This all went down last Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th of April 2008.
I got an armful of bits from the hardware store and set about my work.
I’ve done this a nice few times so I was well prepared.
The best way to start is to put the bulk of the software ie the OS on the new computer while its still naked in bits on the table, and keep it as simple as possible here, you only need one of everything. You can be sure everything works then before you start screwing things together and making a balls of it.
And you shouldn’t have to tear your own machine apart because if you’ve been smart there are three or four computer graveyards in your house you can raid for parts. Should something go wrong you always have a back up.
I got some nasty bangs in my device manager that could have prevented yours truly from doing certain key things I needed to do in the embryonic stages of the computer’s consciousness.
But the important work was done.
Lots of motherboards have a habit of inflicting righteous justice on those that dare to use SATA hard drives for an OS install. Mercifully that wasn’t one of those boards.
Time to dismantle the old one and I’d right any problems later.
This is what it looked like the last time I rebuilt it. Named Lumpy after its sistership.
And this is the last webpage I was ever on in that world.
I’ve always been one for minimalism. There’s this useless bit of metal that only ever impeded air flow and cables.
I really needed an angle grinder for this but I didn’t have one so I just went at it to get enough of it out as I could with a hacksaw.
Which was making short work of it but didn’t fit into the chassis after a certain point. But a determined Irishman with some of the right tools can always achieve something. Including strip the teeth off a small hacksaw blade and snap another normal sized one.
Then I cleaned it out with some alcohol and ran a magnet around it for good measure to pick up any sub-millimetre metal shards that could really mess up my machine if they got into the right places. And shook it around and hoovered it again.
If you don’t need it, bin it. That was the philosophy.
See that mauve coloured piece of plastic at the bottom right? You know I binned it.
After some extensive remodelling I was left with this.
And I made significant improvements to the architecture of the hardware into the bargain.
I spent a couple of nights setting the software side up. It got itself into some right fecks where all it could tell me was it didn’t know what it was supposed to be doing or something in there wouldn’t talk to it or it didn’t know what it was but its fine now. One problem is the main power button doesn’t work. I think I wrecked it chopping lumps off the front bezel. So I have to hit a button on the board. Which isn’t so bad because I’m now the only one that knows how to start it.
I took some other shots. With a piece of shit 3.2Mp camera and not a tripod even within 100 yards of the house they could be better. And if I knew jack about lighting.
And I was loving every minute of it, even the bit where it was all going terribly wrong and I just powered it off and went away and used another computer for RB for half an hour, hastily deleting the journal entry I put in earlier about doing the job due to lack of interest.
When I came back downstairs I went at it again. I eventually got to bed at half seven with the window open listening to the birds singing at dawn.
Losers.
Up around twelve for a giant Sunday dinner in my friend’s house and spent the rest of the night back home relaxing and doing a bit of everything with the new machine to bed it in to its new life.
That’s what weekends are all about.
The ones where you don’t drink yourself stupid anyway.
No more annoying systray icons, no more update pop ups for some vile piece of software I need once in a blue moon. No more calming the computer down after its been booted first and has to do everything at once. It’ll age and I’ll do it again. I’ve always wanted to connect two power supplies because it’d be an extremely cheap way of not having to worry about something. I need to talk to an electrician about that though.
I could go on all night but there’s work to do.
Danny
,
4 months ago
Marvelous piece
I can relate to the obsession of finishing the job
theyellowfury in reply to Danny’s comment, 4 months ago
Thanks Danny.
Do you think I should put a disclaimer in saying women won’t find this at all interesting? No woman I know would anyway.
margpie, 4 months ago
Ahh but you are wrong, I am a woman and i find it all facinating, The photos of the internal structure are art in themselves, you could make some very abstract work out of these….
theyellowfury in reply to margpie’s comment, 4 months ago
Thanks M.
Maybe that makes you the exception that proves the rule. We’ll have to see.
You’re a cool lady anyway.
Ushna Sardar, 4 months ago
great piece of writing theyellowfury! thanks for sharing!
theyellowfury in reply to Ushna Sardar’s comment, 4 months ago
Thanks Ushna. No disclaimer for this then.
Ushna Sardar, 4 months ago
your welcome :) keep up great work!
butchart, 4 months ago
well that was fun…. you got ballz m8….. thanks for sharing…......b
Metamorphosis, 4 months ago
no disclaimer needed S :).. that was an interesting read and awesome photos, something i wanted to learn about what exactly is in computers.. that is some pretty incredible work you did there…
theyellowfury in reply to butchart’s comment, 4 months ago
No worries. Any idiot can do it. Its cheap too. I only spent about €170 here for the new board, hard drive and cpu.
theyellowfury in reply to Metamorphosis’s comment, 4 months ago
Many thanks B. I really enjoyed myself.
