Archive for the ‘Computer Frustrations’ Category
Friday, March 19th, 2010
I haven’t had a chance to post anything for a while as my life has became quite full lately.
This week is spring break at Ivy Tech and IU. It’s been a nice break from the organized chaos that has become my life. So I thought I would write about the goings on lately.
Backup, Backup, Backup!
I finally got a stable backup file server going. My original one died and I’m in the process of parting it out. If you’re looking for some cheap computer parts you can find ‘em right here. I finally gave up on linux and went with Windows Server 2003. It’s essentially XP with additional goodies for server functions. I only have one step left, and that is setting up the RAID configuration. That’s for a safety net should a hard drive fail.
ROX Update
While I haven’t had much time to concentrate on ROX, I have started recording episodes that still play on CATS. I have many of the episodes on VHS, but capturing them straight to a digital format makes things much easier. Given the advanced development of my daughter I might be able to start working on ROX again and finally get season one released in a few months.
Amelia
She is growing and developing at an alarming rate! She is now eating solid foods every night. She is also starting to move around on her own, she isn’t crawling yet but very close. She has learned that she has a voice and likes to use it often. I would say her favorite activity is getting mommy and daddy wet when she’s taking a bath. She’s a hoot and a very happy baby. We couldn’t ask for more.
The Semester From Hell
This semester I’m taking a class I’ve failed before (MATH-111) and a class that interests me (CINS-102). My math class is great, as the instructor does his best to ensure everyone in class understands the concepts and can do the work. 85% of the final grade in this class is based upon test scores, something I’ve never had to deal with before. Right now I’m earning a solid B, which makes me very happy. I plan on thanking him at the end of the semester for being such a good instructor, all teachers should be reminded how much they’re appreciated when they do a good job! My other class is a completely different story however. While I’m learning some much needed skills in this class (XHTML & CSS) the instructor seems to use the class has her way to release frustrations she has. There aren’t many people in this class, and many don’t seem to have the skills required or aren’t putting forth the effort required. The class has opened my eyes to the world of web programming, but it’s almost impossible to swallow her totalitarian attitude.
Give Me The Fiber
If you live in Indiana, you might have heard about what Smithville Telephone is doing. All of their customers are receiving fiber to the home. It’s exciting to say the least. Last year I rewired the phone lines in my house and installed a LAN in anticipation. This week we were “pre-wired” for it. This consisted of them installing a new network interface on the outside of my home, installing a battery backup system in my home, and installing a data jack. My area, called the “Fullerton Remote” should be completed by the last quarter of this year. With this upgrade broadband Internet download speeds are rising from 1.5mbps to 20! They are also adding television services which beat all it’s competitors, but that’s my opinion. This upgrade is amazing to say the least. Do you know anyone who has access to 100mbps download speeds at home? That will be their fastest rate, and I’ve seen it work. It’s almost like comparing a 14.4 modem to a 56k, a world of difference.
Spring is in the Air
Spring is upon us here in Indiana. The grass is becoming green again, and the temperatures are rising. That means the honey do list starts back up again. I listed what we want to get done around the house in an earlier post. Now it’s time to get into gear and get those items checked off the list!
Tags: Amelia, CATS, CINS-102, Fiber Optics, IU, Ivy Tech, MATH-111, Pics, ROX, Smithville Telephone, Spring, Ubuntu Linux, Windows Server 2003
Posted in B-Town, Computer Frustrations, Education, Family, Home Improvement?, Links, Pix, ROX, The Amelia Files, Weather & Seasons | No Comments »
Friday, November 6th, 2009
I am slowly but surely rising from the ashes of a dead hard drive.
About a month ago, my brand new 1.5 terabyte Seagate hard drive crashed. I tried a few tricks to try to recover the data, but none of them worked. I didn’t want to spend the $700 to $2700 I was quoted for data recovery, as I am a person of simple means.
Luckily I had old data from my old computer stored on 4 separate hard drives. I used my “old” hard drive dedicated to video work and installed it, and then started transferring data. Unfortunately my “backup” drive decided to crap out as soon as I got most of the data off of it. That drive is the only other Seagate I have. Their reputation isn’t doing so well with me. I think I’m going to stick with Western Digital from now on.
I now have almost every episode from season one of ROX on my computer and edited. There are a couple I’m having problems with, but this time around things have been much smoother than before. It’s a shame because I spent 3 years working on that stuff. The video is crisper, the audio is clearer – just a better product all around. I think this disaster was actually a blessing in disguise.
