Benie's General Blog

First thing’s first, I’m still very much alive and my health hasn’t changed. So whatever happened on that day, I didn’t accidentally eat the residue paste that was on the gloves.
Or maybe it’s slowly killing me, who knows. I know I’ll die sometime in the future, but whenever that day is, God only knows.

But enough with the depressing (and scary) health talk. On with the news! Last week (before I did the thing with my computer), I contacted Newegg.. wondering if it’s possible to send UPS or some other carrier to come to my house (instead of having to wait in a long line, fill out the info by hand and pray my handwriting is literate enough, and then pay $20 (includes Insurance) and pick up this ‘flawed’ motherboard (and try to get a full refund)).
That’s a lot of damn work, but it’s what keeps the carriers in business. Anyway, it was either that.. or I have a printer and get the label, and then schedule a pickup. But since my secondary monitor is where a printer could go (I really don’t like my desk, but I doubt I could find anything better(and would fit)), I don’t have a printer.
So, they managed to work something out (but just this one time) of the carrier having the shipping label, and all I had to do was pack up the board with everything that came with it, get it in the same box that I got the board and the cooler, and use the air packing things to secure it for transit. I scheduled the pickup to be Tuesday (as a buffer incase I needed to see the PC support guy, to give myself time to get everything back up), and a good time for it to be picked up. All seemed good. Too good.

Monday afternoon came. I contacted them again to verify that the next day the package would be picked up. They told me that FedEx would be the carrier, yet told me that they determine when it’ll be picked up and not me (which makes me wonder..why did they ask me for a good time for a pickup?), so I asked if I could have the phone number I gave them (my cell phone) changed to my home phone number. They told me I would receive an email of if they’re allowed to change it…never received said email.

Next day (Tuesday), waited all day ’till the time I said I wanted them to come out, and then I started to lose my patience as the time started closing in (and no calls on my cell phone). And this time, I get told it’s UPS that’s going to deliver..WTF?! First you said FedEx, NOW it’s UPS?! Make up your fucking minds! Plus they tell me that the next day (today) is when the package will be picked up (because Monday was Memorial Day, and Tuesday is when they issued the request..and UPS is waiting ’till the next day to do it). They also tell me that they might come as early as 9am. Great. Told them that I’ll likely not be up, and they said to leave a note on the box for UPS to carry it.
Fine..tomorrow is another day, I guess.

Today..well, early this morning, my mother wakes me up, yelling at me to make the note. Got kind of messy, but I did it anyway. I also was half-asleep at this time, and put “Dear Postperson” instead of “Dear UPS” on the note (aka, my brain thought the USPS was responsible, and not the UPS(which are two entirely different things)). It didn’t hit me until the mailman arrived by the time I usually wake up, saying he couldn’t take the package as it doesn’t have a shipping label. So I had to go to the front door and tell him..and that is when it really hit me that I fucked up.
Since then, my parents doubted UPS would come (as there’s no shipping label on the box). I tried making them understand that Newegg told me they would take care of everything. My father felt like they were lying to me.
To make sure, I contacted them (hoping it would be the last time)..and now they’re acting like “we never told you that. You have to print out the label.” I pleaded them to go over the chat logs to prove that’s what I was told, but I was also so frustrated and said “I’m going to stop doing business with Newegg and tell my friends, unless this gets sorted out.” Shortly after, the guy disconnected the chat. I was all “wow… wow”.
–
Attempted to contact them again, trying to stay calm and collective this time. And it paid off (after waiting a half an hour), and proved they did indeed tell me they would take care of everything. Again, they told me UPS would call me (but said they didn’t know when), stating (as before) that UPS will attempt to pickup the package three times.
I told them how they still haven’t called me for the first time, and asked if I should contact them. They said no. So… I waited patiently (and have all day).
And great news! About 10 minutes ago as I type this section, a UPS truck arrived (without calling me first), but FINALLY the package is on its way back to California (and out of my life)!

So by June 6th, UPS should deliver the board to California (though it’ll take a few days after that for processing). By then, I’ll know if I get a full refund (even a partial refund would be welcomed). Though I hope it’s a refund instead of them sending it back to me. Reason being, there were several opened, empty bags in the motherboard box that I have no idea what was in them (or even if they were included with the board).
They could had been part of the cooler for all I know. So..I hope there will be no issues. Guess I’ll find out possibly by the 7th.