Juilee Pryor, 4 months ago
OMG…..... and your missus lets you do things like that on the kitchen table….. I am impressed…...... don’t really know what your talking about for most of it but it sounds like you had like lots and lots of fun…....me I just ring someone and say…... Harry…(PC’s called Hard Core Harry coz he’s got a blue light…) ....Harry’s not behaving again…... can you come straight away…... :) They do mysterious things and I give them money and we are all happy….... works for me…....:)
theyellowfury in reply to Juilee Pryor’s comment, 4 months ago
Good on you for not buying a Mac. Thanks for your comment.
Juilee Pryor, 4 months ago
hey PC’s rule as far as I’m concerned….. I work in a Mac ghetto in a Uni and have to put up with Macheads all day long….. just don’t see what they see in them to be honest…..... oh well
theyellowfury in reply to Juilee Pryor’s comment, 4 months ago
Yep. Always smelling their own farts and saying how great they and their Macs are. Ever read iCreate? 100 odd pages of how great it is to be a Mac patron plus some Photoshop for beginners.
Naw, they’re ok I spose. I wouldn’t want one.
Juilee Pryor, 4 months ago
to be honest they are really consistently very pretty….. but the stylish looks don’t compensate for the seriously confusing operating system…... I get enough brain fag just being me without having to deal with in machines as well…... :)
theyellowfury, 4 months ago
Also Steve Jobs is a pretty cool mf and I’d like to retract much of the Mac-bashing.
Ange, 4 months ago
wow, mighty fine lump there mr fury:)
pcs are quite rightly shit. d drive this, c drive that…a bloody piss virus kills the whole machine. macs are clear, concise, no bullshit. i barely have time to breathe let alone waste my time on inferior technology.
& teaching photoshop on both platforms…well i cannot begin to tell you how bad pcs are. they’re plain miserable to work or demonstrate from. thank fuck for macs.
theyellowfury in reply to Ange’s comment, 4 months ago
Macs are for people who aren’t into computers. They’re perfect for pensioners and farmers. Am I wrong?
And they’re expensive.
I’ve always loved your work, thanks for reading and commenting.
Ange, 4 months ago
cheers mr fury.
yep macs are expensive. the good stuff in this ol’ life doesnt come cheap.
theyellowfury in reply to Ange’s comment, 4 months ago
Well I grow my own pcs so it never costs me much.
Charleen L. Scott, 4 months ago
megh… i don’t get it one bit, but i love the pics of your comp. I know i’m a total chic, but i’m into other things that chics aren’t and won’t pretend i know the first thing about anything this blog is about.
Charleen L. Scott, 4 months ago
oh, i like the little radio thing on your counter. you have nice cabinets too.
theyellowfury in reply to Charleen L. Scott’s comment, 4 months ago
Well welcome to the page anyway.
What about this though:
It got itself into some right fecks where all it could tell me was it didn’t know what it was supposed to be doing or something in there wouldn’t talk to it or it didn’t know what it was but its fine now
Thought that’s be in lay(wo)man’s terms enough for anybody. If you’ve ever owned a computer this has happened to you.
theyellowfury, 4 months ago
RE: the above reply
Feck off Mac people, The reason your computers have never tried to kill you is that you haven’t been working them hard enough to provoke a panic reaction to what you were doing to them at the time.
deliriousgirl, 4 months ago
JFC!!! I am sooooo damned highly impressed! Now when can you move in ?
theyellowfury in reply to deliriousgirl’s comment, 4 months ago
Thanks Jen. I’ll just book a flight now so.
theyellowfury, 4 months ago
That makes it five (groovy) women who liked the post and only one who completely missed the point. Boy was I wrong.
deliriousgirl, 4 months ago
HAAA!!! Real women love very competent males, sweetheart.
theyellowfury in reply to deliriousgirl’s comment, 4 months ago
I dunno. You might as well be talking into a bucket as talking this stuff to any of my female friends or ex-girlfriends. One of em even said “its very boy in here” when she walked in and I had the whole kitchen turned into a laboratory
Thank you for your competent compliment. I’ve been fired for a lot of things before but never incompetence.
You’re a sweetheart too.
Care, 1 day ago
wow …amusing…and quite the learning experience….will refer back to this when I open up my comp….had to do a bit of open machine surgery before …but had a bit of help…haven’t doen it solo yet….really fascinating to see how it all goes together…and it looks a lot less complicated than I had first thought….
...and your kitchen is so tidy….that is very impressive too ; )
theyellowfury in reply to Care’s comment, 1 day ago
Thanks Care, the bloody thing is broke, I’ve to do it all again.