Once I get these “trouble” episode problems resolved, which are: Family Values Special, A Festival of Fools and Mom, Dad, I’m Getting Married. I can start on DVD menu authoring which is a tedious process. The more time I spend on it, the better the end product will be though. I want this season to be the standard, not the example.
Season One will be made up of two volumes of 4 discs each. This is mainly due to quality concerns. In the set will be all 25 episodes! Also included will be special commentary on episode 31, A Toast to Poverty by the shows’ producers – J and Editor B. Plus a few surprising extras. It should be a hit for all!
I finally have a backup plan so this shouldn’t happen again. With some help I have purchased a backup hard drive for ROX and I will have my server up and going soon. With those two options, I hope I have enough redundancy for this not to happen again.
I hope to have season one finalized within a few months, so be on the lookout!
Tags: Computer Frustrations, ROX, Seagate, Season One
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Links, ROX, The Vid Biz | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Microsoft has taken a lot of flack for it’s Vista operating system, due to it’s many issues. While I didn’t have many, the ones I did have forced me to upgrade to Windows 7.
This is my non-technical review based on my jeers and cheers.
Since I am a staff member at Indiana University, I have access to vast amounts of software for free or very cheap. This afforded me the opportunity to upgrade for $20. That’s right.
I’ll start with the things I like about Windows 7…
First of all, my Nikon Coolpix 7600 and it’s accompanying software would not work with Vista, period. Vista’s own picture transfer wizard would not even work. I believe it was something to do with the horrible USB support Vista had. With 7, my 4 year old camera, and it’s software work better than ever! I can’t wait to see how my bluetooth dongle works!
Second, Vista loved RAM. It loved it so much, that no matter how much you had it seemed like it wasn’t enough. This isn’t the case with 7 – it’s more like the opposite. Windows 7 actually uses half as much RAM at idle on my machine than Vista did. Freeing up that memory makes the machine much more responsive, programs load instantly.
Third, UAC. User Access Control, introduced with Vista was a major pain in the a**. I disabled it, but by doing that I also disabled notification of any problems elsewhere that could have happened. With 7, you can do the same with a slider without the potential repercussions. Set it to where you want it right from the task bar.
Fourth, Media Center. I started using media center with Vista’s version, and I thought it couldn’t get any better. I was wrong. 7’s media center works better and is more reliable. It also has CBS TV streaming built right in. So now you can watch ANYTHING on TV if you have media center and Hulu Desktop. Add Boxee to the mix and you have the ultimate home entertainment machine. I also have My Movies3 and Heatwave integrated into WMC, I love it!
Now onto the not so nice things…
There are many compatibility issues with programs and 7. While they will work, you may have to re-install. While this isn’t a huge issue, it’s still bothersome. I can happily report that I’ve only had one casualty of the upgrade, Quickbooks 2008. I have to restart my computer any time I want to use it. Intuit knows about this issue and is “working on a solution.” I hope it is resolved soon, this program wasn’t cheap, even though it’s free now.
I haven’t been a fan of the “new” start menu since it was introduced with Windows XP. Luckily Microsoft has always provided us with an alternative, the “classic” start menu, which has it’s origins with Windows 95. It has gone the way of the 8-track. While there are some registry hacks to get the old menu back, and even a guide on lifehacker, I’m adapting to this change and I’m starting to get on board with it. Many of us “old timers” don’t like change.
Those are my only complaints thus far. Which isn’t that bad. I believe 7 is what Vista was meant to be.
Tags: Boxee, Heatwave, Hulu, Links, My Movies, Pix, Windows 7, Windows Media Center
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Links, Pix | No Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Over the past couple of weekends I’ve been working hard at getting ROX season one to the production phase. I’ve authored all the DVD menus and have done most of the design of the case inserts. I had all the episodes ready. It was just a matter of rendering all of the discs and making sure I had all of the extras we wanted before it would be finished.
All of that work took an extreme turn for the worse the other day. I had been having troubles rendering video. I thought it was a Sony Vegas or Quick Timeissue, so I removed and reinstalled. I then went on to think it was a codec issue, so I removed every media codec I had (quite a few), still didn’t fix it. I had given up for the night out of pure frustration as to why my 2 month old computer wasn’t working properly.
