It Lives

Last week I attempted to access Refuge Central, the desktop computer that formerly resided in my living room but has since been moved to an office which I rarely use. I have been using the laptop almost extensively since the move, but I wanted to get into my pictures that are located on the external hard drive hooked up to the desktop.

The computer had shut itself down since the last time I saw it, I figured that there had been a power bump or something that had caused it so I just booted it back up. Imagine my surprise when Windows 10 appeared, even though I had not downloaded it.

I uninstalled Windows 10 and took my external hard drive out to the laptop while it reverted and didn't think any more about it. When I brought the external drive back it was done reverting back to my previous Windows 8 installation, as if nothing had ever happened.

The next day I went back into the office because I decided it was time to play with Linux since Windows wanted to be such a pain in the ass. Imagine my surprise when once more the computer was off, even though I had left it running the previous day. So, I booted it back up and opened the browser to find Linux and after a few minutes it shut down again, immediately rebooting upon  the shut down. After a few minutes it cycled again. About this time I could smell escaping electrons, so I shut it down.

Employing the smell check method I quickly determined the power supply had gone bad. Back to Refuge Mobile I went, where I found a replacement power supply for a nice price at the auction site. Today the power supply arrived, and Refuge Central is once more online and operating at spec.

Now to download that Linux distro... (I'm trying Fedora KDE)

Windoze

I did get that motherboard installed in the dearly departed Acer, but the electron gods spit in my eye (at least I hope it was just spit) and when I tried to fire it up nothing at all worked. So I boxed it all up, bought a new laptop and forgot about it. The only thing I really missed about the old Acer was the built-in camera that could be turned to face away and the non-Windoze 8 OS.

Eldest Boy was looking for a laptop so I handed him the box full of Acer parts and told him have at it, he was going to take it to a computer guru he knows to see if life could be breathed into the old girl. As it works the computer guru was indeed able to resurrect the Acer and now it soldiers on...with Windoze 8, even though my brand new copy of Windoze 7 was in the box.

So I told Eldest Boy if Computer Guru wasn't going to put 7 on the Acer I wanted the disk back, after all I paid good money for it. He brought it back and now it sits on my desk as I contemplate. I'd have to pull the hard drive out and plug it into my adapter on the desktop to wipe it, but I'm seriously considering putting 7 on the laptop. If it annoys me any more I just might do it.

Microsuck

I can't sign into my Hotmail account because they want me to put in a security code.


They want to text or email me that code, but I don't want to give them my phone number or any other email address.


Windows 8 requires me to sign in using my Windows Live (hotmail) account...so I can't delete it.

I'm tempted to wipe both these computers and load something else on them instead. Then I'll close my Hotmail account and microsloth can go right to hell.

Only problem is...I don't want to work hard enough for Linux, and that's about the only alternative for an OS.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

dammit

My external hard drive, where all of my pictures were stored, has crashed. It just sits there and clicks.

I can't figure out how it happened, it was working just fine and then all of a sudden...

$150 just to have it looked at, general ballpark estimate between $500 and $600 to recover the data.

All my pictures of Laura. That's the thing that bothers me the most, and that's the reason I'll pay the bill.

Minutiae

If you have a Blogspot blog and you use Avast antivirus with your Firefox browser you have no doubt noticed that your Blogger navbar is missing. Depending on your preferences you may or may not be bothered by this, but since I generally find it to be somewhat useful it did bother me a bit.

The latest incarnation of Avast is the problem. If you open your blog in Firefox you will see, in the upper right hand corner, a green circle-ish device with a number in an orange square. Click on that and it will give you details about the site security. The first thing on the list is Social Networks. Click on that and allow Google, this will bring your navbar back.

It's not like they aren't tracking you anyway, and it's just for Blogspot. It still blocks social networks on every other tab you open as well as on every other site you open on the same tab you opened your blog with, even other Blogspot blogs.

I ordered a motherboard for the dearly departed Acer, it should be getting here Tuesday. It has been completely disassembled and if the electron gods smile on me I'll be able to reassemble it with the new motherboard and resurrect the old laptop. This is being done purely on an experimental basis, I don't really need it but the motherboard cost me less than a steak dinner so I figured I'd try it. The worst that can happen is it doesn't work, in which case I'm no worse off than I was before. Maybe I can even get the webcam to work...that would be nice.

