04 September, 2004
poons confessional
Good to see the Oborskis back in K-town duly refreshed by a visit to Poland.
I first met Mike and Fran back in 199mumble when I was running a small computer shop in Worcester. Mike came in and ordered a shiny Pentium computer - It was a P75 if memory serves me correct, and the components where duly ordered and assembled by yours truly. At this point I should note that this was the first Pentium based machine I had ever built, though I had much experience using the 486 range so how hard could it be?
Not at all hard, the machine came together beautifully and was duly installed to the delight of the Oborskis. It ran the shiny new Windows 95 and even had a 4x CD-ROM, oh the decadence of it all!
And then the support calls started. The machine was acting like it had an electronic version of Alzeihemers. Some days it would run fine, others BSOD and Illegal operations abounded. I swapped out memory, hard drives and by the end just about every other component in the blasted machine - all to no avail.
Finally, and I should note that Mike and Fran had the proverbial patience of saints, a decision was made. We would buy in a built machine and offer it as free replacement to the rogue machine. The PC arrived and I decided to take a peak inside. To my astonishment the processor - now a blistering P90 - was hidden beneath a large chunk of metal with a fan on top. At this point the penny dropped. How was I supposed to know Pentium processors ran so hot they needed cooling?
We never heard from Mike and Fran again, surprisingly enough, though once the rogue machine had a fan fitted it ran like a dream for a good 5 years.
It remains one of my most shameful moments in computing, and so in this public arena I would like to say a very big sorry to Mike and Fran for the grief, cussing and general hair-tearing I caused.
And by way of apology.
Mike, I still operate in PC maintenance - self employed these days and would be happy to offer you five free hours of my time should you have any PC problems, and unlimited free phone support.
Just say the word, if you dare...... ¶ Saturday, September 04, 2004
I first met Mike and Fran back in 199mumble when I was running a small computer shop in Worcester. Mike came in and ordered a shiny Pentium computer - It was a P75 if memory serves me correct, and the components where duly ordered and assembled by yours truly. At this point I should note that this was the first Pentium based machine I had ever built, though I had much experience using the 486 range so how hard could it be?
Not at all hard, the machine came together beautifully and was duly installed to the delight of the Oborskis. It ran the shiny new Windows 95 and even had a 4x CD-ROM, oh the decadence of it all!
And then the support calls started. The machine was acting like it had an electronic version of Alzeihemers. Some days it would run fine, others BSOD and Illegal operations abounded. I swapped out memory, hard drives and by the end just about every other component in the blasted machine - all to no avail.
Finally, and I should note that Mike and Fran had the proverbial patience of saints, a decision was made. We would buy in a built machine and offer it as free replacement to the rogue machine. The PC arrived and I decided to take a peak inside. To my astonishment the processor - now a blistering P90 - was hidden beneath a large chunk of metal with a fan on top. At this point the penny dropped. How was I supposed to know Pentium processors ran so hot they needed cooling?
We never heard from Mike and Fran again, surprisingly enough, though once the rogue machine had a fan fitted it ran like a dream for a good 5 years.
It remains one of my most shameful moments in computing, and so in this public arena I would like to say a very big sorry to Mike and Fran for the grief, cussing and general hair-tearing I caused.
And by way of apology.
Mike, I still operate in PC maintenance - self employed these days and would be happy to offer you five free hours of my time should you have any PC problems, and unlimited free phone support.
Just say the word, if you dare...... ¶ Saturday, September 04, 2004
Comments:
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Consider yourself well and truly forgiven! It's nice to know what happened back then. By the sound of it it all caused you far more inconvenience than it cost us! Thanks for the very kind offer. We'll take you up on it if we ever need it.
Congratulations on the weblog!
All the best,
Mike & Fran Oborski
Congratulations on the weblog!
All the best,
Mike & Fran Oborski
# posted by 
: 04/09/2004, 19:43
: 04/09/2004, 19:43
Poons, I wish it was you that had cocked up my computer instead of PC bloody world who want 50 quid plus £25 an hour (with no promise that it will work thereafter) for a computer they flogged me two years ago and which as from Saturday morning will now only blink at me with a dead screen. (Perhaps they forgot to put the fan in it too!)
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