The next day I woke to something I’ve never seen before. A black screen with a message: Cannot read disk on SATA 0 and Cannot read disc on SATA 3. WTF!
I restarted the machine to hear a distinct “clicking” noise. One of the hard drives was toast, so I removed the secondary one (the one with all the important data on it) and the computer would then boot into safe mode. Apparently, my virus software which I get from Indiana University somehow became corrupt and became “Incompatible with my version of windows.” So I wiped it and am still installing my programs.
My 1.5tb drive which has all of my personal, business and ROX data was clicking. What do I do? I could not initialize the disk. My first thought was disk recovery, so I called the only computer service place I trust and they referred me to Drive Savers. They gave me a code that cuts 10% off the price and gives you a no data – no cost guarantee. I called them up and the estimate was quite shocking, $700 to $2700. Anybody want a large Seagate drive on the cheap?
Is the data worth that? It contains 3 years of blood, sweat and tears on this project. I conferred with my partner in crime, Editor B. He said he would help, which was a relief. My homeowners insurance policy will cover anything over $1000. After much thought and searching my other hard drives for data, I’ve decided to try something a little ‘home brewed’ to alleviate my situation. Freezing the drive.
Not like this picture though. The moisture from the ice will ruin it. I scoured the interwebs looking for “freezer trick hard drive” and came across many posts about how this can help you retrieve the data you need. Sometimes it works for just a few minutes and sometimes it works for a few hours. There is no definitive amount of time, I think it’s limited to just how damaged the hard drive is.
I put my hard drive in the freezer last night about 6pm and I plan on taking out about the same time tonight. I wrapped it with some paper towels and placed it in a vacuum bag. This will help with any moisture issues that could result. I plan on keeping the hard drive in the bag and placing it in a larger bag with ice. When I connect the drive the computer, this will help keep it cooler longer.
I have about 500 gigs of data that I would like to get off of this drive. But I have prioritized what I am retrieving.
Wish me luck.
UPDATE: This did not work in my circumstance. However I’ve been told it does.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, hard drive freezer trick, Links, Pix, ROX, Seagate
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Deep Thoughts, Links, Pix, ROX, The Vid Biz | 1 Comment »
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
After many years of accidentally deleting or losing data, I have come to a point where that should no longer happen.
When my old machine died, I thought I would turn it into a backup server. I was unable to make that dream come true as it was too far gone to resurrect. I was however able to find an adequate machine for $50 that does all I need it to. I wanted something that would be able to work cross platform as I currently have 2 windows machines and I want to eventually buy a Mac Book. The only option that seemed to be the right decision was Linux, specifically Ubuntu.
After working on many different options, I found what I believe will be the easiest and best way for my specific situation. I have samba running on my Ubuntu Intrepid machine with the built-in windows backup client backing up the machines on a weekly basis. While I haven’t researched it yet, from what co-workers have told me Apple’s time machine program should work much the same.
This link was the clearest on how to set samba up: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202605
From there it was just like sharing folders or drives in Windows.
Now that my testing is complete, I can add some hard drives and put it in production mode. My wife is so thrilled that she shouldn’t have to worry about losing data anymore.
Tags: Backup, Intrepid Ibex, Links, Samba, ubuntu, Vista
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Links | No Comments »
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
After a call from PC Max regarding my computer, I found out some financially crushing information. My computer is officially dead.
The motherboard will not respond, I’ve had problems with it since I bought it off of eBay. I’ll never trust ASUS products, this motherboard was a headache from the word go. They also said that my video card was starting to show signs of going as some of the capacitors are starting to mushroom.
Their recommendations where to replace it with an “upgrade box” which essentially replaces all the internal parts. This would have ran about $450. I built the computer for this cost. Plus this would be like throwing more money into a big money pit. As I’ve written about previously, I’ve replaced the motherboard, replaced a hard drive and went through 5 power supplies on this machine alone. I’m not sure if I work it too hard, or if I’m having some bad luck.
After making some tough choices, we decided to purchase a Dell Optiplex 760. There are many advantages to purchasing this, but there are some disadvantages. I will outline them below.
