Always Have a Backup

So, my troublesome (not cheap) gaming PC failed to boot to desktop yesterday. To say it felt like a punch to the gut or having a limb in plaster is an under-statement! As I said in my previous blog post, I was surprised at just how much of my life is entwined with the internet these days and for a few brief hours it suddenly felt like I had lost one of my senses. Fortunately, due to a number of ongoing niggles with the new computer (it has already had the RAM completely replaced) I had not thrown away the box it came in or retired my old, creaky, PC. Cue much cursing, swearing, wrestling with packaging and re-attaching of old rig to peripherals. A few hours of updates later and I was ready for a scheduled Blood Bowl 2 TBBL match (a fun 0 - 0, by the way) but it was soon obvious I could not stream from the old rig- it simply could not cope. Le sigh!

What I am suffering now is a total lack of confidence in the makers of my new rig. To be fair, when the RAM failed, it was quickly diagnosed and the turn around on the RMA was quick but the system still struggled. Yesterday, when I removed the GFX card to try booting with onboard graphics as per their tech support, I noticed the GFX card was a bit loose before I got my hands on it. This made me think of when I first got it and there was a disconnected jumper that I put down to movement in transit but now.... well, now I am not so sure. This lack of confidence is what is really annoying me and I hope the supplier can suitably calm my fears although they have not got off to the best start - asking for an email address to complain to (and supply pictures of BSOD's I have) met with a standard response and link to the complaints weblink. This is new territory for me! None of my previous two custom built rigs has caused me this hassle and the seemingly arbitrary way they deal with issues is not helping. Their tech people seem tired, like this is too regular an occurrence.

Then there is the curse of our digital economy - even after I get the rig back and assuming it is happy, there will be the inevitable age spent reinstalling whatever gets wiped and updating software left right and centre. More time spent trying to fix what should have been a clean, happy transaction back in November 2017. You will notice I have not named the retailer and that is deliberate - I want to be fair and see how they fix this mess. So far however, I am not brimming with confidence. I hope to have my streaming and content creation restored with a week so forgive not seeing this grumpy old gamer's face for a bit.

Watch this space!