Category: For the Geeks

I switched on the power half expected my computer to go kaboom. I saw three fans were moving but wait, what happened to the other two? A journal of my got-nothing-better-to-do-and-brainlessly-added-a-second-graphic-card adventure.

If technology bores you, at least admire the beautiful picture on the left taken right after I am the official proud owner of a computer that has two graphic cards. Can you see the characters “SLi”? If you wonder where are the two graphic cards, they are on either side of those characters.

I kept telling myself that I hold a Master degree in the field of computing. But the reality is when it comes down to the computer and me, something supernatural in nature bounds to happen. And in my opinion, all these hardware installation and configuration and manuals and all are written by the geekest of the geeks and only the geekest of the geeks can operate and understand them at ease.
When I upgraded my computer couple of months ago, I have this vision of having two graphic cards taking my gaming experience beyond the wildest of my imagination. Think of this like a car. Imagine there exists a car that, if it pleases you, can fit not just one, but two engines underneath the bonnet. It runs like a sport car with one engine. With two engines, you feel as though you are no longer driving but rather, flying.

Why didn’t I get 2 graphic cards in the first place? Well, back then, the price for one card was S$450. Spending S$900 on graphic cards seemed a bit excessive back then. Today, the card is less than S$340. The price is dropping but so is product (dropping off the shelf that is). The cards have to be identical. Otherwise, it won’t work.

Over Chinese takeaway, I was looking at my new graphic card and then at my computer and I was trying to figure out how the hack I was going to power my new card. In the old days, I just needed to plug the card into the slot and it would work. You see, this wonderful card requires a supplementary power supply that takes not just one, but two “power plugs”. I was searching high and low for spare “power plugs” but found none. After dinner, I creatively freed up some and ended up having two fans not working (hence the beginning of this journal). I swear I found two plugs saying “Fans Only” but somehow, supernaturally, the idea did not work.

And I was compelled to try to search for the manual of my power supply unit. I was in tears (of joy) when I found three “extension plugs” that convert one “power plug” into two.

Without reading the graphic card manual in details (who read manuals these days?!), I plugged the new identical card into the allocated slot. In doing so, I had to move the sound card down and removed the extra USB outlets in order to make space for my “new engine”. Not a problem. If my car can fly, I can do with 2 lesser USB outlets.

Like a kid with new puzzle, I found a “bridge” that straddle across the two cards. I read the manual once more and realized that I have to flip one of the big chips on board upside down! Oh no! That chip was located right in the middle of the two cards and since I had difficulties in removing the cards from the slots, I squeezed my fingers into the tight space, released the chip, and turned it the other way round. Now, instead of reading “Single Video Processor”, it read “Dual Video Processor”. Make sense, isn’t it?

After placing the “bridge” on my two beloved cards, according to the manual, there was a “mechanical device” to lock the “bridge” in place. I found the device in the box and installed it as per instructed.

Just when I thought that was it, I discovered another step in the manual asking me to power this wonderful mechanism or else the entire system would go unstable. How could I miss that?! Now, I have used up my last “extension plug”.

When all were in place, I did a sign of the cross and powered up my computer yet again. So far so good, no kaboom at all. In fact, the computer just booted up like every other days. Then I realized that I have to instruct the “brain” of my computer (read: BIOS) that I now am a proud owner of two graphic cards. Restarted the computer and set the instruction properly. Still, the operating system did not register the fact that I have a 2nd graphic card. Oh no! S$350 has gone to waste! Not to turn this already boring journal into something lower than a bored read, I have tried an hour and in desperation, I swapped the two identical cards around and viola, the operating system finally “discovered” that I have a new hardware. All of a sudden, my computer is “SLi enabled” (technical details can be found by clicking here)! Thanks to the invisible supernatural force.

To be honest, after taking my new car now fitted with two engines out for test driving, I hardly see any difference at all. Perhaps I am ahead of time. After reading up a bit more on SLi, I realised that not all the games and applications are built to utilize two graphic cards. The analogy is that there are only certain “roads” whereby my new car can fly.

In a way, it was a confidence boosting experience (after messed up on my very first assembled computer). And in a way, I know in the future, I won’t say to myself: If only I had two graphic cards …

A computer game that was launched more than one year ago and it was sold out in Singapore. So I bought it in Hong Kong.

Today I have finally got the time to try out the game. Boy, the reviewers are right. This game is for the hardcore strategy gamers. Actually I wanted to play this game because recently I was following the HBO series Rome. And I wanted a piece of action. The game turned out to be really tough and it is not at all easy to command legions of Roman.

Every tuesday from 10pm till 3am, all the US World of Warcraft (WoW) servers are down for maintenance. So I always joke with my WoW gaming buddy in Singapore that tuesday is a “off” day for us.

In restropect, ever since I started playing WoW, I have saved a lot of money. For instance, I drop all the movie and dinner sessions (S$30 to S$40 per week) because I always rush home after work. Drinking sessions (S$30 to S$40). I get to eat early because once I started playing, I hardly have time to even visit the bathroom. I don’t need to spend money on any other form of entertainment (such as books, new computer games, and so on). I have maximised the usage of broadband Internet access and surely brought down the dollar paid per hour of usage. And last by not the least, my wife will have a peace in mind that I am always home after work each and everyday.

