cybrpunk.com

Computer woes

I still don’t really know what exploded in my computer last month.  And it still basically works.  Basically that is until I tried to use my new Ideazon Merc Stealth keyboard.  That’s when a simple 10 second keyboard swap turned into an hour long troubleshooting session followed by a nap and then a few more tries.

I’m typing this on the new keyboard and if you look at the link, check out the key layout and you’ll understand if you run across any weird typos….

I’ve decided that whatever popped inside my PC must have been on the motherboard and probably something to do with the old PS/2 style keyboard plug I’ve been using with my old black IBM keyboard.  Why?  Because when I crawled under my table and simply unplugged the old workhorse a very strange buzzing sound started coming from the inside of the case.  I got off the floor and looked at the screen and the monitor was going into power saving mode.  Since it was locked up hard, I powered it off by the switch and went ahead and plugged the new Merc in.

That’s when I remembered that every time I reboot my PC and there’s a new USB device plugged in, I have to go into the BIOS to reset the boot order or it tries to boot to something (anything) but the boot drive.  Why?  Hell if I know.  It started doing that about 2+ years ago.  So since this new keyboard is not only USB but also has a USB hub built into it, I knew I’d need to futz with the BIOS again.  Oddly enough the keyboard allowed me to press DEL to enter the BIOS but wouldn’t work at all after that.   After multiple attempts I realized that this fancy new deck is not going to work with this old motherboard’s BIOS.

I actually had to plug in the old keyboard to fix the BIOS and then I powered down and unplugged the old one and plugged in the new again.  Now that the BIOS is fixed it boots up.  Well not exactly.  The Windows XP splash screen is up for a while and then the PC reboots.  The on the POST screen, it hangs with a message saying that my overclocking has failed and that I need to press F1 or F2 to go into Setup or to piss off respectively.  The funny thing is that I’ve never overclocked this bitch.   Uh….

So I check the BIOS one more time just to be sure and let it reboot again.  Splash screen…  restart.  WTF?  Splash screen… restart.  You’ve got to be fucking kidding me right?  This is a damn keyboard swap we’re talking about here.  So I ripped out the new keyboard and re-connected the old IBM and blammo it boots up no problem.  Ooooo-Kay.  So since XP is up and running at this point I decide to plug in the new keyboard with the old one still plugged in.  OK there it is, Windows sees it and it loads the drivers.  Hell yeah!  I test it out and no problem.  I unplug the old keyboard…  buzzing sound and monitor going into sleep mode.  I immediately plug it back in and the computer reboots.

So… as it stands right now I am using the new keyboard.  It’s new and the key layout is really screwing with me but I’ll get used to it.  What I’m not sure I’ll get used to is the fact that I still have the old IBM PS/2 style deck connected and on a stack of books on a shelf so the cats won’t be tempted to help me type from the passenger seat. This old box just will not run without that PS/2 plug in there.  I think we’ve narrowed the problem down a bit don’t you?

Yeah…  I have two keyboards hooked up.  Most people go for two monitors or two video cards.  But not me.  I am fucking hardcore.