Upgrades of the Computer Kind

I bought a computer from a guy on Craigslist a couple of months ago. I spent good money on it, knowing that I was getting some decent internal components. I'm the type that would much rather buy a "Frankenstein" computer made with quality internals from different manufacturers rather than a name brand like Compaq or HP or Dell.

Like any used computer, there is always the learning of it's personality. Sure, they have what I call a personality. You know, how long certain things take, the things that flash across the screen during boot up... You know, lots of little things that you slowly incorporate into your comfort level. Since day one I was impressed with its speed--It's almost 3 times faster than my old trusty computer. But also since day one, it's been plagued by random lockups and freezes. I played with it a lot, swapping components as I could. I borrowed memory from a friend to try to see if that was the problem. Nope. Every time I would try something and fail, I would get pissed and put it in the corner. Then when enough time passed and I felt like giving it another try, I would plug it in and try something else.

It's looking like I finally won.

I unplugged an "add-on" cheapie sound card that was installed and it seems to have cured my problem. It's hard to say for sure. Because I recently bought a new hard drive and installed that at the same time, it could have even been the existing hard drive that was in it. I kind of suspect that a little too. At any rate, I'm up and in the process of reloading all my goodies.

Speed... You can never get enough!