Computer Act II

My Skype is not working: the mic just can't receive anything no matter how loud I speak to it. After trying out with Fam, I heard his "Anybody home?" but my calling of "SNAIL!!" went no where.

The verdict turns out the D945PSN 'classic' board has some problem with the audio driver. Before I start, here is my system specs with my own judgement on their respective quality/usability in the bracket(), with A being the best, B above expectation, C meet the expectation, D below expectation, and finally F, fail:

• Pentium D 2.8 dual core processor ( D )
  
• Intel D945PSN motherboard ( D )
  
• 2Gb PC4200 DDR2 RAM ( B )
  
• Leadtek Winfast 7300GT TDH video card ( C )
  
• Seagate 150GB SATA drive ( B )
  
• Seagate 200GB IDE drive x 2 ( B )
  
• Lite-On DVD Writer ( D )
• iCute medium tower ( A )
  
• Cooler Master eXtreme Power 430W ( A )
  

As you can see the overall rating for me system is a C, with the culprit of the Intel CPU + motherboard. The DVD writer is also not functioning well because while it is reading, it is very obvious you can feel the drive really revs up the motor to extreme speed. From college physics I recall there is preservation of angular momentum. I wonder if it was true for my drive, it would have had enough energy to run my car for a year or so.

Initially when I first went to purchase these parts, the candidate I had was AMD Athlon64 X2 3.6K with an Abit KN9-Ultra, but the salesperson told me these were out of stock and Intel CPU + D945PSN were what I could get without waiting. Now only I realize why the Intel goods were in stock while the AMD's were not. :( The DVD writer was chosen by myself because I learn this model can be recognized by the OS X. That is another story though.

With my system in a ugly state, I don't have many options. Either I can reinstall the system and hope for the best, or I can get out and buy new CPU + mobo. Now I am pursuing option #1.