I have a new first (for me). The CPU in my desktop computer quit tonight. Yes, the processor. I've never had a process die on me. In the middle of watching the Daily Show no less! The screen got all funky, so I dropped to a shell and killed flash (because everyone knows flash + linux = problems). Back into X and I had artifacts all over the screen. I tried to monkey with the nVidia controls since so far the issue only seemed to be related to the graphics. No luck, and things continued to deteriorate so I shut down. Upon starting back up I got no further than the boot screen performing a memory test. Several more attempts with the same result.

Annoyed, I started unplugging devices until I was left with keyboard, mobo, RAM, processor and Video card. Still no dice. I was sure it was the mobo. But to test, I took the RAM, then video card to the media computer and ruled those out. Grudgingly I swapped CPUs. Desktop CPU went into media computer and I rolled the dice. No game. Could it be? A bad CPU? Not believing it, I installed media CPU into desktop (where it lived in a previous life). Success! And, failure. Turned out I had 1) plugged the keyboard into the mouse slot (didn't green used to = keyboard, purple = mouse?) and I didn't have the cpu fan installed correctly. I fixed those and viola! Here I am. Back to the media computer and found I was sloppy with the fan there as well (they just really don't install well the 2nd time it seems). I fixed the fan, and still no dice.

First I checked with amazon, my desktop CPU is only 8 months old, so even if it was a 1 year warranty I was still covered. Next on to Intel. It seems that Intel really doesn't want to deal directly with customers. I found this line Intel recommends that you contact your local dealer or distributor before contacting Intel all over the place. I did not find an email address or an online RMA form. I did find that most processors have a 3 year warranty. So tomorrow I call and see what happens.