"Are you looking for after-sales service?" the general manager prompted. "Hey! After-sales service, after-sales service. If after-sales service had actually resolved the issues, we wouldn't have traveled all the way from all over the country just to request returns and compensation!" one retailer remarked. The general manager immediately grew serious and sought out the head of after-sales service, who looked weary and explained, "I've led my team in studying countless solutions—yet none of them have worked. It seems our product design is at fault!" Under the pressure from numerous retailers, a headquarters accountant, feeling helpless, opened the purchase ledger and calculated that returning the purchase amounts to these retailers would require a total of 30 million yuan. 30 million yuan—back in 2001, that was no small figure at all! The general manager was deeply discouraged, as he knew the headquarters currently had only 5 million yuan in working capital. The rest had either been invested in market expansion or in production and R&D. Could they possibly pull out 30 million yuan all at once? With no funds, the executives' words went unheard. The merchants were frantic, turning their attention sharply to the finance department's accountants, while the executives themselves were also being held accountable. "As long as someone can immediately resolve this technical issue—no matter what it is—by providing a feasible solution, I'll reward them with 100,000 right away!" Under pressure, the CEO gathered all the technical staff and engineers from the company headquarters. In front of the merchants demanding a refund, he announced the reward criteria—special measures during a special period, aimed at swiftly overcoming this crisis. "I'll take it!" A senior engineer from the R&D department stepped forward confidently, demonstrating the solution in front of everyone. After ten minutes, the senior engineer reached an agreement with one merchant, who immediately launched a Counter-Strike (CS) game. However, not five minutes into an intense battle, the computer unexpectedly restarted. "No way! Previously, it would freeze—now it's restarting!" "The merchant who had been trying out insisted. "We still want a refund!" Many merchants spoke up in unison. The collective voices gathered into an invisible force, making the general's forehead glisten with sweat. He turned to look at all the other technical staff, only to find that none of them dared to raise their heads—clearly, no one wanted to step forward and face embarrassment. After all, if the technical issue had been easily resolved, these merchants wouldn't have traveled from all over the country to gather at the company's headquarters. He issued his final incentive: if the issue could be resolved on-site, immediate rewards of 1 million would be given. Under such heavy incentives, courage was sure to emerge—and this time, it was a venerable professor, a computer expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who stepped forward! The senior professor truly lived up to his reputation as a distinguished computer expert at China's Academy of Sciences. With his wise eyes, he immediately began transforming the Windows 98 software on this Lianchuang-branded computer. Fifteen minutes later, he invited a merchant to test it. Just as the merchant was about to raise his thumb in praise, the computer suddenly displayed a blue screen. Then it would freeze, then restart, then go blue again—over and over. The merchants lost all confidence in the technical upgrades. The professor sighed deeply and, with a serious expression, said to the general manager, "Ni, I've done my best!" Seeing even the most accomplished expert at the top level of the field unable to resolve the issue, the general manager's face fell, completely losing his usual composure and confidence. "It's over! Our Lianchuang Group is finished!" the general manager's voice broke. "Ni, let me give it a try!" A clear voice came from the other side. To the eye, he appeared to be a handsome, well-dressed young man, prompting the others to shake their heads in disbelief. After all, challenges that had stumped senior R&D engineers at the Lianchuang Group and veteran experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences—problems that even the most seasoned technical minds had struggled with—how could a seemingly high school-level young man possibly solve them? "Go! Go! This isn't your concern!" one security guard blocked Gao Liang, but was stopped by Ni Zong. Under Ni Zong's guidance, Gao Liang began to carefully inspect this Lianchuang-branded computer. Truth be told, Gao Liang had never seen this particular model before. It was a straightforward, conventional Lianchuang machine—old-fashioned, with a worn-out motherboard, supporting only a Celeron 2 CPU and 128 MB of memory, and a modest 6 GB hard drive. The graphics card was a basic, integrated onboard card with low resolution. Back in 2001, such a machine would have been a prized possession. Windows 98 was installed on it, and the system ran steadily. However, after using his spiritual sight to observe the maintenance methods and procedures of the senior technical engineer and the veteran expert professor, Gaoang noticed that one of them started from hardware while the other focused on system software—yet neither had resolved the issue. Gaoang thought: to solve problems such as game freezing, restarts, and blue screens, one must address both hardware and software simultaneously. Only then could the root causes be clearly identified and the direction clearly established. With this insight, Gaoang immediately applied his three years of network management experience to upgrade and modernize the aging Lianchuang-branded computer. "Ying'er, help me look up! All technical fault cases and repair records for Lianchuang's X86 series computers from the year 2001!" Under Gaoang's request, Ying'er promptly began searching the materials using Gaoang's advanced handheld device. "Master!" The issues encountered with this series of machines are indeed quite troublesome. However, there's one hardware aspect that needs improvement. Additionally, there's a system patch required for Windows 98, and the Counter-Strike game is incompatible with Windows 98, requiring a game-specific patch to resolve the issue. "Exactly!" High Light immediately got to work. Being particularly skilled in hardware matters, he first applied a layer of silicone to the CPU, assuming that power failures stemmed from hardware issues. Yet, after some testing, the machine still crashed. High Light then recalled a design flaw from past computer projects—perhaps the CPU wasn't making proper contact with the cooler. Upon close inspection, he found this possibility highly likely. He promptly instructed the senior engineer, "Go and get me a thermal pad!" Soon after, the machine was fitted with the thermal pad. After testing it for half an hour, the crash issue was successfully resolved. But how can we resolve the restart and blue screen issues? The original Windows 98 system is inherently unstable and has numerous vulnerabilities. The senior professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences spent a long time trying to apply patches, yet couldn't fully address them. Gaoang, who is proficient in using Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, can certainly build a customized system from the existing platform, tailored specifically to users' needs.