Entries by tag: tech issues
So, yeah, I was kind of off the air for a while, but I had a good excuse. My motherboard fried.
I have never been so glad to have a laptop, since it kept me linked with the world for those two weeks (although most of your email addresses weren't on it, hence the lack of contact with many of you). And thankfully, my hard drives were undamaged, so ultimately no data loss either. But the motherboard itself was five years old, and had a lot of slots that you don't find on modern boards. So replacing the board meant replacing all the parts in those slots too. Grand damage: $500 once all my rebates come back, which isn't as painful as I thought it'd be but still means "Chris's retroactive computer fund" got added to the Christmas list.
But hey, new computer. After nearly five years on this one. I went for a motherboard with a lot of potential for expansion, which I hope will be enough to ward off future unneeded replacement parts, and also will let me spend a hundred here or there down the road to improve it even further. More importantly, I replaced the housing; technically this wasn't needed since all the new stuff would have fit, but I have the sneaky suspicious that the burnout was because something overheated badly in there. My previous housing had minimal ventilation with a small fan in the corner. My new one has plenty on the front and back, and a fan on the side directly over the processor that takes up nearly half the surface. (It also isn't that ugly beige.)
Salvaged were both hard drives, the CD and DVD burners, the wireless modem, and the dialup modem (why do I still have that thing? because I have the free slot, that's why). Also, to my pleasant surprise, the old Windows install worked on the new system with minimal effort; I was expecting to have to reformat and reinstall everything, which would have been painful. (I considered doing it anyway just to iron out some old quirks of the system, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort in the end. But I did pick up some registry cleaning software, to make sure no changes came back to bite me.)
The real trick was getting all the gear. Remember, I have no car now. Thankfully, there's a MicroCenter about 15 minutes walk from the final stop on the Metro Orange Line, so out I went on Saturday to go shopping. Yes, I did the research in advance; I wasn't going to waste an hour Metro round trip for nothing. Still, hauling the new housing back to the station might have been too much for me. So God sent a parent and his two kids, coming back from grocery shopping, who offered me a lift. Since psycho kidnappers don't bring their kids with them, I wasn't going to refuse.
And oh man, I'm loving the new processor. I could have done better with the RAM and graphics card if I'd wanted (and didn't mind shelling out even more money), but instead I invested in the motherboard and a processor to match. Everything's running so much smoother now. I've even been able to max out the settings on most of my games. So pretty...
Stats, for those inclined to follow those things:
Let's see, did I forget to mention anything? Oh yeah, there's some holiday this Thursday, and some sort of exams next week... nothing important. *goes back to the games*
I have never been so glad to have a laptop, since it kept me linked with the world for those two weeks (although most of your email addresses weren't on it, hence the lack of contact with many of you). And thankfully, my hard drives were undamaged, so ultimately no data loss either. But the motherboard itself was five years old, and had a lot of slots that you don't find on modern boards. So replacing the board meant replacing all the parts in those slots too. Grand damage: $500 once all my rebates come back, which isn't as painful as I thought it'd be but still means "Chris's retroactive computer fund" got added to the Christmas list.
But hey, new computer. After nearly five years on this one. I went for a motherboard with a lot of potential for expansion, which I hope will be enough to ward off future unneeded replacement parts, and also will let me spend a hundred here or there down the road to improve it even further. More importantly, I replaced the housing; technically this wasn't needed since all the new stuff would have fit, but I have the sneaky suspicious that the burnout was because something overheated badly in there. My previous housing had minimal ventilation with a small fan in the corner. My new one has plenty on the front and back, and a fan on the side directly over the processor that takes up nearly half the surface. (It also isn't that ugly beige.)
Salvaged were both hard drives, the CD and DVD burners, the wireless modem, and the dialup modem (why do I still have that thing? because I have the free slot, that's why). Also, to my pleasant surprise, the old Windows install worked on the new system with minimal effort; I was expecting to have to reformat and reinstall everything, which would have been painful. (I considered doing it anyway just to iron out some old quirks of the system, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort in the end. But I did pick up some registry cleaning software, to make sure no changes came back to bite me.)
