Psychotic Security Guards @ Cuscaden Reserve

I had the unfortunate privilege of coming across 2 of the most unhinged Security Guards today during a site visit with my boss at one of our new project located in Cuscaden Reserve, but in order to ensure that my colleague Yan won't have a hard time during the Project Management phase of the project, I shall abstain from leaving a scathing review on their Google Reviews until we are have completed the project. 

To say the Security Guards were unfriendly would be a huge understatement because in my line of work, I have met my fair share of Condo Security Guards, they are all generally quite cordial, and you do get some unfriendly ones once in a while, but this 2 Security Guards at Cuscaden Reserve were fucking mental.

So my boss had actually parked his car at a nearby mall and we decided that we would walk to the Condo on foot, we headed to the Guard House when we arrived and my boss just says to them...

"Visiting."

... we were expecting the guards to then simply ask us which Unit No, confirm our identities, and then  let us in since our clients had told us that they had already informed whoever they needed to inform in advance that we were visiting.  

The first Security Guard, upon hearing what my boss said, then responded in a very unfriendly tone with...

"Purpose?"

... to which my boss then elaborated...

"We are here to meet our homeowners for a discussion."

...which was what we were here for, that Security Guard was not happy with that answer, so he asks the same question again, which was what our purpose was, and my boss responded the same thing, that we were here for a discussion with the homeowner. 

The first Security Guard lost his shit after that and shouted at us....

"ARE YOU A CONTRACTOR?"

... and my boss very calmy respond back, telling him that we are, but that we are only here for a discussion meeting with the homeowners, and we are not here to do any actual contractor work yet. This reply triggered the second Security Guard in the Guard House, who then popped his head out from the guard house and started shouting at my boss...

"CONTRACTOR THEN SAY YOU ARE A CONTRACTOR! We have all sorts of people coming in saying they are this and that! YOU ARE A CONTRACTOR, SAY CONTRACTOR!"

 ....and he proceeds to go on this tirade that lasted way too long, and at one point he went...

"I HAVE A PHD, BUT I AM JUST A SECURITY GUARD, SO WHAT IF I HAVE A PHD?"

...and I guess the point of him sharing that information is just to tell us that not any Tom Dick and Harry can simply enter the Condo Complex, even if said Tom Dick and Harry has a PHD. I mean I get what he is trying to say contextually, but the level of hostility that him and his fellow Security Guard colleague was showing us was completely unwarranted. 

He was just going on and on while my boss was filling up the visitor logbook, and he was just shouting at him the entire time, it was fucking insane. I was just standing beside my boss, seriously contemplating if I should raise my voice back at him and ask him to calm the fuck down because there is no need for that level of hostility, but then I saw my boss, just remaining completely calm, so I also kept my cool and went to fill up my name in the visitor logbook. 

The Second Security Guard did eventually calm down a little when he realize we were not really retaliating, so he did eventually apologized, but still in a very uncouth tone, and said something along the line of...

"Sorry, it's not that I want to target you but a lot of people have been coming into the complex and telling us they are all sort of things.."

... and my boss was just completely calm about the whole thing, he reiterated once again that he was just there for a meeting with the homeowners, and that he wasn't coming in to do any contractor work, that's why he didn't say he was a contractor at the start. 

The Second Security Guard definitely felt really horrible for losing his temper, so he attempted to be helpful and gave us very clear directions about how to get to where we wanted to go to make sure we wouldn't get lost, the first one who lost his temper just kept quiet when the second one lost his shit, so he didn't say anything after that and just had the second guy do all the talking, or screaming. 

After that, as we were walking towards the carpark to get  to the lift lobby, I just laughed about it with my boss and told him how insane the guards were. 

I have heard of Security Guards at Condos in Orchard area being quite arrogant and unfriendly, but holy shit, I was not expecting one of them to start projecting their insecurity about their Security Guard position at us.  

Desktop is alive again...

BIOs have been flashed, the motherboard has been updated and my desktop is alive again! 

The $195 did not go to waste and now I have an upgraded CPU system. I was really not optimistic about this whole thing actually working, even though I had been watching quite a few videos on how to go about actually doing what I needed to do, you just never know what could go wrong. 

But it worked, now I don't have to fork out anymore money to send the entire system it back to Dreamcore for repair. Honestly speaking, even though this whole unintentional upgrade was a success, I don't think I am ready to upgrade anything else in the system, just out of fear that it would fuck with the rest of the system.

