As you may recall I told you that I had plans to put a new 3D
graphics card in our computer at home last weekend.  Well, let me
tell you - Compaq does NOT want you to easily access the inside of
your computer.

You figure maybe 6 screws and lift it off, right?  WRONG!  First, it
uses Torx head screws.  Fortunately for me I happen to own a set of
Torx screwdrivers.  I use them when I have to change the headlamp on
my car.  So we start removing screws.  After about the 6th one we
realize that to get the side panels off we need to take the top panel
off but to do THAT you have to diconnect the cable leading to the
front button plate. So off goes the top, keep it out of the way, then
the side panel comes off so you can remove the cable and then you can
take the top off to access the screws that hold the inner panel in
place.  Which is in there at *just the right position*.  If you
aren't pulling and jiggling it at the right angle, you're getting
nowhere.

So now the blasted thing is apart.  Yeah!  My boyfriend is a fellow
co-worker and board designer.  So what do we do?  We spent about 10
minutes ooh-ing and ahh-ing the motherboard.  What a work of art!
Teeny tiny 0302 resistors and what appeared to be microvias.  AND it
had the reference designators silkscreened on the board!  We don't
want to do that here becuse of the mess it would create and yet it
obviously can be done and clearly understood.  We were humbled by
the craftmanship of the designers.

As we're gawking at the board, one of my cats (Augie) is with us and
just *had* to see what was so darned interesting.  He must have been
looking for the mouse, which was still on the desk (groan!).

Now it's time to bet the graphics card installed so I reached for the
non-static bag and broke the seal.  I'll bet you've never noticed
that a non-static bag crinkles the same way a bag of Kittie Nibbles.
Well, it did to Augie.  that darned cat was in my face in a
heartbeat.  I'm thinking, "Great!  Watch me fry the board before I
get it out of the wrapper!"  We tried nudging the cat back but he was
convinced I had snackies.  We had to put him out of the room and
close the door.  I get the board out and as we're installing it, a
black and white paw is trying to reach around the door, stretching
and straining for those forbidden goodies.  Once it was firmly in
place and connected we let him back in.  I had too - he was making
such a racket and trying his best to open that door with his nose.

We put everything back together, turned it back on and fired it up.
Windows95 is wonderful about recognizing new hardware so within a few
moments we had it set up.

Anyway, I thought you all might get a bit of a chuckle out of this
story and would appreciate knowing that somewhere out there are
peopke who DO admire your hard efforts to produce an aesthetically
pleasing board as well as a functional one.  Maybe one day, someone
will see one of my boards and think to themself, "That's a damn fine
board there!"

Have a lovely Friday everyone!

Jo

JoAnn L. Amerson
Design Librarian
Red Lion Controls, Inc.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Voice: (717) 767-6961 ext 6308

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