The real trick was getting all the gear. Remember, I have no car now. Thankfully, there's a MicroCenter about 15 minutes walk from the final stop on the Metro Orange Line, so out I went on Saturday to go shopping. Yes, I did the research in advance; I wasn't going to waste an hour Metro round trip for nothing. Still, hauling the new housing back to the station might have been too much for me. So God sent a parent and his two kids, coming back from grocery shopping, who offered me a lift. Since psycho kidnappers don't bring their kids with them, I wasn't going to refuse.
And oh man, I'm loving the new processor. I could have done better with the RAM and graphics card if I'd wanted (and didn't mind shelling out even more money), but instead I invested in the motherboard and a processor to match. Everything's running so much smoother now. I've even been able to max out the settings on most of my games. So pretty...
Stats, for those inclined to follow those things:
| OLD | NEW |
| ASUS P4P800 | ASUS P5Q SE2 |
| Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz | Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz |
| 4 x 512MB PC3200 RAM | 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM |
| GeForce FX 5500 AGP 16x 256 MB | GeForce 9500GT PCI-E 2.0 DDR2 512MB |
| ADI AD1985 (internal) | 7.1 High Definition CODEC (internal) |
| 3COM 3C940 Gigabit Ethernet (internal) | 10/100/1000 Gigabit Network (internal) |
Let's see, did I forget to mention anything? Oh yeah, there's some holiday this Thursday, and some sort of exams next week... nothing important. *goes back to the games*
As is often the case with computers, I have fixed mine while having no real idea what I did. My last resort apparently worked, but since that was "pull everything out and then plug the essentials back in, then work up" I'm not sure which bit fell into place in the process. My best guess is that something important was loose and got properly secured when I shoved it back into place. Either that or it really did matter which RAM set went in which slot, as they wound up in the reversed slots when all was said and done. (Except that never mattered before...)
My graphics card fan is still making funny noises for about 20 seconds after bootup, but it's been doing that for a while without causing problems, and I eliminated it as a cause by trying other cards. So who knows?
My graphics card fan is still making funny noises for about 20 seconds after bootup, but it's been doing that for a while without causing problems, and I eliminated it as a cause by trying other cards. So who knows?
My computer may be dying.
I will explain why it at least has good timing when I can keep it from freezing long enough to type more than two paragraphs.
I will explain why it at least has good timing when I can keep it from freezing long enough to type more than two paragraphs.
- Current Mood:aggravated
Last week my office headphones decided to lose all treble. Given I am allowed to listen to music at work if I use headphones (and usually do whenever I'm at my desk and not engaged in conversation), this proved annoyingly limiting. So I moved my home headphones to the office. Much better, except now I need headphones at home. A lower priority -- the walls aren't that thin at the house -- but still handy when I'm up late just to be courteous.
Also, I was thinking about getting a new mouse anyway; I've recently started volunteering at the church handling their projector, and the attached laptop needs a working USB mouse (I loathe those touch pads), so I thought I'd bring over my old one and get something nice and ergonomic for my home use.
First mistake: I decide to purchase both at Fry's. Yes, Fry's. It is physically impossible to leave Fry's without buying at least one more item than you planned, because it's discounted so temptingly and you would have bought it at some point anyway and... ahem. Anyway, I was aware of this and had pretty much budgeted an extra $20 for damage control on that subject...
And they had a huge stack of hard drives for sale. Brand new 400 GB hard drives... for $110. I dearly wanted more hard drive space. My three (count them!) hard drives came out to barely 100 GB total. And two of those three were under-20G bricks that predated the current administration, so their stability was suspect to boot. Sale ended the next day. CRAP.
No problem, I didn't need that kidney anyway. Second mistake, however, was thinking it would be a simple plug-and-go operation. I hadn't installed a new hard drive since I reformatted the entire mess and started over two and a half years ago, so I'd forgotten the trouble I had getting it to recognize three drives at once. The fact that I had to remove all drives (including the CD and DVD drives) and the graphics card before I got enough clearance to extract the oldest (and largest) of the bricks only added to the confusion, especially since I wound up wasting nearly an hour figuring out where the serial ATA cable disappeared to afterward.
