New Computer for New Years!
I’ve been using the school assigned IBM T60 for the past year and half as output to my Samsung 42″ DLP. The problem with the IBM T60 lies in its Intel 945GM Express Chipset integrated graphics ~ it does not output to 1280×720 properly. After a lot of searching and reading, I found that a similar graphics device driver could be used to output 1280×720 - embedded device! The problem with embedded devices is that it’s unconfigurable to a layman like me, and I had to use software to override the vertical/horizontal sync problem that the device had with outputting. To make long story short, it worked well… up to a point. With frequent crashes and unexplainable death screens, I didn’t much appreciate the T60… but I made way.
Around middle of last year, I started thinking about replacing the laptop… with a new one, from Alienwares or something… any laptop really, with a decent graphics card! But, everything was so dang expensive. I also looked at desktop solution, but I wasn’t quite ready and decided my T60 will work still, and I shouldn’t change it just because I feel like it.
The problem came when I went back to Orlando for break and came back to find that Power Strip was not working anymore, and after hours of tweaking, I can’t the display to sync properly! The lower part of screen would get cut off, and it was annoying as hell! I decided it IS time for new computer, and after much research, I found a great new motherboard — GA-MA69GM-S2H ($75) from Gigabyte. It’s my very first AMD board… probably first AMD in the whole Tsen family! I got a great deal on Vista Ultimate + Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor ($310), rebate on Corsair XMS2 2×1GB DDR2-800 for ($37 AR), rebate on Apevia Case ($60 AR), and WD 500gb SATA ($105)! I especially like the motherboard with HDMI out from the onboard VGA, and the possibility to expand with PCI-Ex16 if I want to in the future.
Well, I started putting it all together earlier tonight… took me about 2 hours to get it all setup and ready for Vista, then the problem came… the installation itself. At first, it started okay ~ the installation file copies from DVD, and it seem to be running. Then, it just froze! I was supposed to get to the screen that prompts me for “What language do you wanna install” and “where is your KB from?” etc, but it doesn’t go there! I was like, WTF is wrong with this POS?! I went online, and did some search and found that Vista doesn’t like USB stuff plugged in while setting up, so I unplugged everything. But it didn’t help… it was still frozen! I then saw an article that stated, “don’t worry if it’s seems stuck, it’s not! Wait like 30 minutes!”
So basically, I started the waiting game after resetting about 10 times and trying different things. At last, after giving up and going to wash my face and getting ready to sleep, I came back to find the “What language you wanna install” window waiting for me. After staring at the blank screen for like 15 minutes, something finally happened with Vista.
MS, your shit is failing because no one likes to install Vista! IT people want to see progress bar! Percentage going up and stuff! When it’s just a blank colorful screen with the DVD spinning up every 5 minute and the HDD not doing jack, we think shit ain’t working and try to find problem that’s not there!
So, after getting through that, it’s finally installation with a percentage bar… There are 5 steps…
1) Copying Windows files
2) Expanding files (19% after like 30 minutes)
3) Installing features
4) Installing updates
5) Completing installation.
If I was installing XP on this computer, I would be downloading anime by now and watching anime… but nooo, with Vista, the installation is going to take 6 hours! Piece of crap!