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EDIT1: 6/7/17: If anyone’s still following this, the board has been delivered back to California, has been looked at, and has been approved for a refund! However, I won’t know ’till either Friday or sometime next week if it’ll be a full or partial refund.
But this is fantastic! It’s NOT going to be sent back to me! 😀

The last 24 hours have not been kind to me. Of course, when has life ever been kind to me? Well, except the hype I felt of getting that hardware, assuming it would make my games run better. But, you see how dangerous hype is? Just how I said it in my Games blog, it’s a real killer to the emotions.
You have hype that something would work well, then when you get it in and actually see the lies for yourself, it breaks more than your heart; it breaks your soul.

But this isn’t about the hardware. This is about cleaning the paste off of the 9590 and hopefully try to get my money back (which I failed to do). And how it started is quite..embarrassing. Infact, I’m not even going to bother (because it’s that bad).
I can safely say, that I was trying to get my father to clean the thing for me (as he acts like a pro at it, yet he refuses and tells me to do it myself).
I’ve only seen a few videos on how to remove the paste from a CPU, yet none of them cover if the paste is hanging off the side of it. But, I would try it..just not then.

I waited ’till the early morning hours (when I made sure most of the stuff I know worked before, should work again). My father had given me cloth that he uses to clean his guns, with my mother giving me the rest of the Q-Tips that were in the house.
Also, my father gave me a vial of this “Dentural(I think it’s called) Alcohol” (he claimed it’s the same as Rubbing Alcohol).
So I got on the gloves, and noticed, somehow..the paste (even though I attempted to wash the gloves in water) was still active. Which means, the fact I was handling the gloves before….oh God. Now, I didn’t see anything that looked like paste on my fingers when it was time to eat dinner (and apparently for some bone-headed reason, washing my hands wasn’t on my mind(because at the time, I didn’t know the paste was still active)). And…I…I dunno what to think. I pray I didn’t accidentally ingest any paste.
I’m still OK, as I was before. So..I don’t know. All I can do is tell myself that I didn’t ingest any of the stuff. I don’t even know what thermal paste does to the human body if accidentally ingested (the only thing I read is to immediately seek medical attention. But the fact I’m still alive and don’t feel any different, I don’t think I need to worry about it).

Anyway, back to removing the paste on the CPU. With the gloves covering my hands, I picked up the CPU, soaked one of the cleaning pads in alcohol, and started to wipe from the top to the bottom. It was working to remove the paste, but as I did it, I didn’t realize I was pushing the paste that was sitting off the edge…onto the fucking pins. Tulsi told me earlier that if the paste gets on the pins (even a tiny bit), then the CPU is lost.
Goodbye $120. 😛
Tried using a Q-Tip to gently remove the paste off, but the damage has already been done. Might as well just throw it away. It’s trash. :/ GG me.
I should had started from the edges and worked in a square pattern to keep the paste from going off the edge. But it’s too late now.

Fuck me. Try to do something right and I end up fucking it up!! THIS is why I didn’t want to mess with the inside of a computer! You got ONE SHOT, and if you fuck up, there are no second chances. There is no “practicing to get better at it” when it comes to PC Building. You either got the knowledge to do it, or you don’t.

On top of it, my father’s making fun of me claiming I never used the alcohol, saying I was “scared of it”..well, I was at first. Another one of my stupid, ‘made up’ irrational fears, it seems. I was worried if I inhaled the fumes, I would die.
So..there you go. Feel free to fucking laugh at me. I care about not dying to stuff that has warning labels on them….yet I eat unhealthy. My diet typically consists of cheese and chocolate.
I’m a waste of oxygen, that should had never been born.

That’s why I feel like shit. Not because I said something that upsetted someone, but…. all of this shit that has happened to me, should had NEVER happened.
If I just did my fucking research on the 9590, I would had saved SO much grief.
Yet, I would also not had the guts to build a PC to undo this fuckup. IMO, that’s the only good thing that came out of this (besides the SSD).

GPU working (even after accidentally dragging its underside on my bed)? = CHECK!
CPU staying below 64*C on load (without needing to underclock)? = CHECK!
Computer not shutting itself down/beeping during POST? = CHECK!
Games using all 16GB of my RAM (with no issues)? = CHECK!
Tolerable FPS(30+) in single-threaded games? = CHECK!
Fair FPS(50+) in multi-threaded games? = Haven’t tested yet.
Youtube videos playing with no studdering? = CHECK!
Elpis playing without skipping songs by itself? = CHECK!