The game has affected me in many ways. From the most trivial of confusing real life with WoW life to the more serious case of dreaming inside the WoW after logging out from the game.

One day sending my wife to the airport, I stared at the orange sun on a cloudy sky and I exclaimed: Look, the sun just looks like the one in World of Warcraft! My wife’s immediate response was: Hey, it’s the other way round! The sun in WoW looks like the one in real life!

Duh!

More dramatically, one night my wife felt warm and passed the teddy bear onto my side. That was in real life. In my dream, I saw an attack of a bear (very common in WoW) so I quickly cast a flame blast in close encounter while in real life, I overthrew the blanket knocking the teddy bear away. In my dream, the next response was to retreat backward and prepare for a fireball. And so I did, in real life. I back up all the way to the door and that was when I heard my wife said: It’s me.

The fact that the quest system in WoW is designed so successfully does not help either. I have perpetually a list of to-do quests and one quest leads to another. That is what I have been thinking of the whole day, wanting to return to the WoW world.

Of course, while bored during day time, it is best to daydream about all the sweet moments I have with people online. Nothing beats the friendship of people helping each other from similar levels, the honour of people who are at a much higher level spend time helping the lower level players to get through tough quests while getting nothing in return, the fun of people who joke with one another in the midst of a long fight, and the tears that shed for party to split in different ways.

I so love WoW. The passion is comparable to back then when I started dating.

Today marks the second week of me playing with World of Warcraft. Certainly did not feel that long. I felt as though just a couple of hours has gone. Throughout the gameplay, I have tried my best in keeping a journal on my exciting experience.

If there is one game you are going to play this year, make it WoW. I guarantee that you will be mesmerized by this magical experience – beautiful landscape, engaging quests, and interesting people you will meet online.

What are you waiting for?

In exact words … I was about to strip my computer apart and sell off whatever I can. After all, I did a check with all my components and they are working fine each on their own so I wouldn’t feel guilty selling these parts away. But why the trigger? Hear me out.

One morning I woke up, looked at my mirror, and said to myself: God damn it! I am a graduate from the school of computer engineering and science and this computer of mine has been giving me both hardware and software problem. Can I not solve it? Frustrated, I gunned for drastic measure.

My options were clear – either sell off parts and get a Dell or keep my S$900 high end monitor and get a Mac Mini. And of course, another option was to get it fixed. Given the fact that I have been facing this annoyance for close to half a year, I would be better off getting a new one.

Interestingly, by following the diagnostic methodogically, the problem seemed to have gone away for good. However, I shall not boost too much because nowadays, you will never know. The same problem may just come back and haunt me again. The positive sign was that I was able to install my OS and applications without any registry corruption.

And as I shared my findings with my colleague this morning, he has suggested something else to enhance my solution. Tempting … as I have kind of downgraded the configuration of my computer for now. Risky it will be because everything is working very smoothly now.

Any suggestions?

Yes! I have finally gotten hold a copy of World of Warcraft (WoW). Despite the stability issues that many players – including myself – are facing, it is still a great game. Keep a watch out at the main menu on the left. And yes, the image on the left is my very first character of the game – a level 5 Night Elf Warrior.

When I first held onto my two copies of World of Warcraft (WoW), I was nearly in tears. Tears of Joy of course. My gaming buddy and I have been waiting for this game for months, if not years. And finally, through another friend of mine who brings in games from US, he put me onto the priority list. And here I was, yesterday, when I was holding onto the WoW, the prettiest thing yet the most expensive game that I have purchased so far.

As soon as got the copies of WoW, I met my gaming buddy up, passed him a copy, had dinner together, and rushed home for the installation.

And that was when the tears of desperation started to fall. I have tried the whole night and couldn’t get the game installed. 4 CDs I have and I seldom able to go pass the 2nd CD. No matter what I tried and still did not work. I fell asleep in between the reinstallation of my applications and the installation of the game and all yielded the same result.

What scared me the most was when I visited the technical support forum, I was not alone. There were a lot of desperate souls out there. I called up the support line in US and the office was closed. That was when I fell asleep again.

Nightmare must have woken me up in the middle of the night, I returned to my computer and tried again. Still cannot. Tried calling the support line and it was busy. Good sign, it was. The line must be open. I must have tried calling for half an hour and after 15 mins of waiting, the first sign of miracle arrived. Someone answered my call!

Following his instruction, I restored my computer and tried again. Instead of waiting to see the error page again, I said to myself – this is the best time to go to sleep with hope in mind. So sleep I did.

Another nightmare must have woken me up in the moring. It was so real that as though I have walked to the computer and saw the same error message again. It was so surreal that during the first visual impact, I did realised that it was a dream and I walked out to the living room in yet another dream to see the same error message again.

Finally woken, I walked to the computer. This time round, it said the installation was successful.

Looking back, my faith in God must have jumped ten-fold in the past 12 hours.