Bad Luck

Some time ago, I told you about my BIOS on my ASUS M2N-SLI motherboard crapping out on me. I got extremely lucky that a local shop had the ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe MB in stock and were willing to part with it-- with no return policy or assurances, but I've installed plenty of MBs and know what I'm doing.

That MB worked great... until today. Something about the SP2 Vista update, or something surrounding it, or possibly totally unrelated, caused my machine to spiral out of control until now I have no response from the BIOS at all. What was odd is that at first I had some BIOS response-- I could get to the BIOS and it would even start to boot, but then would freeze or reboot suddenly. Then, each time, it seemed to not go as far. Then the BIOS started showing odd things, like not recognizing all hardware attached, or rearranging it, or not saving settings. Then, finally, it just didn't respond at all... now I turn it on and all my drives start up, etc., but I don't even get a POST or a beep from it. *sigh

While investigating it, I did discover that I may have some sort of short on a wire in my case. Which, of course, could have caused both my MB/BIOS related issues (but is somewhat unlikely). I'm continuing to investigate that even with the dead BIOS.

As I have good, quality hardware that I don't want to replace right now, I went looking for a new MB that would be forward compatible but would support my existing tech. I found a nice ASRock MB that seems to fit that bill. The reviews I read for it were all very positive, and I was pleased with the additional information I found on the manufacturer's site for the board. And it comes in at $100, which was about what I quickly budgeted for this replacement MB.

The one amusing thing was that I could pay UPS ground at $14 to get it here in 5-10 business days, or I could pay slightly above $35 for "expedited" UPS shipping, which would get it here in... 4-9 business days. Yeah, okay, I think I'll stick with the $14 and take my chances on that one extra day. I can use M's PC for emails and blogging between now and whenever I get the MB.

I tell you, though, if I didn't like my case, my hardware, and everything so much, I might have taken my next paycheck and seen what I could get in a pre-built system, whether laptop or PC, with a really nice replacement warranty. One issue with build-it-yourself systems, which I've done since the early 1980s (and for those who don't believe me, my dad and I built my first 80286 machine around 1986/87 and before that we messed around with the Tandy line of PCs and hardware!), is that you don't get the all-encompassing, fix it or replace it warranties. And you have to maintain all of your individual warranties for parts and such. It can be a pain and I'm getting old enough that I'm not as willing to do the troubleshooting, repair, reformatting, or replacement any more.

Anyway, the new MB is ordered. Since I'm ordering from the west coast, they may even process it today and it may ship tomorrow, so I may not be down too long. However, this will put a bit of a damper on my usual PC activities. *Another sigh