The Aerie
The luck just kept on comin' today. I recently picked up a new flat-screen monitor to add to my Linux desktop. The existing single monitor just wasn't cutting it for me, in part because Linux doesn't seem to want to let me set the screen resolution down to the one-letter-per-pixel that I prefer to employ in order to maximize desktop space.
Unfortunately, my computer only has one slot for the video card, so I had to look for a more expensive "dual-head" video card, that allowed for two monitors. And of course, those are more expensive...
I checked a couple of local resources and General Nanosystems had one for $118, which compares to maybe $40 for a single-video card. So before I headed over General Nano, I decided to stop by Que Computers, which recently moved into my neighborhood from its former digs up on East Hennepin Avenue. Que is basically a junk-shop, a commercial version of my basement storage room. But if you need a cheap monitor or PC they have them, and they actually have some pretty good deals on used laptops. And scattered around they store are random cards and cables of vintages that make me nostalgic.
I didn't have a lot of hope, and when I finally located the video cards my skepticism was reinforced. A few 1996-era video cards scraped noisily against each other in a dusty cardboard box, certainly nothing that would help me. My own box of video cards at home has a better selection of fresher cards.
I searched desultorily along the shelf past cardboard boxes with "sound card", "drive controllers", etc. Finally on the end was a box labelled "AGP video", with a half-dozen cards rattling around.
One of them was a Matrox dual-head video card circa 2000.
I grabbed three of the cards out of the box (my youngest son also needs a new video card) and went up front. Only one of the cards bore a price tag, a $9.95 sticker on one of the single-head video cards. The fellow behind the counter looked them over and said, "I'll give you all three for $7.00 each."
So instead of buying a new card for $118, I bought a used card for $7.
Took it home, plugged it in, and it worked immediately, with no complications. The two monitors immediately presented a shared, spanned desktop.
Yeah!
This never happens to me. I'm under some kind of Mummy's Curse regarding electrical equipment, from toasters to mainframes. Nine times out of ten I try to do something that ought to work out of the box, and it turns into four hours of experimentation and frustrated analysis, ending in an improvised repair involving metal cutters and packaging tape.
For instance, the other day I purchased a replacement ceiling fan for the bathroom. Now, this is a no-brainer: you take out the old frame by unplugging the power and removing a single screw and swinging the unit out on a hinge. Then you reverse the process to put in the new one.
For some reason, I chose 4:00 a.m. on Friday morning to put in the fan, and of course... it didn't fit. The frame was the wrong size.
Never fear! The fans mount to their frames by a pair of hex-headed screws and nuts. I grabbed my hex screwdriver and a pair of pliers and set to work... and stripped the tip of the hex screwdriver.
But okay, I improvise with a pair of Allen wrenches. After ten minutes of swearing I finally crack the screw loose... and the motor falls apart. The screws aren't just mounting the motor to the bracket, they're holding the motor together. But, okay, I'll re-assemble the motor and mount it on the... I can't get the fan out of its original frame. But never fear, the frame is aluminum! Ten minutes of wriggling, and I've torn up the frame on this brand-new fan that doesn't fit in my vent - the point of no returns, as it were.
So I go to mount the fan on the old bracket that came with the house... and in order to mount the fan on this bracket, I have to reverse the direction of screws through the motor. And... the holes in the motor are not threaded at the end where the head was originally supposed to be. And... I can't get in under the fan to hold the nuts so that I can tighten down the screws.
About 5:30 a.m. I finished re-assembling this upside-down, disassembled and reassembled fan unit, and installed it in the bathroom ceiling. Threw the switch, and it worked perfectly. Satisfied, I went to bed.
The next day, the fan failed to work. I found poking a pencil into the fan to nudge it would start it spinning, but I am the only person in the house tall enough to accomplish this, so that's not a long-term solution.
THAT'S how these projects usually work for me, so I was flabbergasted when my $7 video card worked today. Knock wood!
Deciding to ride the wave of good fortune, I took the bathroom fan apart one last time. I disassembled the motor and rebuilt and re-mounted it. I added a pair of nuts to those provided in order to separate the task of holding the motor together from the task of holding the fan itself onto the frame.
My luck is in top form... the fan now works famously. And it probably didn't hurt that my second attempt was conducted during the day rather than at 4:00 a.m.
Meanwhile, I should consider buying a lottery ticket!