[pnpgm] Update...
Scott Adams
longshotgm at netzero.com
Fri Dec 23 18:24:45 CET 2011
Looks like Unali says no on illusions. So I can move on now..more or less...for the less part see below...
If don't want to hear about my computer issues ignore below..
The woes that be me...
So computer update...I'll recap..
After 12 years I finally got new computer. To be frank
Win98 and my old clunker did fine. Up till about 2 years
ago it was a good 350 mhz system. Then something happened
likley lightning damage or just died. My printer would not
work unless I was in dos not windows. My TV card would not
come up with a failure that couldn't be fixed even after
reinstall. And my sound card died. So I had no sound and
no tv or printer.
I had put in plans to get the new computer really 2-3 years
ago. But things kept getting in the way. Distractions and
frankly no time to go looking. I've never been a hardware
person so the research to me was tedious.
Finally this spring decided to get off my butt and get it
done. So this summer did research for a month or two. I
had always liked mom and pop stores. My first computer
was from Port Four a nice computer shop run by a nice
guy. He wes very friendly and didn't cheat you. I even
got tons of free stuff from him (including some software
I've yet to open). Then another store when PF closed
Jaguar Computers. But it was a bit far drive. I knew
the ownr via friends. But he retired so new owners and
didn't want to drive out. There were plenty of such
places but setting up one and hoping they wokr out is
tough as most stores know the business by now.
After research I debated a computer guy from a friend
ofa friend who sounded right. He did a quote and we talked
via email. But just bit of some trust issues with a new
guy we don't know. So decided to go to large chain - Compusa.
So I went in back in july and spent 2 hours with tech going
over my list I ironed out. Turns out 95% of what I wanted
was top of the line so did well in research.
Then brother had said he'd get a set of CDs (software)
I needed. It was a choice between buying the CDS (very
expensive), gettng it from the friend of a friend computer
guy or bro's contact. Well bro as usual stalled and
forgot few months. So finally decided to go with compusa.
After I found the same software in Open style format (free).
So finally 11/10 get to store and buy stuff. I spent 2.5
hours with a very nice and decent sales rep that didnt'
push at all in fact went to find the best deals. With
my list of items we talked about the good and bad things.
After 3,000$ I had a top of the line machine. But after
12 years I figure it is worth it. IT sounds high price
but the computer guy quoted me only 200$ less. But I
did take out lengthy warranty and minor stuff as well.
Based on website snd my research it was also within the
same price so wasn't cheatd really. Think it was a
fair deal.
Few days later went into to finish up after computer
was ready and got the screen and printer so another
500$ or so. So in all 3,500. Since i could afford it
its the only big purchase I've done in years.
All in all it seems a good ssytem. 3.5 ghz (from
a 350 mhz big change) which goes over 4 ghz with
clocking. 16 gig ram, SSD 120 gb, 1 TB regular HD,
2 TG backup drive, 24" screen, decent but still
B&W multifunction (scan, print, fax) printer. Of
course the usual keyboard, mouse, dvd player, external
3.5" drive, etc. Chunk of the $$ was software (win7),
warranty so might be 700-800$ just in that. i7 quad
core system, etc. When you live with 12 years of one
thing anything is better. Cooler system (not fan),
custom designed setup so special tower bit $$ as well.
I went and splurged to get a tech to come out and
install it all. OF course now that I see how easy
it is with the wires its pretty easy. But he did
have trouble with the TV card taking him about 25
min to get it working.
So he leaves and start to install stuff. Play with
and tweak things. Originally I paid for CA anti-virus.
CA is semo respected so why not But the GUI was so
sucky I hated it. I'm sure it was good software.
So I removed it and upon Alex's suggested went with
MS Security Essentials and Malwarebytes spyare (I
alwas used Spybot).
Over the next few days I noticed on boot up it
was coming up with a boot driver header issue. It
wasn't stopping anything but looked like a odd error.
Originally I used my old speakers from this computer.
They were nice and expensive back then. But it
didn't work. Further info that maybe when this
got hit or surged it affected the speakers. But
I had my dad's old speakers from his machine. They
worked fine but noticed they didn't have a headset
jack since I listen to TV on the computer via
headphones not to be loud. Then as my luck got
going the gaming keyboard I bought was just too
bulky. It had keys on the left side (function
keys) to the left of the normal keys (ie tab,
escape that side). I couldn't use it as kept
slipping the keys due to wrist. So went to exchange
it. A few days after it. Keep in mind the store
is in a place that is hard to get to due to traffic
at a mall so luck laughs at me again trying to break
my neck getting there.
