So it was ALMOST a false alarm
Yesterday I started EvE to noodle around with my skill queue and after a few seconds it flickered a bit then the machine shut down.
I turned the box back on and just didn’t go in to EvE. Everything was mostly fine and I ended up leaving for the evening to go knock a couple back anyway so I didn’t think too much of it.
This morning I turned on the box and started farting around before settling down to get busy and I noticed a youtube video exhibited the exact same symptoms; weird graphics artifacts then shutdown.
Now I’m in full geek panic mode and I start several processes backing up files across as many different hardware data channels as I can think of (maximize throughput, etc.) and the box just kept crashing.
Then it started booting up in 640×480x4bit color. v. bad. Couldn’t get it out. I figured well… at the very least it’s time to reformat.
While it copied I went to Barnes & Noble and got a “Linux Pro” magazine because they usually have a live boot CD. I figured, if it’s a software issue then the live cd will run fine.
Put the puppy in, bounced the box… ruh roh.
Off to tom’s hardware. I thought about it and realized the initial symptoms were always video card related. Something had to be wonky with the card. It was the only thing that made sense.
Off to J&R to pick up a vid card (an expense I can ill fucking afford right now let me tell you.) Fortunately the price of “better than median” video cards are about 1/3 what they used to be (and what I expected them to be.) So I got out of there with a $130 PNY nvidia 9500 with half a gig of ram on it. Gotta be better than my 2-3 year old 8800GTS that came with the box.
I get home, check Tom’s (from my laptop) and I’ve got a response…
“Sounds like it’s just overheating. When’s the last time you blew the dust out of that puppy?”
…
…
hmmpf.
I cursed my foolishness all over the twitterverse and started disassembling the rig. (NOT an easy task. I’ve got this thing nestled into a pretty tight spot.) Took about 15 minutes cleaning out dust from fan intakes and blades, inside the chassis, etc. I let it cool off a bit with some direct cold air. Did all the right stuff donchaknow.
I plugged everything back in, turned it on and…
TADA!
It all worked. I was a moron. I spent $130 I didn’t really have on a video card I didn’t really need.
I was mid-way through typing the “I’m such a tard, thanks for the great advice. I’m really NOT that much of a noob.” response on Tom’s when the screen went black and the box shut down.
I felt strangely triumphant as I ripped the thing open and replaced the huge honkin “oh so 2007″ video card with the svelte little better in every way card.
Bolted it all back together (it doesn’t fit together unless everything’s sewn back up. I can’t do the old “leave it open on the desk and test it out” trick any more.)
And now, NOW I’m back up and running. I’ve played a little EvE, a little Crysis, etc. (Just to test it all, ya know.)
So it turns out, yeah. I probably overheated the video card by not blowing the fluff out of there and ended up doing permanent damage to the thing.
NOW I’m going to hit post, then open Eclipse & PyDev (or perhaps Komodo Edit, dunno) and I’m going to write the automated backup python scripts that I’m “no really going to get to some day.”
I almost lost a tremendous amount of data. Sure, most of it is backed up. But far FAR too much of it still wasn’t. I’d fallen very far behind.
I’m also looking in to automated online backup services (moby.com, carbonite.com, there’s an amazon one, etc.) and I’ll letcha know what I find.
Also, let me know if you know anything about them.
Save your data kids.
What would happen if someone put a bullet through your hard drive right now?