Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “If You Wonder Why Posting Is Pretty Slack Lately...”

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November 21, 2008

If You Wonder Why Posting Is Pretty Slack Lately...

Hatched by Dafydd

...It's because we've been having serious computer problems at Lizard Central:

Norton SystemWorks 2005 failed; it kept calling its own files, which were mysteriously corrupted (I've been using this version of NSW since 2005 with no previous problems). A round of tech support hijinks ensued.

I couldn't even boot until I booted off the Windows CD and deleted the errant files.

Almost immediately thereafter, one of our hard drives failed deader than a clam (I don't know if 1 and 2 are related). With the disk dead, booting up took about 7 minutes each time -- presumably the system was looking for all sorts of applications and such on the dead disk.

I bought SystemWorks 2009, hoping to (a) fix problem 1, and (b) restore the dead drive of problem 2 using its most recent Norton Ghost image.

Then I had terrible problems installing NSW 2009; another round of tech support.

Got NSW working, but still couldn't do anything with the disk. Partition Commander could not even detect it, so I unplugged it.

Bought a new disk, a SATA drive. I hoped to format it, then restore from the Norton Ghost image; but the disk wouldn't work with my SATA card.

I decided it was high time to upgrade my system anyway... so I ordered a new motherboard with onboard SATA (Gigabyte EP45-UD3R) and a new chip (Intel Core 2 Duo). They arrived yesterday, and I started reading the installation instructions.

Discovered the board needed a 400 watt power supply; mine was 300 watt. Went to Fry's and bought a 500 watt power supply -- Antec Neopower 500.

Late last night (ca. 3:00 am), tore computer apart and started replacing the motherboard. Realized my venerable graphics card was a GeForce 4-something... AGP. ("But nobody uses AGP anymore, and there isn't even a slot for them on modern motherboards!" "Yeah, thanks for the post-hoc heads-up, Mr. Turing.")

Went back to Fry's today and bought a GeForce 9800 GT for PCI Express 2.0, which is what the Gygabyte board uses.

Assembled everything, plugged everything in, turned on the power... nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zed. Several hundred dollars, and I don't even have a half-working machine.

Took whole shebang in to a repair place; they said that no power at all was getting to the motherboard; when they used another power supply (one that had enough power but didn't have the proper connector for the chip power), they at least got some lights to light... they believe the new power supply I bought yesterday is defective; but the motherboard may be as well -- couldn't tell without a proper power supply.

So that's were we stand. I'll be back to Fry's tomorrow to exchange the power supply, and the nightmare continues. As Sachi is out of town on a business trip, I'm posting this from her (yecch) Mac Mini; of course, she hasn't the clean, obvious, well-organized load of bookmarks that I have... so it's a struggle to find the right links to go the Big Lizards posting URL.

Bill Patterson is right: We're not yet in the computer era. We won't be in the computer era until computers become invisible. I take him to mean until everything works right out of the box, all things work together, nothing requires configuration (or refrigeration), and nothing must be physically connected via cables.

Until then, we live in a primitive, half-civilized condition, able to envision the promised information revolution but unable to achieve it. I feel like Moses... or maybe like a eunuch in a harem.

In the meanwhile, don't shed your skin if posting is kind of light. You think you have troubles?

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 21, 2008, at the time of 9:38 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

...And all for the want of a lousy Norton driver file!

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at November 22, 2008 2:55 AM

The following hissed in response by: Necromancer

Tried to send two messages here and something isn't working.You should have trashed Norton and picked up a copy of TrendMicro's latest version.less bloat and cheaper and can be networked on up to three computers.

The above hissed in response by: Necromancer at November 22, 2008 5:46 AM

The following hissed in response by: Karmi

Its a pain...for sure. Probably cheaper to buy a new computer. Vista Ultimate comes with a program that does a full restore from a backed-up DVD, to a new HD that is same size or bigger. I've been using Vista since it first came out and love it. The Home Premium is probably the best way to go, though the Ultimate version also offers two Premium versions at a super cheap rate. Still, I just back-up all my data to a DVD, and do a new install if problems show up...then add data.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus works great with it.

The above hissed in response by: Karmi at November 22, 2008 7:48 AM

The following hissed in response by: Ken Hahn

I'm a Mac user and I'm not going to gloat or even try to convince you to try a Mac. You have my sympathy for your problems and I wish I could help. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

The above hissed in response by: Ken Hahn at November 22, 2008 7:19 PM

The following hissed in response by: Karmi

Apple support:
http://www.apple.com/support/
http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa?categoryID=1

MacUser:
http://www.macuser.com/troubleshooting/

Macworld (Long link)

MacService:
http://www.macservice.com/index.html

Here are a few more: MacWorks, MacFixIt, Powerbook Medic, MacInTouch, etc.

The above hissed in response by: Karmi at November 23, 2008 7:11 AM

The following hissed in response by: Karmi

Apple support:
http://www.apple.com/support/

MacUser:
http://www.macuser.com/troubleshooting/

Macworld (Long link and only so many are allowed at Big Lizards)