Continued futzing with the new computer reveals more things that I did different with the desktop than I did with the laptop, contrary to what I believed before I did sign the desktop up with my Windows Live account. I just disabled the password requirement on waking. Also, making the laptop never sleep when it was plugged in got me past the whole having to wake the damn thing and then bring up my desktop. I'm still not thrilled with Windows 8, but I liked 7 the brief time I worked with it.

Computers are supposed to make your life easier...

Windows!

The new laptop has Windows 8. The new desktop has Windows 8. I did not have a deep and burning hatred for Windows 8 until I got the laptop.

The new laptop requires me to sign on to the computer with my Hotmail account password. I do not like this. The desktop does not. The laptop will not open up until I have signed on with my password. The desktop is open as soon as I move the mouse. I don't have the option to remove the password lock on the laptop.

The new laptop will not let me install the Lexmark printer software. The desktop had no problems with it. The laptop also sent its name to the printer (even though the printer won't print anything since the drivers aren't installed) so even when I do run the printer installation software I have to first go to the desktop, access the printer and eliminate the name and then very quickly go back to finish the installation. When the installation is "finished", a test print page does not appear and the printer is not in the list of printers.

Out of frustration and desperation I tried to install Windows 7 but the computer boots straight up from the hard drive and does not allow a boot from the disk, so even that is not an option. There is not an option to get into the BIOS on startup.

I am half tempted to swap the hard drives from the old Acer, connect the new hard drive with a cable and format it, then reinstall it and install Windows 7. It seems like an awful lot of work for a brand new computer but at least then it would do what I wanted it to do without doing anything that I didn't want it to do.

Vile and hateful thoughts and words to you Microsoftmanager! Stop trying to be clever.

UPDATE: Resetting the computer back to factory settings and then setting it back up with a local account vice a WindozeLive account returned my seething hatred of Windows 8 back down to an active dislike. It took several hours to reset, but then I was able to install the software I wanted and not have things happen that I didn't want. I am now...not quite as disgruntled. Also, Classic Shell FTW!

Nood!

Just as soon as I said I couldn't justify the cost up pops a deal that I could afford. By selectively not paying some bills that I'm ahead on anyway I came up with the purchase price of a new laptop. So, Refuge Mobile is once again on the airwaves...webwaves...whatever they are.

The new laptop is an HP 2000-2d22DX with twice the RAM and half again as much hard drive space standard as the enhanced Acer had. The RAM can be upgraded to 8GB if I would like to do so, but I'm used to 2GB so 4GB is like going from TDP to the Mustang, so no need to supercharge it just yet.

And, as an added bonus, the webcam works...but unfortunately it only points at me, it doesn't flip around to take pictures of what I'm looking at like the Acer did...when it worked...

RIP faithful old Acer, hopefully the laptop doc can do something with your old pieces (he should be able to, two 1GB sticks of brand-new RAM and a new 500GB hard drive...)

It Never Rains

The laptop is done for. Unless the computer doc can fix it for less than two C notes Refuge Mobile is grounded until a replacement can be had.

The biggest problem is I can't justify 4 to 500 beans on a new one right now,. The Scooby needs drive axles and I've had some unexpected expenses, not to mention the cost of the recent trip in travel costs and lost wages (yes, it's paid vacation but I lose a day of overtime plus I didn't work the extra overtime day I usually get in).

Fortunately none of this is critical; I don't really need the laptop right now (at all, actually, but it's nice for travel) and the axles will hold together for a while yet. It's just discouraging how everything seems to go at once.

Something For the Tech Weineis...

I have an Acer Aspire 5610Z with Windoze Vista on it. For some reason a couple of years ago it decided to just shut off as if you had dropped the battery and pulled the plug on it. A system restore back to the point before the service packs were installed fixed it for a little while, but after a few months it did it again.

It got to the point where I was having to restore it every month or so, so I reloaded Vista on it and it was OK for a while..except that the camera hasn't worked right for a long time now (I've replaced it once and downloaded/reinstalled the drivers many times). Well, it's doing it again and this time I get maybe 24 hours out of it. Tech support has been...less than helpful...through the whole incident.

