One Beep... Two Beeps.

The sound of fans whirring, something you don't really want to hear from a computer. The local shop that built her had set up Windows for me, so I didn't have to go through the usual array of dialog boxes and screens like an "Off the rack" PC.

All I needed to do was decide on a new password, and go on to seeing what this new operating system had to offer. I'm not going to go into my particular setup for Windows. I'll just say that I'm a fullscreen kinda user, and I don't like programs in my taskbar by default.

If I want to run a program I'll start it myself.

Now that's one advantage to buying from a local shop. You only get what you want, not whatever Compaq, or Dell, or whoever wants you to have. My shop did add one little icon into a dialog box somewhere, but it went away after about a month.

I had Windows XP Home Edition, and McAfee Viruscan... version 6. Period!

Of course I wanted to do something cool so I put in a CD and started checking out the visualizations in Media Player! Wow! How cool is that...

The coolness didn't last very long.

After kicking the tires a little I noticed a problem with the Monitor, or video card... something wasn't right. The monitor was flickering ever so slightly. I spent several days surfing the net looking for help. I got the familiar "Check the drivers" and advice like it's the software.

Now I would say that this is where the "Off the rack" computers offer an advantage over a local shop, but I've experienced those tech support services and quite frankly. They might mean well, but they generally suck. I have had the occasional satisfying experience of helpful advice that lead to a solution. But I'll never buy a PC because they have a "Good Warranty".

I didn't get any useful help from the local shop on the phone either, and wound up carting everything back so they could have a look at it. Now if I'd bought a major brand from an electronics store I would have had to pay to ship it in for service.

First they couldn't see what I was trying to describe, and said they didn't see a problem. They gave me a new monitor to see if that was it. Unfortunately it wasn't and it may be my imagination, but I don't think the first monitor hummed as much as the replacement?

I had to take everything back a second time, this time the problem was solved.

A younger guy took a look at it, and even he didn't notice anything at first. Then after about thirty minutes he came back and told me it was fixed. All he did was swap the video card with another one from the shelf.

Now here's what bothered me. I had already asked them to swap it out and they went and tried everything but that. It was just a bad card. I was happy to finally have the problem solved, carted everything back to the car and headed home.

The video card was working well enough, no more flicker. It was a problem card though. It turned out that S3 had gone out of business and sold everything to another company. Via I think, and the drivers were full of glitches. And updated drivers were not available because Via didn't write any. I was stuck.

My only issues were with a flight sim I had bought, Fly2, and that was a few years later. So I didn't even know there was a problem yet. The other video issue turned out to be related to DVD's, and I hadn't bought the DVD drive yet. Again I had no clue.

I was up and running and didn't have any trouble for a while.

I was already planning future updates. I knew I wanted a sound card instead of using the onboard sound, which wasn't bad. I didn't like the case at all but it would do.

I had time for new stuff later. My PC was brand new after all...

I might see what I can do about those noisy fans though?