[OT] Crash and burn

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

The tears were mainly of frustration , it had been 10 solid hours of
failure, and I was tired and had one of those headached youget when you've
been concentrating on one thing far too long, but some tears were tears of
mourning as well. For a measly $200, Frankie had served me well



Oh, no! RIP, Frankie. I am truly paranoid about something like this, so I
keep "backups of backups of backups"...or just about that bad (two
alternating copies at home, one copy rotated to the office, one copy at my
sister's house). On the other hand, my "life" is on my computer, so I hope
yours isn't that bad. Most of all, though, take good care of yourself. I'm
sure you don't need any extra aggravation just now.

MaryL

Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

It had been a slow death. While I'm sure the hardware was just fine, the
software was becoming flakier and flakier. Yesterday, I tried to log on for
my "fix" of RPCA, and everytime I tried to download a mesage, it told me it
had a fatal error and closed Outlook Express down. I spent the day trying to
fix the error, or reload Outlook Express, or download an updated version etc
etc.

Nothing was happening.

So thn I tried to reinstall W98, went through the whole procedure, only to
discover I had lost the Product Key to my copy of W98. Not good.

There was nothing I could do at that point, I had to install Windows ME, a
program I loathe and detest, but will do for my "fix" of RPCA.

But first I had to wipe the Hard Drive, because of my attempt to load an
"unauthorised" copy of W98 (its not unauthorised, I've just lost the product
key!!!!)

Two and half years of collected wisdom, jokes, photos, stories, work and
play had to be deleted. Worst of all, so did the address book, prolly the
most precious thing on the whole PC.

But since there was no other choice, I did it. I nuked the hard drive and
started again.

After a few hairy moments, I succussfully installed WindowsME and set about
the laborious task of re-installing all the components and programs I was
used to.

At 10pm, I was satisfied. I could dial up, and although I'd have to download
*everything* again, at least it was there to download.

Except that for some reason ME refused to recognise my modem. I have no idea
where the installation disk for it is, and I've never needed it anyway -
I've always run off "standard modem" and have never had any trouble. Its a
standard design and considering I can't get above 28.8bps because of the
nature of our telephone exchange anyway, there was never any advantage in
telling it was a standard NetCom "Simple" model while "standard modem"
worked just fine.

By that time I had been working pretty much non-stop on Frankie for 10
hours, just because I needed a fix of RPCA to make my weekend complete, and
was getting extremely frustrated. The withdrawal symptoms were really taking
their toll.

Joel graciously "donated" his Pentium 800 as he's no longer using it. He has
his XBOX now that runs all the games he could possibly want, and an 800 is
rather slow for games these days anyway. Its not slow for downloading and
reading newsgroups of course, and so I've finally got my fix. Its not the
same as using Frankie, but as you may have noticed, I'm here once more and
the DT's have gone away.

Frankie sat there, looking forlorn. Joel promised he'd look into his guts to
see if he could fix or salvage anything, to which I agreed. There was
nothing much else that oculd be done. So Frankie was lifted upon the
"operating table", the surgical instruments taken out of their case, and his
"skin" peeled back to expose his inner workings.

At which point Fluffy found her ball under the table and ran at full-speed
at the table leg, upsetting everything and causing Frankie to make his
suicidal leap off the table-cliff. Bits of Frankie went everywhere, and
Fluffy, being oblivious to all besides her ball, trampled into his innards
and dropped her drool-soaked ball right into the middle. She looked happy,
as Fluffy always does when she's got her ball, but quickly realised that she
was in trouble when her Daddy yelled at her and her Mummy burst into
hysterical tears.

The tears were mainly of frustration , it had been 10 solid hours of
failure, and I was tired and had one of those headached youget when you've
been concentrating on one thing far too long, but some tears were tears of
mourning as well. For a measly $200, Frankie had served me well for nearly 3
years with no complaints up until the last month - and even then I'm sure it
wasn't Frankie but all the "spyware" and other crap that slowly accumlates
into bit rot. I had high hopes of him recovering, and possibly going on to
live a nice quiet retirement with my parents, but there's no hope now. Not
with his innards spread across my dining room floor and doggy drool blessing
his components.

So, RIP Frankie. You were a good machine that did what needed to be done.
Not sophisticated, smart or "up to date" but nevertheless served your
purpose well. I'm sad to see you go.

Yowie
(and since my address book and all my carefully stored and sorted e-mail
went with him, you'll have to patient with me. I may have received an e-mail
from you recently, but I no longer have a copy of it, and don't have your
address to as you to send it again, so if there was anything important sent
recently, please send it again. Note that catslaves keeps its own archives,
so I can always access those via the web, and will do so soon)

Yowie wrote:

Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

snip

So, RIP Frankie. You were a good machine that did what needed to be done.
Not sophisticated, smart or "up to date" but nevertheless served your
purpose well. I'm sad to see you go.


