The_LED_Museum
*Retired*
Saturday was one of the most screwed up days I've ever had. Let's see if I can run this down again - I spent an hour typing this post only to watch Windows clear the box for no apparent reason. So here it goes again.
I got off to a sour start right away. On Friday night, I set my alarm clock to go off just before 8am so I could catch the new Digimon episode. I wake up and look at the clock - it's 8:29. The alarm lever is still sticking up, but no alarm is going off. The little alarm hand is pointing to just before 8, exactly as it should. Damn POS travel clock. So I missed my show.
That's strike 1.
Half an hour or so later, I go online and start going through CPF. Somebody wanted a picture of a flashlight, so I start setting up. I hear a crunching sound under the wheels of my work chair. Damn, I just ran over my yardstick and busted it. That's strike 2. And that was my only yardstick.
A bit later I go to sit on the can, and SNAP!! there goes the toilet seat! Strike 3. And it's only 10 O'clock in the morning.
Around 1pm, I go to check the mail, and find I'd forgotten to charge my wheelchair up the night before. And when I went to take my Metamucil, I knocked the can over before getting the lid screwed back on, and half of it ended up in the sink. That sh*t ain't cheap either. :x
Around 3 or so, while at the computer, somehow the arm of my chair got wrapped up in my camera's power cord, yanking it out. Getting past the SYSTEM ERROR message takes about two hours, but it is once again able to take blurry pictures. (See the other thread about camera recommendations for why this is so bad).
Now it's around 6 or 7. I'm on CPF again, and I read a post that adamantly stated I should have reformatted my HD before installing Windows 98, and that the cause of my connectivity problems would almost certainly go away like a bad dream if I did.
So I thought about it for awhile, and figured it was a lot cheaper than buying a new mainboard. So I log off the net, and start modifying a boot disk in preparation for the latest setup attempt. By now, it's around quarter to eight.
This should be simple. Swap the cables between the primary and secondary masters, and run setup. But what's this? BIOS no longer sees the secondary master OR the CD-ROM. Plug cable in. Unplug. Plug it in. Check the connection at the mainboard. Unplug, check the polarity. DAMN I just bent a pin on my soon-to-be "former" C: drive. Fixed that, still the BIOS doesn't see them. An hour later, the source of the problem surfaces: the power connector had somehow gotten switched to a dummy connector that had no termination - and hence, the drives had no power. What a time waster. After plugging them into a live one, the system sprang to life and booted off the floppy.
A:> F:\
INVALID DRIVE SPECIFICATION
A:>
What am I up to now, like Strike 10?
Now I grab the system init files & CD-ROM drivers and plop them directly onto the floppy, and edit the files yet again so the CD-ROM will load properly off the boot disk. Finally, the Windows setup comes up, and the install progresses.
Half an hour later, Windows 98 is up. It's in 16 colors, on a 640x400 screen, and thre's no sound. Almost all of the devices in the device manager have that evil yellow circle with a "!" in it.
I drop to DOS and try Telix. No modem either. Enabling it in Windows kills the mouse. After f**king with the thing for another half an hour, I figure the only way I'm going to get it to work is to find & run the CD-ROM that came with the mainboard.
So off I go. I go through two dozen boxes in the livng room, and then tear apart the closets and go through more boxes. Nothing. Bedroom closet - nothing. Boxes and dressers in the bathroom - nothing.
Huge pile of boxes in the bedroom - still nothing. By now, I've been searching for almost four hours, and my patience has run out. I keep checking shelves, drawers, bags, and boxes. By now, I'm absolutely livid. Anything that's in the way is slammed, phones and books are thrown across the room, and boxes are kicked out of the way. Finally, there's only one more BIG box left, and it's buried in the deepest abyss of the room and hasn't even been seen in almost a year. And you guessed it - that's where it turned up.
So I put the CD in, and the setup runs. Nearly a dozen "devices" are found and drivers loaded for them, rebooting the system after almost every one. Finally, Windows comes up and the setup screen doesn't. That means it's ready. So I dig up the AT&T connection service and have it restore my account from the server. This is when the next problem makes itself known: after connecting, it loaded up IE. But it wasn't the IE that was on here before - the damn thing actually downgraded from 5.5 to 4.0, taking all of my bookmarks, cookies, preferences, and login scrips along for the ride. But it works, and typing in "www.candlepowerforums.com" brings up the correct page.