Then I had to convince the machine that yes, the boot drive was the one attached to the serial ATA, not the ultra ATA. (Look, the Ultra doesn't have any data on it! No, I'm not going to reinstall everything on the new one! I've got everything the way I like it on the old one!) Then it didn't like the jumper settings on the new one and would recognize it during initialization but not in Windows. (What were the previous jumper settings when this all worked? Did this drive even have a jumper when I started?)
At 1 in the AM, it finally recognized the main drive, the new drive, and the brick I had plugged in for data transfer, all at the same time. I declared it "good enough" and called it a night. This evening I'll be handling the re-partitioning, data transfer, and with luck I'll even be able to swap bricks at some point and get its old data direct (though the other brick is archival stuff and is completely backed up to DVD if it comes to that). Bonus is that most of this can be done by punching a few keys and standing back for a half an hour, so I think I'll get in some Katamari or a DVD while I wait... I need the stress relief. But frankly, given how things went yesterday, I'll feel good simply if the settings still work today.
At least the new mouse is comfy.
Also, I was thinking about getting a new mouse anyway; I've recently started volunteering at the church handling their projector, and the attached laptop needs a working USB mouse (I loathe those touch pads), so I thought I'd bring over my old one and get something nice and ergonomic for my home use.
First mistake: I decide to purchase both at Fry's. Yes, Fry's. It is physically impossible to leave Fry's without buying at least one more item than you planned, because it's discounted so temptingly and you would have bought it at some point anyway and... ahem. Anyway, I was aware of this and had pretty much budgeted an extra $20 for damage control on that subject...
And they had a huge stack of hard drives for sale. Brand new 400 GB hard drives... for $110. I dearly wanted more hard drive space. My three (count them!) hard drives came out to barely 100 GB total. And two of those three were under-20G bricks that predated the current administration, so their stability was suspect to boot. Sale ended the next day. CRAP.
No problem, I didn't need that kidney anyway. Second mistake, however, was thinking it would be a simple plug-and-go operation. I hadn't installed a new hard drive since I reformatted the entire mess and started over two and a half years ago, so I'd forgotten the trouble I had getting it to recognize three drives at once. The fact that I had to remove all drives (including the CD and DVD drives) and the graphics card before I got enough clearance to extract the oldest (and largest) of the bricks only added to the confusion, especially since I wound up wasting nearly an hour figuring out where the serial ATA cable disappeared to afterward.
Then I had to convince the machine that yes, the boot drive was the one attached to the serial ATA, not the ultra ATA. (Look, the Ultra doesn't have any data on it! No, I'm not going to reinstall everything on the new one! I've got everything the way I like it on the old one!) Then it didn't like the jumper settings on the new one and would recognize it during initialization but not in Windows. (What were the previous jumper settings when this all worked? Did this drive even have a jumper when I started?)
At 1 in the AM, it finally recognized the main drive, the new drive, and the brick I had plugged in for data transfer, all at the same time. I declared it "good enough" and called it a night. This evening I'll be handling the re-partitioning, data transfer, and with luck I'll even be able to swap bricks at some point and get its old data direct (though the other brick is archival stuff and is completely backed up to DVD if it comes to that). Bonus is that most of this can be done by punching a few keys and standing back for a half an hour, so I think I'll get in some Katamari or a DVD while I wait... I need the stress relief. But frankly, given how things went yesterday, I'll feel good simply if the settings still work today.
At least the new mouse is comfy.
- Current Mood:burnt out
My computer spontaneously powered down this afternoon and wouldn't start back up again. It powered up normally when I tried again an hour later.
Possible factors:
- The computer had been on for about five hours at the time, although the most intensive program it ran during that period was an anti-virus scan.
- It's a moderately warm day, though I've had warmer.
- I'd just plugged in my cell phone to recharge when the power-down occurred. The phone recharger goes into the same socket.
- The surge protector had NOT shut down, at least not for more than a second. It's possible I jostled a plug somewhere when I plugged in the cell phone, but my monitor and speakers were showing power afterward.
Anyone have an idea what hit me?
Possible factors:
- The computer had been on for about five hours at the time, although the most intensive program it ran during that period was an anti-virus scan.
