“New” Computer

So Steve talked me into an upgrade. I needed to install Windows 7 anyway, and so here was the chance. Bette was gone for the weekend and I had a nice block of time. I ordered a used Gigabyte mobo with processor from eBay. Hmm.

So I opened up the box, and found that the mobo was packed in plastic bubbles – not antistatic. No I/O plate. No warranty papers. I hate eBay. So I hooked up the computer and restored the BIOS. Then restored the overclocked settings to default.

Ran to Best Buy for a new 500Gb HD. Might as well start fresh – then I can mount the old disk for fast copying.

Did the first install of Windows 7. It booted into setup and sat there for 10 minutes easy. Nothing. Googled, found this was normal, some suggested disabling USB, some said poke the CD-ROM drive. Crappy installer. Finally got it to install. Runs nice with 4Gb.

Steve told me to run prime95, a prog from the GIMPS Mersenne Prime Search people to load the heck out of the CPU and then use CoreTemp to read the temp. It went up to 60C, but no higher. Not the best, but I really don’t load it that much.

I installed and then tried to activate Windows 7. Of course, it said “Cannot use this key on a new install”. How is that useful on a clean install disk? I Googled a bit and found if you reinstall by starting Windows and running setup off of the DVD a second time, it classifies the 2nd install as an upgrade. So here we go. UDPATE: Called MS Support. After a bit of phone heck, I ended up with a highly competent tech (from India?) named Rahul who did not drag me thru rebooting and stupid things. He just got it fixed.

In bringing up the new box, PocoMail was great – just point at the old install, copy, bam. I lost the Quicken installer for 2009 Home and Business, but 20 mins on the chat support gave me a download link for the replacement.

UPDATE: Win7 has been great. Only problem is, is not compatible with my HP LaserJet 3150 MFP – HP discontinued support for Vista.

Download CoreTemp
Download Mersenne GIMPS

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