(no subject)
Hmm... I promised I'd write about my computer troubles once everything's fixed, but I don't know how long that might still be. So... I guess I better start now, before I forget half.
A couple of weeks ago, my computer at work started showing bad sectors during boot. Normal wear and tear on the hard disk, I suspect. Well, some programs couldn't be started anymore, it seems the bad sector was hindering the swap file. So, after a couple of days of me complaining, I got a new hard disk... Well, that was the general idea. For some odd reason, it wasn't simply 'transfer the data and then swap the hard disk', but '...swap the whole computer against an identical one', according to our sysadmin. Which is where it all started.
To begin with, the replacement computer had less memory -- about half of the original one. That was OK, Windows 98 doesn't use all the memory I had anyways. But that should have set off alarm bells regarding the 'identical'-ness. Next I know, the video card is different -- not only did the new computer use the on-board card whereas the old one had an extra card, but I later found out that there was a different video card on board as well. Identical, yeah.
Installing drivers for the new video card proved harder than even our sysadmin could handle -- for some reason, even the correct drivers were not accepted. So, it was decided that the system would be completely reinstalled, and as we were doing things, to really mess it up by installing Windows 2000. Nevermind that Microsoft had just announced that it would not prolong the service on 2000... In any case, that didn't work at all the first time, and then I went on holidays, getting the promise that my system would work again when I returned three weeks later. We'll come to that in a moment.
Now, I seem to have strokes of bad luck: when my work computer acts up, my computer at home does, too. Last times, I got new home and work computers at about the same time, and I had to get a new hard disk and re-install at the time my work computer acted up. So, I should have been prepared for what came next, but I wasn't.
Some memory problems. Well, probably memory, or CPU, or chipset. Which didn't really matter -- the computer at home, after acting flaky for a few hours, decided not to boot at all anymore. No beep, no display, only the fan howling. And me howling as well.
Got a new computer for home. 'Cause, if it was the memory - that memory wasn't available anymore, so a new mobo was necessary, and as the new mobos wouldn't accept the old CPU, that would have to be replaced as well. If it was the CPU, the new CPUs wouldn't work on the Mobo, and there was no mobo available that would take my old memory either. So, whichever way it was, it was at least mobo, CPU and memory, and then a complete system was cheaper...
However, replacing the extra IDE card (I had 5 hard disks and 2 optical drives in my old computer) seems to have broken the card as well. So, right now, there are only 3 hard disks and a DVD-burner in my computer. Well, I managed to get Windows 98 running on it, without re-installing, just fixing the drivers (thus proving it was not my inability that had messed up my work system...)
At about this time, my holidays were over. At least my work computer would work again, right? Well, guess again...
Nope, there had been nothing done on it. OK, so while I was working on a severely crippled system, our admin mastered a new system, on 'an identical machine', to put into my system.
Remember about 'identical systems'? Ayup. Wrong video card again. And with 2000, I cannot fix that myself anymore, as I don't get admin rights... After a while, that was fixed, but... I had no access to the Exchange server. No internal mail. And only the web interface for my external mail, which got moved into the Exchange account the moment I had received important mail...
Reason enough for my home system to act up again. One partition suddenly contained only random bits. While I tried fixing that, my Windows registry got corrupted. Re-partition and format. So, it's time for my work system to play ball, no?
Nope. Several attempts, and the Exchange server connection still isn't acting at all. Our admin installs another image, this time at least with most important programs installed (FireFox, e.g., was sorely lacking until then...) By now, he is quite adept at fixing the video and mobo drivers, and the MBR. However, while he claims Exchange worked on his install system, no fun for me...
Back to home. As the work system doesn't work, there has to be something with the home system, too? No necessarily, it seems. For, this time, I get a package in the mail. I participated in an online quiz and won. AOpen DVD burner, 16X and Double Layer. Everything is fine and peachy, eh?
Right. Now one of the hard disks starts making clicking noises. Head crash... Replace the disk -- and curse about losing, among other stuff, my complete e-mail correspondence for the last five or so years. Well, my last back-up was in january, I had intended to make a new back-up during my vacation (which was cut short because of the system dying), and I had then decided to wait until mid-august because I'd need to make a back-up then anyway. Bad idea.
Got a new hard disk, and installed it. As I had received a copy of (non-installed) Windows XP with the system, and the new hard disk was 200 GB, I decided to install XP, seeing that the driver support is better. Everything seems to work. Except, that is, for the USB DSL modem, which refuses installation with some vague error message. And the USB 2.0 working as only 1.1. Nothing on the error message for the modem to be found on the internet (which I can access only from work...) After two days, I finally find out that, when installing the DSL-drivers, it's not enough to be logged in as a user with all rights, you have to run the program as administrator, otherwise it won't install.
The current situation: At home, the system by now works OK (even the USB ports, once I removed them from the device manager, work fine now), though right now I'm only waiting for the next problem, because my work system... well, that still cannot access the Exchange server, and still doesn't have sound drivers installed. Which would be nice, as I am sitting in the room with the coffee machine. Everyone else has music, I have only the pfchchchchchrrrr of the coffee machine. Gets a bit boring at times, you know.