- It's a moderately warm day, though I've had warmer.
- I'd just plugged in my cell phone to recharge when the power-down occurred. The phone recharger goes into the same socket.
- The surge protector had NOT shut down, at least not for more than a second. It's possible I jostled a plug somewhere when I plugged in the cell phone, but my monitor and speakers were showing power afterward.
Anyone have an idea what hit me?
- Current Mood:annoyed
I took today to, among other things, hook up the DVD-ROM I got for Christmas. (It's been sitting in the box all this time; again I curse you, long work hours!) Works fine, from the looks of things, and I got to upgrade my CD writing software as a bonus. Also hooked up a new (well, different) wireless card while I was poking around in there; we'll see if that helps with the random connection drops I keep getting.
On to gaming.
On to gaming.
- Current Mood:relaxed
As much as I'm liking Firefox, there are two quirks that are seriously annoying me (and I'd appreciate anyone who knows of a setting/extension that will fix them).
First, when I hit Back, it goes to the top of the previous page. This is particularly annoying on sites like the RPGamer Board or my LJ Friends Page, where I like to read threads/responses starting at the bottom and work my way up. Both IE and Netscape would remember where, exactly, on the last page I was, but Firefox apparently doesn't, meaning I have to scroll down again.
Second, this is only on one site, but it will give me an alert whenever I visit particular pages. This alert lets me know that it's loading a style sheet. I have to click "okay" to make the alert disappear or view the page. This alert pops up twice for every page. Gets very annoying after a while. (Other Firefox users can see if they're getting the same result by visiting this site and clicking on any of the comics on "www2.uclick.com".)
First, when I hit Back, it goes to the top of the previous page. This is particularly annoying on sites like the RPGamer Board or my LJ Friends Page, where I like to read threads/responses starting at the bottom and work my way up. Both IE and Netscape would remember where, exactly, on the last page I was, but Firefox apparently doesn't, meaning I have to scroll down again.
Second, this is only on one site, but it will give me an alert whenever I visit particular pages. This alert lets me know that it's loading a style sheet. I have to click "okay" to make the alert disappear or view the page. This alert pops up twice for every page. Gets very annoying after a while. (Other Firefox users can see if they're getting the same result by visiting this site and clicking on any of the comics on "www2.uclick.com".)
- Current Mood:annoyed
- Current Music:Nobuyoshi Sano - Lei Wulong
My boss gave me a cell phone for emergency contact purposes, since I didn't have one. Treo 300, Sprint PCS. He'll pay the bills so long as I don't go over my minutes. This should have been a good thing.
Problems started when I wanted to HotSync my phone directory onto my computer. Got the cradle, but when I made the attempt, I found that my current version of Palm Desktop (used for my Palm Pilot) was inadequate; I needed some sort of upgrade to handle a Treo. Roadblock #1.
We couldn't find the software that came with the phone (it was previously owned by another employee). I go to Sprint, figuring I could download it... no sign of it. It's not linked from my service page; it can't be found by searching the site. Roadblock #2.
So I email their tech support, hoping they can email me the software or point out the link I'm missing. They respond by saying the only way to get the software is to go to a Sprint Store and get it there. Roadblock #3... anger rising...
I hunt down the nearest Sprint location and swing by on the way home from work today. It's a kiosk. They can't give me the software I need there. I need a full service station; the nearest one is about 15 minutes away. Roadblock #4.
I make it to the Sprint Service location and explain my problem. They spend about ten minutes checking in back, then come out and say they don't have any CDs with the software on it right now... but did I try downloading it? I can pick it up at this URL... .........THANKS FOR TELLING ME! THAT WAS SO HELPFUL! *kills the online tech support and the bozos at the kiosk who didn't feel it necessary to tell him that, then beats down Roadblock #5 and heads home*
So I download the friggin' software already. I install the upgrade. Roadblocks #6 and 7 coming up... when I try to actually HotSync, it demands my password. I don't know my password; my boss set this up! To add insult to injury, I discover that now my Palm won't sync either. To be honest, I could have lived without my Treo being able to sync; if I lose my data, I can retrieve my phone numbers quickly enough from my Palm. But the Palm has a lot of other important data on it, and since it's non-rechargeable, it's more likely to suffer data loss. In short, I want my Palm synching ability back, dammit.