So yesterday I went and got a new 500GB hard drive and Windoze 7. I am not going to put any of my old files on the new computer (I have everything I wanted to keep backed up to my removable hard drive anyway). I have it installed and I'm loading the OS. After this I'll download the drivers for the accessories (touch pad, camera, wireless network adapter, etc.).

We'll see how this goes.

New Computer

The old one is completely dead. I have disconnected everything that I had previously connected, including a second hard drive, external hard drive and video card. At this point it was completely returned to its as-delivered configuration. Any time it would attempt to boot I would get a hardware failure. Reloading the hard drive did no good, so I swapped in a completely different hard drive and got the same exact failure. Prognosis...it was old and needed to be replaced anyway.

Off to the computer store I went. I settled on a Lenovo H430 but I put my wireless keyboard and mouse on instead of the supplied wired units. I thought at first it had an internal wireless card, but if it does I don't know how to turn it on. No biggie, the wireless adapter I had works just fine. Twice the RAM as the old unit, 1 TB HDD and a 3.4G clock gives me a lot more bang than the old one, and for less than 4 bills.

It'll do I guess.

Fresh Starts

I spent the day yesterday unloading content from my ailing laptop (it goes through phases where it shuts off for no good reason and I have to perform a system restore on it) so that I could do something drastic.

When we got the laptop we got no software with it since it was all pre-loaded. We didn't think to make a backup disc for it of course, so I didn't have one to fix any problems when Vista went sideways (the darn thing shuts off by itself, then it has to be started in safe mode and restored to the last known good point; when it's on the fritz if you start it up in regular mode you won't have time to do the restore before it shuts off again. Microsoft has been less than helpful, telling me "it shouldn't do that..." Yeah, I got that, thanks). I ordered one from Ebay and it arrived yesterday, so I set out to use it.

I had no idea that I had so much stuff stored on the laptop, and it won't all transfer (the computer stubbornly insist there isn't enough room on a 32MB flash drive for 17MB worth of video files), but I did get everything else (including lots of stuff I'll never use, but its on the external hard drive now with all the rest).

I then did a fresh install of Windoze Vista, ordering a format of the C drive to do so. I still have my D and E drive partitions, I haven't figured out how to combine them yet, but for the first time in a long time there is plenty of room on the laptop. I finished off my day by reloading all the software that got nuked with the format, including the Acer drivers for the camera.

The camera works when it wants to, but today I did take the lid apart to look at the wiring. I didn't see anything obvious, but it's working now so I'll leave it alone. I'll take Yes for an answer. I was also able to install the Adobe PDF reader that wouldn't install before, so I can read PDFs on the laptop again.

So far so good, I'm happy with the decision. The desktop looks a bit different than it did before so I wonder if I got another version of Vista, but it seems to work, the old product key activated it with no problems and I have been able to find everything I need. It might have something to do with the fact that the Acer management software got nuked at the same time and I didn't have a way to reload it, not that I used it anyway so I don't miss it.

That reminds me though, one of the things I'll have to put on my list of things for my friends to do for me should something tragic happen is to nuke the external hard drive...

Elf Box Funtime

This morning...well, afternoon...I got up to call the insurance company. To do so I was going to log onto the website and check the messages so that I could get the claim number.

The laptop was off, and I did not shut it off.  This is not good.

Firing the lappy up, the HDD light stayed on for a while (also not good) but eventually stopped flashing. I opened taskmanager to see if any unusual processes were running but did not find anything.  I thought maybe the power blinked and the computer shut off, but since the battery was well charged that didn't really make sense.

Sure enough, after about 20-25 minutes of running it shut off, and then wouldn't stay on long enough to boot up.

It does this every 3-4 weeks, and every time it is the same. Boot up in the limited mode, check everything and find nothing, run a virus scan and it's clean, do a system restore and all is well for another 3-4 weeks.

This time it wouldn't boot up after a system restore and had to do a startup restore as well, which I had never seen. I don't know what the problem is but I do know it's irritating. For now it's back, but for how long no one knows.

Anyone have any ideas?