OK, I know it’s nothing in the Grand Scheme of Things. I haven’t been blown up by terrorists (yet), I don’t have cancer (as far as I know), I have a regular paycheck (for the time being). But damn, I am sick of this computer crap!
As you know, I got The Virus. Downloaded the virus-killer CD—which knocked out my Internet and e-mail connection. Took yesterday off (one of my two Personal Days) to wait for the Comcast guy to re-hook me up. Comcast guy tried everything, including an ethernet, to no avail. “It’s not your driver or your card; I dunno what it is,” he said. “Put in the Applications Recovery CDs from Toshiba, to rebuild your hard drive. Just put 'em in, follow the prompts, and Bob’s your uncle.”
Well, Bob, needless to say, is not my uncle.
CD #1 got up to “90% reformatted” and the screen went black. Three times. Finally got through to Toshiba (they have the worst hold music!) and they said they’re stumped, too—I gotta find a Toshiba service place in midtown and bring it in, after I get back from vacation. In the meantime, my computer’s dead as vaudeville.
I hate this century. I knew this whole “21st century” idea was a mistake; it’s been nothing but trouble for the past two-and-a-half years.
That’s more than sweet of you! But I’ll be out of town from Friday till after Labor Day. Maybe Sat. the 6th? I’ll pay ya, and buy you lunch! And/or give you a signed copy of one of my books, of your choice!
I dunno if it’s the CDs or my computer. Three times I loaded CD #1 and it chugged along happily till it got to 90%, then—poof! dead screen. The Toshiba guy on the phone was gobsmacked. “Well, that’s supposed to work!”
Oh, good. I’m having my second TV dish installed the 30th… need it to get PBS… so the sixth should work just fine.
(I figure I’ll format the hard drive the old fashioned way, fdisk and fdisk/mbr, install 2K, bring it up, run norton a few times, run the Toshiba disks through a CD cleaner, toss 'em in, see if it happens again… Anyone got a good hardware tester, just to make sure it’s not the RAM or motherboard going flaky… at 90 percent… maybe video card?)
I actually feel (some of) your pain here, Eve - that security patch for the worm did all sorts of Bad Stuff to my system, it’s taken me several hours to fix it (and I wound up doing something I’m Not Supposed To in order to accomplish that much). I can’t help wondering if this patch was properly tested before MS brought it out.
Oh, you’re a doll—and not Talking Tina! Where are you coming from? Driving, or public transport? I can meet you in NYC and lead you in and out of the wilds of Joisey. E me!
We even have an actual 1930s railroad-car diner in my neighborhgood where I’ll buy you lunch.
Not a NY doper, but I just wanted to tell you you’re not alone, Eve; I tried to fix my Mom’s computer (blind leading blind) but couldn’t get it done w/the Symantec download. So she spent 3 hours on the phone with a delightful Microsoft tech (!!) who talked her through the de-worm (she said he “took her to places she’d never been before”). Even he STILL wasn’t able to do the “patch” and made an appointment for someone in R & D to call Mom at a specific time & delve further. Perhaps some sort of ritual sacrifice would help.
Is it possible the hard disk has some bad sectors on it? My understanding is that sufficiently crappy sectors can make a format impossible – at least, I think this is why one of our work hard-drives conked out recently. (To be fair, Eve’s hard drive probably hasn’t been exposed to four years of stray animal fur and dander, been flooded due to a leaky roof, and had bleach water spilled on it).
This never happened with typewriters . . . I mean, it’s not like people would break into your home and start whalin’ away at your typewriter with an ax . . .
Anyone who wants to join us, let me know! You can get on the Message Board and tell everyone what a mess my apt. is and how cute my cats are!
Ya know, often - typically at deadline time when you can gaurantee that the confuter isn’t going to work correctly, I pine for the days of the quill and bottle of ink.
Remember, folks, it’s a brand new computer. As in, under what, six months? I’m not going to crack the case on it, it’s still under warranty. That’s why I’m going to do an experimental Win2K load on it, to see if it’s thermal… run disk tools… but I’m asking for the name of a good utility to check RAM and motherboards. My old toy is no longer reliable on modern PCs.
I’m thinking a power outage generated issue. What it is, I don’t know yet. I’m thinking bad sectors, though.
Okay, MicroDope it is. Me, I’ll be coming in on the train to Grand Central, … eh, saturday… wake up… Probably on the train by 12:50, so in around 2… let’s see if I can beat that. Okay, on the train by 10:50, in by 12… Where shall we meet? I’ve got to hit the Strat and Image Anime… you know, I bet Eve might dig a japanese import store. Or not. You never know. So… Hm. I’ll wind up somewhere on 34th street. Pick a point, I’ll email to clarify, this is just to give a suggested starting point.
Fair warning: This will probably be much like combat: Brief moments of terror interlaced with long periods of boredom.
You know, I had this typewriter with a disc, you could slide it in and out to change fonts. Spun, and a hammer hit it to make the letters. Brother. Good company. Alas, the darn discs used to fracture from wear. Usually towards the end of a long paper, just before it was due.
And there’s the Selectric spinning ball types, which used to get clogged with dog hair.
Not to mention the ever popular Underwood Jam, where you’d lock four keys up at once and one would bend…
You know, quill pens are nice except when you leave them on the paper they blot like mad.
Chiseling letters in stone is good except for when you slip and wind up with less fingers.
And have you ever pressed cuneform into clay and then had some idiot elbow you and you put your hand down through your entire day’s work just before you fired it in the kiln?