Advantages:
- 3 year warranty opposed to standard Dell 1 year warranty
- If any problems happen, I can bring it into TS for service
- Business class machine that should hold up to whatever I throw at it
Disadvantages:
- Can only hold 2 hard drives; I currently have 4
- More costly than building a machine
- Pushes back my anticipated purchase of a MacBook Pro
While the disadvantages do not outweigh the advantages, they are something to think about. This machine also has a Intel processor, something I haven’t had since 1995 which was in my first computer, a 486DX2 running at 50mhz. Since then I have switched to AMD for their better price points with unequaled performance. I just hope this machine is as good as my old one was.
It’s specs are:
- Core 2 Duo running at 3.06ghz
- 4gb of DDR2 ram running at 800mhz
- 320gb boot hard drive
- 16x DVD-RW drive
- 16 in 1 Media Card Reader (for SD/CF and other types of flash memory)
- On-board video with a digital video adapter card – a good system that is used at IU
I am not purchasing a monitor, keyboard, mouse or any other peripherals with this to save money. I have all of these items, and don’t really need new ones. Dell is currently saying I should receive it by September 3rd.
My plan is to buy a new 1.5tb hard drive to replace the space I use on 4 hard drives. This will let me have the space I need and want via an internal hard drive. I’m going to sell 3 of those hard drives to try to recoup the cost. I also need to buy an adapter to get the information off of those old drives.
I’m going to keep my old machine and eventually buy a new motherboard and processor. It will be my Linux box. This will also be an addition to all of the extra tax write-offs we will have this year. With a new child, remodeling my business space and a new computer, we should have a nice tax refund next year.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, Dell Optiplex 760, Life, Links
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Geeky, Links | No Comments »
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
My summer is quickly drawing to a close. My last class for the summer semester is tomorrow, I start working at TS again on August 10th and the birth of my second child is becoming more imminent as each day passes.
I’ve been pre-ocupied with class and remodeling the nursery. I don’t feel like the progress is coming along like I wanted it to with the nursery.
This is the first room that will be “complete” in the house. While we have painted, installed doors, ect. One thing we haven’t done is change our trim from stained to painted. This room will be. Once little one is born, we will take a remodeling break and then change the trim, each room at a time.
I’m very happy that I was able to take a break from work this summer and focus on my studies. While I only have one grade posted thus far, I believe I’ll have 3 A’s and a C. The C is due to some weird quizzes that had wrong answers! The professor would sometimes throw a few points our way, but nothing that made up for the loss. I now have a greater appreciation of what it’s like to be a college student. If our finances could support it, I’d like to continue going full time until I complete my degree.
My computer’s power supply died again, at least it’s still under warranty. I took it into PC Max, but it will probably be a couple of weeks before its return due to Antec’s slow warranty claim process.
We bought a new car, well new to us. With the impending arrival of a new member of the family, we needed a more family friendly vehicle. I didn’t want to trade in my truck, but I did due to it’s much higher trade-in value than the Kia. We bought a 2007 Chevrolet HHR 1LT. We’ve rented them on two occasions and love them! It looks small, but has a lot more room than you would think it does.
Once I get some time to coordinate my thoughts, I’ll write something with more focus. In the meantime, if you’re my friend on twitter or facebook – I’ll keep you updated.
Tags: Baby L, Computer Frustrations, home improvement, Ivy Tech, Transportation
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Education, Family, Home Improvement?, Links, Pix | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 17th, 2009
It turns out that my computer wasn’t on it’s death bed, my hard drive was.
For the past few months I would have these symptoms:
- The power supply was extremely loud after being on for more than an hour.
- No response on occasion, which would lead to a reboot.
- Slower than normal function.
It all came to a head when all of these symptoms came together and after a reboot I got the dreaded message, “Disk Read Error.”
I knew the hard drive wasn’t dead, but there was a problem. I switched the power cables and it worked. So I backed up everything onto one of my other hard drives and purchased a new drive.
I bought a Western Digital 160 Gig PATA drive, that I must say is super quiet. You have to put your head up to the case just to hear it! It turns out that one of the pins on the 4 pin power connector had “sheered” away. I gave it to my co-worker Tito, I’m sure he can get it going again.
I knew my computer would run Windows XP, but I thought I would see if it could handle Vista. I think it runs Vista better than it ever ran XP.
I’ve had a few glitches, but nothing that wasn’t the case about XP years ago.
The biggest scare was last night. I’ve been re-installing all of my software, using my DVD-RW drive. When I went to install MS Visual Studio Pro 2008, my drive was nowhere to be found! Vista gave me a message that “there was something wrong with the driver.” After some searching I found that Vista has a quirk with some older drives. A quick registry patch resolved this.