Oh no!! That's one of my nightmares too. Now I have made a folder that I
can copy off the instant the 'puter shows signs of doing something to
itself, or being attacked by stuff my horde of defence programs can't
handle. And the most important stuff, my "bookkeeping file" and my list
of usernames and passwords I keep backed up on a floppy, should I not
get a chance to copy off the above mentioned folder.

Now Vicky, to keep your computer free of spyware, you need to download a
couple of freeware programs that clean out these pests. Programs I'd
recommend a
- Ad-Aware, available at http://www.lavasoft.de/
- Spybot Search and Destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org/
and one I haven't yet tried myself, but have heard praises of on
computer ng's
- Pest Patrol from http://www.pestpatrol.com/

I assume you have your anti-virus programs up-to-date and purring, but
should you be interested, there are freeware programs in that department
too that do seem to do a decent job in spite of being freeware, the one
I'm using now is:
- AVG Anti Virus Free Edition, available at http://www.grisoft.com/
Others that have been recommended, but that I haven't tried are Avast!
and AntiVir.

--
Christine in Vantaa, Finland
christal63 (at) yahoo (dot) com
photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/christal63

Yowie, you sure are PC-smart! Doing one of those "full restore" and
"reinstall" numbers usually takes me about 4 days or so. I know these things
get obsolete quick but never realized what a dino my Compaq '98 5170 was
till I started reading how people replace older ones than mine. I salute
your expertise and send soothing purrs for your ruffled fur after all that
effort you made to save your dino PC.


"CK" wrote in message
...
: Yowie wrote:
:
: Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.
:
: snip
:
: So, RIP Frankie. You were a good machine that did what needed to be
done.
: Not sophisticated, smart or "up to date" but nevertheless served your
: purpose well. I'm sad to see you go.
:
:
: Oh no!! That's one of my nightmares too. Now I have made a folder that I
: can copy off the instant the 'puter shows signs of doing something to
: itself, or being attacked by stuff my horde of defence programs can't
: handle. And the most important stuff, my "bookkeeping file" and my list
: of usernames and passwords I keep backed up on a floppy, should I not
: get a chance to copy off the above mentioned folder.
:
: Now Vicky, to keep your computer free of spyware, you need to download a
: couple of freeware programs that clean out these pests. Programs I'd
: recommend a
: - Ad-Aware, available at http://www.lavasoft.de/
: - Spybot Search and Destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org/
: and one I haven't yet tried myself, but have heard praises of on
: computer ng's
: - Pest Patrol from http://www.pestpatrol.com/
:
: I assume you have your anti-virus programs up-to-date and purring, but
: should you be interested, there are freeware programs in that department
: too that do seem to do a decent job in spite of being freeware, the one
: I'm using now is:
: - AVG Anti Virus Free Edition, available at http://www.grisoft.com/
: Others that have been recommended, but that I haven't tried are Avast!
: and AntiVir.
:
: --
: Christine in Vantaa, Finland
: christal63 (at) yahoo (dot) com
: photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/christal63

Sorry to hear about Frankie - and sorry about all that wasted time and
effort. I hope you soon bond with your new machine.

--
Joy

Life is what happens to you while you are planning to do something else.


"Yowie" wrote in message
...
Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

It had been a slow death. While I'm sure the hardware was just fine,
the
software was becoming flakier and flakier. Yesterday, I tried to log
on for
my "fix" of RPCA, and everytime I tried to download a mesage, it told
me it
had a fatal error and closed Outlook Express down. I spent the day
trying to
fix the error, or reload Outlook Express, or download an updated
version etc
etc.

Nothing was happening.

So thn I tried to reinstall W98, went through the whole procedure,
only to
discover I had lost the Product Key to my copy of W98. Not good.

There was nothing I could do at that point, I had to install Windows
ME, a
program I loathe and detest, but will do for my "fix" of RPCA.

But first I had to wipe the Hard Drive, because of my attempt to load
an
"unauthorised" copy of W98 (its not unauthorised, I've just lost the
product
key!!!!)

Two and half years of collected wisdom, jokes, photos, stories, work
and
play had to be deleted. Worst of all, so did the address book, prolly
the
most precious thing on the whole PC.

But since there was no other choice, I did it. I nuked the hard drive
and
started again.

After a few hairy moments, I succussfully installed WindowsME and set
about
the laborious task of re-installing all the components and programs I
was
used to.

At 10pm, I was satisfied. I could dial up, and although I'd have to
download
*everything* again, at least it was there to download.

