I have been repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall on a Windows 2000 install. It works fine for a whole day while I'm installing/rebooting/etc.
Then I put Roxio 6.5 on and it dies - inaccessible boot device, whatever I try to do.
Hmm, okay - I do the chkdsk thing, as recommended on the bsod.
Hooray, it boots again, after reporting that it had fixed 'one or more errors'.
Install more gubbins, security updates et al. Reboots fine for a couple of times then plays dead again.
I then unplug one of the cdrom drives, as it sounded like it was struggling to read anything put in it. I also checked everything was seated in place.
Boots up okay. Ah, finally! Everything appears to be okay. Although it's lost the scanner driver. Put scanner driver back in and it -eek- requires a reboot.
bsod again.
chkdsk again.
boots fine a couple of times, then bsod again.
I gave up and brought the computer home with me and I bet the ************** thing boots up fine while I have it.
I have an idea it may be the Parallel scanner, if it is acting as a pseudo-scsi device.
This is the most trouble I've ever had with an install. Ever. And this is W2K, which is supposedly the OS of choice.
mis wired the power to one of my harddrive racks we kinda all know what that means, 12v > 5v and 5v > 12v.... cooked the logic and underpowered the motors on 3 hd's totaling 150 gigs...., shweet
Every so often my bios, for no apparent reason, reverts back to safe mode.
I won't have touched anything inside, or removed the power to my comp in this time, it just does it.
So suddenly i have no sound or network connection (both onboard) :(
Originally Posted by FredsFriend Every so often my bios, for no apparent reason, reverts back to safe mode.
I won't have touched anything inside, or removed the power to my comp in this time, it just does it.
So suddenly i have no sound or network connection (both onboard) :(
Originally Posted by DreamTheEndless : (
No one commented on my rant -
It took a full day of my life
To write it?
As for the oft-quoted "As far as I'm concerned if it fits in the hole then it ought to work", I have a dead scanner (actually my parents') to testify that this does not work with DC leads.
As for the oft-quoted "As far as I'm concerned if it fits in the hole then it ought to work", I have a dead scanner (actually my parents') to testify that this does not work with DC leads.
:D
No - Took a full day to get my nephews computer online.... :( :( :(
I had a CD shatter when it was spinning at full rpm's, the tray also shatter, the bezel flew off and i have a little scar on my leg where is struck me down! lol just to make the clear, the drive wasnt in the case, it was just kinda plugged into the IDE cable sitting outside, my new cd-rw had packed up, lesson learn there? cover everyting with duct-tape!
Dear god, this is a hilarious thread. Also, I discovered yesterday that Black & White won't play with WindowBlinds turned on. It gets the start screen, then windows comes back, and I hear the sound from the game menu playing. Nothing in the taskbar, nothing to alt+tab to, nothing. Unloaded WindowBlinds, and viola, worked like a charm. Dastardly software.
Lots of things wont work with Windowblinds, which leads me to believe that windowblinds is seriously not good for a system, better just to hack the UXT file or whatever it's called, and use styles.
I wish the computer could feel. I wish it would feel shame for not working.
I've had a couple computers over time, but only owned one. My father never really taught me anything about computers, because he figured I didn't need to know anything. I was given his old computer, I tinkered with it, (this is back in the day when windows was 3.1). Well, we installed windows 95 on that computer and a few years later, it died.
I never found out if it was me that killed the computer. It would boot, then the screen would go black. I never had the funding to manage a full on investigation of the problem. I just got the second hand-me-down from my dad. This one I -know- I killed. I wanted to install a... honestly, I can't remember what I was doing. I just plugged things in where I thought they should go and thought, "Well, that was easier than I thought..."
The result was something like the smell of burning soap. It tasted like burning soap in the air. I took the computer, unplugged everything, and put it outside in the rain so I would stop filling my mom's house with smoke.
Well, fast forward a few years, add a lot of book learning, and my first personally bought and paid for computer.
I thought I had bought something killer, being that it cost me $2600. Honestly, it's held up to the test of time. I had fewer problems than just about every person I knew who had a new or old computer. Maybe I knew what I was doing. Maybe I had a higher quality system. Maybe I was lucky. But I have to question any amount of luck that results with what I've dealt with.