This processor replacement process felt like a complete fluke, so I am not going to tinker around with anything anymore, I am happy with the way the desktop is now, as the saying goes, if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

Only downside is my CPU Cooler Fan no longer has the fancy RGB lights, so it won't illuminate the dust that is just contained within the inaccessible crevices of the heatsink anymore.

My 10 Year Old Aftershock Laptop served me really well during this downtime, even though it's a bit laggy at time, the fact that it still was able to sustain my internet addiction for that short period of time whist my Desktop was out of commission is nothing short of amazing.

PC has spoilt

So I damaged my desktop earlier this morning after attempting to try and clean out the heat sink.

The internals of my desktop is just caked in dust because it barely ever gets cleaned, and it's not from a lack of trying, but simply because of how difficult it is to actually get into the nook and crannies that I eventually just gave up... so I guess it is from a lack of trying harder.

Covered in dust. It would be so satisfying to remove the dust from the heatsink...

...but it's almost impossible to access the inner part of the heatsink without removing the entire piece out from the PC because the fan blades are blocking it, I have tried to use compress air to blow the dust out, but it wouldn't really get everything out because of the cockblocking by the blades.

Well, today, I decided to try harder and looked up online how to remove the heatsink from the desktop so I can give it a good clean. From the videos that I watched, it looked quite easy, just gotta do some unlatching, disconnect 2 wires, and the whole thing would come right off with a bit of wiggling. 

I proceed to switch off my desktop, unplug the power outlet, and did all that. I actually had a really bad feeling that I could fuck it up, but proceeded to do it anyway because YOLO. There was some resistance at the start because of the latch was really hard to unlatch, but it did eventually came off...

... and something that wasn't suppose to come off came off with it, that black square with a smaller gold square in the center of the motherboard, that part is not suppose to be empty, that part is where the processer is suppose to sit and where it is suppose to stay when I remove the heatsink.

... here is is, at the back of the heatsink, the pins are crooked and it is completely stuck on the heatsink like it had been fucking cemented on. 

When you install a processor onto the motherboard, it's a very gentle process, you have to make sure the pins are all straight, and then you gently prop in onto the motherboard and lock it in,  but when you have the fucking heatsink just mounted on top of it, that is impossible. The heatsink doesn't just plop right on top, I need to angle it here and there to ensure the latches are in place, and when I do that, what ends up happening is it forces all the pins on the processor to bend with it.

The photo above was taken after it had been freshly removed, after attempting to stick re-install the processor and then failing to successfully latch the heatsink onto the motherboard, the pins of the processor got bend even more.

I did eventually latch the heatsink successfully back onto the motherboard eventually, but when I tried to turn on the PC, it didn't boot up at all because the processor has been damaged. The next thing I could think of was to simply drop Dreamcore an email and ask them for a quote to replace and repair the desktop, and if possible, also do some specs upgrade, since it's a Sunday, they won't reply to me until tomorrow the earliest. 

Since I had time to think about the issue, I decided why not get a new processor and replace it on my own, Dreamcore would probably charge me an arm and a leg for the repair and they will definitely do a crazy mark up the price of the Processor, or at least that's what Reddit claims, so I actually headed over to Sim Lim around 4pm to and managed to find a new CPU Processor, double checked with the seller if it's compatible with my motherboard, and it's definitely an upgrade from the current damaged one, it came with the Heatsink/Fan, I didn't realize they would come as a set but it did. I asked the Salesperson if he could help me remove the damaged processor from my current heatsink, but sadly their store isn't equipped with the necessary tools to do that.

Total Damage - $195

When I reached home, I tried to install the processor on my own and it didn't go well, things were falling apart left and right, eventually I managed to install the processor and the new heatsink onto the motherboard, but because I needed a USB Drive to update the motherboard, which I do not have, I can't really do anything more until I get my hands on the USB Drive that I have in the office.

I am not sure if I damaged anything during the dismantling because I disconnected the GPU, the WiFi card and a bunch of other shit that I have no idea does what, accidentally drop parts onto one another, it was a mess, the parts have all been reconnected since.

If this works, that's fantastic and might give me the confidence to also potentially upgrade the graphics card.

If it fails and Dreamcore does charge me an arm and a leg for the repair cost, I may just end up getting a new laptop and just give up owning a desktop. The whole point of a desktop is so I can upgrade it, but if attempts to upgrade it end up costing a lot of money, then there is just no point buying another desktop, just for me to change the entire system again 4 years later. A laptop also takes up a lot less space on my table.

Or I may just stick to my Aftershock laptop and get the upcoming PS5 Pro for my gaming needs, would also be a great way to make use of my Prism+ monitor.