But first things first. Back to the site for password retrieval. It's supposed to text message my phone with the password. It doesn't. #8.
I call tech support this time. I'm not putting up with those bozos online. Hello? I need my password already. Here's my data. Okay, that's my password? Thanks. *scribble scribble* Also, my Palm isn't... hello? Hello? I wasn't done with you! (#9)
I make sure my Treo will actually sync now. It does, the Palm doesn't. Redial. Hello! I need to figure out why your software screwed up my ability to sync my Palm. *gets transferred to another department* Hello! I need to figure out why your software screwed up my ability to sync my Palm. *gets transferred to yet another department... which has been disconnected or is no longer in service* ... *smashes stuff*
Tomorrow morning, when I have calmed down, I will put these ten offenses aside and try to call them again. And I will remember never to actually pay for Sprint PCS ever.
Problems started when I wanted to HotSync my phone directory onto my computer. Got the cradle, but when I made the attempt, I found that my current version of Palm Desktop (used for my Palm Pilot) was inadequate; I needed some sort of upgrade to handle a Treo. Roadblock #1.
We couldn't find the software that came with the phone (it was previously owned by another employee). I go to Sprint, figuring I could download it... no sign of it. It's not linked from my service page; it can't be found by searching the site. Roadblock #2.
So I email their tech support, hoping they can email me the software or point out the link I'm missing. They respond by saying the only way to get the software is to go to a Sprint Store and get it there. Roadblock #3... anger rising...
I hunt down the nearest Sprint location and swing by on the way home from work today. It's a kiosk. They can't give me the software I need there. I need a full service station; the nearest one is about 15 minutes away. Roadblock #4.
I make it to the Sprint Service location and explain my problem. They spend about ten minutes checking in back, then come out and say they don't have any CDs with the software on it right now... but did I try downloading it? I can pick it up at this URL... .........THANKS FOR TELLING ME! THAT WAS SO HELPFUL! *kills the online tech support and the bozos at the kiosk who didn't feel it necessary to tell him that, then beats down Roadblock #5 and heads home*
So I download the friggin' software already. I install the upgrade. Roadblocks #6 and 7 coming up... when I try to actually HotSync, it demands my password. I don't know my password; my boss set this up! To add insult to injury, I discover that now my Palm won't sync either. To be honest, I could have lived without my Treo being able to sync; if I lose my data, I can retrieve my phone numbers quickly enough from my Palm. But the Palm has a lot of other important data on it, and since it's non-rechargeable, it's more likely to suffer data loss. In short, I want my Palm synching ability back, dammit.
But first things first. Back to the site for password retrieval. It's supposed to text message my phone with the password. It doesn't. #8.
I call tech support this time. I'm not putting up with those bozos online. Hello? I need my password already. Here's my data. Okay, that's my password? Thanks. *scribble scribble* Also, my Palm isn't... hello? Hello? I wasn't done with you! (#9)
I make sure my Treo will actually sync now. It does, the Palm doesn't. Redial. Hello! I need to figure out why your software screwed up my ability to sync my Palm. *gets transferred to another department* Hello! I need to figure out why your software screwed up my ability to sync my Palm. *gets transferred to yet another department... which has been disconnected or is no longer in service* ... *smashes stuff*
Tomorrow morning, when I have calmed down, I will put these ten offenses aside and try to call them again. And I will remember never to actually pay for Sprint PCS ever.
- Current Mood:aggravated
- Current Music:OC Remix radio
It actually took more effort than it should have to get to this point. You're all already probably aware that my area has been without high-speed far longer than a location in Silicon Valley has any business being. But around the beginning of the year we got news that our block was finally hooked up. So we signed up, got the equipment within a week, hooked everything up... nothing. Okay, they said it might be another week or so before our house was activated. We can wait.
Still nothing a week later. (Our neighbors, who signed up at about the same time, have been living the highspeed life for the same period.) Now we call tech support. They run us through the standard troubleshoot; no such luck. Our house should be receiving DSL signals and simply isn't. This does not bode well. I'm thinking in particular about how our dial-up is unusually slow, and how that problem seemed to be exclusive to our house... and how DSL runs over the same phone lines.