As you can see.. yes, everything (so far) is working as it did, before possibly one of the biggest fuckups in my life (of buying that 9590, thinking it was better).
Clearly, I need to move away from AMD (and Windows 7) in order to be able to upgrade again. Unfortunately, I still have to shift my attention of getting another PSU (over fears the current one could fail for being pretty old). I did discover (as I was preparing to install it) the PSU was made in 2009, which makes it 8 years old.

Unfortunately, getting a recommendation for this is next to impossible. Why? Since the PSU powers everything in a computer, and since not everyone has the same hardware, it’s hard to recommend the correct wattage a specific computer requires. All anyone can do is to use a PSU Calculator. Thing is.. Newegg’s calculator and the one on Coolermaster’s website, give different figures. Coolermaster says I need at least a 330W, while Newegg’s says I need at least a 513W. That is a huge gap.
Though to simplify things for myself, I think I just might get the same thing I already have now (just not made in 2009). And on top of that, even when I find the correct voltage, I just have to … ‘know’ what are reputable companies, and what are cheap knockoffs (by doing over thousands of reviews)….why am I the one doing research here? This is why I try to get others to do it for me. I don’t know this shit!
Plus I tried years ago to do my own research. And just like going over video game reviews, you got a 50/50 split of “I like it” -VS- “I hate it”. Building a computer was hard enough…having to wade through comments (and not lose a few brain cells), is impossible…oh wait. Ooops. I meant the Youtube comments section. My bad.

As for knowing if I even need to replace the thing, I was given a link to this item. It looks useful, but when I scrolled down to look at the comments, one says how it only shows voltage and not the load on your computer (how they’ve had several PSUs testing ‘OK’ yet failing).
Also, the display…WTF IS THIS COMPLICATED SHIT?! All of these numbers make NO sense to me! NONE of them (to me) show me the PSU wattage level. Isn’t that what’s the most important here? And even if I took the PSU out, tested it and tried to match the numbers of the display to what the sticker on the PSU shows, how in the hell do I know if these numbers are “good” or “bad”? Are high numbers good? Are low numbers good? Hell if I know!
Why can’t it just show “Your current Outgoing PSU Wattage is.. (numbers here)”. Simple as that. All I care about is knowing if it’s still producing 650W. And if not, then I should replace it before it falls below what is minimally required for my computer to function. At least, this is how I’m picturing it. There could be a lot more factors than just wattage.

Tried asking Tulsi, but he keeps going AFK on me (and no one else in Discord wants to volunteer). I may have to ask the LinusTechTips forum. I want answers. “Do I need to replace this?” is the main one.
I try to learn this stuff, but this one is way out of my league.

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EDIT: I got one more post to make (semi-computer related), and then I’m done making post until I get the Windows 10 OEM (and give my review of the new OS). Still need to get the PSU first, and I wish I knew how long I have ’till it fails (and fries the board). I feel as soon as I get it, I need to switch to it (just to make sure).
Hopefully I can afford it next month, and then the OEM copy in July.

Holy fuck, guys. I’m not typing this from my phone, but from my computer…that I BUILT MYSELF!! And I’ve learned so much. Currently typing as I start to slowly get Windows back up (for the 3rd time this month).
Sooooo much to talk about, and honestly..several times I felt like “this is it”.
It started quite rocky, of having to balance between holding my phone (to show Tulsi what I’m seeing) and holding a flashlight of trying to figure out what plugs to pull out. Possibly one of the biggest obstacles was pulling the PSU (and its cables) out. There were so many things attached to it, and the way I was holding the phone (not pointing it to what I was seeing), wasn’t really helpful.
Eventually I did find all the things that were attached and was able to get it off fully.
Another flaw with the plan, was me being all “alright, just making sure…you want me to do X?” Having to verify what he was telling me, made him quite frustrated (and took the most time). I can understand his frustration, though he should had known what he was getting himself into. He forgot to pack his patience for the trip.
I wanted a step-by-step tutorial (specifically tailored for my computer). Yet I barely got one from him, which is why I often had to make sure if this or that was the correct thing to do (which created his frustration, as he doesn’t seem to understand this).

When I was able to eventually remove the cooler to access the CPU, I…erm. I expected better from someone who I felt I could trust. There were pretty noticeable gaps in the paste to allow heat to escape. I’m not going to lie, he did a half-ass job on it.
This is quite upsetting, especially of how much money I had spent. I regretfully have to say that I will no longer be doing business with this person. Now with this knowledge of building a computer by myself, I can cut out the middleman (and save a lot of time and money).

