My EPIC computer adventures. And with EPIC I mean hair-tearing.

The Core RPGC Main Forum
1

Yeah, my computer woes are annoying enough to share.

So I ordered a new computer built because my old one was making funny noises and after six years of faithful service, retirement seemed like the best option.

A good thing to know about this tale is that the computer shop involved is about 300 meters from where I live. Thankfully.

My good pal Mr. Mollusc (yes, that IS his nickname. He calls me Squeakseal due to a pun on my name in combination with the fact that I make squeaky noises when people tickle me. There was some equally logical reason behind his nickname but I’ve forgotten) helped me carry the comp home and started setting it up while I whipped up a pie as thanks. However, when he turned it on the monitor only showed a black screen and didn’t seem to even get any electricity. He called his comp-savvy friend who just went “bzuh?” after Mollusc had assured him that he had tried every possible connection. Gaaaah.

After he hang up, I poked some at the chord going into the monitor from the comp, just to make sure but not really hoping. Aaaand the screen came alive! Woot! I had to unscrew the things keeping it in place and wiggle it some though. At first everything was red, then blue, then after some more wiggling it looked fine. Excellent!

… and then when our common friend Klintan came over as well I had to go and wiggle it some more because I of course wanted the screws in so that it was properly stuck.

… and the screen died. Completely. Not even hooking it up to the old computer made it live again.

At this point both Mollusc and Klintan thought it was best to start giving me random backrubs every other minute because of the twitchy motions of my eyebrows.

So off we were to the three computer stores in central town to find a cheap new monitor. Ended up with one from the store that sold me the new computer, and they gave me a discount since “we’ll say you bought it with the comp for a packet price”. They had had it on display earlier so he checked to make sure all the cables were there.

We go back home and start hooking it up.

“… where’s the plug on this contact? There’s no hole like this on the monitor.”
GAAAAAH!
An adapter was missing. Mollusc headed back to the store to see if they could find it. And Klintan and me waited… and waited… and started to worry because the movie we had decided to go see in the cinema was going to start in half an hour.
When we called Mollusc it turned out that the poor guy in the store was tearing up their storage space looking for the damn adapter. Finally the two of us went to get the movie tickets in the meantime, then headed to the store. The guy had found an alternative adapter that ought to work, so they gave us that and we headed off to the cinema.

While in the snacks queue, I got a call from the store (twenty minutes past their closing time, mind you) that they had found the real adapter, so I rushed back there, thanked them profusely and got the real thing.

And back home everything was pretty-shiny.

Maybe a little too shiny. I can see my windows reflected in the screen, as well as my fingers in the frame as I type. Guh. Oh well, it works and it’s pretty.

… and today I found that my printer refuses to install. E-mailing tech support revealed that it’s so old it’s not “officially compatible” (oookay) with WIndows 7, but I can try to manually install it and fool it to thinking it’s being installed on Vista or XP instead. LATER.

Oh yeah, and a few weeks back the fan in my dear old PS2 gave up the spirit after nine years. I fear what my Wii will do on his end after all of this.

2

Dammit, now I can’t get the image of Weiila squeaking out of my head! :eek: Slaps himself silly

A-HEM! What I meant to say is, I feel your pain too, Weii. Check the Technical Board for the story of my recent near-permanent loss of Net Access. Sigh.

At least both our comps are working again now. :slight_smile:

3

That’s why you want matte screens! Matte!

4

Yeah, but it was this screen or ones that were about 1000 kronor more expensive, and that was a wee bit more than I was willing to give.

5

Isn’t it amazing how much technology seems to fuck you from behind everytime you bend over? I’ve got technology from the 70s/80s that’s still working. New shit always seems to be cheap, yet much more expensive.

6

Jetta: That’s not anything surprising. It’s basically Planned obsolescence. It usually comes from subsequent versions of technology. While the first ones might be made from hardier stock, it’s not worth it to make products that last forever, from a business point of view. So they’ll make products that function just long enough to last maybe the average lifespan expected of such a device, so people will buy new ones. And my father actually owns a CD player that’s literally older than I am, that still works. Badly, but still works.

Weilla: I’m betting your Wii finds some way to explode. It needs to prove itself now, after all.

7

To be fair, Nintendo is better at game system construction than anybody else. Every Nintendo system I’ve ever owned still works (save for my GameBoyColor).