Next, I tried to bring up Netscape. Interestingly enough, it loaded, and my email was still intact. But all of its settings were hosed, and I needed to go in and fix my incoming mail host. So I click on Edit then Preferences. HELL DAMN CRAP, CRAP BOOBS CRAP!! It says the preferences DLLs are hosed, and I'd have to reinstall it from the beginning. Now I'm slamming coffee cups, pens, stacks of papers, flashlights - anything that falls in my way. I haven't been so pissed in a long time.
So I sign off, and start examining my system to see what other damage has been done.
Photoshop was hosed. FTP was shot. Gomer is missing a runtime module. All my web material vanished. I have no image viewer anymore.
Let's see, where am I? Strike 27 or so?
Eventually, I was able to rescue Photoshop and FTP, and I downloaded the VBRUN300.DLL needed by Gomer. At least the important stuff is back. Now I go back online, and see somebody has asked for a picture of three flashlights together, and the hunt is on yet once again, as the camera's install CD has apparently grown legs and walked away. My search is confined to this room, as I just had the disc a few days ago and I know it isn't in a closet or one of the other rooms. But it would still be nearly an hour before it turns up. It was right on my desk all along, tucked safely in a hard-sided folio with my other system disks.
By now, I'm white hot with rage. I grab a cane and start beating the living tweedle out of a box, and keep beating it until the cane breaks in two. This definitely relieved some of the stress that had been building up over the last six or eight hours.
After a few glitches, the software is in, and the camera neatly unloads into the computer with no damn floppies to screw with.
To top my day off, I spent about 55 minutes typing this message, and just as I was finishing up (right around this point, actually), the box I'm typing into suddenly clears - all the text is gone!! Why did the box clear itself? That's like Strike 37 or so. Aren't you supposed to be out after 3 strikes?
I've been up for almost 21 hours now, and I still have a lot to get taken care of on this computer. Thank goodness I don't have to be awake for package deliveries today. I can sleep in until noon with no consequences.
So... how was your Saturday?
(Edit): It's around quarter after five. Netscape finally finished downloading, and it actually restored my old mail settings - so I guess you can take one of those strikes off.
I got off to a sour start right away. On Friday night, I set my alarm clock to go off just before 8am so I could catch the new Digimon episode. I wake up and look at the clock - it's 8:29. The alarm lever is still sticking up, but no alarm is going off. The little alarm hand is pointing to just before 8, exactly as it should. Damn POS travel clock. So I missed my show.
That's strike 1.
Half an hour or so later, I go online and start going through CPF. Somebody wanted a picture of a flashlight, so I start setting up. I hear a crunching sound under the wheels of my work chair. Damn, I just ran over my yardstick and busted it. That's strike 2. And that was my only yardstick.
A bit later I go to sit on the can, and SNAP!! there goes the toilet seat! Strike 3. And it's only 10 O'clock in the morning.
Around 1pm, I go to check the mail, and find I'd forgotten to charge my wheelchair up the night before. And when I went to take my Metamucil, I knocked the can over before getting the lid screwed back on, and half of it ended up in the sink. That sh*t ain't cheap either. :x
Around 3 or so, while at the computer, somehow the arm of my chair got wrapped up in my camera's power cord, yanking it out. Getting past the SYSTEM ERROR message takes about two hours, but it is once again able to take blurry pictures. (See the other thread about camera recommendations for why this is so bad).
Now it's around 6 or 7. I'm on CPF again, and I read a post that adamantly stated I should have reformatted my HD before installing Windows 98, and that the cause of my connectivity problems would almost certainly go away like a bad dream if I did.
So I thought about it for awhile, and figured it was a lot cheaper than buying a new mainboard. So I log off the net, and start modifying a boot disk in preparation for the latest setup attempt. By now, it's around quarter to eight.
This should be simple. Swap the cables between the primary and secondary masters, and run setup. But what's this? BIOS no longer sees the secondary master OR the CD-ROM. Plug cable in. Unplug. Plug it in. Check the connection at the mainboard. Unplug, check the polarity. DAMN I just bent a pin on my soon-to-be "former" C: drive. Fixed that, still the BIOS doesn't see them. An hour later, the source of the problem surfaces: the power connector had somehow gotten switched to a dummy connector that had no termination - and hence, the drives had no power. What a time waster. After plugging them into a live one, the system sprang to life and booted off the floppy.
