1491 - Down By The Water

Once again I have a nice computer problem. Our main computer here in Villach, the one connected to a 1920x1200 monitor, crashes. It does so randomly but progressively. In such a case my first idea is always to check memory, but I’ve done so weeks ago and twice since, and at least my memory check utility can’t find a thing.

With some confidence (because of the pattern of crashes) I had suspected the graphics card, but although replacing the card had looked like a good idea, it brought relief for only a short time. Recently it has started again, and now it is progressing. The computer not only crashes every few days, now it’s after only a few minutes.

This sucks. I really have no idea what to change next, and, most aggravating, when I change the motherboard (which could be the problem, I had something like that years ago), I can as well buy a new computer. I would have to re-install the operating system. No problem with Linux, it would just boot, but normally Windows systems don’t like it when you change the base they’re running on.

Changing motherboard/CPU, re-installing Windows and all apps? Could be a nightmare next weekend. And then? There is no guarantee that it will solve the problem. I was so sure that the graphics card was the culprit, but then I threw away the money for the new card. What if it happens again??

Oh, and: don’t even think that the Windows event log contains the slightest trace of useful information.

Ok, ok, I stop. I guess I’ll buy a new computer next weekend, walk through hell and such, and in the end everything will be fine for another year.

The Image of the Day is from a walk down to the river this afternoon. It’s one of these images where you just have to take a series, because the result is so hard to predict, but then, if you persevere, you’ll eventually get what you’re looking for. In my case it was the upper right corner 🙂

The colors in this image are “made”, much in the spirit of Alain Briot’s fourth part of “Composing with Color”, up on the Luminous Landscape. If you haven’t read it yet, I really urge you to do so. It’s very good stuff, and especially the example of “Zabriskie Point Sunset: local desaturation” is extremely inspiring, at least it was for me. I routinely do similar things, but I so far I normally didn’t do just that.

The Song of the Day is “Down By The Water” from P. J. Harvey’s 1995 album “To Bring You My Love”. Hear it on YouTube.