While my computer cannot import video or audio directly anymore, it is working great as an all around PC. This is awesome news. I’m not feeling the pressure I was to purchase a new machine anymore. I can hopefully wait until our renovation is complete and I have a new office area before acquiring more equipment.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, Hard Drive, Vista, XP
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Links | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 10th, 2009
Last night Rachel and I had a computer meltdown. My main hard drive was not responding, so I rebooted to get a “disk read error.” I removed the computer and cleaned it out, switched some power cables – which lead to a rant about all of our computing issues.
I’m purchased a new 160 gig hard drive to replace the failing one. I was surprised at the price for a small hard drive these days, for $40 you can buy a 160 gig!
This is mainly a band-aid on a bigger problem, but I’ll remain optomistic.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, Links, Rachel
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Links, Rachel | No Comments »
Monday, March 30th, 2009
I’ll be buying a new computer within a couple days. It’s just a matter of finding the proper hardware for the right price. Right now I’m leaning towards a Dell Optiplex 760, it’s a solid business class machine. KSoB uses them exclusively, and I know their inner workings inside and out. I wanted a quad core machine, but to get this machine I will have to sacrifice that feature.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, Kelley School of Business, Links
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Links, The Vid Biz | No Comments »
Sunday, March 29th, 2009
I was filling an order for ROX season zero and upon testing the DVDs for playability, they would only play on my computers DVD player. Not standalone units. I think it’s time for a new PC.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, ROX, The Vid Biz
Posted in Computer Frustrations, ROX, The Vid Biz | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 27th, 2009
My PC is dying a long, drawn out death. It’s to a point where I cannot do the things I need to do with it.
The first sign was when the motherboard died. I should have just cut my losses and ran, but not me. I found what I thought was a suitable replacement and got it going again.
This suitable replacement has been nothing but a pile of headaches. I can no longer import video on my machine. I must do that job on my wifes’ laptop and then transfer it to mine. My disc burning speeds have been halved to 8x. The last two DVDs I burnt had an audio sync issue, so I believe there are more issues there as well.
My main hard drive crashed as soon as the new motherboard was replaced. While we did recover all files from it, and actually still use it, the end is near for that as well. The computer does not want to shut down and performance is like that of a 486.
Last night was the breaking point, as my USB ports are only working intermittently. I use my USB ports for everything, I have 15 of them! When I can’t sync my phone or access my flash drive for school, that’s big trouble.
All of this in a time of change. As of right now, we are about 1/3 of the way done on our basement remodel. I have finished all the “real” work on one side. All we have to do is add some more insulation and vapor barrier, then it’s on to the next.
I’m hoping to hold onto this until I get the basement done and a new machine can have a proper place. Whether that happens is yet to be seen.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, Remodel Update
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Home Improvement? | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
For the last 6 weeks, my main computer has been broken. In that time, I think I have spent a lot more time with my wife than normal. It has been a good thing, but we do spend entirely way too much time together.
I finally got my computer fully running last night, and what a mess that has been. Let me outline what happened:
My motherboard crapped out – cooling fans failed leaving too much heat inside the case, a few capacitors failed.
While in the shop; power supply failed – still under warranty, they had to send it to the manufacturer and wait for another to come in – this in itself took 4 weeks.
Main hard drive failed – When I finally got the computer back, my main drive with all music and pictures crapped out. I couldn’t access it. Took it in and they were able to recover the data. The drive still works and is in use now. Nobody knows what happened exactly.
Then starts the issues I had to deal with once I got the machine back:
This new motherboard an ASUS model A8V-X would not recognize one set of IDE devices I had connected. No matter which port. I finally found out that both items were jumper-ed to be master devices, moving the jumpers to “cable select” fixed this issue.
My SATA drive, which is 500gigs seemed to be invisible to this system. It would recognize it in the BIOS, but not in Windows. When I looked further I saw that many people have had this same problem with ASUS motherboards.
It seems that ASUS has taken the cheap approach to using new technologies. There is no SATA controller, it has been combined into the IDE controller. The BIOS sees all SATA devices as IDE devices. If you’re trying to use a SATA-II device, you’re out of luck. This is what I was originally trying to do, and the system would hang at boot and if I enabled it in Windows, the system would freeze.