Removing the CPU was possibly one of the most “fun” times I’ve ever had in my life. Was given gloves, but I felt they would only be needed to remove the paste. Tulsi told me I wouldn’t need to remove it from the CPU (even though the edges were covered in paste). Let’s say I should had wore the gloves as I didn’t realize just how much of the stuff was on my fingers (until I put the CPU down on my dresser). I tried not to freak out, reminding myself that only swallowing it would hurt me. But I couldn’t go get my old CPU until I had cleaned my hands.
Managed to mostly get the paste off. My mother also helped by giving me this strange gunk in a can, claiming to remove anything. The smell and what I felt on my hands was quite unpleasant, but you can’t really argue with the results (as it worked to remove what’s left).
Came back to my room. If Tulsi had his mic on, I bet I would probably have heard him laughing his head off through that.

The hours went on of where I’m getting ready to put the old board in, and he was losing his patience even more with me. He seems to be using “shouldn’t it be obvious that you do this?” on me, but again…all I cared about is ‘not fucking up’. And then came a time where he had to go, during possibly the most critical step of this PC building process; plugging everything back (and trying to remember how it all went).
Was forced to look for my old board’s manual (since attempting to get it from MSI’s website was a complete fail, as my phone has no way to unzip .zip files). Managed to find the board’s box (with the manual in it). Glad I keep old stuff.
Attempted to follow the manual the best I could, questioning of some parts if I needed this part to go somewhere that isn’t on the board.
Then came the time of getting the PSU (and its cables) reattached to everything. Tulsi came back on at this thing, but didn’t seem interested (at all) of helping me (constantly going “offline” to avoid me. :P). However, I had my (short) fun times of using this to torment him.
But eventually it came to a time were I seriously needed his help (as I couldn’t figure out what this extra 4-pin plug needed to go into. Cracked open the PSU book, which was as helpful as Google(when looking for something with a lot of words). Infact, it didn’t even mention the damn plug! How in the FUCK is this helpful to me?! Eventually I felt like I just didn’t need it for this setup.
I manged to figure out those tiny, tall pin things (front panel connectors). Took awhile (and I still don’t know how I was able to figure it out, with words like ‘PWR SW’ on the little things). Learned that they have a tiny arrow on the back of them to indicate the positive charge, and just followed the diagram the best I could.
Looking back at this, I can only assume the ‘SW’ meant ‘SWITCH’ (instead of ‘Southwest’ (or ‘SJW'(Social Justice Worker)) as I was originally thinking).

And then, finally…the time came to see if the hours of work I put into this, paid off..to plug this thing up, and turn it on. Yet something stopped me for the longest time from doing this. And that thing is an old saying of how “history can repeat itself”. The history was dropping a screw on the board while trying to remove a broken CD-ROM. Reached in, trying to grab it. Never did it come to me by turning the computer upside down and shaking it.
I did get the screw out, but somehow it fried the board when I tried getting on.
…This time, it was trying to add the 6th screw into the board (which was in a really, REALLY tight fit of being next to the cooler). Lost control of the screw and it went on the board, and I did the SAME fucking thing I did years ago of reaching in to grab it. But this time, I flipped the case around to get the screw out (which worked).
Since then, I feared the board would be fried (yet again). Thankfully my father came to the rescue, taking over for me of getting the last screw in (even going as far as installing RAM I had to take out in order to access the CPU Fan plug).

Hooked it up. Prayed to the almighty…and turned it on. And. it. BOOTED!!! 😀 I..I DID IT!!! I FUCKING DID IT!!!!! I BUILT A PC!!! Even looking back at this, I still can’t believe it!
Though when I turned it on, I heard a horrible clacking sound of something rubbing against a fan. I also noticed the fan on the top wasn’t spinning. Turned it off, unplugged and tried to investigate. One of the connectors of the PSU’s IDE cable line was right against the CPU Cooler fan. Got it out of the way. As for the top fan not spinning (including the other case fans), I discovered this conga line of Moleux cables connected all the fans. Managed to connect them all, and supplied power. Problem fixed! 🙂
Included in the fixes, was the 2nd of the two fans on the front of the case (which cools the drives). This really baffled me for a good time (such as “how can this connector power both fans”). My father also tried to help. We looked over the motherboard book, and he assumed the 4-pin connector goes into SYSFAN1 (which is clearly the same type as CPUFAN).
The fix was routing the bottom fan cable to an unconnected connector. BINGO! I KNEW the top fan cable couldn’t possibly be controlling both of them!! Connected it to the conga line, and the fan spun!