So get new 101 keybaord and new speakers. I go
home and then sound not working and brand new
setup. I played as much as I could with the
win7 stuff. Still nothing. So tech said he'd
comg back at no choice as he was very friendly
as well. So a week after install he is back.
He has to fiddle with the speakers and the
win7 audio stuff and finally get it to work.
Some weird fluke in win 7 that even if it detects
the speaker it may not work. But after toggling
this and that it did. So sound is back.
He also spends a bit of time on the odd header
issue after running repair and such. Normally
in old days I'd just use norton disk doctor to
fix this stuff. But I've not gotten such
software yet. He fixed it and left.
About two weaks later I'm still installing stuff
left and right. Sadly my time running out in
terms of vacation time. Still no time to even
play a game or just relax.
So luck laughs again and fate kicks me. I
insert Avalon Hill's Axis and Allies iron blitz
game which is old but I still enjoy and figure
me and Alex might evnn play it again. It
was a decade old game but worked fine for many
many hours here on this computer.
So drive goes and then POP. Panic. I turn off
computer immediately. After some deep praying
I turn it back on. All works fine. but cd doesn't
pop out. Now I've had drives go bad. In fact
this machine has a cd-rw and cd-rom drive. The
cd-rom works so so and not full 100% for a few
years. So its the drive. The cd=-rw worked
great all these years. I couldn't get it open
and tried a manual eject and software eject
but stlll nothing. So I figure a easy fix the
shop cna replace in 5 min. So go to work on
something and Win7 says to update the printer
driver. No big deal. So I do this and install
the new driver from website.
I reboot and a alert comes up saying a DLL missing
and ok but after OK nothing. A piece of winder
frame of one software was shown that comes
up automatically. but no menu like I could
just drop out. I reboot and same thing for
SAFE mode. After I kick some dwarves I grumble
and can't figure it out. If I can't even get
to safe mode then can't fix it. At the time I
forgot about command line maybe I could just go
in and remove the Dir. But forgot. So unplug
and take to the shop.
Couple days later, about a week ago I think, I
get the newly reinstalled win7 with some of
the stuff the tech reloads. He tried to
make a backup of the Email software as that
was the only real thing I needed to keep.
But he didn't do it right figuring a backup
of the shortcuts and stuff was fine. I didn't
give him more info so my fault. So I go and
redo the address book again this last weekend.
Lost the old emails but it was only a week or
so so no big deal and I was getting some copies
here on this machine.
Dvd player brand new and Murphy shouldn't have
a problem with it. Seems the same Iron Blitz
CD also blew up in a billion pieces for Alex and
for another guy in 2007 on the web. So AValon
Hill must've had a batch of crappy CDs.
So this past weekend I learned my lesson. I
do a windows backup but it fails on the system
image at about 70% for some reason. Tech says
win backup is like that and so not to use it.
I rigged up a system repair CD just in case
of another lockup. I installed the tape backup
software and did backup. It was fairly fast
and did it no problem. So had a backup on
Sunday or so.
So spend Monday doing reimport to email and
bookmarks. Then last couple days redoing
software and reinstalling games (they
were there but lost shortcuts and Reg info).
I did have some issue over weekend getting
TV software again to work. Wouldn't scan
the channel until I worked ab it. After
most of Sat afternoon finally near end of
my straw I got it working
Today I finished installing Diablo 2. I
was doing some web work and relaxing a bit.
Then Win7 Home Security pops up talking about
some issues. Sadly it wanted to be paid to
use as didn't seem to work without it so
couldn't fix it.
I had run MSE and MWB over weekend. But ran
MWB and sure enough. It found a exe trojan
shell virus. It was also found on the system
image made over weeekend. So I get MWB to
remove it (it had a reg key to fix ss well
from the virus). So it removed it fine. But
then said yes to reboot.
I rebooted and all was fine. Till the software I
load up like Trillian (chat) didn't load. I was
getting some dialog saying to Open it as... file
type now known. So if it was an exe it didn't
know what that meant. I click on a few others
and same think. It seemed as if the shoftcuts
or links all screwed up.
Going back to the CA antivirus when I removed it
and rebooted I had this but it was with only
3 links for some reason. Later on I ran CA's
pc tune up and it fixed that problem and the
driver header which came back up (and never
came back after that). CA Pc tune up was actually
fairly nice and from a 33 second boot time did
go to 26 :). It also fixed the shortcuts.
So I figure why not check out pc tune up but of
course its link was gone. So I try others like
Calculator or even a simple dos shell but those
failed as well. I could at least do control
panel stuff (big deal).
