Our story begins over a year ago, when my trusty rusty laptop that has been all over the country with me curled up in a little ball overnight and closed its eyes like Fry's dog for one final time.
Aside from losing tons of vacation pictures and many shots of people that are no longer with me, I also lost a lot of game work across my whole library.
It also forced me to go a-hunting for a new computer faster than a singing frog courting a mouse. After weeks of deliberating I finalized on a little desktop I found at Costco that had quite a bit of power. Yes I know what you're thinking. But that little voice inside me just wouldn't go away. And since it is a known fact that I'm certifiably crazy for having little voices inside my head, I bought it. An ACER (gag) ATC-120-UC22.
With an a10 in it. That kinda sold it to me. An AMD a10 for 400 dollah. not bad. I didn't want a desktop but kinda got tired of my laptop overheating. And yes I actually had to keep a fan ON the laptop whenever I played a game, otherwise it would overheat and turn itself off midgame. (whimper)
But now I had a DESKTOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (top...top...top...)
Problem...it had but 4 GB on it and was running *gag* WINDOWS 8!
So yeah...it was limited in what it could play.
One of my favorite titles, Unreal...was not working....very stuttery and unplayable. Batman Arkham Asylum, unplayable....
It DID manage to play new MMO Star Wars The Old Republic (well, three years old, new) but in highly congested areas it also had its problems...
So during the black Friday sales (yes I waited that long cause I'm lazy), I bought an 8GB upgrade kit...and that sat idly by doing nothing while I tried to figure out what was wrong with my sound systems and would I need to take it in to fix that. Thankfully it ended up just being a bad speaker cable and the sound card itself was working fine. That just meant getting new speakers, etc. They were old and I got them as a handmedown.
So I bought a very cheap and very great set of Creative speakers. Perfect. It worked and I didn't have to move the computer around with my foot anymore just to keep the sound from cutting out. (I actually had to tilt the thing at a 45 degree angle and hold it there at times.)
So now I was rocking and rolling.
2 full months later I finally decide to try and install the memory.
And...it doesn't work. Not only that it doesn't fit.
"It'll work," they said.
"No problem" they said, "it's exactly what you want. Trust me!"
Well it didn't totally fit. I had to shove it in a little and finally got it in the slots. I turned on my computer and was treated to beeps and a huge frowny face.
No joke, Windows 8 ACTUALLY gives you a frownie face when it won't turn on properly just like Idiocracy.
Luckily it did no damage but it also meant I would have to research things more.
Now I admit it, I am not a hardware expert. I am not even a hardware intermediate. I am not that good with my hands. (Joke missing)
But I finally do come research from crucial.com (the manufacturer's of the memory) and find that this particular stick set was incompatible with my computer. So I rush it back (albeit 2 months later) to the computer store and tell them this and they try and tell me and sell me stories that they can't exchange it blahblahblah. So I throw fits and talk to managers and talk to salesclerks and give them twinkies and Mr Pibb (geeks like those I hear) and finally they exchange it after I offer to pay even more for the memory that is actually compatible. I also do a little more research on how to install the stuff.
Another day later I finally install it correctly, this time pushing all the way down causing the endclamps to fasten. The previous sticks were simply not doing this though. Just seemed just a TAD too big overall even though I was even told by the clerks that "it SHOULD have worked". (And they should have pointed the crucial website to me to begin with since they say they use it all the time).
Anyway making a long story short (too late), after swapping out
the memory 3 different times and posting my questions how to do so on the acer site, the crucial site AND a tech site (which was the best) I finally determine how to install things right.
Because even after I installed it correctly it was STILL only reading 4 GB.
Removing the old memory got me to 8 GB. Another swap and my computer angerly beeped at me again. Eureka I found DIMM 1 (and longing for some Dimsum) So just guessing something that shouldn't have worked (according to...wel, EVERYBODY) I found the magic formula of CRUCIAL, CRUCIAL, KINGSTON, EMPTY.....12 GB 12 GLORIOUS GIGABYTES and AWAY WE GO..................................