Got home, spent some quality time with my wife, and then dove into the computer. I pulled out the four sticks totaling 2.5 GB, then carefully slotted in the new 4 GB worth. Before putting the cover on, I plugged the computer back in and turned it on.
Cephiro: BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEP
Me: Motherfucker.
I tried different combinations, different slots, and the result was exactly the same as having no memory installed at all:
Cephiro: BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEP
*sigh*
...pulled the memory out, put in the paltry (and slow) 2.5 GB, and rebooted the computer. Booted fine.
So what happened? We had some rumblies, and my wife came into the computer room, all excited. I said flatly that I was aware that we were having a storm. She asked me what was wrong; I replied, "Apparently I am not allowed to upgrade my computer," and explained why.
She suggested a new computer; I thought she was joking. But no; she meant every word.
Which is why I am now backing up my data to an external drive, preparatory to shutting down Cephiro and putting...uh...
Floristica
...Floristica in its place. "Floristica" is the name of a country in El Hazard, but it'll have to do, because I simply can't think of anything else that I like better. "Edolas" is the name of the alternate world in Fairy Tail but I don't like it much; "Fiore" is the name of the country in "Earthland" where most of the series takes place--but none of that appeals to me, and "Floristica" does, so that's it.
Floristica is an Asus M51AC, with a Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a primary hard drive of 1 TB. It's got Win 8 on it, of course, and it's got a monster video card in it from the factory: a GeForce GTX-650 that takes up two slots (plugs into one) and has a liquid-type heat sink. Damn.
Anyway, my backup is done, and I've got to get cracking on setting up the new system. I can't wait to see WoW on this thing....