard. Wasting all its power just playing videos for me.

Zombi was helpful cat throughout the entire process, of course.

After all that, I started having some stability problems. One of my drives was dying. Not good.

I ordered a new drive, and a new rescue gadget. Which arrived broken. So I'm debating whether or not to bother Newegg about it, or just use the power supply with the old USB connector I have that still works. I...didn't manage to rescue everything from that drive, either. Not fun.

My computer seems stable enough now, though. And Photoshop opens way faster....