Edit - A. (Yeah, I had no -idea- that this computer would come with a cheapie motherboard, crapped out floppy drive/cheap ram.)
Money does not equal a good computer, I've learned that lesson already.
But when I got the computer, I was in awe of its sheer power, (2.4ghz pentium 4, 512 ram, 80 gig hard drive, GeForce 4 Ti 4600 128 graphics card, and a pretty tower and a flat screen monitor, not flat panel). This is all coming from a pentium 2 533 mhz processor, etc. I mean the new one was a monster.
Problem number one: floppy drive never worked. Ever. I was surprised that a brand new product wouldn't work. I didn't really mind, after all, floppy drives were cheap and I could replace it later, should I need to. Well, I underestimated the difficulty in getting a new floppy drive to work on -this- computer. I needed it -many- times for computer classes at college and information transfer. But I managed to get by with using the internet and my e-mail to send documents that I would have to reformat before I could print them out.
Problem number two: the sound acted crazy after about a month. It would sometimes work, sometimes not. I was quickly angered at this malfunction. I couldn't listen to music(had given away my stereo because I had no need anymore). Took it to Gateway, after a week, they said it was fine and gave it back. I brought it home, hooked it up, it didn't work. I took the damn thing back, after a week they said it was fine. I took it home(like an idiot) and brought it back the SAME DAY. I told them, "plug some speakers in, try to get sound. Period. No F#%^ing with this or that. Just the sound. That's what's wrong. That's it. Fix the -sound-." A week later, they called me and said it was fixed. I took it home, tried to use it, it was still not working. Again, I took it back, told them of the problem, they kept it a week and said it was fixed. I took it home, it worked. Then it didn't. Then it did. I still haven't figured out what was going on. I'm no idiot(whatever you might think from my past experiences with computers... we were all new once). I checked connections, made sure drivers were okay, (self educated in lots of stuff through net access to help-related sites). I mean, I went through some hoops to get that ******* to work and I don't think myself or the Gateway workers fixed the damn thing. I just don't know why it ever started working again.
Edit - B. (This excellent tech work simply inspired awe in me.)
Problem number three: (My fault) When I was playing UO one day, I knocked over a drink, a pepsi I think,(since then, no more pepsi allowed near computer... "Very supersticious... writing on the wall..."), the pepsi managed to get down into my pretty new tower faster than I imagined. I got busy cleaning the tower, rotating it this way and that, before realizing any had gotten inside. I opened it up and found no sign of the contaminate. Well, upon more detailed inspection, some got on my cables, my video card, and the bottom of the tower. I figure, "not too bad. Maybe things will be cool." I clean as best I can, put it back together, and start it up again. It worked fine... for about an hour. Then, out of nowhere, my screen went insane. Like old nintendo not working, insane. Crazy little blocks of non-working screen. It was nuts.
I got the $500 video card replaced for free by telling Gateway what happened. They replaced it happily. I had a pretty good coverage plan. I just had one little white lie. Uh, not telling them I spilled my drink on it. I know, not the ethical thing to do, but I had just dropped $2600 on a new computer and had problems to high hell with it to -start-. I figured it wouldn't hurt Gateway too much to help me out on this one.
Edit - C. (Given their laziness or apparent lack of care, this store was shut down. This might or might not be true, but I do remember hearing of Gateway trying to get into the PC market, instead of corporate-only work, and they supposedly weren't terribly successful. This is probably around the same time Gateway was really getting off the ground with their PC marketing ideas. I think this store, near my local mall, was only there about two or three years.)
Problem number four: I tried to get a new floppy drive because I was tired of using cds and e-mail to transfer documents. I installed the new floppy drive -exactly- as the old one was, and double checked the manual of installation(which amounted to saying, "Plug in. Works.") I booted up and no sound. "What the HELL!?" I screamed. I got the computer back apart, double checked again. Actually, I probably triple checked. Anyway, booted up again, no sound. I unplugged the floppy drive, sound was back. I plugged in the old drive, still had sound. No working drive, but still had sound. I replaced the old drive with the new one again, and no sound again. Infuriated at this point, I threw the new floppy drive under the bed and plugged the old, non-working one back in.
