Emotional Attachement to PC Hardware

[email protected] · Post by **[email protected]** » 20 Jul 2009, 04:13

I had a PC build about a year ago, I spent a month configuring and shopping and a day assembling and installing. Since then I have Re-Formatted almost a half dozen times.

Recently it experienced its second hardware failure (the first being a hard drive failure (one of four hard drives). But this one was the graphics card, before the failure, the video drivers would crash (but vista would restart them (yay vista) to have them crash again minutes later. This was remedied by installing EVGA precision tool and changing the fan setting from auto to maximum.

But then something else happened, while FRAPSing some in-game footage the hard drive reached maximum capacity (shame virtual memory does not work the other way (I have 8gB ram) and that led to having to do a reformat.

After the reformat everything went fine until I installed the video card drivers, at which point the machine would only boot into safe mode or last known good configuration.

Three to four phone calls to EVGA later a senior support staff member came to the conclusion that there was a problem with my vram and the card is leaving tomorrow for a warranty RMA.

Tonight I was packing the card and I felt sad, why did the loss of this card affect me so? It WAS the single most expensive piece of hardware in the PC. It was also the most premium piece of hardware I ever purchased (9800 GX2).

Has anyone else become emotional over a piece of PC hardware?

Post by **Gilly** » 20 Jul 2009, 16:48

the only emotions i have with my computer are:

RAGE - when idiots lose the battleground again

disapointment - when i lose a specific piece, screw or bracket etc etc

dispair - when i fried my 9800 Pro by not fitting the voltage controller heatsink back on

:D :D :D

Post by **Abram** » 20 Jul 2009, 22:31

Anger when something dies, and a bit of joy when i get a nice new piece to replace it.

But I"m pretty protective of it. I get very territorial when i find some asshoel using my computer. But my household knows this and usually respects it.

And i guess i mis it when it's non-operational.

But no, i never shed tears or becoem melancholy.

whismerhill · Post by **whismerhill** » 21 Jul 2009, 02:51

Anger when something dies, and a bit of joy when i get a nice new piece to replace it.

But I"m pretty protective of it. I get very territorial when i find some asshoel using my computer. But my household knows this and usually respects it.

And i guess i mis it when it's non-operational.

But no, i never shed tears or becoem melancholy.

This fits me too

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 21 Jul 2009, 05:42

[quote]Anger when something dies, and a bit of joy when i get a nice new piece to replace it.

But I"m pretty protective of it. I get very territorial when i find some asshoel using my computer. But my household knows this and usually respects it.

And i guess i mis it when it's non-operational.

But no, i never shed tears or becoem melancholy.

This fits me too

as i.

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 21 Jul 2009, 21:15

I'm getting a strange noise lately in my PC case. It can be anything from a subtle whining hum, to a loud intermittent mechanical noise. I was worried it might be one of my nearly 5 yr old Raptors going out, but it doesn't seem to do it with the case side and front off. Hopefully it's just one of the 80mm fans on the front of the case going out. I just need to hold on for another 8 months or so until I build my new i7, X58, DX11 rig.

Hope you get your GPU problems sorted. Just a reminder, always check the GPU fan speed with an app that can tweak the settings. It can make a big difference in how cool and stable they run.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 22 Jul 2009, 14:06

I get annoyed when something doesn't work. I'm quietly pleased when something new impresses me. And I get stressed when I discover a problem I can't fix.

I get angry at myself whenever I sell something, because I can guarantee that two days later I will have needed it for something. Happened with my old Voodoo card, and my Voodoo3, as well. I kept my Voodoo5, but for some reason it works fine during POST and Windows loading, but gives me a corrupt screen when the desktop appears. :(

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 23 Jul 2009, 10:25

LOL, sounds like you upset the voodoo gods or something. I know what you mean about getting upset about hardware problems. It's not having something go wrong so much as not knowing what it is or not being able to fix it.

Post by **maherie** » 29 Jul 2009, 08:44

Funny, my computer, while not new, is pretty awesome for me. Nice specs and all... then it comes to my keyboard. wow. it is shit. MX3200 logitech and it looks like hell. really. all worn and old dusty, and some keys don't work. (apperently this is the Up bracket

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 29 Jul 2009, 10:58

Yeah, I'm the same about keyboards mate. When PS/2 keyboards finally vanish, I'm gonna have to ditch my favourite keyboard. :(

Wiz33 · Post by **Wiz33** » 29 Jul 2009, 15:57

I had a PC build about a year ago, I spent a month configuring and shopping and a day assembling and installing. Since then I have Re-Formatted almost a half dozen times.

