I’m at my wit’s end here, guys. Though, I’ve been at this level for a pretty long time. But it’s gotten worse as to the times I have to turn my computer back on. I..almost feel like crying. Because, now it’s no longer the CPU…it’s something else.
The Overclockers forum thread I made, set the scene for today. Instead of giving me some news that could benefit me, they turned into Intel fanboys. With responses ranging from “the FX 8350 alone is barely enough for that cooler”, to “the 9590 is no better than your 4350 for single-threading”. Even one saying to “stay away from the FX series”.
This is beyond ‘punch my head into a wall until the bad news goes away’. I’ve nearly thought of suicide. Though I’m not going down that road. But, that’s how bad it’s gotten.
Tried resetting my BIOS today, and there was no option to reset to the factory defaults..infact I don’t even think there is such a thing as ‘factory defaults’ with this motherboard(reason coming soon). And after a lot of hesitation, I was forced to unplug my computer, open it up, ground myself, and reach in to hit the Reset CMOS button. After I re-hooked everything back up, I literally prayed to God that my computer would boot normally (as this is all I’ve got.. I don’t have a backup computer to fall back to).
Counted 10 seconds, and hit the power button with my eyes closed, finger shaking… and it booted with no beeps! BIOS came up unexpectedly, telling me CMOS was reset and offered me three options; ‘load the optimized defaults and boot’, ‘load the optimized defaults and reboot’, or go into BIOS. I picked the 3rd option, then saved and exited. Computer booted into Windows just fine.
‘Optimized Defaults’? That’s not factory settings. That sounds like it’s going to look at my hardware and determine what is the best settings for it. Well, that’s my guess. Either that, or it’ll use its defaults. Seeing how I’m as nervous as a cat VS a vacuum cleaner, I didn’t want to mess with it. Why make something that’s broken in my computer, worse?
With CMOS resetted, it also unregistered Windows. My genuine key would not be accepted, so I had to use the phone thing of calling a special number, telling them every number in these 8 ‘blocks’ of 6 numbers to get an activation code (that’s in the same format). They have a new thing of using a smart phone to access a website, of typing in the numbers. Yet everytime I attempted (even quadruple-checking to make sure every number was correct), I was ultimately forced to contact their support as everytime I attempted, the fucking thing said the code was invalid. So I spoke to someone (who could barely speak fluent English) and gave him the code. This, somehow, worked..and I was able to get the activation code.
With Windows now re-activated, I tried to shut down and restart a minute later (just to see if resetting the CMOS helped)….and, it didn’t. This time, I got ‘*beep*…*beep*…*beep*(computer turns itself off), another one of that of the second attempt, and on the 3rd time it worked fine with no beeps.
The guy says it now could be an issue with my RAM. The fact the installer said how the CPU Cooler had barely fit over my RAM, well..it’s possible he may’ve bent one of the sticks by accident while installing the cooler. But when I was about to reset CMOS, I looked at the RAM closely.. and it looked just fine. I didn’t see any signs of the sticks being bent or not seated properly… you know, I think I’m done saying “I don’t know”.
I’m sick of life right now. All I wanted to do, was a SIMPLE UPGRADE of my CPU to make several games run better. But NOOOOOOO!! I can’t fucking do that anymore, because of the assholes at Microsoft pushing Windows 10 down our throats!
I’m almost tempted at this time, to scream out “FUCK PRIVACY” and upgrade! Maybe losing my privacy would be fucking WORTH IT in order to upgrade (and have my computer work right)!
Let’s face it, people.. if I never listened to Tulsi (and just listened to this guy who said I needed an Intel), I probably (yet this is also not a guarantee) would not be in this mess right now. But I don’t blame him, as it was his friends who told him this (so the blame goes to them instead).
All I know, is I’m going to be stuck with these parts. Because by the time I save up to afford the original hardware I was supposed to get, the RMA chance will have long expired. Speaking of Tulsi, he did offer to be that ‘person on my shoulder’ to help me build a computer. But it will never work, as my phone turns its screen off (and I can’t just tape my phone to my shirt or something to remain hands-free during the process).
I wonder if there is such a thing as an online PC building school for adults, that could teach me how to get over my fears of screwing up. If they could send me a ‘test PC’….something that isn’t mine (with my actual computer going) and walk me through the steps of building. Perhaps, doing that a few times, I would have the courage to ‘perform surgery’ on my computer.
But that’s not going to help me in the short-term. I need to get my old hardware back in, and fucking FORGET about ever upgrading. It can’t be done in this day and age. And as I said before, even if I was to get these parts that I originally was supposed to get, there’s no guarantee that this won’t explode in my face as well.
.
So it’s the evening hours, and things are..well, kind of looking better, I guess? In ways, it tries to look promising. And in others, I wish I could get over my fear and get the old hardware back in my computer (as I’ve reached the ceiling of what I can upgrade to, for Windows 7).
The guy I’ve been speaking to, he made a response to the thread before he had to leave to deal with a family emergency (and hasn’t responded since). As for me, I’m now being told to give them some info (screenshots of while I’m testing) to determine my next move. It’s possible (the fact I’m getting three beeps when turning my computer on) the current RAM configuration I have, may not be compatible with the motherboard (as the guy thought it would). I may have to get a single 2x 8GB pack to replace what I got (which means..more money that I don’t have right now).
One positive note, is at least I won’t need an installer to do it for me when June comes.
Tomorrow, I’m going to run some more tests (with somewhat higher settings). It would had actually been tonight, except the main person who’s telling me what things I should underclock (and how much) has gone to bed. Though, this test is going to be very…let’s say limiting to my monitor’s resolution. They want me to keep open three instances of CPU-Z (to monitor the CPU/Memory/SPD), a window of HWMonitor, and then finally a window of Prime95. I barely was able to get all three instances of CPU-Z to fit in my primary screen.
The reason being, I have to take pictures of the beginning and the end of this half an hour test (through ‘Blend’). They told me if it passes the test (and stays below 60*C), the CPU will be stable enough for gaming. This time, they tell me I need to overclock my RAM. I need to be told where in BIOS to set this figure to run the test. But as I said earlier, the guy went to bed before I could learn.
I’m quite nervous. I know it passed the Blend test before with absolutely no issue..but I was using lower settings. Welp, I’ll be posting the results..I hope (if my computer doesn’t decide to no longer boot anymore because of this). But a CMOS reset should fix the problem, if that happens.