Well tech said to bring it in. I had only a shor
while before they closed and didnt' want to lose
a day so rushed and did it. If I could've done
stuff in dos or work I could've probably done
a system restore. But Murphy was laughing.
In the past Spyware got rid of the 33 or so malware
that came up when I did scans and fixed it. Never
had a serious virus on this machine ever aside from
the old Stealth B which got on floppy drives and
took 1024 bytes only as its effect. That was
no big deal and easy to fix.
So not sure why if MWB fixed it that it would still
screw up things. Sometimes so called progress sucks.
I may be broadband rather than dialup on this machine
but sometimes progress means more issues. Sigh.
So its back in shop. Hopefully a day or two at
most. Once he can get rid of the virus. I hope
he doesn't have to reinstall it. If at most doing
a system restore from backup will only mean a
loss of a week's worth (well 4-5 days). Mostly
games and bookmarks. If this was a year into it
I'd be fare more upset.
So this is my luck. CD explodes, kills drive.
Software crash can't recall. Win7 reinstalled.
Sound and HD driver issue but resolved. Now
virus screwing up links.
So in a span of a bit over a month odd issues. Lucky
it was in warranty (drive) and free tech work. But
its frustrating. In one month all these issues
compared to 12 years on this machine no major issues
ecept lst couple so a decade.
So I was going to work on update tonight. But with
frustration and it being an hour till bedtime no
update tonight. which is probably best as I might
call a player "Win7" and decide to kill it.
Happy Christmas to all!
Sadly next week is it for me. My last 3 weekend
so if I have to reinstall such again that's a week
I lose and there goes any relax time. Then just
the normal weekend time to play a game or so. Sigh.
Stay tuned for the next update...when I can....
I think tonight might be my fault as I don't think
I had MSE active 24/7. So some website probably
got me. I dunno. I've just not had TIME to sit
and stufy the software as was installing other stuff
so I could relax. But win7 is a learning curve and
will have MWB and MSE constantly active now.
For the gurus out there...
1. Anyone using a Hauppaage TV Tuner card? I'm
using a HVR 1600. I liked the old ATI all in
wonder card and no issues. Though it was
limited on channels (due to splitter) I
didn't get all of cable then. Now via splitter
I can get it all from the cable box. But if
you use this or have or know of others got some
quirks with it like to talk about. The ATI
had no real issues. But the HVR seems to not
show TV normally. It will show a scene but
not live TV. I can go into full screen mode
and its fine. I go back out to smaller window
and its fine. But just odd. The ATI any size
wasn't a issue.
2. Alex recommends MSE and MWB. I used to like
Norton and comes with Comcast I think. But
doing the new version on this machine my god
it was resource mad. I've heard issues with
the new versinos being bloatware and heavy
as well. So how does MSE/MWB compare in terms
of catching stuff? Will MSE if I turn it
on this time, catch stuff on websites as I
load pages like Norton or do I need to scan
after browsing? I need to study the software
settings.
3. Though too late now any tech idea on why the
shortcuts wouldn't work? As if it didn't know
it was a type to Execute or such.
4. Win backup did have a issue with system image.
It failed but the backup drive software did
not. Now I learn tonight that Win has an
automatic backup/restore without me doing
anything. Learn something new. Wom7 is
a learning curve for sure. If I had known it
and could've accessed the menus I could've
run the restore. But too late now. If Win
backup is sucky should I trust it in the
future in terms of restores or my backup drive
software?
5. My backup HD is 2 TB Free Agent Seagate Goflex
software. It seems it is detecting the auto
run on the backup drive nad autoplay pops up
each time I bootup. I tried to configure
the auto play options but is there a way to
set it JUST for the F drive to not show up?
Its a annoying thing but not big issue. Should
I just delete the goflex drive software to
stop it from popup or will it mess up the
data? So guess I'm asking anyone use a Freeagent
goflex drive? :)
6. Amyong using Trillian? When in ICQ I'd go to Invisible
mode to avoid random msgs. I might get one every
4-5 months at most. I'm inviso in Trill but still
get a random chat msg with the stupid porn urls
at least once a day. IF trill user any suggestions?
7. Any odd ball Win 7 stuff I should know about? :)
Didn't realize the auto backup. I didn't even
know the Win7 Home security was running. I gotta
figure out how to disable it or make the MWB or
MSE the default program.
That's about it. No need to watch soap opera. This
week is one. Not including a serious family issue
going on. hope everyone has a good holiday season.
It haen decent but frstruatiog. I figure it is
a month old so not like I'm losing 500 gig of programming
or emails. So can deal with it. Just hope no more
issues.
I know its annoying to wait for updates...
Too tired and frustrated to spell check..so sue me!
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