Problem number five: speakers. I decided to cheapen my purchase a little bit by only getting the $30 speaker set with the computer. They worked fine until about... a year ago. They come with two small speakers and a subwoofer. The speakers have a control for the amount of base. This just -stopped- working. Now I turn it up 90% and there's absolutely -no- base. Past 90%, the bass just comes on full blast. Not too bad, I can kinda control that via audio controls in control console.
Edit - D. (Alright, so I was a little optimistic. This is rapidly getting on my nerves. A subwoofer that won't woof. )
This computer is going on four years. Basically, I think this computer's core has never had a problem. The CPU, motherboard(Edit E. - BS. This computer's Mobo is pretty damn generic.), hard drive, RAM(Edit F. - Also junk.). The video, sound, floppy, and speakers have been the only real let downs. Maybe, next time, I'll have better luck. It has given me a lot of ability to learn for school, computers, technology, etc. So, in general, after four years, I think I've gotten my money's worth. I'm soon to be in the market for a new one and have been researching for almost a year now, off and on. Looking at new processors coming out and new on that front(Yonah, Conroe, learning older chip information), benchmark tests(Intel vs AMD), operating systems soon to be or already out(Vista, Tiger, Linux), monitor technology, video card info, sound advances, etc.
Edit - G. (Well, after some thought, I've come to realize I got my computer at the perfect time. At the time, it was pretty close to top-end. It's just now becomming obsolete, but still offers at least another year of decent functionality. This is very fortunate when coupled with the fact that the whole market is suddenly changing when I intend on getting a new computer; things like DDR2, Dual/Quad/8 core processors, massive hard drives, faster-than-USB ports(firewire), nice big LCD/etc monitors becomming cheaper, and speakers with 7.1. The first things out will be the longest running technologies, dual cores, DDR2, Firewire, SLI/Xfire, etc. will be pretty standard for a while, because the software hasn't yet caught up to their badassedness. I know a quad/8core processor won't be taking advantage of the massive functionality offered for a -while-, so tech bought now will pretty well be "future proofed" for at least a few years. Besides, dual core-enabled sockets are pretty well ensuring the longevity of the motherboard, provided the motherboard itself doesn't fall too far behind.)
I've had my fair share of problems. This whole thing is neglecting to mention my forays into networking, spyware, internet bull#$%^, and viruses(oddly enough never on my own computer).
I have, however, had several OS reinstalls. Drivers being lost, programs I cannot completely uninstall, junk accumulation, etc.
Edit - Final. (After writing this and leaving it a few days, I've come to the conclusion that I should amend a few points, perhaps merely inserting comments. They're labeled "Edit - A." etc. Also, this is probably one of the most extensive writings I've ever made on my entire life's computer experience. And when I read it I personally still laugh. Life's lessons, eh?)
Originally Posted by GauteHauk I wish the computer could feel. I wish it would feel shame for not working.
I've had a couple computers over time, but only owned one. My father never really taught me anything about computers, because he figured I didn't need to know anything. I was given his old computer, I tinkered with it, (this is back in the day when windows was 3.1). Well, we installed windows 95 on that computer and a few years later, it died.
I never found out if it was me that killed the computer. It would boot, then the screen would go black. I never had the funding to manage a full on investigation of the problem. I just got the second hand-me-down from my dad. This one I -know- I killed. I wanted to install a... honestly, I can't remember what I was doing. I just plugged things in where I thought they should go and thought, "Well, that was easier than I thought..."
The result was something like the smell of burning soap. It tasted like burning soap in the air. I took the computer, unplugged everything, and put it outside in the rain so I would stop filling my mom's house with smoke.
Well, fast forward a few years, add a lot of book learning, and my first personally bought and paid for computer.
I thought I had bought something killer, being that it cost me $2600. Honestly, it's held up to the test of time. I had fewer problems than just about every person I knew who had a new or old computer. Maybe I knew what I was doing. Maybe I had a higher quality system. Maybe I was lucky. But I have to question any amount of luck that results with what I've dealt with.
Money does not equal a good computer, I've learned that lesson already.
But when I got the computer, I was in awe of its sheer power, (2.4ghz pentium 4, 512 ram, 80 gig hard drive, GeForce 4 Ti 4600 128 graphics card, and a pretty tower and a flat screen monitor, not flat panel). This is all coming from a pentium 2 533 mhz processor, etc. I mean the new one was a monster.
