The death of my computer....

For weeks my computer has had an unknown issue. Finally, a friend who is exceptionally computer savvy, helped attempt a diagnosis. We  didn't learn much but the computer is certainly on the way out. I just built this machine about two years ago and I can't believe that it didn't last a little bit longer than it has. It just randomly shuts down in the middle of tasks, even under a light work load. He thought that perhaps the dust build up on the heat sink was the issue or the slightly loose heat sink on the cpu was the root problem but we repaired both, replaced the thermal grease. Still no go. We took the video card apart and blew the dust out of all the other components as well. Nothing seemed to have an effect.

So, long story short, in the coming weeks it looks like I get to buy a new computer. Usually this would be cause for celebration except that we were already picking up a new one so that we could have one dedicated to the media center in the living room. That is right out the window. There are worse problems to have in life, but this is, none the less, extremely annoying. I am still hoping for an epiphany as the root issue so I can replace a component instead of the whole unit but the outlook is grim.

The timing is the real issue though. I have so much to do over the next few weeks that I really didn't need one more thing to worry about.

Update 1: Well, he ran a test on the memory and there were no errors found. He used a Ubuntu disk that way all the memory would be available for the test. I had my fingers crossed as this would have been the cheapest fix. We are on to more complex things now I guess. Bummer. Hopefully we find the issue.

One more Day of Work...After Today

I have so much to do over the coming weeks to get ready for Americade. Basically, the only thing I have done, is get new tires on the V-strom. I have not even completely finished my route planning for the trip. I am hoping that I can manage to come up with something that is a good time while still covering decent mileage each day. The hard part is dealing with the fact that we have so far to go that we can't really afford to not be headed in the proper direction the whole time. I also have to reserve campgrounds and find them for the Rally itself. I tried to recruit one more rider but it looks like it is still a dynamic duo for the moment.

Friday is the big day around here and then we are back to work on Wednesday. After that I have only one weekend standing between Americade and myself!

Two more geocaches

So, last night my family and I went out and hid two more geocaches. It was a great time and we found a few on the way for them to log. Surprisingly, I thought I would able to get them back out the second the hides were published and get them the "first to find" award, I was mistaken. Within thirty minutes of them going live, one cache got two finds and the other got a single find. Guess I should be glad I didn't throw in the couple of items that I wanted to hide just for them to find.

It seems that I have a habit of only hiding new ones when other people are in town. Never a planned thing, it just sort of happens that way for some reason. It has been a really great week though, despite wishing that I had more time off work to hang out with them.