Blog Within a Blog: My New Computer 5.5

    It’s been a while since I wrote an update on my progress. A lot has happened, but I was too busy working on my computer to write about it. I got my wireless networking equipment at the end of July and it was the first weekend in August when my new computer really started to shape up. I had Windows 2000 on my EIDE drive and I loaded an OEM version of Windows XP Professional onto the newly installed SATA drives. On the second weekend I moved my DVD burner from my old computer to my new one, and thus the computer was pretty much complete.
    “Pretty much” save for two stumbling blocks. One was the fact I was unable to activate my OEM version of Windows XP Professional. I had ordered it from an online store called TekDeal (at tekdeal.zoovy.com, if you must know), so I assumed it would be legitimate; but when I tried to activate it, I saw:The OS arrived on a legitimate Microsoft CD and with what I assumed was a valid product ID, but not according to Microsoft. Maybe I missed something, but it feels like I got scammed. (And it turns out I didn’t even need to get XP Pro, since my hyperthreading processor is supported under Windows XP Home as well.)
    The other problem was with my ATI video card. I was noticing anomalies during boot-up as well as substantial problems during DVD playback — which, for a brand new card, were simply not acceptable. I took some screen grabs, as evidence, and they can be seen here. My newsgroup research suggested this had nothing do with drivers but was a hardware problem. After a few e-mails to ATI (where, in response, they merely forwarded the driver FAQs off their web site), they finally provided me with an RMA so I can send them the card for repairs.
    TekDeal, on the other hand, has not replied to any of my e-mails.

The new setup, lighting the way for small ships and watercraft