Problem number one: floppy drive never worked. Ever. I was surprised that a brand new product wouldn't work. I didn't really mind, after all, floppy drives were cheap and I could replace it later, should I need to. Well, I underestimated the difficulty in getting a new floppy drive to work on -this- computer. I needed it -many- times for computer classes at college and information transfer. But I managed to get by with using the internet and my e-mail to send documents that I would have to reformat before I could print them out.
Problem number two: the sound acted crazy after about a month. It would sometimes work, sometimes not. I was quickly angered at this malfunction. I couldn't listen to music(had given away my stereo because I had no need anymore). Took it to Gateway, after a week, they said it was fine and gave it back. I brought it home, hooked it up, it didn't work. I took the damn thing back, after a week they said it was fine. I took it home(like an idiot) and brought it back the SAME DAY. I told them, "plug some speakers in, try to get sound. Period. No F#%^ing with this or that. Just the sound. That's what's wrong. That's it. Fix the -sound-." A week later, they called me and said it was fixed. I took it home, tried to use it, it was still not working. Again, I took it back, told them of the problem, they kept it a week and said it was fixed. I took it home, it worked. Then it didn't. Then it did. I still haven't figured out what was going on. I'm no idiot(whatever you might think from my past experiences with computers... we were all new once). I checked connections, made sure drivers were okay, (self educated in lots of stuff through net access to help-related sites). I mean, I went through some hoops to get that ******* to work and I don't think myself or the Gateway workers fixed the damn thing. I just don't know why it ever started working again.
Problem number three: (My fault) When I was playing UO one day, I knocked over a drink, a pepsi I think,(since then, no more pepsi allowed near computer... "Very supersticious... writing on the wall..."), the pepsi managed to get down into my pretty new tower faster than I imagined. I got busy cleaning the tower, rotating it this way and that, before realizing any had gotten inside. I opened it up and found no sign of the contaminate. Well, upon more detailed inspection, some got on my cables, my video card, and the bottom of the tower. I figure, "not too bad. Maybe things will be cool." I clean as best I can, put it back together, and start it up again. It worked fine... for about an hour. Then, out of nowhere, my screen went insane. Like old nintendo not working, insane. Crazy little blocks of non-working screen. It was nuts.
I got the $500 video card replaced for free by telling Gateway what happened. They replaced it happily. I had a pretty good coverage plan. I just had one little white lie. Uh, not telling them I spilled my drink on it. I know, not the ethical thing to do, but I had just dropped $2600 on a new computer and had problems to high hell with it to -start-. I figured it wouldn't hurt Gateway too much to help me out on this one.
Problem number four: I tried to get a new floppy drive because I was tired of using cds and e-mail to transfer documents. I installed the new floppy drive -exactly- as the old one was, and double checked the manual of installation(which amounted to saying, "Plug in. Works.") I booted up and no sound. "What the HELL!?" I screamed. I got the computer back apart, double checked again. Actually, I probably triple checked. Anyway, booted up again, no sound. I unplugged the floppy drive, sound was back. I plugged in the old drive, still had sound. No working drive, but still had sound. I replaced the old drive with the new one again, and no sound again. Infuriated at this point, I threw the new floppy drive under the bed and plugged the old, non-working one back in.
Problem number five: speakers. I decided to cheapen my purchase a little bit by only getting the $30 speaker set with the computer. They worked fine until about... a year ago. They come with two small speakers and a subwoofer. The speakers have a control for the amount of base. This just -stopped- working. Now I turn it up 90% and there's absolutely -no- base. Past 90%, the bass just comes on full blast. Not too bad, I can kinda control that via audio controls in control console.
This computer is going on four years. Basically, I think this computer's core has never had a problem. The CPU, motherboard, hard drive, RAM. The video, sound, floppy, and speakers have been the only real let downs. Maybe, next time, I'll have better luck. It has given me a lot of ability to learn for school, computers, technology, etc. So, in general, after four years, I think I've gotten my money's worth. I'm soon to be in the market for a new one and have been researching for almost a year now, off and on. Looking at new processors coming out and new on that front(Yonah, Conroe, learning older chip information), benchmark tests(Intel vs AMD), operating systems soon to be or already out(Vista, Tiger, Linux), monitor technology, video card info, sound advances, etc.
