I'd say I'm mad, but that might be too revealing a glimpse into my mental state. I want a gun. One that shoots lots of bullets. Not too fast, I want the bastard to suffer, not to be gone in a zzzzzzzzzzzzzippp! moment. Who?
Him. That damned computer. Normally he stays on, all the time, just sits there on his shelf, humming slightly. I'd post a pic, but I can't, as I'm pecking this out on the laptop, and the laptop and I have only a weak truce. Real computer, the thing with too many hard drives to count, he's my real adversary.
See, windows demanded a reboot, after yet another security update, and computer hung on the motherboard startup screen. then I tried again, got windows started, only to have it freeze. Damn. try again... multiple times,
Sometimes we get to the boot screen, sometimes not. That's bad, because it suggests the problem is not in Windows, but right at the root, at the motherboard, at the place where the lizard-brain of computer cognisance resides, the part that has to wake and see what drives are present, which one to look for booting instructions from. And that part keeps saying "No OS"- no operating system. Pithed frog.
This laptop should be the key to salvation, via the netgear wireless N router. But guess what. The Netgear Wireless N router, whose sales receipt I can not find, seems not to want to do the wireless stuff for which I spent good money.
The laptop can see a number of other networks, all secured, but not the one about ten feet away. nor can my phone detect a wireless signal there.
So I can't sit in the armchair, and use the laptop, I have to be tethered by a wired connection. Which rather loses the whole point of a laptop, with its inferior keyboard and nasty mousepad.
This thing's an Acer Aspire 5735Z, It looks nice and shiny, I suppose. I bought it a few months ago, and I'd be a lot happier about it if its speakers didn't sound like wasps in jam-jars, and if the bluetooth symbol on a keyboard button didn't bring up a "No Bluetooth Device" message. In short, if only it wasn't a glossy fraud. When I bought it, I kinda liked the idea of watching movies on it and listening to music, using it with my bluetooth headset for skype, and so on. But it doesn't do bluetooth, and its sound stinks, and i hate HATE wired headsets.
Anyway, we're digressing. The object of my rant is the main computer. i powered it down, unplugged and replugged everything on the mainboard, tried again a thousand times. It's dead.
So do I go out to buy a new one?
but maybe it's the drive with XP on it?
Oh. And a new one would take Sata drives, not IDE drives, and the four drives I have are, you guessed it, IDE.
So I'd need to buy a new hard drive too. And a new motherboard would take, almost certainly, different memory. Mine has 2GB of 333 DDR, a new one would take faster than 333, so... my oh my, buy new memory too. And I'd need to be able to get the data off my old drives too, so an IDE to USB adaptor neede. See how it's all mounting up? see why I'm not a happy bunny?
Oh. and the joys of reinstalling windows too. Assuming I can find the disc and the serial numbers, assuming it will let me use that on a new motherboard.
Or maybe it's cheaper on the long run just to buy a ready-built box, running windows 7?
I know nobody wanted to read that rant, but it's therapeutic for me to write it.
OS is gone or the patrician is corrupted.
ReplyDeleteIf I was a patrician, I suppose I'd be corrupted too. It's being humble that keeps me honest!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think C drive's cabbaged.
I borrowed a power supply to check if that was the fault, I got part-way in with a linux disc, but, no matter how it grieves me as a man to confess I can't fix it, I confess just that. So I'm going to take it to the tame compu-geeks who rent space at work, and let them see if they can retrieve the situation.
I'm afeared to do so, on the grounds that they may read all my emails and look at all my photos, and collapse in paroxysms of laughter. Far better to send it to a stranger!