At the stroke of Midnight, SUCCESS!!!
Feb. 17th, 2011 12:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captain_slinkyThis is a tale of three computers and their daring journey to become as one.
Okay, so it all started with my sister, Beth (yeah, the one who was in lock-up for shootin' a man (btw that just sounds SO COOL)) needed her computer back in working condition. This computer of hers, it was a relic by the time she had gone in to the pokey what was running Win2k and, I kid you not, LONGHORN. For those who don't know, that's what Windows XP was called back when it was still a baby (awwwwwwwwww). Also, it was one of those OLD SKOOL eMachines computers... the ones what were the electronic equivalent of a car with the hood welded shut. Three USB 1.0 slots, two of which had to be used for the mouse and the keyboard (no ps2), and cracking open the case with anything short of a blowtorch only gave minimal access to the 4GB hard drive (with a big "REPLACE WITH UP TO 8GB DRIVE" sticker on it) and 512mb of ram spread across two memory sticks (I had personally done that upgrade before she went to Jail).
Even with a USB Wireless, due to all the ports being 1.0, this computer would never be able to go wireless :(
So what I did was I gave her Molly's old computer, which had previously been mine! It was perfect! It had a wireless card in it, it had 80GB of storage, it had a GB of ram... why not? I eventually whiped the drive clean and reinstalled windows there, no problem. Beth is taken care of HOORAY :)
But that leaves poor Molly without a computer... and she LOVES to play her games! Pajama Sam, Putt Putt, Freddie Fish, Cat In The Hat, Mickey's Kitchen, My Little Pony... I think she has some 20 kids games all left over from my days of working at Incoming Inc (the company that did phone support for Humongous and other software companies in the early 90's). She understood that Beth needed a computer and was gracious in giving it up so Auntie Beth could get on-line (awwwwwwwwwww).
My original plan for replacing Molly's computer was to build one from the various pieces and parts of computers that I had lying around the house. The last time this computer had been retired it was because of a chronic overheatring issue that remained unresolved. Since Molly doesn't use the computer *that* often, I figured the constant fan sounds wouldn't be as much of a problem for her. But then I started thinking... was there another reason I had abandoned this PC? Was it something to do with the... was it the video card?
On a whim, I posted a request to My Internet Friends, asking if anybody had a system I could cannibalize and/or just use outright. Luckilly, Roy Corey stepped up and donated the computer his kids had been using (which was an excellent excuse to upgrade them in to a Mac)! HOORAY!!!
If this computer were a celebrity, it would be Bea Arthur. Big, beautiful and possessing the charm of a much simpler time. She even has the cutest little floppy drive, can you believe it? A floppy! It's like seeing a dial-up phone! The only thing wrong was that it was running Linux, and we all know that the only people who use Linux are Hippies, Terrorists and undercover hippie-terrorists who will deny that they are either (sorry, but you KNOW it's true).
Thinking that this was going to be the solution to all my problems, I plopped in my Windows Install disk and... Checking your Hardware... BLANK SCREEN :(
Tried repeatedly, same thing.
Asked Internet Friends. The suggested bad Windows disc, memory errors, faulty keyboard, Wu Tang Clan and lots of other things that made me go "Oh crap". Two people (Kanani and Roy, to be exact) suggested dinking around with the jumper settings on the hard drives, so I did. Slave to master, master to slave, cable select to master, master to cable select, slave to cable select, blah blah blah I TRIED EVERY SETTING FOR THOSE SILLY THINGS AND NO LUCK :(
So I moved on.
I cobbled together enough parts to make the old computer shell in to a real live computer. Booted up, installed windows, looked good, install complete... NO SOUND CARD DETECTED. Huh? I go and check the Motherboard a bit... seems that ALL the on-board stuff - sound card, USB ports, Video Card, NIC, Modem... dead. Only things working on there are the PS2 Mouse and Keyboard ports :(
PLAN C! I take Beth's old computer, the one with a 4GB hard drive, install some games on it, no need for internet, Molly can use that. Install goes great, all 3 ports are working, I install *two games* and the hard drive is FULL GRRRRRRRRR! Okay, so I try upgrading the hard drive, I've got stuff from 8GB all the way up to 160GB lying around here, I can just use one of these, right?
Wrong. The eMachines of years past were very particular. The only drives it would recognize were Seagate drives (most of them here are WD), and the only Seagate I had was 160GB which the computer FREAKED OUT over (THIS IS NOT A SYSTEM DISK! PLEASE REPLACE WITH A SEAGATE 4GB OR 8GB DRIVE AND CONTINUE")
By this point, I'm getting desperate. I've PROMISED my little girl that she would have her computer back by Wednesday, and now here it is almost Thursday and I have nothing to show for it except for a deaf-mute computer, a glorified Game Boy Color and the corpse of Bea Arthur.
But hang on... Bea Arthur... those Jumpers on the drives... how about...
Like a mad man, I rip apart Bea Arthur. I rip out all the jumpers - Slave, Master, Cable Select be damned! Let's see how you do NOW, Golden Girl!
Booting from CD ROM...
PLEASE SELECT THE PARTITION YOU WOULD LIKE TO INSTALL TO
I... I think I cried a little bit. Tears of joy, tears of success - they all taste pretty similar. I started the install process and looked up at the clock.
Midnight.
Technically, I had kept my promise! I got Molly a working computer by Wednesday! She just doesn't know it yet :)
Now I need to go dig up all those old game discs again... I've got a lot of installing to do, and morning will be coming real quick...