I've had my fair share of problems. This whole thing is neglecting to mention my forays into networking, spyware, internet bull#$%^, and viruses(oddly enough never on my own computer).
I have, however, had several OS reinstalls. Drivers being lost, programs I cannot completely uninstall, junk accumulation, etc.
10/10
Love this story, dont know why but i totally can feel your rage and sypathise with everything youve been through :(
I hope your next computer has no problems, i myself am currently saving to buy a new one and hope everything all goes to plan :S
Ah what a difference it makes to hang around computers for a few years and have access to a technically informed forum and knowing, and having a will to, look up information from the internet that is rock solid makes. :p
Not to mention the finding of a friend who is now a computer engineering major. That's pretty cool. I need to get back in touch with him again so he and I can try to put together some nice computers.
Honestly, that's something I could -really- get into. Being pretty heavily involved in some blacksmithing(old style custom work 4tw), I could also get into doing metal/plastic work for modding computers. It really looks like an awesome hobby.
P.S. - I'm an artist, graphic design major, so this kind of stuff could make for some fun college projects.
My monitor is getting fresh with me. Every so often, when I turn it on, it won't. The power LED comes on, but orange (rather than the green that shows there is something on screen). The first few times, this scared me rather, but it was a simple matter of reaching round the back and moving the cables slightly. (At first, it was so easy that brushing against them solved the problem). Over time, the problem got harder and harder to solve... I had to really wiggle those cables. And eventually that stopped working. At the same time, I began to have other problems. Miraculously, half the screen would suddenly disappear, replaced by black space, and separated by a very bright white line. And the colour would occasionally go haywire. The picture would flicker in waves up and down the screen, or the monitor would decide that it was in the mood for a new colour scheme. It would flicker and blend through the rainbow before refreshing... in a different colour of its choice. At first it seemed to be trying out colours, to see which would please it most, and one could never predict if there wuold be a green tint, or perhaps a deep amber glazing, a blue hue, or a red wash. It seems to have satisfied itself as to what options are out there now, and apparently has decided, "I am a red monitor." It will quite merrily change without any warning or preamble, to a red colour scheme, more often than not. And of course, bringing back the power was rapidly deteriorating. Now I discovered that moving the monitor itself would work, just bumping it would bring back the picture. Then that failed me... I had to move onto slapping the top. No problem! But now, that no longer works. I have to slap both sides at the same time, or hit it hard enough to rock it on its stand. I fear for my poor monitor. :P
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ReplyCurses. Now I will no longer mistake him for bigz, but for Bi Gal.
My vengance will be swift :p
Then I put Roxio 6.5 on and it dies - inaccessible boot device, whatever I try to do.
Hmm, okay - I do the chkdsk thing, as recommended on the bsod.
Hooray, it boots again, after reporting that it had fixed 'one or more errors'.
Install more gubbins, security updates et al. Reboots fine for a couple of times then plays dead again.
I then unplug one of the cdrom drives, as it sounded like it was struggling to read anything put in it. I also checked everything was seated in place.
Boots up okay. Ah, finally! Everything appears to be okay. Although it's lost the scanner driver. Put scanner driver back in and it -eek- requires a reboot.
bsod again.
chkdsk again.
boots fine a couple of times, then bsod again.
I gave up and brought the computer home with me and I bet the ************** thing boots up fine while I have it.
I have an idea it may be the Parallel scanner, if it is acting as a pseudo-scsi device.
This is the most trouble I've ever had with an install. Ever. And this is W2K, which is supposedly the OS of choice.
I won't have touched anything inside, or removed the power to my comp in this time, it just does it.
So suddenly i have no sound or network connection (both onboard) :(
Try changing the cmos battery out ;)
As for the oft-quoted "As far as I'm concerned if it fits in the hole then it ought to work", I have a dead scanner (actually my parents') to testify that this does not work with DC leads.
:D
No - Took a full day to get my nephews computer online.... :( :( :(
I've had a couple computers over time, but only owned one. My father never really taught me anything about computers, because he figured I didn't need to know anything. I was given his old computer, I tinkered with it, (this is back in the day when windows was 3.1). Well, we installed windows 95 on that computer and a few years later, it died.
