Monday, March 07, 2005

Operation Computer Salvation

Saturday, 5th March 2005, 1245hrs

Met up with juniors, Tong Kent and Xiangmin, both whom I have yet to see for quite some time le. Ha~ They din change much though, except Xm being notably darker. I expected to see more visible changes, especially for Xm since he's now a recruit. (Where are the muscles?) Those pumping and tekan-ing; 5 BX-es, SOCs and BCCTs maybe just ain't strenuous enough huh? =P

Headed for Sim Lim and hence began 'Operation Computer Salvation (OCS)' codename Erratic Freedom.

As most of you have known, my computer has been subjected to recurrent attacks of erratically hanging itself (pun intended); resulting in me logging on and off Msn and inevitably irritating you guys in the process. =p Spent 104 bucks on a new 80 gig harddisk, with the original intention to backup files for reformatting. Operation met with major setback when even the formatting of new harddisk resulted in premature abortion as the subject, aka Irritating Computer Unit (ICU) ,refuses to cooperate by hanging itself yet again. Operation put on hold as the commander of the operation has got to attend a stoopid compulsory Dinner & Dance, which surprisingly was quite fun. I must emphasize, it's 'QUITE' only. Details for that will have to wait.

Operation resumed at 2300hrs, with me rushing home to rush subject ICU to Samaritan PA's hse. Spent a fruitless nite figuring out and troubleshooting, in attempt to pin point the exact causes of ICU's recurrent attacks of wanting to hang itself. Subject was being dissected, and vital organs being transplanted to see which is failing in the ailing subject. Efforts where in vain and investigations led to the findings that subject was suffering from extremely high fever (CPU temperature ever rising, even reaching shutdown point of 90deg cel), and the CPU fan organ was behaving erratically (rpm ranging from only 2000 to ZERO!!) possibly causing the symptoms noted. Urgent meeting was held with Samaritan PA, Samaritan Boquan and we decided the best course of action is to replace ICU's CPU fan organ. However, due to the lack of donor organ (CPU fan) to bring down ICU's temperature, Operation was once again put on hold.

Sunday, 6th March 2005, ard 1100hrs

ICU was rushed to Medical Hub, SLS (Sim Lim Square) with the help of Samaritan Yanxin, who responded to my desperate calls for help despite her busy schedule. Samaritan Alvin arrived shortly after to aid in the search of a replacement organ (CPU fan). Heading for diagnosis by organs supplier, we were informed that subject's failing CPU fan has already caused irreversible damage to another of ICU's vital organ, the motherboard. Visible swelling in the form of bloated cathodes concludes the findings and we were advised to do an immediate motherboard transplant in order to save ICU's life. Discussion with Samaritan Boquan results in the decision to replace ICU's motherboard.

Life's at stake. Being left with no other alternative, I forked out another 102 bucks on a motherboard and promptly headed home to begin the transplant operation. Due to the lack of experienced specialist surgeons available, and the urgency of the operation, Samaritan Alvin and I, took the risk and performed the transplant operation on our own, even though we had no experience in performing such a major operation. Time ticked by and after hours of cautious hard work, we gingerly completed the operation, with a few calls being made to Samaritan Boquan for help and guidance to carry out the operation. The time came for the final reveal. The power switched activated. We waited. No signs of life. Oh no...

Subjected was immediately operated upon again, to correct the incorrect connections of some of its nerves. (N.B. Not all manuals are entirely trustworthy. We figured out the correct way to link the silly LED wires, PWR Switch and wat not ourselves lor. Either the manual is wrong or the wires are wrongly coloured.) ICU burst into life shortly finally at ard 1800hrs.

However, temperature of ICU CPU is still rising, though the fever has considerably subsided. Samaritan Alvin and I decided that a replacement of ICU's CPU fan was still necessary after all. Having said that, we decided to head back to Medical Hub SLS again to get the replacement organ.

The replacement organ (CPU fan) burnt yet another hole in my already under-nourished wallet, costing me 35bucks. Having gotten the organ, we rushed back to complete the operation. (K lar, we stopped for dinner.. =P ) Organ was transplanted into ICU and this time round, ICU finally came round at abt 2100hrs, with a healthy normal temperature of abt 55deg cel. Wu-hoo! Finally!

Operation Computer Salvation finally came to an end and the mission proved to be a resounding success. Kudos to the Samaritans dat responded to my calls of aid, namely Alvin, PA, Boquan and Yanxin. A big thank you to you guys!!! =) The Operation lasted almost 24hrs and ripped me off a whopping 241bucks in total. (That is still excluding all the expenses on transport and food… sob sob..) But still, at least my financial tool is back, alive and kicking. Let’s hope my com can remain in the pink of health for as long as it possibly can!!~ =D