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My computer is ill

Barely a month after I posted that my computer is aging, I now have the painful duty of informing that my computer is ill.

I cannot state that this is a setback. Essentially, it means that I have to put a halt to all the work I had planned for a week.

Rather like the comedian, I must say, I tend to find humour in different situations. What's humourous about this one, you ask? Well, what I find funny is that all this while when my computer performance was deteriorating, I kept on grumbling, Oh, either get well, or shut down completely, don't keep me hanging on with this poor performance and flickering display. That was until my computer suddenly decided to not wake up from sleep one fine afternoon.

I remember the day like it was the day before yesterday (and it was!). A rather ordinary afternoon. I went to the lab where I'm supposed to work on my bachelor's project, worked a bit on my computer, then I left to grab a snack, putting my laptop on sleep mode. Then, when I tried to start my laptop again, I found that it had entered into a Sleeping Beauty or into Rip Van Winkle mode (I of course did not bother to find out my computer's gender). In short, it refused to wake up from sleep. This did not really bother me. After all, my computer had failed the POST many times over in the past. So, I simply pulled out the power, the battery and the CMOS battery, drained all the capacitors in the circuit by pressing the power button for some time, then put everything back again. It refused to start.

I think that was the time panic started to set in. As much as I had cursed my laptop, I never could imagine life without it. Suddenly, I lose everything! My data, files (of course I take regular backups, but I still stood to lose around a month's worth of effort), and also all the programmes and settings over which I had spent lot of time. Worst of all, not having a computer pushed me back to the dark ages, wherein I suddenly realized that I had absolutely nothing to do. All my academic work, my project work (a whole bunch of them), all relied on proximity to my laptop.

Right now, I have given my computer for repairs. I shall be getting my computer only next week. It turns out that overheating on my processor damaged the processor socket on the motherboard. So, I need to replace my motherboard. Will my OEM license for Windows Vista carry over to the new motherboard? I hope so. The alternative is anarchy. How long will the replacement motherboard last? It is not a Compaq authorized repair, I'm getting my laptop repaired from the (not so) friendly local neighbourhood computer service guy, who struggled to remove my hard-disk drive. He is of course charging much less than what an authorized service centre would have charged, but I suspect quality.

I'm told that the issue with overheating is frequent on AMD processors. So does this mean that AMD processors are high maintenance? Does having an AMD processor, which uses silicon on insulator (SOI) technology to prevent power loss, consequently decreasing heat dissipation capacity of the processor actually spell death for the motherboard? Why aren't AMD sockets designed to withstand the higher temperatures? Does this problem also extend to the Intel core i7 processors, which heat up much more than the AMD processor I have on my laptop?

I hope my laptop is repaired without any further hassles as soon as possible so that I can bring my life back on track. Right now, I'm using a desktop computer in my lab for all my work, as a result, I have to stay in the lab for far longer than anyone else would. I just hope that my professor counts this staying in the lab thing as dedication to project work. ;)

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