Except that for some reason ME refused to recognise my modem. I have
no idea
where the installation disk for it is, and I've never needed it
anyway -
I've always run off "standard modem" and have never had any trouble.
Its a
standard design and considering I can't get above 28.8bps because of
the
nature of our telephone exchange anyway, there was never any advantage
in
telling it was a standard NetCom "Simple" model while "standard modem"
worked just fine.

By that time I had been working pretty much non-stop on Frankie for
10
hours, just because I needed a fix of RPCA to make my weekend
complete, and
was getting extremely frustrated. The withdrawal symptoms were really
taking
their toll.

Joel graciously "donated" his Pentium 800 as he's no longer using it.
He has
his XBOX now that runs all the games he could possibly want, and an
800 is
rather slow for games these days anyway. Its not slow for downloading
and
reading newsgroups of course, and so I've finally got my fix. Its not
the
same as using Frankie, but as you may have noticed, I'm here once more
and
the DT's have gone away.

Frankie sat there, looking forlorn. Joel promised he'd look into his
guts to
see if he could fix or salvage anything, to which I agreed. There was
nothing much else that oculd be done. So Frankie was lifted upon the
"operating table", the surgical instruments taken out of their case,
and his
"skin" peeled back to expose his inner workings.

At which point Fluffy found her ball under the table and ran at
full-speed
at the table leg, upsetting everything and causing Frankie to make his
suicidal leap off the table-cliff. Bits of Frankie went everywhere,
and
Fluffy, being oblivious to all besides her ball, trampled into his
innards
and dropped her drool-soaked ball right into the middle. She looked
happy,
as Fluffy always does when she's got her ball, but quickly realised
that she
was in trouble when her Daddy yelled at her and her Mummy burst into
hysterical tears.

The tears were mainly of frustration , it had been 10 solid hours of
failure, and I was tired and had one of those headached youget when
you've
been concentrating on one thing far too long, but some tears were
tears of
mourning as well. For a measly $200, Frankie had served me well for
nearly 3
years with no complaints up until the last month - and even then I'm
sure it
wasn't Frankie but all the "spyware" and other crap that slowly
accumlates
into bit rot. I had high hopes of him recovering, and possibly going
on to
live a nice quiet retirement with my parents, but there's no hope now.
Not
with his innards spread across my dining room floor and doggy drool
blessing
his components.

So, RIP Frankie. You were a good machine that did what needed to be
done.
Not sophisticated, smart or "up to date" but nevertheless served your
purpose well. I'm sad to see you go.

Yowie
(and since my address book and all my carefully stored and sorted
e-mail
went with him, you'll have to patient with me. I may have received an
e-mail
from you recently, but I no longer have a copy of it, and don't have
your
address to as you to send it again, so if there was anything important
sent
recently, please send it again. Note that catslaves keeps its own
archives,
so I can always access those via the web, and will do so soon)

On Sat, 13 Mar 2004 14:06:28 -0800, Yowie wrote
(in article ) :

Its still not too late. The sole of the computer is the hard drive.
Just install it into the other one as a slave drive and pull what you
need.

Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

It had been a slow death. While I'm sure the hardware was just fine, the
software was becoming flakier and flakier. Yesterday, I tried to log on for
my "fix" of RPCA, and everytime I tried to download a mesage, it told me it
had a fatal error and closed Outlook Express down. I spent the day trying to
fix the error, or reload Outlook Express, or download an updated version etc
etc.

Nothing was happening.

So thn I tried to reinstall W98, went through the whole procedure, only to
discover I had lost the Product Key to my copy of W98. Not good.

There was nothing I could do at that point, I had to install Windows ME, a
program I loathe and detest, but will do for my "fix" of RPCA.

But first I had to wipe the Hard Drive, because of my attempt to load an
"unauthorised" copy of W98 (its not unauthorised, I've just lost the product
key!!!!)

Two and half years of collected wisdom, jokes, photos, stories, work and
play had to be deleted. Worst of all, so did the address book, prolly the
most precious thing on the whole PC.

But since there was no other choice, I did it. I nuked the hard drive and
started again.

After a few hairy moments, I succussfully installed WindowsME and set about
the laborious task of re-installing all the components and programs I was
used to.

At 10pm, I was satisfied. I could dial up, and although I'd have to download
*everything* again, at least it was there to download.

Except that for some reason ME refused to recognise my modem. I have no idea
where the installation disk for it is, and I've never needed it anyway -
I've always run off "standard modem" and have never had any trouble. Its a
standard design and considering I can't get above 28.8bps because of the
nature of our telephone exchange anyway, there was never any advantage in
telling it was a standard NetCom "Simple" model while "standard modem"
worked just fine.

