Entering the Gaming World

I recently had a disastrous digital infection. It took my PC to its knees. Why? Two reasons:

1. I went where no geek should ever go.
2. Windows Live OneCare (WLO) is impotent.

I was looking for some software and my machine began to deviate from the norm, which I am quite familiar with. No WLO scans produced results. It’s status bar was as green as a gourd! So I trashed it.

I installed the Internet Security version of AVG’s software (with firewall) and the work began. It went nuts over the crap the WLO called just fine. After a few blinking screens and a reboot, AVG had me pretty cleaned up. However…

1. I had abysmal benchmark scores (Passmarks of <=700ish – LOUSY!)
2. New XP installs were still not “popping.”
3. Several “uninstallable” device drivers.

Now comes the good part. Once I had things pretty laced up, I lost (destroyed) my terabyte archive drive. 700+GB of all my stuff…

MORAL OF THE STORY – Never rebuild a RAID after a six-pack of Bud

Here’s what I did – DUH! (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!)

1. I deleted all boot partitions and created a new one using my RAID config interface during startup.
2. When I rebuild the boot RAID (supposed to be stripped) I accidentally picked the wrong format.
3. Well, my error DID NOT pull up a partion allocator and I was a dumbas%#$# for not realizing it.
4. I said Y to all and promply lost my archive – no pun intended.
5. Darn – Oh Shoot – and as the lady said – AWE Heck!

I am good now and running Need for Speed + Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X.

1. For the first time X is running SMOOTH – YES!
2. NFS is heating my GPU to where I had to increse high temp to 60 deg C!

Nice to know it cooks eggs too!

Latest PassMArk score => 950!!!!!

 

I’ll be back to report on the pros and cons of linking my PC to EA Sports and all that jazz…

hmmm….