Category: Computer Frustrations

No Juice

My ‘puter is down again.  My diagnostic abilities are somewhat limited at this point, but I strongly believe it’s my power supply again.

I wasn’t upset when the original one died, as it was a cheap case/PS combo.  I have read many times that when purchasing a PC case with power supply, the power supply should be changed immediately.

This ticks me off though, as I was told by this PC shop that the power supplies they sell are workhorses, and do not fail.  I’ve had the thing a friggin’ week!

As soon as I leave work (8:30am) I am off to the shop to get another, as it has a 1 year warrantee.  If the next one fails, I am not going to deal with this shop anymore.  They have not failed me until now, but I don’t have the patience anymore.

Nothing Fits

So much has happened since I last posted.  This will be a mish-mosh if you will, of thoughts, ideas and updates.

Personally this has been a trying week for me.  I had an interview at IU for a position, but due to the weird hours I currently work, I accidentally overslept and missed the interview.  It was a way out of this crazy lifestyle I am currently living.

We have a new problem with the house, flooding!¬† The last couple of weeks has been very rainy in Bloomington.¬† We knew the house had flooded when we purchased it, but thought it was a one time deal, we were wrong.¬† I called some “waterproofing” companies.¬†¬†That was¬†a joke.¬† The first company said that they would rip all of our concrete block walls out and replace them, plus they would sell me some backfill rock that is “patented and revolutionary” for only $5995.¬† I can understand this in extreme situations, but this isn’t major flooding.

I had my dad get a hold of my step-uncle (long story) to take a look at it.¬† He did, and told me he thought it was leaking at the point where the water line comes into the house, which is directly under our front door.¬† I ripped out everything in the vicinity and did not find any significant signs of a place for water to come in, but cleaned the area and sprayed some “stuff” on it.¬† I guess after tonight we’ll see the results, as it’s been raining all day.

I have met a kind spirit at work, something that is lacking majorly here.¬† His name is C.J., he’s a very interesting man, who happens to be the same age as my father.¬† He is into the same things I am, and we always have something to talk about.¬† The other day he gave me a video monitor he no longer used (an upgrade I needed badly).¬† I will miss him when I leave.¬† I will make sure to give him all of my info when that happens though.

I received a new client for my video business.¬† He told me over the phone he has over 80 tapes he wants transferred to DVD.¬† I received his first shipment last Tuesday and have been working constantly on them.¬† I sent him a shipment of 8 DVD’s today.¬† I hope he enjoys the care and hard work I put into his family’s memories.

I have learned that I do have some limitations when it comes to transferring video now, so I am hoping to correct these issues as soon as the funds become available.¬† The current plan is to build another computer, using some of the available parts I have on hand, and moving some from my current computer.¬† I don’t need a power machine, just a decent one.¬† So I’m checking out my options.

Yesterday I shut off my computer and did some wiring work, installed a new surge protector and my computer wouldn’t come back on.¬† Turns out my power supply had went bad.¬† I was somewhat scared because this was one thing I hadn’t done on a computer yet.¬† $42 later, I have a bigger power supply installed (by me).

I must say something about Editor B’s speech.¬† I was not there, and only saw a snippet from Anderson Cooper 360, but I’m sure it was amazing.¬† After watching almost every episode of ROX, I have a good idea of how he spoke.¬† I hope XY got it on video?¬† It’s still hard for me to understand how it is taking so long to recover.¬† All I have to say is Andrew, how long did it take Florida to rebuild and recover?¬† I know I’m merely speculating, but come on, without New Orleans, this country wouldn’t be anything like it is today.¬† What do you think made westward expansion possible?¬† We the people need to remember that.

“Danger Will Robinson!”

Do yall remember that line from the TV series and movie “Lost in Space?”

Well that’s what my computer was telling me the other day.¬† I was downloading an update for my IDE controller and having problems the whole time doing it.¬† After 2 days I finally got the update.¬† What happened afterwards is a total PITA though.

After installing I kept getting an error message when trying to load most of the programs I use.  I was essentially locked out of my own PC!  I tried all the tricks in the book to fix this problem with no avail.  So I had to wipe my hard drive and start fresh. Urgh!

I used to do it all of the time, but I had broadband internet access, which makes a big difference.¬† I have spent the past 2 days downloading updates.¬† I haven’t started on the programs that I can only get by downloading them.¬† Acrobat is 20 megs, QuickTime is roughly the same or larger, with my POS modem that will take a day just for those.