All documentation states that this is SATA-II compatible, but it isn’t. I had to “jumper” the drive to change it to a SATA-I device.
Needless to say, I’m never buying an ASUS product again. The only reason I strayed from Gigabyte, who made the motherboards on every computer I’ve had is because I couldn’t get another one for my AMD socket 939 processor.
I have one other problem to contend with, I’m getting some sort of interference in my sound card. It comes out whenever my processor is performing tasks. A minor problem, but still it’s an issue.
I have been working diligently to get everything back on my computer, but it will take me some time (about a week) to get everything back to the way it used to be.
Tags: ASUS, computer, Geeky, Gigabyte, Links
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Deep Thoughts, Geeky, Links | No Comments »
Friday, September 12th, 2008
I have a problem, which showed itself in a bad way last night. I can’t help tinkering with computers. I need help.
Rachel had a meeting with My Sisters Closet after work, so I was home by myself until about 8:30. Because of the current issues with our main computer, we only have the laptop right now. When we purchased the laptop it came with Windows Vista Home Basic pre-installed. Neither of us had any experience with this new (at the time) operating system.
After a day or so of tinkering and trying to figure it out, Rachel decided that she wanted XP on it. I was fine with this, as she was going to be the main user of the computer anyway. I wiped the hard drive and put a clean install of XP Pro on it. Not til later would I realize that doing this would void the warranty on the machine.
I went on a hunt for drivers for the many devices a new laptop has and came up short. When I contacted dell for help, that is when I found out about a interesting clause. If you downgrade the OS on a machine purchased from them, all support is rendered void.
At first I didn’t care at all. Since issues have occurred with my other machine, I’ve become somewhat paranoid. I wanted to get the computer reverted to it’s original state. I contacted Dell again, and they sent me a set of discs that actually re-imaged the machine to it’s original factory state.
Rachel and I had talked about this, she was very hesitant about the change. Since I have some experience with Vista under my belt now, I feel much more comfortable with it, if you didn’t know it’s just XP of a different color.
When Rachel arrived home last night, I was about an hour away from finishing this changeover. She was furious and actually made me think for a minute that she was packing up to move out or something. Over the years I have done several things to computers that have hurt her. I deleted (on accident) a majority of her papers for her masters degree and other various files that were important to her.
The sad part is that I do this with out even thinking about it, like it’s just a everyday sort of thing. The whole time I was doing this, I thought she would be happy when she got home.
I was wrong.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, Geeky, Links, Rachel
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Deep Thoughts, Links, Rachel | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 29th, 2008
Yesterday, the new motherboard I ordered arrived. I spent the majority of last night replacing what I believe is a bad motherboard.
The new one is significantly different than the old one, as the connections are in different places and it has different ports, i.e. PCI Express.
After connecting and tightening everything I plugged the power in to test, nothing.
I’ve gave up. I’m tired of spending countless hours upon hours to try to fix it. I’m taking it to an expert in a few hours. I hope that the new motherboard is fine, or my old one is okay.
I’ve also given up on something else. I’m not going to build any PC’s anymore. In this date and age, and since we get educational discounts through Dell and Apple, we have decided to now purchase computers instead of build.
I hope the costs to fix this problem aren’t huge. If that is going to be the case, we are probably going to just buy a new computer.
Tags: Computer Hell, Links
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Deep Thoughts, Geeky, Links | No Comments »
Sunday, August 24th, 2008
While diagnosing my computer last night, the real problem revealed itself. My motherboard is cracked, or broken in some way.
I was testing my 4 RAM chips individually, to ensure my RAM was the problem when something happened. The computer just quit. It wouldn’t turn on, nothing.
Since I’ve had many power supply failures, I thought it was worth a shot to test it. I found a thread on how to test a power supply by running a jumper between the green and a black wire on a power supply. If it is good, the power supply will turn on, if it is bad, it won’t. My power supply came on.
Since I know my processor is good, and I have tested most of my RAM, it’s just a matter of deduction from there.
Finding parts for a computer built 3 years ago is surprisingly hard. Newegg only has 2 motherboards available, but both seem very cheap. Looking around the internet, I found many suppliers but most of them were out of stock. So I went to the “last resort,” eBay.
We found a OEM model that includes 8x AGP. The auction ended in 10 hours, but I decided to “buy it now.” Hopefully this thing will be as good as the reviews I’ve seen for it.
