Saturday, November 22, 2008

My newly-discovered talent

I just upgraded the memory on my computer all by myself! A generous fellow from Freecycle gave me a bigger computer monitor, and a case that was supposed to contain memory sticks that would be an upgrade for my computer. I got home and got the monitor hooked up pretty quickly, then opened up the case, just out of curiosity. I saw something and thought to myself, "Hey, I bet those are the memory sticks." They had little latchy things on either side so I undid the latchy things and pulled the memory sticks out. "Wow, that was easy," I thought to myself. "I bet I could stick these in my new computer."

So, not knowing any better, I unscrewed the case to my computer and peered around till I figured out where the memory sticks went. There were some things in my way so I thought to myself, "I wonder if I can unplug this to get it out of my way?" *yank* "Well, that didn't work, do I just need to pull harder?" *yank yank* "Ah, there it comes. Now let me stick this memory stick in. It won't go, do I just shove it or something?" *shove* "Oh, there's a wire in the way, that's funny. I'll stick it over here so it's not in my way. Aha, now the memory stick is in, I think, but I can't see anything! I wonder if I can take apart the other side to see what's going on in there?" I got the screwdriver and undid various screws until the other side of the computer came off. "Aha, the memory stick was NOT in all the way. I'll fix that with a little more muscle. Now how did this thing go back together again?" I wiggled things around for a minute, then dropped everything to run and restart the washer so the diapers would get a warm rinse instead of a cold one. Back again: "Huh, that's funny, I don't remember these wires being here. How did that happen? Oh look, this whole box thing has shifted over. I'll just push it back and then the wires will tuck behind it. Oh look, the computer has been plugged in the whole time I've been messing with these wires. I wonder if I could have electrocuted myself. Well the cover is back on now, and I think everything is plugged in properly in there. Let's see what happens when I turn it on." So I turned it on and....IT BOOTED UP! I watched with bated breath and sure enough, IT WAS RUNNING FASTER! I jumped up and down and pumped my fists in the air and said, "It works! It works!" Elijah poked his head around the corner and gave me a very strange look. Anyway, I feel very smart now.

I hope that didn't bore anyone. I just was so excited about figuring it out on my own, that I had to post.

4 comments:

  1. I congratulate you very much for your success. I would feel very proud of myself. I've replaced random access memory "sticks" myself.

    The one problem is that you had the computer plugged in. That's highly risky. Also, besides un-plugging the computer, it's wise to use a grounder when working on the insider of computers (like a wrist band grounder) so you don't fry the motherboard. I didn't use one when I upgraded our computer, but just the same it's wise to use one so you don't end up spending $100 for a new motherboard.

    Again...CONGRATULATIONS!

    LOL
    Sam

    P.S...I'm sorry for offending you as I obviously did...I didn't mean anything, and I certainly am not racist (I would know) however the words I wrote sounded, and I hope you continue to post comments to my blog whenever you wish. My hugs to Elisha and Noah...they seem to be growing speedily.

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  2. Thanks Sam! And I don't harbor any ill feelings about your posts.

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  3. Um.... I think memory chips can vary quite widely from PC to PC. They don't all have the same number of legs, and I don't know if the ones that are all the same size are always compatible even.

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