Friday, October 26, 2007

Putting together your own computer - continued

In an earlier post, I enthused how I was putting together a computer, and how easy it was --- AAAAAGHHH!

Seems the boards were shipping with bad CMOS batteries, although I didn't know that at the time. All I knew is that it would not start up for me. I sent it back and it worked perfectly for them! I got a board from a different company (now I was up to renovating two computers), and it started perfectly.

Of course, I had to put in Vista 64, since my daughter must play Sims 2 all the time. Well, Vista 64 really doesn't work all that well... First, forget the use of any PCI cards, the Bios and the drivers need perfect planetary alignment, and that appears to be rare. Besides, there are almost no working drivers for old wifi cards. I followed somebody's advice and went with an external ethernet-wireless bridge, which works with anything.

I finally got it all working (except the sound!), and the ladies love it, because it has such a *cute* interface! I think I'm giving up on building my own computers....

No comments: