PC "Turned On" But Not Ready For Duty

Remember when "NEVER OBSOLETE" was the biggest lie in tech marketing? This ancient relic from the early 2000s promised eternal relevance with its blazing 64MB RAM and mind-blowing 40X CD-ROM drive. Now it can barely run a Chrome tab, let alone Cyberpunk at 4K. That 667MHz processor would melt trying to render Keanu's first pixel. The irony of asking about Cyberpunk FPS on this fossil is like asking how many horsepower your horse has compared to a Tesla. Spoiler alert: the answer is somewhere between "absolutely none" and "it will catch fire trying."

The classic teenage PC build saga. Kid discovers PC Part Picker, immediately sorts by "Price: High-Low," and suddenly has a 2000W beast that could probably mine Bitcoin and heat a small village simultaneously. Meanwhile, their poor parents' credit card is somewhere crying in a corner. We've all been there – dreaming of hardware we absolutely don't need but desperately want. That PC isn't running Minecraft any better than a $800 build, but try telling that to a 13-year-old who just discovered what "enthusiast-grade" means.

The bell curve of PC cooling opinions is brutal. On the far left and right, we have the chill 0.1% who just use whatever fan came with their case and sleep peacefully at night. Moving inward to the 2% and 14%, we find slightly more opinionated but still reasonable humans. Then there's the sweaty 34% in the middle screaming "NO! I NEED A PUSH PULL AIO!" while literally crying tears of thermal paste. These are the people who spend more time optimizing their cooling setup than actually using their computer. For the uninitiated, a push-pull AIO (All-In-One) liquid cooling setup uses fans on both sides of a radiator—because apparently one set of fans wasn't enough anxiety about potential leaks destroying your $3000 gaming rig.

Content The source code of Windows' troubleshooting program has leaked 1 2 include windows.h include stdio.h int main) printf("Searching for problems.. In"); Sleep (60000); printf("We didn't find any problemsn");

Content How to fix any computer Windows Step 1. Reboot Did that fix it? Nor Proceed to step a Step a Format hard drive. Reinstall Windows Lose all your files Quietly weep Apple Step 1. Take it to an Apple store Did that fix it? No? Proceed to step a Step a Buy a new Mac Overdraw your account Quietly weep Linux Step 1. Learn to code in C. Recompile the kernel. Build your own microprocessor out of spare silicon you had lying around Recompile the kernel again. Switch distros. Recompile the kernel again but this time using a CPU powered by refracted light from Saturn. Grow a giant beard. Blame Sun Microsystems. Turn your bedroom into a server closet and spend ten years falling asleep to the sound of whirring fans. Switch distros again. Abandon all hygiene. Write a regular expression that would make other programmers cry blood. Learn to code in Java. Recompile the kernel again (but this time while wearing your lucky socks). Did that fix it? No? Proceed to step a Step a. Revert back to Using Windows or a Mac Quietly weep

The classic Microsoft relationship cycle in two acts. In 2020, we're desperately clinging to Windows 7 like it's the last stable relationship we've ever had. "Don't force me to install 10!" we cry, knowing full well Microsoft's update ninjas are lurking in the shadows. Fast forward to 2025, and suddenly we're on our knees begging Windows 10 not to abandon us for the new, shinier Windows 11. The tables have turned faster than a database transaction rollback. It's the tech equivalent of hating your new apartment until the landlord threatens to kick you out. Nothing makes you appreciate buggy software quite like the promise of even buggier software.