Why a sweet dip? It's probably the local tastes. The Singaporean Chinese seem to prefer sweet dipping sauce. Even the dark soy sauce is sweet.
So that's why I had to get my mum to show me how to make 姜葱溶 (jiang1 cong1 rong2). It's actually very easy. However, grating ginger is not easy for noobs like me. You have to watch your fingers or you may grate them too. When the grated (or mashed) ginger, chopped spring onion and salt (lots of it) are mixed, hot oil is poured in and stirred. That's it. All I didn't figure out beforehand was the hot oil. It seems it is rapidly cooled once it's mixed with the rest of the ingredients, so the dip is merely warm when it's done.
It's supposed to be oily and very salty, so it's hard to go wrong.
Last night I finally noticed that a few of my finger tips (the ones I use to press my keys and mouse buttons) were getting numb because my desk was vibrating too much. This was in turn due to my desktop's fans. So I switched it off, unplugged it and used my heavy-duty vacuum cleaner.
Opening the side was easy because the lazy tech who built my PC didn't bother to screw in the right side. I was expecting dust but I never thought I'd see chunks of that grey stuff even on the wires at the bottom. Thank goodness I was planning to use the vacuum. Accidentally dropped the board but the wires connecting the fan with the rest of the components didn't snap.
So after sucking all the clumps away, I was still unsatisfied with the thin layer of dust everywhere. I knew it was dangerous, but I still used a wet cloth (dried properly) to wipe the parts that I could reach. It took a lot of care but I managed not to let the cloth touch any of the circuit boards.
It was also then that I noticed the second biggest object in my computer was my Nvidia GTX 285 video card, the largest being my mobo. The graphics card is so big, it has 2 small fans at the bottom. Since I was wiping all the fans, those two were cleaned too. Took more effort since they were aimed downwards.
Also noticed the bottom of the tower casing was also ventilated (grills and filters). That means it's ventilated in every single direction!
Then things didn't go so well. If it had gone that well I wouldn't type so much about it. It's just cleaning my computer.
I put closed the casing and boot my computer. The fans whirled as normal, but then they slowed down, then started up again, and slowed down. This cycled repeatedly while the monitor said it was not receiving any signal and went to sleep mode. Holy shit! What have I done???!?
Dismissing the possibility of a water droplet short-circuiting a component, my first suspicion went to the wires that got pulled hard when I dropped the board. After turning it off again, I examined them carefully to see where they were plugged in, and pushed each plug in hard.
Rebooting the computer gave me some hope. It managed to show me the first screen displaying my hard drive and etc, but at the bottom was something I had never seen before: CMOS Checksum bad.
WHAT DID I DO?!?!?!
I was given 3 options:
-Go to BIOS setup
-Load default values and continue
- something I can't remember.
I went to BIOS but didn't know what to do, so I exited without saving. Things continue to boot but at the Windows loading bar, it crashed. Oh shit!
So I repeated the process of staring at the wires and pushing stuff but all I got was either the initial fan-cycling response or the CMOS Checksum Bad error.
After another 4-5 tries I gave up and used my laptop to google the error. Most of the results told me that it may be a hardware issue (oh shit!) or that the mobo battery had problems. The general advise was to change the battery.
Since I was pretty damn sure it was NOT my battery (my cloth definitely never touched it), I could only conclude it was a hardware fault. This meant a trip to Sim Lim Square on a Saturday morning.
Lugging my desktop (with only my power cable) to Fuwell, the shop I bought from, was tough. Not only was it heavy, I had to be careful not to hit anything hard. Since I had no cart-thing-contraption-whatever, I was carrying it in the box my mum's computer came in. The sticky tape handle allowed me to carry it in one hand, but was rolled up so much it was like holding a string.
Mechanics 101
Lots of force (gravitational in this case) / small surface area = painful amount of pressure
Coincidentally my bro's friend who built it for her picked the exact same casing as I did. Great minds think alike I guess (yes cliche yes).
At first I went to Bell since I saw people recommending it for their repair service (some repair shops there aren't trustworthy). The sale guy told me it would cost $30 and I'd have to wait till Monday to have it repaired due to the weekend. I was fine with that. Then he told me that because I didn't buy from them, they wouldn't be able to replace the parts if they were found to be faulty. The best they could do was check which part was faulty. Finally they told me it would be better if I took it to the shop I bought it from.
I didn't know Fuwell had repair services but they assured me they do. So I went to Fuwell, where I was told it was $30 for repair service and I was to bring it to their tech next door. By the time I finally got my computer there I probably looked like I had rinsed my hair without drying it.
The tech looked at me and I told him I needed to get my computer fixed. He then asked me what was wrong so I told him the error message. When he asked me if it could load Windows, I said no. Strangely, he said it was likely a Windows problem. Surprised, I told him when I googled the error most results told me it was usually a hardware issue.
I think he was offended by that. In my haste I had forgotten the rule that one should not even hint that an expert is wrong (not in his face anyway) until one has solid evidence, especially if one is asking him for help. (Words of wisdom from the sage known as S_H.) So he asked me who said that and I said I didn't know. He still wasn't appeased and proceeded to ask me if I believed them. I said I didn't know what to believe.
He then took out my computer, opened the side (and asked me why the side was not screwed in) and took a look. Satisfied, he plugged in his own power cable and monitors and stuff and booted it up. Even before the first screen was loaded he was already spamming the Del key to enter the BIOS (pro guys don't need to see the error with their own eyes to confirm).
In the BIOS menu he checked the first 3 options on the main menu, hit a few keys and Exit with saved settings. Voila! Windows loaded and everything returned to normal.
WHAT THE FRICKIN HECK???
THIRTY BUCKS AND THE TWENTY-DOLLAR CAB FARE, JUST FOR THAT?
I think he noticed the surprise in my face, because he asked me if I knew what was wrong. Of course I gave him a negative reply, so he told me my BIOS has screwed up probably due to some problem in the electricity and then got his assistant to show me how to set up my BIOS. I'll admit that the electrical problem may have been due to my cloth, but I'll never know.
Anyway the most important thing seems to be the boot sequence. If I was going to load from the disc instead of the hard drive, I had to change the Boot Device 1 to the CD drive. Otherwise, it should be my hard disk. As for the rest of the options, I should probably record them in case this happens again the future.
Those are the screens he showed me and told me to look at.My desk still vibrates but not as bad. On the other hand my fingers are swollen from holding that tape for too long.
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