This post sort of continues from where the last one left out. I went to Nehru Place today. First off, I stopped off at SMC International to ask if they had any thermal grease. Turns out that they were out of stock, and that they’d be getting the next shipment by next week.

No matter, because I probably wouldn’t get my motherboard and graphics card till another week, as well. Next, when I went to the RPTech Service Centre, I encountered a rather grumpy guard. I mean…I still find it funny, that you need a guard for just one room! OK, so what if they’ve got some important stuff behind the counter, it’s not as if you can just reach over and grab something without someone noticing.

Anyway, when I gave the motherboard, they (as in the lady I’ve so gotten used to seeing at the counter) told me that, going by the serial number, it was out of warranty. This was a bit of a worry for me. No, actually a big worry for me. As I’ve explained before, having to replace the motherboard would mean that I’d have to replace pretty much everything that mattered, like the processor and RAM. But, the mobo, on its underside, did have the RPTech sticker, which meant that it could be repaired. The lady explained to me that it would take about a week to a week and a half to get the necessary approval from Asus, before the motherboard could be fixed by them. I told her about the fan, which had given up on me, ages ago, and also the new problem of the display taking leave of its senses ever so often.

As for the graphics card, I’d expected that they would put up a bit of a fight. This was because it was a problem that I couldn’t exactly prove to them. It would require stress-testing the card to unprecedented levels, like leaving it on for a couple of days and then running Call of Duty 4! But, I was in for a rather pleasant surprise, when they accepted the card without much ado. Apparently, they just took my word for it! Just accepted the card, after I explained the problems like the artifacts I experienced, and the 3D core going nuts and so on. The testing dude just wrote ‘Color problem in game’ on a sticker, and gave it to me to submit it. This is actually a bit of a worry for me, because, to be brutally honest, my graphics card gives much more than just color problems. The thing was going to self-destruct if it didn’t occur to me to turn the PC off!

Also, while submitting the card, I did make a big noise about how I’ve got it replaced about 4 times already! Apparently, another person, Mr. Chandra-something (maybe Chandrashekhar) overheard this, and said that he’d try to get XFX to give a 8600GT instead of the 6600GT. Now, I’m a bit apprehensive to believe this, since I’ve got it replaced several times, and they have promised a different card once or twice, but never delivered on that promise. Somehow or the other, they always found a clunky 6600GT!

Anyway, both of these will require time (about a week or so), so I can get the mobo, the card and the grease all on one day. Thing is that I’m going to Kerala from 12th to I think 17th, for my cousin’s wedding. So I can collect the stuff only after I come back. Posting will be an issue during this time.

The Pilgrimage shall continue.

Tags: Nehru Place

I think this is the most apt title for my frequent visits to Nehru Place. Look at it this way…Nehru Place is a place where many people go, with their own little problems, praying to an unknown cybergod, praying for their problems to be solved.

So do I.

As usual, it’s time for me to take little bits and pieces there, to the clergy of technology, for them to breathe new life into my motherboard and graphics card. It’s nothing new, especially to people like Ankur, who I pester each and every time my PC goes fop!

I know the place almost like the back of my hand. But not well enough it seems (*…ref later in the post)…I went on Saturday, with Dad, with my entire system. Spent about half an hour at home hunting for the bill. This is because, if you need to get an Asus motherboard repaired under warranty, you need to furnish the original bill, otherwise they do nothing.

No big, Dad had stashed away the bill somewhere safe. Thing is, somewhere safe, but he couldn’t exactly recall where. Slight problem there. Spent a good part of the last week trying to find that piece of paper. It didn’t exactly help that it was almost 3 years old…crap…must be still buried somewhere. Eventually we didn’t find it, even after the last ditched effort just before leaving for Nehru Place…:|

Now, first, Dad had to interview someone at the Intercontinental Eros, so I was sitting in the car, in the car park, for about 45 minutes, whiling my time away listening to radio, and trying to write a mobile post. The reason why you guys haven’t already read it is that, there’s one problem about typing out mobile posts. Sometimes, while deleting the last character, you can accidentally hit the ‘End’ key, which just closes the browser, and exits to standby mode, which sorta sucks, so now I’ve decided to write out the posts as a note in my mobile and copy and paste that in the broswer. Think that will work.

Anyway, back to Nehru Place. Now began the task of lugging it to SMC International, where we’d try to argue with them to give the mobo a challan, coz we were regular customers. I had the bill for a hard disk I bought recently as evidence. When we got there, panting (me, coz I would not let Dad carry that heavy cabinet…which alone weighs 8.5 kg, minus other components) There, we got to know that the old get-the-bill-and-we’ll-give-you-the-challan system was no longer existent. I just had to lug the PC to the RPTech Service Centre. Simple. Oh and by the way, while walking out of the shop, this guy walks up to me and simply says ‘Best cabinet’…wasn’t I smug about my CoolerMaster after that!

Anyway, fast forward to RPTech…where…we got to know something…it was Saturday…and they didn’t work on Saturdays (*)…it was one of the most saddening moments of my life. I had lugged that entire PC around Nehru Place for nothing. Well, the visit wasn’t completely useless, at least I got to know that the bill was not needed anymore. A fair amount of lugging later, I was at home.

At home, I decided to do the inevitable…dismantling the entire PC. The guy who was there at RPTech, told me that they don’t take entire systems, in any case, and that I’d have to come back on Monday with just the mobo and graphics card. Taking out the graphics card is a piece of cake, but the mobo is a different story altogether! I had to take out each and every wire, and only then could I take it out. And then I had to remove the RAM and processor. For the first time in my life, I saw the little chip that was toiling away like a little workhorse, at the heart of my computer. Although it was covered in thermal grease, which I had to remove. Most of it had been caked into powder, since I use the PC so much. I then decided to clean each and every component, and put it into it’s original box till the mobo and card arrived.

When I go on Monday, I’ll also have to buy some thermal grease. I’m planning on buying some Arctic Silver or CoolerMaster stuff, for about 300-400 bucks. Hopefully, I should be able to get it there. I was browsing some forums, and found a post about it being available at SMC International.

Will not be at home tomorrow as mom and dad are both going away for a couple of days. Will be at my second Aunt’s, but may post from there, not that many care… Will go to Nehru Place before that. Wish me luck on my pilgrimage.

Tags: Nehru Place