As it turns out, I was right. A couple visits by techies later, we determine that our house's phone lines are piggybacked off someone else's. This doesn't screw with regular phone conversation but interferes with a clean transmission of the level required for even 56K, much less DSL. So the techs eventually had to redirect the old wires, install new ones... basically it was one big hassle.
We'd left the DSL hub on in the meantime so the guys at SBC HQ could send test signals. Standard hub: four lights. Power, LAN, DSL, Activity. It had been running with a woeful two of those lit for a month. Yesterday I idly glance at it as I'm walking past.
"...Uh, Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"The DSL light is on."
And suddenly we dropped everything to harness that sweet, sweet high-speed. Hey, we're both geeks at heart. :D
Twas about time, though. We were seriously considering setting up a deal with our more fortunate neighbors to run a cable over the fence.
Still nothing a week later. (Our neighbors, who signed up at about the same time, have been living the highspeed life for the same period.) Now we call tech support. They run us through the standard troubleshoot; no such luck. Our house should be receiving DSL signals and simply isn't. This does not bode well. I'm thinking in particular about how our dial-up is unusually slow, and how that problem seemed to be exclusive to our house... and how DSL runs over the same phone lines.
As it turns out, I was right. A couple visits by techies later, we determine that our house's phone lines are piggybacked off someone else's. This doesn't screw with regular phone conversation but interferes with a clean transmission of the level required for even 56K, much less DSL. So the techs eventually had to redirect the old wires, install new ones... basically it was one big hassle.
We'd left the DSL hub on in the meantime so the guys at SBC HQ could send test signals. Standard hub: four lights. Power, LAN, DSL, Activity. It had been running with a woeful two of those lit for a month. Yesterday I idly glance at it as I'm walking past.
"...Uh, Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"The DSL light is on."
And suddenly we dropped everything to harness that sweet, sweet high-speed. Hey, we're both geeks at heart. :D
Twas about time, though. We were seriously considering setting up a deal with our more fortunate neighbors to run a cable over the fence.
- Current Mood:cheerful
- Current Music:Steven Curtis Chapman - Live Out Loud
Was nosing around the bargain bin at Fry's Electronics last night and located a copy of Thief 2 for $12. I picked up Thief Gold a couple years ago, played it through, and loved it, but I haven't seen either on the shelves since, so you'd better believe I snatched it up. Then I get home, install it, and decide to try out the first level before I hit the sack.
I get about two minutes into the actuall gameplay and my system freezes.
Reboot. Try again. This time I only get a minute.
I double-check to make sure the patch was firmly installed and that there are no later versions. I try different graphic settings. I reinstall the game. No luck.
Just when I'm about to despair, it hits me that I've seen behavior like this before. A known glitch in some game collections was that the software was so old it made certain assumptions about how much your machine could do at once, instead of physically preventing certain "must take place in sequence" processes from running simultaneously.
We've got an older computer in one of the back rooms, still running Win98 on a P3 500MHz. That's just barely over the recommended system reqs for Thief 2. I install it there. Smooth running through the first level. VICTOLY.
Mental note: never throw that clunker out. There are plenty of other old games I've never played out there somewhere.
( And now, time for a big fat personality quizCollapse )
I get about two minutes into the actuall gameplay and my system freezes.
Reboot. Try again. This time I only get a minute.
I double-check to make sure the patch was firmly installed and that there are no later versions. I try different graphic settings. I reinstall the game. No luck.
Just when I'm about to despair, it hits me that I've seen behavior like this before. A known glitch in some game collections was that the software was so old it made certain assumptions about how much your machine could do at once, instead of physically preventing certain "must take place in sequence" processes from running simultaneously.
We've got an older computer in one of the back rooms, still running Win98 on a P3 500MHz. That's just barely over the recommended system reqs for Thief 2. I install it there. Smooth running through the first level. VICTOLY.
Mental note: never throw that clunker out. There are plenty of other old games I've never played out there somewhere.
( And now, time for a big fat personality quizCollapse )
- Current Mood:relieved
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