All there was left to do was reinstall Windows. Yet just like before with the new hardware, it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s the same type of board for this specific CPU. Settings get changed, Windows says WTF.. gotta reinstall. Tulsi was shocked to hear this.
Maybe this is no longer an issue with Windows 10? I can only assume.

There is one other problem (that I still can’t seem to solve), but my external drive, again, will not work when plugged into the USB ports on the top of the case. I am 100% positive I plugged in both connectors to the back and the front USB ports on the board. I’m thinking that maybe switching the two, might help.. however, I don’t think that matters.
The drive works fine when plugged in the back, though…but it robs me of two USB ports. I could try to see if I could find a USB 2.0 extender, connect it to the board, and use it to get me more ports.
However, I think there are other ways of extending the number of ports.

Sometime tomorrow, I need to clean off the paste of the 9590. Eventually I want to sell this hothead of a CPU in order to get my money back (even though I feel the blame should go to the installer of the hardware, and not AMD (for having inadequate paste coverage)).

And that’s it. All I wanted to say. I got to admit, whoever said that building a PC is fun and rewarding, was right (as long as you don’t fuck up).

So guys, I’ve been checking your emails. Appreciate the support from some of you, and the others who say I screwed up…I know. I know I did. And I’m going to undo my fuck up (one way or another).
As for the paste, real funny of the people who picked on me about freaking out over paste (and stating I would be OK). I know this fear of thermal paste is stupid and childish…but I can’t help it. One of you suggested that I use gloves (like winter gloves). I..never really thought of doing that. But, I feel if it gets on the glove, how am I going to wash it off (without avoiding using my fingers)? Maybe if I had disposable latex gloves (like the ones doctors use), that might help.

Anyway, bit of ‘gaming’ news to pass along. Tried to play E:D to get to the next WP of the LST (for tomorrow). I knew I was going to have issues (like low framerate… but I would had never expected to see this jerky, bouncy mess. At first, it seemed as if the game was moving 5x faster than normal (jerking all the way). Took off from the planet, which takes about 5 seconds… took 2 seconds.
Yeah, this is new. I’m complaining about the game running too fast. But the reason is it didn’t feel right (at all). Tried completely closing it and restarting. This sort of worked, but turned into more jerky and bouncy as before. It’s like the game was speeding up and slowing down, constantly.
The only thing “cool” about this whole ordeal, was that jumping to the next system was quite quicker. Thankfully I was able to scoop stars with care and avoid damage to my ship’s hull.
When I got close to the LZ, I saw a POI kind of near it. Decided to land and get my SRV ready to check it out..and oh my GODH was it barely controllable! The bouncing and jerking..ugh. This is impossible.
Made it to the LZ. Was able to land near it with no problem. Tomorrow is going to be interesting, I feel..seeing ships and SRVs looking like they’re spazzing out on my screen. I hope it doesn’t cause my computer to crash (as in a BSOD). The very thought of seeing one, shivers me to the bone.

So this new thing worries me to no end. Could it be the GPU? Could it be the CPU? Could it be the motherboard? It’s anyone’s guess. I do know the CPU was.. WTF, it was sitting around 25*C while I was playing. That’s..cooler than the temp in my room.
Honestly, I think I’m going to stop looking at the ‘Package’ temp and look at the ‘TEMPIN1’ one in HWMonitor (as it feels more accurate IMO), as it showed around 45*C. But that too, is still pretty cool (not ‘cool’ as in “this is awesome”).

Moving on, I got some good news. Looks like I actually do have the money to get the old hardware removed before June! ..But it’s going to take nearly all I got for this month. Called up the installer, and he said he can do it Monday. He also warned me that he may not be able to get the cooler to fit with my old board. Well, if not, I still have the stock fan…I think. There’s some light paste on the radiator while I was trying to wipe it off…plus, I think I may’ve..uhhh… damaged the shiny surface for not using water (completely by accident)…ooohh boy. :/

Now, the option of doing it myself is still on the table. I would learn how to do it (and use this knowledge for the future), and I would save money. But this means, once again…of getting over my irrational fear of getting the paste on my fingers(and feeling like I can’t get it off). I could just buy those disposable gloves. Those will definitely protect my hands from the paste (plus I would know when removing it, if I got any on me). That’s a win-win.
But how electronics respond to latex, is unknown to me. Perhaps you guys can fill me in?
If I do, do this, I wanna wait ’till after the meetup of the LST (tomorrow afternoon). I could also do it tonight. But if I mess up (and can’t undo), then it’s best to wait after the major event is over (that way I won’t be ‘computerless’ through the meetup).