I never found out if it was me that killed the computer. It would boot, then the screen would go black. I never had the funding to manage a full on investigation of the problem. I just got the second hand-me-down from my dad. This one I -know- I killed. I wanted to install a... honestly, I can't remember what I was doing. I just plugged things in where I thought they should go and thought, "Well, that was easier than I thought..."
The result was something like the smell of burning soap. It tasted like burning soap in the air. I took the computer, unplugged everything, and put it outside in the rain so I would stop filling my mom's house with smoke.
Well, fast forward a few years, add a lot of book learning, and my first personally bought and paid for computer.
I thought I had bought something killer, being that it cost me $2600. Honestly, it's held up to the test of time. I had fewer problems than just about every person I knew who had a new or old computer. Maybe I knew what I was doing. Maybe I had a higher quality system. Maybe I was lucky. But I have to question any amount of luck that results with what I've dealt with.
Edit - A. (Yeah, I had no -idea- that this computer would come with a cheapie motherboard, crapped out floppy drive/cheap ram.)
Money does not equal a good computer, I've learned that lesson already.
But when I got the computer, I was in awe of its sheer power, (2.4ghz pentium 4, 512 ram, 80 gig hard drive, GeForce 4 Ti 4600 128 graphics card, and a pretty tower and a flat screen monitor, not flat panel). This is all coming from a pentium 2 533 mhz processor, etc. I mean the new one was a monster.
Problem number one: floppy drive never worked. Ever. I was surprised that a brand new product wouldn't work. I didn't really mind, after all, floppy drives were cheap and I could replace it later, should I need to. Well, I underestimated the difficulty in getting a new floppy drive to work on -this- computer. I needed it -many- times for computer classes at college and information transfer. But I managed to get by with using the internet and my e-mail to send documents that I would have to reformat before I could print them out.
Problem number two: the sound acted crazy after about a month. It would sometimes work, sometimes not. I was quickly angered at this malfunction. I couldn't listen to music(had given away my stereo because I had no need anymore). Took it to Gateway, after a week, they said it was fine and gave it back. I brought it home, hooked it up, it didn't work. I took the damn thing back, after a week they said it was fine. I took it home(like an idiot) and brought it back the SAME DAY. I told them, "plug some speakers in, try to get sound. Period. No F#%^ing with this or that. Just the sound. That's what's wrong. That's it. Fix the -sound-." A week later, they called me and said it was fixed. I took it home, tried to use it, it was still not working. Again, I took it back, told them of the problem, they kept it a week and said it was fixed. I took it home, it worked. Then it didn't. Then it did. I still haven't figured out what was going on. I'm no idiot(whatever you might think from my past experiences with computers... we were all new once). I checked connections, made sure drivers were okay, (self educated in lots of stuff through net access to help-related sites). I mean, I went through some hoops to get that ******* to work and I don't think myself or the Gateway workers fixed the damn thing. I just don't know why it ever started working again.
Edit - B. (This excellent tech work simply inspired awe in me.)
Problem number three: (My fault) When I was playing UO one day, I knocked over a drink, a pepsi I think,(since then, no more pepsi allowed near computer... "Very supersticious... writing on the wall..."), the pepsi managed to get down into my pretty new tower faster than I imagined. I got busy cleaning the tower, rotating it this way and that, before realizing any had gotten inside. I opened it up and found no sign of the contaminate. Well, upon more detailed inspection, some got on my cables, my video card, and the bottom of the tower. I figure, "not too bad. Maybe things will be cool." I clean as best I can, put it back together, and start it up again. It worked fine... for about an hour. Then, out of nowhere, my screen went insane. Like old nintendo not working, insane. Crazy little blocks of non-working screen. It was nuts.
I got the $500 video card replaced for free by telling Gateway what happened. They replaced it happily. I had a pretty good coverage plan. I just had one little white lie. Uh, not telling them I spilled my drink on it. I know, not the ethical thing to do, but I had just dropped $2600 on a new computer and had problems to high hell with it to -start-. I figured it wouldn't hurt Gateway too much to help me out on this one.