Okay, so it all started with my sister, Beth (yeah, the one who was in lock-up for shootin' a man (btw that just sounds SO COOL)) needed her computer back in working condition. This computer of hers, it was a relic by the time she had gone in to the pokey what was running Win2k and, I kid you not, LONGHORN. For those who don't know, that's what Windows XP was called back when it was still a baby (awwwwwwwwww). Also, it was one of those OLD SKOOL eMachines computers... the ones what were the electronic equivalent of a car with the hood welded shut. Three USB 1.0 slots, two of which had to be used for the mouse and the keyboard (no ps2), and cracking open the case with anything short of a blowtorch only gave minimal access to the 4GB hard drive (with a big "REPLACE WITH UP TO 8GB DRIVE" sticker on it) and 512mb of ram spread across two memory sticks (I had personally done that upgrade before she went to Jail).
Even with a USB Wireless, due to all the ports being 1.0, this computer would never be able to go wireless :(
So what I did was I gave her Molly's old computer, which had previously been mine! It was perfect! It had a wireless card in it, it had 80GB of storage, it had a GB of ram... why not? I eventually whiped the drive clean and reinstalled windows there, no problem. Beth is taken care of HOORAY :)
But that leaves poor Molly without a computer... and she LOVES to play her games! Pajama Sam, Putt Putt, Freddie Fish, Cat In The Hat, Mickey's Kitchen, My Little Pony... I think she has some 20 kids games all left over from my days of working at Incoming Inc (the company that did phone support for Humongous and other software companies in the early 90's). She understood that Beth needed a computer and was gracious in giving it up so Auntie Beth could get on-line (awwwwwwwwwww).
My original plan for replacing Molly's computer was to build one from the various pieces and parts of computers that I had lying around the house. The last time this computer had been retired it was because of a chronic overheatring issue that remained unresolved. Since Molly doesn't use the computer *that* often, I figured the constant fan sounds wouldn't be as much of a problem for her. But then I started thinking... was there another reason I had abandoned this PC? Was it something to do with the... was it the video card?
On a whim, I posted a request to My Internet Friends, asking if anybody had a system I could cannibalize and/or just use outright. Luckilly, Roy Corey stepped up and donated the computer his kids had been using (which was an excellent excuse to upgrade them in to a Mac)! HOORAY!!!
If this computer were a celebrity, it would be Bea Arthur. Big, beautiful and possessing the charm of a much simpler time. She even has the cutest little floppy drive, can you believe it? A floppy! It's like seeing a dial-up phone! The only thing wrong was that it was running Linux, and we all know that the only people who use Linux are Hippies, Terrorists and undercover hippie-terrorists who will deny that they are either (sorry, but you KNOW it's true).
Thinking that this was going to be the solution to all my problems, I plopped in my Windows Install disk and... Checking your Hardware... BLANK SCREEN :(
Tried repeatedly, same thing.
Asked Internet Friends. The suggested bad Windows disc, memory errors, faulty keyboard, Wu Tang Clan and lots of other things that made me go "Oh crap". Two people (Kanani and Roy, to be exact) suggested dinking around with the jumper settings on the hard drives, so I did. Slave to master, master to slave, cable select to master, master to cable select, slave to cable select, blah blah blah I TRIED EVERY SETTING FOR THOSE SILLY THINGS AND NO LUCK :(
So I moved on.
I cobbled together enough parts to make the old computer shell in to a real live computer. Booted up, installed windows, looked good, install complete... NO SOUND CARD DETECTED. Huh? I go and check the Motherboard a bit... seems that ALL the on-board stuff - sound card, USB ports, Video Card, NIC, Modem... dead. Only things working on there are the PS2 Mouse and Keyboard ports :(
PLAN C! I take Beth's old computer, the one with a 4GB hard drive, install some games on it, no need for internet, Molly can use that. Install goes great, all 3 ports are working, I install *two games* and the hard drive is FULL GRRRRRRRRR! Okay, so I try upgrading the hard drive, I've got stuff from 8GB all the way up to 160GB lying around here, I can just use one of these, right?
Wrong. The eMachines of years past were very particular. The only drives it would recognize were Seagate drives (most of them here are WD), and the only Seagate I had was 160GB which the computer FREAKED OUT over (THIS IS NOT A SYSTEM DISK! PLEASE REPLACE WITH A SEAGATE 4GB OR 8GB DRIVE AND CONTINUE")
By this point, I'm getting desperate. I've PROMISED my little girl that she would have her computer back by Wednesday, and now here it is almost Thursday and I have nothing to show for it except for a deaf-mute computer, a glorified Game Boy Color and the corpse of Bea Arthur.
But hang on... Bea Arthur... those Jumpers on the drives... how about...
Like a mad man, I rip apart Bea Arthur. I rip out all the jumpers - Slave, Master, Cable Select be damned! Let's see how you do NOW, Golden Girl!
Booting from CD ROM...
PLEASE SELECT THE PARTITION YOU WOULD LIKE TO INSTALL TO
I... I think I cried a little bit. Tears of joy, tears of success - they all taste pretty similar. I started the install process and looked up at the clock.
Midnight.
Technically, I had kept my promise! I got Molly a working computer by Wednesday! She just doesn't know it yet :)
Now I need to go dig up all those old game discs again... I've got a lot of installing to do, and morning will be coming real quick...
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Date: 2011-02-17 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 05:51 pm (UTC)