That was my last two months in a nutshell...
A couple of weeks ago, my computer at work started showing bad sectors during boot. Normal wear and tear on the hard disk, I suspect. Well, some programs couldn't be started anymore, it seems the bad sector was hindering the swap file. So, after a couple of days of me complaining, I got a new hard disk... Well, that was the general idea. For some odd reason, it wasn't simply 'transfer the data and then swap the hard disk', but '...swap the whole computer against an identical one', according to our sysadmin. Which is where it all started.
To begin with, the replacement computer had less memory -- about half of the original one. That was OK, Windows 98 doesn't use all the memory I had anyways. But that should have set off alarm bells regarding the 'identical'-ness. Next I know, the video card is different -- not only did the new computer use the on-board card whereas the old one had an extra card, but I later found out that there was a different video card on board as well. Identical, yeah.
Installing drivers for the new video card proved harder than even our sysadmin could handle -- for some reason, even the correct drivers were not accepted. So, it was decided that the system would be completely reinstalled, and as we were doing things, to really mess it up by installing Windows 2000. Nevermind that Microsoft had just announced that it would not prolong the service on 2000... In any case, that didn't work at all the first time, and then I went on holidays, getting the promise that my system would work again when I returned three weeks later. We'll come to that in a moment.
Now, I seem to have strokes of bad luck: when my work computer acts up, my computer at home does, too. Last times, I got new home and work computers at about the same time, and I had to get a new hard disk and re-install at the time my work computer acted up. So, I should have been prepared for what came next, but I wasn't.
Some memory problems. Well, probably memory, or CPU, or chipset. Which didn't really matter -- the computer at home, after acting flaky for a few hours, decided not to boot at all anymore. No beep, no display, only the fan howling. And me howling as well.
Got a new computer for home. 'Cause, if it was the memory - that memory wasn't available anymore, so a new mobo was necessary, and as the new mobos wouldn't accept the old CPU, that would have to be replaced as well. If it was the CPU, the new CPUs wouldn't work on the Mobo, and there was no mobo available that would take my old memory either. So, whichever way it was, it was at least mobo, CPU and memory, and then a complete system was cheaper...
However, replacing the extra IDE card (I had 5 hard disks and 2 optical drives in my old computer) seems to have broken the card as well. So, right now, there are only 3 hard disks and a DVD-burner in my computer. Well, I managed to get Windows 98 running on it, without re-installing, just fixing the drivers (thus proving it was not my inability that had messed up my work system...)
At about this time, my holidays were over. At least my work computer would work again, right? Well, guess again...
Nope, there had been nothing done on it. OK, so while I was working on a severely crippled system, our admin mastered a new system, on 'an identical machine', to put into my system.
Remember about 'identical systems'? Ayup. Wrong video card again. And with 2000, I cannot fix that myself anymore, as I don't get admin rights... After a while, that was fixed, but... I had no access to the Exchange server. No internal mail. And only the web interface for my external mail, which got moved into the Exchange account the moment I had received important mail...
Reason enough for my home system to act up again. One partition suddenly contained only random bits. While I tried fixing that, my Windows registry got corrupted. Re-partition and format. So, it's time for my work system to play ball, no?
Nope. Several attempts, and the Exchange server connection still isn't acting at all. Our admin installs another image, this time at least with most important programs installed (FireFox, e.g., was sorely lacking until then...) By now, he is quite adept at fixing the video and mobo drivers, and the MBR. However, while he claims Exchange worked on his install system, no fun for me...
Back to home. As the work system doesn't work, there has to be something with the home system, too? No necessarily, it seems. For, this time, I get a package in the mail. I participated in an online quiz and won. AOpen DVD burner, 16X and Double Layer. Everything is fine and peachy, eh?
Right. Now one of the hard disks starts making clicking noises. Head crash... Replace the disk -- and curse about losing, among other stuff, my complete e-mail correspondence for the last five or so years. Well, my last back-up was in january, I had intended to make a new back-up during my vacation (which was cut short because of the system dying), and I had then decided to wait until mid-august because I'd need to make a back-up then anyway. Bad idea.
Got a new hard disk, and installed it. As I had received a copy of (non-installed) Windows XP with the system, and the new hard disk was 200 GB, I decided to install XP, seeing that the driver support is better. Everything seems to work. Except, that is, for the USB DSL modem, which refuses installation with some vague error message. And the USB 2.0 working as only 1.1. Nothing on the error message for the modem to be found on the internet (which I can access only from work...) After two days, I finally find out that, when installing the DSL-drivers, it's not enough to be logged in as a user with all rights, you have to run the program as administrator, otherwise it won't install.
The current situation: At home, the system by now works OK (even the USB ports, once I removed them from the device manager, work fine now), though right now I'm only waiting for the next problem, because my work system... well, that still cannot access the Exchange server, and still doesn't have sound drivers installed. Which would be nice, as I am sitting in the room with the coffee machine. Everyone else has music, I have only the pfchchchchchrrrr of the coffee machine. Gets a bit boring at times, you know.
That was my last two months in a nutshell...