Friday 1 December 2006

Pic of the day: Does this look like an industrial environment to you? Well, it sounds like one to me!

Rain and fan noise

And I am not talking about fanboys and fangirls here, but rather my computer fan. Actually I believe it is the fan on the video card, because the noise disappears when I take the card out. Unfortunately, this computer (from North Corporation) does not have graphics on the motherboard, so the machine does not work at all without the card. Thus, further tests are not possible.

The computer now sounds like a vacuum cleaner, only a little less low and with random variations in the type and loudness of the sound. Whacking it with a paperback can get it to shout up for a few seconds, then it spins back up. If it had a particularly obnoxious frequency or varied among several, it may spin up to something more pleasant. But it is unlikely to be quiet. So far there is no sign of overheating, though. This could be because it is (probably) the video card fan, and I have no instrument that measures the temperature of the video card. The temperature of the hard disk is comfortably within normal limits (unlike during this summer's heat wave, I might add, when playing games caused it to overheat.)

The obvious next step is to take it back to the shop and complain bitterly. After all, I bought it this spring, and I explicitly required it to be quiet, because I have had a bad run of noisy computer fans. Also, because I use dictation software, and it is not designed for use in industrial workplaces. (Though version 9 is more tolerant to noise than its predecessors. Perhaps if I hide the computer under the table or something?)

I don't have a car, and generally I don't miss one. When it comes to taking a computer back to the shop, however, a bus is not an ideal solution. A taxi might do, but they are pretty expensive here in Norway. Anyway, this is where the rain comes in. Without the protective plastic, which I discarded right after unpacking it, taking it outside in the rain would definitely not improve things. In fact, I am not convinced I could take it safely to a waiting taxi most days.

The other problem with taking it back is that I bought it from North Corporation. This is the company I wrote about very unfavorably five years ago, after they refused to accept that my computer had a problem connecting to the Internet. They blamed it on my phone line when I told them that I had tried with two different modems, one internal and one external. Even though I had used several other computers at home with the same phone line, and even took this computer to work and tried there, they flat out refused to believe me. As a consequence, neither I nor my workplace bought from them for a few years. On the other hand, they are the only store in town who build their own computers, which means I could buy a computer with out Windows when I needed that. (That's another computer again, for the workplace. Since I don't need gaming at work, I use a much simpler and cheaper computer running Ubuntu Linux, which is free.)

As psychologists like to say it, "past behavior is the best predicator of future behavior". (This is why you don't want an "experienced" spouse for a monogamous relationship... not that any of you are going to listen to me if you don't listen to Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, the Buddha or your mom.) In the case of North Corporation, at least they don't infect you with virus; but if past behavior has anything to say, they will not hear anything wrong with the fan, even though it is so loud here that I sometimes just have to turn the Monster machine off and stick with the former bedroom computer. I have even relocated to the living room, which is uncomfortably cold during winter, and used the previous writing computer instead of hearing the nerve-wracking noise. But somehow I would not be surprised if it is quiet as a lamb led to slaughter when they connect it at the shop. They will most likely even demonstrate this to me, like they did with the Internet connection, then send it home where it will immediately resume its nefarious activities.

Perhaps it is a matter of faith, as with the "single-blind tests" of medication, in which the doctor knows which pill is the real drug and which is the placebo. In those cases, the real drug is more effective, even when the patient does not know. If the doctor doesn't know either, the difference drops markedly. Or with cold fusion: When the exact same experiments are repeated by people who don't believe in cold fusion, it doesn't work, while the believers report sustained energy gains from the water. So it makes sense that the boys at North might be able to convince the machines to behave while on their home grounds, but not here... In the same way that it makes sense to make cold fusion power plants and staff them with true believers, I guess. Somehow nobody else but me comes up with such ideas... ^_^*

In any case, this is how the matter stands. Until the rains let up, I can't get it fixed. When the rains let up, the machine will fall quiet until the precipitation resumes. The inherent animosity of inanimate objects.