Yes, upgrades are a fact of life in the high-tech world. Any computer that isn't upgraded on a frequent basis will quickly end up being a fossil, or worse. Sure, that Pentium 200 looks great in the showroom, but how is it going to look when you suddenly find that you need something with MMX technology on it? And after you spend a couple thousand more bucks on that, you'll find that you're STILL behind the times. It's a vicious cycle, as you have probably determined by now.
So, how does one's pocketbook survive the information age, when that top-of-the-line n to the xth power-bit processor and memory that was so great when you bought it is now yesterday's news... and you only bought the thing two weeks ago? That is an interesting question indeed. You could just admit that technology is advancing too fast for you, which would make people thing you a technophobe, but it's as they say, "It's better to keep quiet and have people think you an idiot than to open it and remove all doubt." you could just drive yourself looney trying to keep up with everything, leaving a massive pile of junk in your wake. This happens to be my preferred approach to the problem. The only problem with this method that I have found is that not only am I about half a generation behind the times, I am also quite insane at this point. Still, the pile of junk comes in handy for the cables that eventually start to materialize among the clutter. If you have a pile of techno-junk sitting around somewhere, take a look through the pile... you might find more than a couple of cables or boards that you don't remember ever having before...
Of course, with all of this upgrading, you may find yourself with some interesting combinations of components, leading to all sorts of fun IRQ, DMA, I/O and other acronym conflicts. You'll also find some interesting numbers appearing out of nowhere (even of you don't buy a Pentium.) The recent plummet in RAM prices in particular is one instigator of this. Back in the bad old days of microcomputing, all of the RAM was in nice orderly binary numbers, many of them with a lot of zeroes. This held up pretty well until late last year, when RAM prices went through the floor. Before this, everybody had nice orderly amounts of RA, such as 4, 8 or 16MB. Now, with all of the volitility in RAM prices, we get such combinations as 20MB (a fairly common one, 2 of the machines in the den have this combo...) 26MB, and even 40MB (another system I have seen.) And although I don't mean to be bragging, I feel that I am one of the pioneers of this mess. My old 386 (bless it's CPU) had 6MB of RAM long before it was popular to have such combinations of memory. While I'm on the topic, the drop in RAM prices has produced other interesting side effects. While drooling at upgrades over at the local CompUSA the other day, I noticed that posted on the front of the store was a sign apologizing for not having a certain modem in stock. To make it up to the customers when they come back to pick up their 56K modems, they offered to give away 8MB of RAM free with the modem purchase. A significant pile of old SIMM modules is already forming in the den, with no sockets available for the things.
Although RAM is an excellent upgrade for computers with performance problems, it also makes a great troubleshooting procedure. If you haven't figured it out yet (or don't read this column,) I don't mean memory either. I think you can figure it out given that information, but I will elaborate anyway, since my column this way seems a little short. Of course, even with using RAM as a troubleshooting procedure, there are quite a few variables to deal with. Some of these include the weight of the object used to troubleshoot the machine, and the force with which its applied. There are few other troubleshooting methods where a knowledge of the principles of physics are so helpful. Of course, it is simple enough to throw a boulder at your machine when it misbehaves. It will not be working improperly ever again, I guarantee it!
Although many of the troubleshooting methods I advocate here in the Sledgehammer remain untested, I have been afforded an opportunity to test some of my methods over the course of this past week. Rocky, the ex-386 that has faithfully served in the den for about 3 months now, has jumped over the edge and took a plunge into the realm of the hosed(tm)... We are currently in the middle of trying to revive the machine, although the anvil on the motherboard has proved not to have much effect on the problem. We have tried using the flamethrower, and I will let everyone know what came out of the whole thing once the insurance adjusters come over and take a damage assessment. I will also provide a full report on the effectiveness on my troubleshooting methods. So far, the preliminary report looks promising, however. No new problems have appeared since the anvil was dropped on the motherboard, aside from the electrical fire.
Maybe I'll find some excuse to upgrade something in this whole thing.