At least it’s just computer problems that you’re having right now. Yesterday morning we finally lost our AC compressor which threw the associated circuit breaker. When my old man went to reset it the damn thing it tripped the Main Circuit Breaker cutting power to the whole damn house for several hours. And while we were able to eventually regain power to the house we’re still out an AC system which is unfortunate given that yesterday hit up 95 with about 90% humidity. And then at night just as I was watching some TV a newly instated pipe taking water to our new refrigerator decided to burst wide open flooding the ceiling and drenching the floor. Thankfully I dealt with that one quickly enough but three disasters in one day is a bit much.

And I haven’t even gotten to the flooding yet which is bizarre as hell given how I live on top of a hill and my yard is now a makeshift swamp.

Also my usual computer moves as slow as dirt and after a while will cease all functions save for letting me move my mouse cursor. It’s been hit by the same virus twice and the second time all I was able to do was use a system restore to wipe most of the virus away. After that my computer wouldn’t properly open anything unless I was going through a preexisting file of some sort. I’m now where I’m at after finding and fixing the damaged files. (And before anyone asks I’m borrowing a separate computer to type this.

Sorry for the derail, I just needed to vent about all of this somewhere.

8

Computers can be bastards, just like cats, but when they’re purring near your lap you temporarily forget the aggravation they cause.

I roughly know the exchange rate of kronor, but it’s hard not to imagine an exasperated Weiila going “do you think I have GOLDEN KRONOR in me grandfather’s chest?”. Heh, kronor.

Killmore, how about a healthy format? Good luck with the flooding.

9

Update: My printer does not work, and this morning the left button on my mouse up and died of old age. I’d facedesk, but I’m scared of breaking the keyboard.

At least I managed to wrestle the scanner into submission and the speakers also work, even if they make crunchy noises when you raise the volume. They’ve always done that.

10

There comes a time when your hardware is so old that it is no longer supported by current software and it needs to be replaced. Your adventures are as adventurous as you are making them :. My friend went through a similar set of adventures when he faced his 6 year old computer’s imminent doom. Putting in a little extra money now will go a long way.

I concur with Nulani. I have a matte screen right now and its fucking fantastic.

On the PS2 note, the machines are renowned to be shoddily built. I’m amazed it lasted this long.

11

All true, Sin, I just have to face the facts. Though I’ll be happy as long as the keyboard lasts, I really like it. You get a bit picky about how the keys feel when you push them, when you write a lot, y’know? :slight_smile:

And yeah, it’s especially amazing considering I’ve put the PS2 to so much work through the years.

12

I totally understand the thing with the keyboard. I can’t imagine writing my papers using a shitty keyboard.

13

Yep, it seems so minor until you have to try working with a really bad or even mediocre keyboard. I had a really old typewriter as a kid, the kind where you had to really hit the keys to make anything appear, and wow secretaries in the old days must have had mad finger muscles /off tangent, heee.

14

I support the idea that writing on keyboards you are not used to is annoying. (1 fixed typo)

15

I share your pain Weilla…I still will never shop at Best (I call it Worst) Buy again after they has my computer for over a month and all they had to do was replace a stick of RAM and they couldn’t even do that right.

16

When updating my rig a few years back, I made the extra research to make the potential switch to Vista/7 slightly more comfortable. I should be updating, but if XP still works, why bother just yet? Oh yes, to get used to the OS before I have to use it. Upon graduation and possibly getting PAID a salary at some point, if I ever get a separate computer to do work stuff with, let it be an apple machine they usually have the things I need for work ready right away. (Three months of working with a MacBook taught me some good things.) The only mistake I probably made with the new rig was not to get a bigger monitor…

Okay, some games are made with bubblegum solutions as they need to have XP in mind since the OS doesn’t support the later versions of Direct X. This means a few 3D shaders in some games are messed up. For instance, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has some troubles with bulletproof glass, meaning you won’t see through the glass. If I updated to 7 and got the later DX version, I’d get a new usable gun in the game: Heavy machine gun turret…

Don’t get me started on how hellish it was to install a WLAN USB dongle on a MacBook that didn’t have an internal WLAN access built. Hardware, software… it’s all the same bull.

17

You are so kind.

18

I tossed my PS3(slim) onto some pretty solid driveway twice in a row to prove its durability, the guy said he would do it with his Xbox if I did it with my PS3(he chickened out). I have to press the disc button now for it to take in discs, but that is the only problem. Can you do that with a wii? I have also dropped my PSP(slim) millions of times, the only problem is that the analogue stick is a little sensitive.

19

I recommend treating computer problems with violence. It doesn’t solve anything, but if you keep at it long enough you eventually get tired and sleep on the problem.

20

Just got my real computer back. Commence the pwnage.