By that time I had been working pretty much non-stop on Frankie for 10
hours, just because I needed a fix of RPCA to make my weekend complete, and
was getting extremely frustrated. The withdrawal symptoms were really taking
their toll.

Joel graciously "donated" his Pentium 800 as he's no longer using it. He has
his XBOX now that runs all the games he could possibly want, and an 800 is
rather slow for games these days anyway. Its not slow for downloading and
reading newsgroups of course, and so I've finally got my fix. Its not the
same as using Frankie, but as you may have noticed, I'm here once more and
the DT's have gone away.

Frankie sat there, looking forlorn. Joel promised he'd look into his guts to
see if he could fix or salvage anything, to which I agreed. There was
nothing much else that oculd be done. So Frankie was lifted upon the
"operating table", the surgical instruments taken out of their case, and his
"skin" peeled back to expose his inner workings.

At which point Fluffy found her ball under the table and ran at full-speed
at the table leg, upsetting everything and causing Frankie to make his
suicidal leap off the table-cliff. Bits of Frankie went everywhere, and
Fluffy, being oblivious to all besides her ball, trampled into his innards
and dropped her drool-soaked ball right into the middle. She looked happy,
as Fluffy always does when she's got her ball, but quickly realised that she
was in trouble when her Daddy yelled at her and her Mummy burst into
hysterical tears.

The tears were mainly of frustration , it had been 10 solid hours of
failure, and I was tired and had one of those headached youget when you've
been concentrating on one thing far too long, but some tears were tears of
mourning as well. For a measly $200, Frankie had served me well for nearly 3
years with no complaints up until the last month - and even then I'm sure it
wasn't Frankie but all the "spyware" and other crap that slowly accumlates
into bit rot. I had high hopes of him recovering, and possibly going on to
live a nice quiet retirement with my parents, but there's no hope now. Not
with his innards spread across my dining room floor and doggy drool blessing
his components.

So, RIP Frankie. You were a good machine that did what needed to be done.
Not sophisticated, smart or "up to date" but nevertheless served your
purpose well. I'm sad to see you go.

Yowie
(and since my address book and all my carefully stored and sorted e-mail
went with him, you'll have to patient with me. I may have received an e-mail
from you recently, but I no longer have a copy of it, and don't have your
address to as you to send it again, so if there was anything important sent
recently, please send it again. Note that catslaves keeps its own archives,
so I can always access those via the web, and will do so soon)

"Yowie" wrote in message u...
Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

(snipped nightmare)


RIP indeed, Frankie. Errr, does one light a candle for a computer?

------
Krista
Glad Yowie's back online

So very sorry for the loss of your pics and stories, Vicky.
Hugs and purrs,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

It had been a slow death. While I'm sure the hardware was just fine, the
software was becoming flakier and flakier. Yesterday, I tried to log on
for
my "fix" of RPCA, and everytime I tried to download a mesage, it told me
it
had a fatal error and closed Outlook Express down. I spent the day trying
to
fix the error, or reload Outlook Express, or download an updated version
etc
etc.

Nothing was happening.

So thn I tried to reinstall W98, went through the whole procedure, only to
discover I had lost the Product Key to my copy of W98. Not good.
snip

Yowie wrote:
Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

SNIP

I'm very sorry to read this. Coincidently my old Pentium 400 committed
suicide about six weeks ago, it just wouldn't switch on. Thinking it must be
the power supply I rebuilt it in a different case but it was just the same.
So I bought a 2.8 GHz running Windows XP and installed the old hard drive as
slave and recovered all my files. I would have been very upset in your
position. I still have the instalation discs for DOS and all versions of
Windows since 3.1, I doubt any of them will be used again.

Adrian wrote:

Yowie wrote:
Frankie 2, my trusty old Pentium 400 committed suicide yesterday.

SNIP

I'm very sorry to read this. Coincidently my old Pentium 400 committed
suicide about six weeks ago, it just wouldn't switch on. Thinking it must be
the power supply I rebuilt it in a different case but it was just the same.
So I bought a 2.8 GHz running Windows XP and installed the old hard drive as
slave and recovered all my files. I would have been very upset in your
position. I still have the instalation discs for DOS and all versions of
Windows since 3.1, I doubt any of them will be used again.

The death of a computer is always sad. When mine plays up I have a
simple solution. I take it to the computer shop where the resident
downy-faced guru seizes it with glee and fixes it. I admire all who can
deal with computer problems - me, my attempts to do so always end in
disaster and I usually make things worse BTW I think we might be
going on a cruise to Alaska in July or August - wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Bev

--
I got rid of my husband. The cat was allergic.