Computer Frenzy

Okie, frenzies again. Haha... As you might already know, please read previous entriez if you don't, I am on holz now. And again, BON VACANCES to mua! My computer was at a disasterous state, after it was struck by the damn lightning 3 months ago, which is still on now and causing havoc everywhere; I put them into random pieces when I got a new desktop. Mind you, my lappie got stuck too, and it needs f*ckin 1.3k to fix it. My new desktop spec: AMD Athlon(r) 64-bit 3200++ nVidia GeForce 6200 TurboCache(tm) (PCI-E) Samsung SyncMaster 793DF (17" Flat Screen) 1GB RAM DVD+CDRW Combo 200GB Western Digital (new) + 80GB WD (old) HP PSC 1410 All-in-One Automatic Voltage Regulator To all, please get an AVR if you don't have. It will lenghten the life of your PC, and acts as a powerful surge protector. It is only around 0.07k. When I try to install winXP to the new desktop, I made a simple mistake. The windows was installed in the 200GB drive, but then the drive letter is G:/. Know what is the mistake? It was because I have the old 80GB drive mounted when I was installing and the 80GB took C:/, D:/, and E:/ while my DVD+CDRW combo took F:/. So, I hv spent like, 2 months surviving with G:/ as the windows drive. I feel damn beh syok with this adi ler... Since it is my holz now, I shall rearrange all my things and make things right! Things I did for my desktop: Formatted winXP Installed new theme from CrystalXP.net Installed MSN Plus! Installed Avant Browser Installed J River Media Center Installed K-Lite Codec Pack That is for the winXP. I ventured in Linux too. Going open source.. XD Bought a DVD from Kent, SuSe Linux Enterprise Server v9. I tried to install it. It was useless. Searched the net for new distro (a jargon which means Linux dristibution) from http://www.linux.org/ Tried Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/), but then it was tough to install because it is command line based. I then try Mandriva 10.2 (http://www.mandriva.com/), surpricingly it has a really user friendly installation interface! I chose some packages I find interesting and installed. Using KDE, Gnome and IceWM if not mistaken. All installation went on quite well, just that, it could not detect my LAN and Sound driver!!! I was like, dang. I spent about 20 hours on this linux thingy, including getting the driver done. What I did to get the driver: Went to KDE > Harddrake and try to manually load the driver. Failed. Searched my motherboard manufacturer (Biostar) for linux driver Directed to chipset manufacturer (nVidia) Downloaded driver for nForce (motherboard chipset) Went in Linux and try to install Tried in KDE, was unable to do so. Tried in Gnome, the setup ran. But it didn't install, is says kernal source undetermined. Looked in uninstalled packages for kernal source, failed on 1st few attempt. Looked though the forums. Found nothing helpful. Try to locate kernal source again. Found. Try to install the driver. Done. (at this point, I was like, YESH!!!) Read the release note for the installation details. Followed and it worked fine. And I can finally online at Linux and listens to sounds. (KDE's system sounds are DAMN COOL!) The reason I wanna try Linux is that I wanna utilise my 64-bit processor, besides the fact that I'm a 1st time Linux user. As you know, or might not, winXP is 32-bit, except for winXP 64-bit. I was told you can't do many things in winXP 64-bit. I didn't install it. And I used Linux instead. I ran some game provided by Mandriva 10.2, some 3D game, and it was very laggy. I was surprised. I thought it will work better than 32-bit environment. I was wrong I guess. Or maybe I should try to downlaod some 3D 64-bit game for Linux. Doom3 is an example I found online, which is always used to test the performance. I will keep updating about the Linux and some computer things I found useful. Stay bookmarked. p/s: I have spent few night staying awake till 4/5am... to work on this, and you-know-what. I think I should start to get back to sleeping at 1/2am, soon...