A:> F:\
INVALID DRIVE SPECIFICATION
A:>
What am I up to now, like Strike 10?
Now I grab the system init files & CD-ROM drivers and plop them directly onto the floppy, and edit the files yet again so the CD-ROM will load properly off the boot disk. Finally, the Windows setup comes up, and the install progresses.
Half an hour later, Windows 98 is up. It's in 16 colors, on a 640x400 screen, and thre's no sound. Almost all of the devices in the device manager have that evil yellow circle with a "!" in it.
I drop to DOS and try Telix. No modem either. Enabling it in Windows kills the mouse. After f**king with the thing for another half an hour, I figure the only way I'm going to get it to work is to find & run the CD-ROM that came with the mainboard.
So off I go. I go through two dozen boxes in the livng room, and then tear apart the closets and go through more boxes. Nothing. Bedroom closet - nothing. Boxes and dressers in the bathroom - nothing.
Huge pile of boxes in the bedroom - still nothing. By now, I've been searching for almost four hours, and my patience has run out. I keep checking shelves, drawers, bags, and boxes. By now, I'm absolutely livid. Anything that's in the way is slammed, phones and books are thrown across the room, and boxes are kicked out of the way. Finally, there's only one more BIG box left, and it's buried in the deepest abyss of the room and hasn't even been seen in almost a year. And you guessed it - that's where it turned up.
So I put the CD in, and the setup runs. Nearly a dozen "devices" are found and drivers loaded for them, rebooting the system after almost every one. Finally, Windows comes up and the setup screen doesn't. That means it's ready. So I dig up the AT&T connection service and have it restore my account from the server. This is when the next problem makes itself known: after connecting, it loaded up IE. But it wasn't the IE that was on here before - the damn thing actually downgraded from 5.5 to 4.0, taking all of my bookmarks, cookies, preferences, and login scrips along for the ride. But it works, and typing in "www.candlepowerforums.com" brings up the correct page.
Next, I tried to bring up Netscape. Interestingly enough, it loaded, and my email was still intact. But all of its settings were hosed, and I needed to go in and fix my incoming mail host. So I click on Edit then Preferences. HELL DAMN CRAP, CRAP BOOBS CRAP!! It says the preferences DLLs are hosed, and I'd have to reinstall it from the beginning. Now I'm slamming coffee cups, pens, stacks of papers, flashlights - anything that falls in my way. I haven't been so pissed in a long time.
So I sign off, and start examining my system to see what other damage has been done.
Photoshop was hosed. FTP was shot. Gomer is missing a runtime module. All my web material vanished. I have no image viewer anymore.
Let's see, where am I? Strike 27 or so?
Eventually, I was able to rescue Photoshop and FTP, and I downloaded the VBRUN300.DLL needed by Gomer. At least the important stuff is back. Now I go back online, and see somebody has asked for a picture of three flashlights together, and the hunt is on yet once again, as the camera's install CD has apparently grown legs and walked away. My search is confined to this room, as I just had the disc a few days ago and I know it isn't in a closet or one of the other rooms. But it would still be nearly an hour before it turns up. It was right on my desk all along, tucked safely in a hard-sided folio with my other system disks.
By now, I'm white hot with rage. I grab a cane and start beating the living tweedle out of a box, and keep beating it until the cane breaks in two. This definitely relieved some of the stress that had been building up over the last six or eight hours.
After a few glitches, the software is in, and the camera neatly unloads into the computer with no damn floppies to screw with.
To top my day off, I spent about 55 minutes typing this message, and just as I was finishing up (right around this point, actually), the box I'm typing into suddenly clears - all the text is gone!! Why did the box clear itself? That's like Strike 37 or so. Aren't you supposed to be out after 3 strikes?
I've been up for almost 21 hours now, and I still have a lot to get taken care of on this computer. Thank goodness I don't have to be awake for package deliveries today. I can sleep in until noon with no consequences.
So... how was your Saturday?
(Edit): It's around quarter after five. Netscape finally finished downloading, and it actually restored my old mail settings - so I guess you can take one of those strikes off.