Edit - C. (Given their laziness or apparent lack of care, this store was shut down. This might or might not be true, but I do remember hearing of Gateway trying to get into the PC market, instead of corporate-only work, and they supposedly weren't terribly successful. This is probably around the same time Gateway was really getting off the ground with their PC marketing ideas. I think this store, near my local mall, was only there about two or three years.)
Problem number four: I tried to get a new floppy drive because I was tired of using cds and e-mail to transfer documents. I installed the new floppy drive -exactly- as the old one was, and double checked the manual of installation(which amounted to saying, "Plug in. Works.") I booted up and no sound. "What the HELL!?" I screamed. I got the computer back apart, double checked again. Actually, I probably triple checked. Anyway, booted up again, no sound. I unplugged the floppy drive, sound was back. I plugged in the old drive, still had sound. No working drive, but still had sound. I replaced the old drive with the new one again, and no sound again. Infuriated at this point, I threw the new floppy drive under the bed and plugged the old, non-working one back in.
Problem number five: speakers. I decided to cheapen my purchase a little bit by only getting the $30 speaker set with the computer. They worked fine until about... a year ago. They come with two small speakers and a subwoofer. The speakers have a control for the amount of base. This just -stopped- working. Now I turn it up 90% and there's absolutely -no- base. Past 90%, the bass just comes on full blast. Not too bad, I can kinda control that via audio controls in control console.
Edit - D. (Alright, so I was a little optimistic. This is rapidly getting on my nerves. A subwoofer that won't woof. )
This computer is going on four years. Basically, I think this computer's core has never had a problem. The CPU, motherboard(Edit E. - BS. This computer's Mobo is pretty damn generic.), hard drive, RAM(Edit F. - Also junk.). The video, sound, floppy, and speakers have been the only real let downs. Maybe, next time, I'll have better luck. It has given me a lot of ability to learn for school, computers, technology, etc. So, in general, after four years, I think I've gotten my money's worth. I'm soon to be in the market for a new one and have been researching for almost a year now, off and on. Looking at new processors coming out and new on that front(Yonah, Conroe, learning older chip information), benchmark tests(Intel vs AMD), operating systems soon to be or already out(Vista, Tiger, Linux), monitor technology, video card info, sound advances, etc.
Edit - G. (Well, after some thought, I've come to realize I got my computer at the perfect time. At the time, it was pretty close to top-end. It's just now becomming obsolete, but still offers at least another year of decent functionality. This is very fortunate when coupled with the fact that the whole market is suddenly changing when I intend on getting a new computer; things like DDR2, Dual/Quad/8 core processors, massive hard drives, faster-than-USB ports(firewire), nice big LCD/etc monitors becomming cheaper, and speakers with 7.1. The first things out will be the longest running technologies, dual cores, DDR2, Firewire, SLI/Xfire, etc. will be pretty standard for a while, because the software hasn't yet caught up to their badassedness. I know a quad/8core processor won't be taking advantage of the massive functionality offered for a -while-, so tech bought now will pretty well be "future proofed" for at least a few years. Besides, dual core-enabled sockets are pretty well ensuring the longevity of the motherboard, provided the motherboard itself doesn't fall too far behind.)
I've had my fair share of problems. This whole thing is neglecting to mention my forays into networking, spyware, internet bull#$%^, and viruses(oddly enough never on my own computer).
I have, however, had several OS reinstalls. Drivers being lost, programs I cannot completely uninstall, junk accumulation, etc.
Edit - Final. (After writing this and leaving it a few days, I've come to the conclusion that I should amend a few points, perhaps merely inserting comments. They're labeled "Edit - A." etc. Also, this is probably one of the most extensive writings I've ever made on my entire life's computer experience. And when I read it I personally still laugh. Life's lessons, eh?)
10/10
Love this story, dont know why but i totally can feel your rage and sypathise with everything youve been through :(
I hope your next computer has no problems, i myself am currently saving to buy a new one and hope everything all goes to plan :S
Honestly, that's something I could -really- get into. Being pretty heavily involved in some blacksmithing(old style custom work 4tw), I could also get into doing metal/plastic work for modding computers. It really looks like an awesome hobby.
P.S. - I'm an artist, graphic design major, so this kind of stuff could make for some fun college projects.
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