Monday, September 10, 2007

Slow Computer problem Solved. Blame the Video!


Probably one of the most frustrating things about computers is how they don't communicate to you properly about their problems. I guess I am expecting more from this machine than I ought to but afterall its supposed to be smart. Software and hardware developers are trying to add functionality to this entity to make it smarter and responsive but all too often we get the same results.

For some time now, my machine was slowing to a crawl. Try as I may, I couldn't find out what was wrong with it. In my house are 2 laptops and 2 desktops which are shared by 6 people. My wife, my four kids and myself. Fortunately one of the laptops is for work so its off limits. The others are left to fend for themselves with the others for homework, Facebooking, Myspacing etc. I thought about shelling out money for another computer but ruled out against that. Afterall, we have other things to deal with. This all started to change when pressure to use my job laptop started to rise. I started hearing things about how selfish I am and how useless I am that the main computer is broken and I can't fix it. No need to say where that came from. Anyawy in trying to fix the computer, I downloaded the latest drivers, downloaded all the various combinations of anti-virus and anti-spyware software. The problem only kept getting worse.

I had began thinking that I would need to build a newer box and was going over in my mind what I'll need when I thought of the video card. I had recalled that the video card made lots of noise because of the fan built in. It dawned on my that it had gone silent. Normally I would touch it and would feel the wind of it but this time there was none. I looked and could see its blades not moving so I turned them. There was much resistance and I soon realized that the fan was stuck. I felt the video board and it was hot. I felt the fan and it was very hot. Of course at this time everything was at a crawl so I initiated a shutdown of the machine and walked away.

Now what to do next was the question. Replacing the video card was the first thing that came to mind and I even went online and got one. But when I saw the problem I had the thought that maybe if I could actually buy a fan instead of the whole thing I can at least give it a try. Well I got down to the good old computer store and saw a fan kit which I promptly bought. It cost about 10 bucks and was pretty cool in that it had colored LEDs that made the fan glow in the dark. I was delighted since if it went bad I would know immediately. Replacing the fan was very easy. Unlike the older one, this required its own power supply which was readily available. The cool thing was that the position of the screws fit perfectly.