I also purchased a new IEEE 1394/Firewire card and 3 new 80mm cooling fans.
Now it’s just a matter of delivery and assembly. I wanted to dis-assemble everything to prepare, but Rachel wants me to relax tonight as we have a early start tomorrow.
We are now discussing purchasing, dare I say it, a Dell for our normal “personal” computer. This way we can separate everything physically. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but finances have dictated otherwise.
This wouldn’t be possible without the help of Editor B. I want you to know that I will always feel in your debt for the things you have done for me.
I hope to keep on track for Holiday season availability for ROX season one.
Tags: Computer Frustrations, Geeky, Links, Rachel, ROX
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Links, ROX, Rachel | No Comments »
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
After doing some research about what could be wrong with my computer, I have come up with 2 possible problems. Either my motherboard is bad in some way, or my RAM is bad in some way.
I found some software to test the RAM, and sure enough it found some “problems.”
But it can’t tell me for sure which chip is bad, so I have to do further testing to discover which one it is or if it is the port and not a chip.
I hope there aren’t any problems with my motherboard, if that is the case I will need a new PC. My processor’s chipset has been obsoleted and I cannot find many parts to fit it.
Tags: Geeky, Links
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Geeky, Links | No Comments »
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
My computer has a problem. It has gotten better over the past couple of weeks, but it is still there.
It will restart at random times, after reboot i will get a message saying that “the system has recovered from a serious error.”
I have read articles on many websites about what this problem is exactly, and tried some of the fixes. It has eased the issue, but not helped it disappear.
I think I have a hardware issue, but I can’t pinpoint it just yet. My first thoughts is that it is my RAM or a possible crack in my motherboard.
With 4 hard drives and a dual core cpu, my computer creates a lot of heat. I have 4 cooling fans to help, but I think I have overloaded my cases’ ability.
If it gets any worse I think I’m going to take it to a shop to get an outsiders’ opinion. This is my last option, because removal and re-installation of my computer is a PITA. I have 2 printers, VCR, 8-track player, Scanner, Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, CAT5 cable, Microphone, and a 7 port USB hub to connect. Lots of cables, so many that I need 3 power strips just to power everything.
Posted in Computer Frustrations | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Today I finally fixed a problem I’ve had for almost 2 years!
I use flickr for uploading of many of the pictures I take for online storage. It keeps ‘em safe. Logging into my account has been nothing but confusing though.
When I set up my flickr account we used AT&T for our DSL, and therefore my email address was with them. After “the move” I changed email addresses to a yahoo.com domain name as we weren’t in AT&T’s service area anymore.
For some reason, I could not change this information with flickr, which is owned by yahoo.
They eventually let me change my contact email to my yahoo.com address, but not my login information.
Today I successfully changed the login information.
One less username and password I have to remember. Thank god!
Tags: flickr, Geeky, Links, Pix
Posted in Computer Frustrations, Geeky, Links, Pix | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
There are many creative minds at work at the CSR. Many of us enjoy the video production/editing fields. There are 2 ladies with Ph.D.’s, a jewelry maker, and the list goes on from there.
For most of us, the CSR is just a stepping stone. I hope it is for me, as I’m tired of assembling NSSE survey packets. It’s mind numbing work, and when you’re scolded for speaking, it’s just that much worse.
A fellow co-worker makes his own music. It’s electronic and kind of a mix between new age and techno. It’s the best thing I’ve heard or seen in a while, so I thought I’d share. I think with the right exposure, this kid and his music could really go places.
He’s a little leery of allowing it to be downloaded so I have a selection of his songs setup for streaming, but I have been made aware of some issues. This will only work with IE, as it’s setup with Windows Media to stream. I’ve personally tried Safari and Firefox with no luck. So you are warned! I am currently working on a way for all platforms to play, but I don’t have it in place yet.
Listen Here: Music by Luc
If anyone out there has any better ideas, please let me know! I tried last.fm, but to add one of their “playlists” you have to have a minimum of 15 songs.
If anyone out there has any better ideas, please let me know! I tried , but to add one of their “playlists” you have to have a minimum of 15 songs.
Or, if there’s enough support, he just might let the nice people who read my blog download it. If he does, I will add links.
UPDATE: I somewhat solved the problem. If you cannot view or play the media player, click on the link directly below the song title, it will play the song on your systems native player.
Posted in Art, B-Town, Computer Frustrations, Music | No Comments »
