Take a look at that picture over there. I look good in a hardhat. Maybe I should take up construction as a career.

I've decided anyone with a hardhat can look like a construction worker. It helps to carry other items such as a metal clipboard, though.

Dad... uh...

My dad had been running a Cyrix 166 Mhz system for about three years now. His computing habits haven't changed much in that time -- Freecell, Eudora, Netscape, and WordPerfect -- but he just got a new scanner (I think I mentioned this in a previous fozzolog) and the Hewlett-Packard software that comes with this scanner is dog-slow.

So... I got a new case, motherboard, and CPU (AMD Duron 750) along with some RAM, a new video card, and a new modem.

Everything worked fine... until the end. The modem I got was a used OEM 3Com/US Robotics. None of the model-number markings corresponded with anything on 3Com's or US Robotics' websites and none of the catch-all INF collections seemed to work either. Eventually, I realized I would save time by going out and buying a new modem with software.

In addition, I was fighting with the monitor device driver. I eventually solved that problem, though.

When I returned with a new modem, I shut down the machine and swapped the modems out. When I powered the computer back up, the power supply came on and the hard drive spun up, but the motherboard didn't do any BIOS tests and didn't start booting.

These Microstar motherboards have a set of diagnostic LEDs that tell you where in the boot process things are stuck. The LEDs were not even lighting at all. That means big trouble.

I tried resetting the CMOS. Didn't help. I tried a bunch of different things. Nothing. I ended up taking the system back home with me and told my dad I'd probably have to get a new motherboard and meet him tomorrow with the system.