My Project: Part IV

Well, not 24 hours later and Amazon shipped out my replacement.

I unpackaged it very, very carefully taking note they actually put packaging materials on top of the box inside the bigger box. Impressive, most impressive.

So I open the box, take out the case and notice a large hole in the side of the cardboard. That was not most impressive.

Then I carefully cut the tape off and slowly slid the case out and...viola...the case was in perfect condition.

Once I get home today, I'll post some pictures of the broken case and the "good" case.

My Project: Part III

I pull into my driveway after work today and see a nice, big amazon box on my porch. I knew instantly what it was...my new black and orange Mid-Size Cooler Master Elite 310 ATX case:



It's also comic book day, so double-yay!

I get inside, noticing that the packaging is a little beat up. The box holding the case was inside another, larger box. The didn't put any packaging material on top, so the larger box was nearly wide open, I could basically see inside the box.

Oh well, I carefully opened the box and lifted the actual case's box out and heard the sound of rattling...I figured it was the sound of screws or something.

Once I opened the box and pulled the case out I was not happy. The plastic...whatever they're called...anchors?...that hold the face to the case were all broken and the face was hanging off, held together only by the fact that they end of the wire tips weren't small enough to fall through the holes in the case.

I thought it might just be one that was broken, and I could find one, or there'd be an extra but no such luck. As I looked closer there was pieces of plastic everywhere inside the case and in the plastic bag the case came in.

I mean, how hard do you have to throw this box around to do this type of damage? I'm absolutely furious. Amazon has burned me a few times in the past...I've bought collectible comic books and they arrived loose in boxes with no protection and all folded up and bumped edges etc.

This makes the 5th time I've had to return something to Amazon. Of course, they are providing me with a replacement...but I've even had to ship back replacements before!

Is it me or has Amazon's service declined lately?

My Project: Part II

Today, my motherboard arrived.

I'm basically going to document every step of this procedure. Just to see exactly how many individual steps it takes to get this done. Then maybe I'll write up a little guide...who knows.

I've already got a Sapphire 4850HD that I purchased about a year ago...and it actually fits! Hoo-rah! I'm amazed because when I spent a bucketload of money on that video card it didn't fit in my current motherboard.

I Want This So Bad I Would Kill

Call me materialistic, call me a sucker, call me a brainless consumer...I don't care.

I...Want...This.

My Project: Part I

This project is motivated by the exorbitant amount of money Comcast charges for television.

At best, my wife and I watch 7-10 hours of television a week. Hardly worth the nearly $200.00/month bill we receive for phone, internet and cable.

I've been given to the go-ahead (wife's approval) to go ahead and give this a shot. The machine I'm going to be using to use as the media center television is:

• Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack
• 2.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium D
• Intel Corporation D945GBI AAC99325-202 motherboard
• 4GB of RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
• Soundblaster Audigy

This machine has served me very, very well for a long time. I've modded the case with a nice big window on the side and have taken loving care of it. I hope that in it's new endeavor, it serves me just as well as it has in the past.

Now, the new machine I'll be building to take it's place will be built with some nice, new components. But to keep it interesting, I'll only link to those pieces of hardware I've already purchased.

• My new case.
• My new ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
• My video card: Sapphire HD 4850 512MB GDDR3
  

That's what I've purchased so far. I know what CPU I will be buying and I know what ram I'll be buying...but you'll have to stay tuned to see what they are as I purchase them.

Caveat To My Last Post

So...upon further review my tip still works. But as soon as the user logs off they disappear upon logging back in.

Anyone know a way to make them permanent? Would be a heck of a lot easier!

Stumbled Upon A Really Neat Trick

So a user was upgraded to a new laptop today.

As part of her migration process I had gotten everything over to her new computer except I had forgotten her mapped network drives.

Not really a problem.

I sneakernet back to my repair lab and fire up her old laptop. I drag and drop her mapped drives onto the USB stick thinking I would simply use the letters and names to recreate them on her new computer.

However...that last step wasn't needed.

Oh, you think I just dragged and dropped them? No.

With the USB stick in, simply right click on each mapped drive and select properties. Then take a look at the "My Computer" window. Those drive are mapped automatically. Really...that easy.

I love finding things by mistake!