Recently it experienced its second hardware failure (the first being a hard drive failure (one of four hard drives). But this one was the graphics card, before the failure, the video drivers would crash (but vista would restart them (yay vista) to have them crash again minutes later. This was remedied by installing EVGA precision tool and changing the fan setting from auto to maximum.

But then something else happened, while FRAPSing some in-game footage the hard drive reached maximum capacity (shame virtual memory does not work the other way (I have 8gB ram) and that led to having to do a reformat.

After the reformat everything went fine until I installed the video card drivers, at which point the machine would only boot into safe mode or last known good configuration.

Three to four phone calls to EVGA later a senior support staff member came to the conclusion that there was a problem with my vram and the card is leaving tomorrow for a warranty RMA.

Tonight I was packing the card and I felt sad, why did the loss of this card affect me so? It WAS the single most expensive piece of hardware in the PC. It was also the most premium piece of hardware I ever purchased (9800 GX2).

Has anyone else become emotional over a piece of PC hardware?

A point I want to raise. If you need to max out the fan speed on the gfx card for it to run stable. Something is wrong. You probably have a airflow problem in your case. either your intake filter are dirty (if your case have them), you don't have enough case fan (or they are at too low a speed) or you have a air circulation problem (your air circulation pattern is leaving a pocket of warm air near the GPU).

whismerhill · Post by **whismerhill** » 29 Jul 2009, 20:01

A point I want to raise. If you need to max out the fan speed on the gfx card for it to run stable. Something is wrong. You probably have a airflow problem in your case. either your intake filter are dirty (if your case have them), you don't have enough case fan (or they are at too low a speed) or you have a air circulation problem (your air circulation pattern is leaving a pocket of warm air near the GPU).

OR that the gfx card has/had a problem

I had two 8800GTS512 & all was fine but for a little problem both had the fan maximum blocked at 50% (even though that's not what the default BIOS said) which caused problems with memory temps with some rare games ...
of course it could be solved with manually forcing higher fan speeds with rivatuner.(generally 60~70% was enough)

This was just an example to show that not everything is black & white, while you got a point, the universe of possibilities is wider than that.

Wiz33 · Post by **Wiz33** » 29 Jul 2009, 21:31

Yes, his card have a problem. It's probably caused by being repeatedly overheated.

EVGA are fairly good at the Heatsink design and software control. I have never had to raise one of their card above default fan speed unless I'm overclocking it. So if a EVGA is overheating at default fan speed something else is wrong.

[email protected] · Post by **[email protected]** » 29 Jul 2009, 22:46

Well the RMA was completed today and my replacement arrived.

A GTX 280!!!

But it has one less output so my hopes of adding a third display to my two 3840*1024 are dashed. BUT it gets much better specs at high resolutions in Crysis so I may actually get to play the game on higher quality.

Post by **Abram** » 29 Jul 2009, 23:51

NIce upgrade from teh 9800 you had.

time to update your sig.

Tanuki · Post by **Tanuki** » 30 Jul 2009, 02:57

I made love to a sound card once. But it meant nothing to me.

[email protected] · Post by **[email protected]** » 30 Jul 2009, 06:11

Thanks Abram, I will do that right now.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 30 Jul 2009, 14:04

EVGA are fairly good at the Heatsink design and software control. I have never had to raise one of their card above default fan speed unless I'm overclocking it. So if a EVGA is overheating at default fan speed something else is wrong.

Except for the eVGA exclusive card coolers, such as the Akimbo series, eVGA, just like BFG, XFX and others... all use the 'reference' design for their coolers. They are no different to any other reference cooler out there. And the 9800GX2 was the sort of 'sandwich' design which is a royal PITA to get a decent cooler design for - aside from watercooling, there wasn't an option outside of the stock cooler AFAIK.

I will grant you that their software is well designed but it doesn't really do anything that other apps didn't do already. The Precision software just makes it a little more user friendly.

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