We Need More Power, Cap'n!

Well, today is my first Rezday. I was thinking of inviting people to my house for a party or something, but my computer hasn't been fully functional this past week so I wasn't on SL to send out notices and things. I may still log in tonight and see if I can get something impromptu going.

So here is the story of my computer problems (which I realize is the topic of a depressingly large percentage of posts on this blog). I previously mentioned getting a new graphics card, but that I needed to get a more powerful power supply before I could use it. I got the power supply last week, but found when I got home that it didn't have the right type of connectors. All my drives (2 hard drives and 1 DVD drive) have SATA connectors, but this power supply only had 1. So I ordered some adapters that convert the more common 4-pin connector into a SATA one. They were supposed to arrive yesterday, but now look like they might not come until Monday.

At this point, I haven't said anything about why my computer isn't working right now. I can just leave the old power supply and graphics card in until I get my connectors. Yes, that is what I should have done. Being impatient, however, I decided I didn't want to wait to play with my new graphics card. The new power supply has one SATA connector, so I can plug in the hard drive with Windows and go without Linux and a DVD drive until my adapters arrive. So I begin the process of removing the old power supply. My computer is a Dell, and while they've made it really convenient and easy to add new PCI cards and drives, they obviously never expected someone to replace the power supply. Some of the cords went underneath the massive CPU fan, and turned out to be hard to remove. I first just tried pulling them through, but the plugs were too big. I had two choices at this point: remove the CPU fan to get the cords out, or cut the cords. I didn't want to risk damaging my CPU or fan, so I decided to cut the cords. This decision is why I now have computer problems ;) Ok, so I remove the old power supply and put in the new one, hook up my Windows hard drive, turn it on, and...nothing. I get a flashing cursor on a blank screen. Then I realize because I dual-boot, the boot data is probably on my Linux drive. So I unplug the Windows drive, plug in the Linux drive, turn it on, and...GRUB error. I guess I need both drives plugged in to boot, which isn't possible right now. And guess what? I can't put my old power supply back because I destroyed it XD

But wait! I can plug in my DVD drive. What can you do with a DVD drive and no hard drives? Linux Live CD! While it's annoying because I have to download and install it each time I boot, I've actually managed to play Second Life using this method. I keep finding more and more reasons why I love Linux.

So while I was writing this, I got a call that the adapters arrived, so hopefully I will have my computer fully functional soon. Now that I've been on SL for a year, I want to write a post about the new features that have been released since I started. First though, I want to get my computer working again. So the next post will either be "A Year in SL" or "How I Ended Up Completely Destroying My Computer Installing 2 Adapters".