Love the TCH, hate cpu coolers, turkey day
We absolutely love the Camry Hybrid. I can’t tell you how many times I said to Ali how this thing or that thing was cool about the car. Ali, who normally isn’t as turned on by gadgets as I am, likes the gadgets. I wowed her yesterday. I said “watch this….” I hit a few buttons on the touch screen and all of a sudden the screen drops down and folds out to reveal the slots to put in cd’s and dvd’s. It’s smooth robotic action makes you feel like you are witnessing something in a sci-fi movie.
Here is a list of some of the other cool things about the car:
It has voice activated commands. Say you are hungry, hit a button, wait for the beep and say “Restaurants” the navigation system will display any restaurants it knows about on the map. If you are trying to find some place and only know the address, you can say the address to the car and it will route you there. If you want to dial a phone number, you can simply say it.
The car has dual climate control. One issue Ali and I always have had is I like the car cooler than she does. Now she can have her side toasty warm while I have a cool breeze blowing on me, it is awesome.
It has smart keys. The “key” is not a key at all it is an RFID device that you just need to have in the car whether that means in your pocket, purse or thrown on the seat. Then you just put your foot on the brake and hit the POWER button. When you come up to the car and it is locked, once again, if you have the key on you, simply put your hand on the door handle (it senses your hand is there) wait a second and pull, the door opens automagically. The same thing works for the trunk.
When a door is open, you see a graphical representation of it on the little LCD screen in the middle of the speedometer. When it closes, you see the door close on the screen in animated fashion. (yea it’s very minor but I like it)
When you press the gas door release button, there can be a delay of up to ten seconds. It detects the pressure in the gas tank and if it is too high it will vent it before allowing access to the gas cap. ( I suppose with a high voltage electrical system sitting back there, having gas fumes flying around could be a dangerous thing)
It has buttons in the headliner that replace the remote control for your garage door. It can control up to three devices, right now I just have the left button opening the door.
I could go on and on about how great this car is. The average mileage we have gotten just keeps going up and up, right now we are up to about 36 mpg. The car looks very sharp, it turns heads, something I haven’t seen since I was driving my 71 Buick convertible. We really like it.
One small consolation for the huge money we dumped to the dealer is we unloaded the Sentra that had multiple issues. It needed all four tires replaced, a new fuel pump, had a sporadic check engine light issue and had some cosmetic blemishes. I would have probably dropped at least a grand into it in the coming months. It would really be helpful if the lady who’s 500 dollars I am holding on the van would come through. I am going to have to give her a call in the next few days. I can’t believe they can’t get the money together.
Well last night was the final episode in my cpu cooler saga. Even though the original cooler was doing a good job of cooling, I had my 50 dollar Scythe Ninja sitting there, mocking me. After my initial install problems with it, I went out and spent a few extra bucks for a universal mounting kit that supposedly would fix the issues with clearance I had before. I also got some super duper thermal transfer paste.
So I once again rip into the computer. Installation of the universal mounting kit was messy and tedious. Many times I had to stop and dig around the case to find little washers and screws that I dropped. Finally, I got the mounts on and attached the Ninja to it. It felt nice and snug. I button everything back up, plug everything back in and hope for the best. The OS loads and I give it a minute or two to settle down before checking the temperatures. SON OF A BITCH, it is still higher than the stock cooler by a good eight or nine degrees! WTF?? Ok that’s it, I am done f’ing with this. I disconnect everything, rip the ninja out and throw the stock cooler back in, crank it down tight and figure that is it, it does a better job than anything else, it stays.
So I hooked the puter back up, turned it on and walked back to the kitchen island to clean up the mess from my tinkering. It is getting late and I am very tired so I just want to clean up and get to bed. As I am cleaning up, I hear some background noise go dead. The background noise was the fans from my computer. I glanced in the computer room and saw the screen off. That could only mean one thing, overheating!!!
My temper is flaring, I am so sick of f’in with this and just want to go to bed, but waking up to the prospect of a dysfunctional computer is not an option so I once again, disconnect the box, put it on the counter and rip into it. I unscrew two of the four bolts that hold down the cpu cooler. Then I crank on the other two. I turn, I turn, I turn more, much more than I should have to release the bolts. They will not release. Like an idiot I just keep turning and turning, thinking it will magically come off. I try turning while pressing hard, try turning while pushing at an angle, no dice. I am beyond pissed. I whip out the flashlight and shine the light down there as I turn. The standoffs that the bolts screw into are turning…. I guess when I tightened it down I was a bit too ambitious and stripped it.
I was exhausted, yet rage started to come over me. It is the rage that hits me very rarely but motivates me to do spontaneous, stupid acts of violence. I actually entertained the idea of taking the computer over my head and smashing the shit out of it on the floor, I really was. Luckily I regained some sanity before doing so. After pointlessly trying to turn some more, I remove the system board to get a better look. What happened is the support you screw into is plastic with metal threaded inserts. From the repeated installations of the bracket and my over zealous tightening, I managed to spin the insert in the plastic, rounding off the corners. Even with the board out of the computer, I could not come up with a way to stop the insert from spinning, then I got serious.
By now it was after 11 and I was going to get this damn thing off it killed me and the computer. So I go into the garage and get the heavy duty tools, a vice grips and big ass cutters. I repeatedly try to grab the insert to hold it while I unscrewed the heatsink. I was having little luck. Each failed attempt increased my blood pressure. I was man handling the delicate system board like it was a piece of wood. Vice grips and diag cutters aren’t normally tools used for system board repair but they were my weapons of choice. After many, many tries, I was able to get the screws turned out. I took the support plate from one the other shitty cooler that didn’t work and used it for the stock cooler. I put it all back together and prayed my abuse of the components didn’t result in me killing the system all together.
I hook the cables up, take a deep breath and fire it up. It still works! Alright! It boots up and stays on so that means the cooler is at least on well enough to keep the cpu within operating range. Once it settles down I once again run the temp test and low and behold it’s good. It’s actually 5 degrees or so cooler than it was before. I attest that to the the upgraded thermal paste. Holy shit, it all works and I am never touching it again. After clean up and shower, my head didn’t hit the pillow until a few ticks before midnight.
After work yesterday I once again ran with Ali. It was quite chilly, hovering around 60 with a bit of wind. I did not dress appropriately and only had on the shorts and the sleeveless t-shirt I wore for the gym. We went over to Sugden park to run. I was freezing my ass off. About a mile or so into the two mile run I felt better but the cool wind still made my face cold and nose run. We ran the two miles at a good pace, wrapping it up in 19:12. I popped two Motrin at home and my knee today feels normal.
For Thanksgiving we are picking my mom up tonight and then having a little mini-celebration tomorrow. We will be dog sitting the neighbor’s dog for two and a half days as well so she can add to the fun. Originally Ali and I entertained the idea of doing the Thanksgiving Run but the forecast calls for it to be quite chilly again tomorrow morning and I am not quite sure I am up to putting another four miles on my body anyway. Ali is pumped to not have to get up super early. I was going to fire up the pool heater for the holiday but with as cool as it is supposed to be, I would be spending a ton of electrical dollars to heat something that will see little use. My mom said to not bother, so I didn’t.