Weds/Thurs open thread

Sorry I didn’t start this sooner.

I mentioned yesterday that I had planned on writing some about an infuriating situation I’ve been going through the last couple of days regarding a neighbor of mine (no, not the cute one who has seen me at my worst) but I’m still too fired up to write about it in a way that wouldn’t be unladylike. Let’s just say it involved cruelty to an animal (not a domesticated one, but still an animal – one he had trapped) and the local animal control’s lame BS responses to my phone calls.

BTW, that work I did on mom’s computer last night was for nothing (it’s a repeat problem that only goes away temporarily – and yes, it’s BUSH’S FAULT!). Since the one she has is a few years old, she’s decided to get another one, but she’s nervous about getting one with Windows Vista, primarily because I don’t have it and won’t know as much about helping her utilize its features as I have been with XP. I’m one of those types of people who know just enough about XP to get myself in trouble, but with Vista, she realizes I’d be just as much in the dark as she is on the ins and outs of it.

Speaking of Vista, has anyone out there had any experiences on using it they’d like to share? I ran the Upgrade Advisor a couple of days ago on my computer here, and I’m only good to upgrade to Vista Home Basic (rather than the more luxurious Home Premium – my current compu doesn’t have the video card needed for that one) . I should have waited until this year to get my new compu instead of succumbing to the temptation back in August to get this new one. Ah well …

23 Responses to "Weds/Thurs open thread"

Severian says:

March 14, 2007 at 10:23 pm

Swapping out the graphics card shouldn’t be an onerous or impossible task, I know gamers who change cards as often as they change their underwear. So, if you want to run a higher end Vista you should have no real problems. The only problem might occur if your PC has an integrated graphics solution on the motherboard, but most of them can be bypassed.

I have no experience yet with Vista. We ordered a laptop at work that came with it but had to blow it away and install XP Pro as there was no compiler for the Vista OS yet for the language we needed to run our apps. I never even saw the startup screen, so I’m no help that way. I usually never upgrade until I either buy a new PC or encounter some application I have to run that requires the new OS.

As for your Mom’s PC, have you tried a complete OS reinstall? A totally clean install? I can’t tell if your intermittent problem is OS/software or hardware related, but sometimes a clean install will correct a problem unless it’s hardware related. What’s the problem?
karl says:

March 14, 2007 at 11:45 pm

I upgraded to Vista Ultimate on one computer, and it runs ok. I need more RAM which irritates me as I have 1 gig. And the video card has no vista drivers so I dont get things as pretty as i want, but it runs.

I have been workign at Microsoft since 2000 so I have beta tested and run almost everything they produce. Vista is just a puzzle to me, they boosted the requirements way higher then they should have. That will alienate a lot of uses who cannot upgrade and wont buy new.

This computer I am on is likely SOL. Its far too old, but its a server grade P3 Xeon 500 with a dual processors so it is a rock solid workhorse on XP.

Even my two work computers have compatibility issues.
forest hunter says:

March 15, 2007 at 3:36 am

You can only sharpen a chisel to a certain length. Does that help any?
steveegg says:

March 15, 2007 at 8:26 am

It’s pretty much what Severian said (and yes, I’m one of those who swaps components in and out at will, or at least as much of a will as my meager wallet allows). Most of the modern Dells, even those with integrated graphics, do have a graphics-card slot; depending on what model Chip Jr is, it will either be the soon-to-be-obselete AGP or PCI-E.

As for the bastich, I think a taste or two of his medicine is in order.
Sister Toldjah says:

March 15, 2007 at 9:07 am

Sev, it used to be that at least a couple of times a week, she’d start up her computer and she’d be unable to access her start panel and the toolbar on the bottom of the screen, and she’d get one of those “Windows Explorer has encountered an error and needs to shut down” messages. She’d click on “send the report” (to Microsoft) and once she did, the error would just come right back. I don’t know how I was able to fix it so that error would not come up some of the time. I just got lucky.

Now it just comes up everytime she logs on, rather than just a couple of times a week, and the only way to get it working halfway right is to do a system restore. I’ve also had to reload her Norton Anti-Virus 2007 (which I put on the compu back in early January) as when the system restore is in process sometimes it has to rename files, and the files they’ve renamed are the Symantec files.

She’s had other issues in the past with that computer, but nothing that made it to where she couldn’t use it as the case is now. She’s just had enough and wants a whole new system. She originally got this system from Best Buy, and to make a long story short her original tower was so messed up they ended up having to give her another one but even that one had certain issues.

As far as me replacing the graphics card on my computer- LOL. I don’t trust myself to even know what the card looks like, much less how to replace it and with what new graphics card I should replace it with. I’m really trying to learn to be satisfied with what I have. After all, the compu isn’t even a year old yet
Chuck says:

March 15, 2007 at 9:40 am

The Animal Control in our area is pretty lame too. We had a similar situation a few years back and their response was that if the animal was attacking or endangering people, they could send someone out. Not the other way around.
steveegg says:

March 15, 2007 at 9:48 am

Money says that something either didn’t install or uninstall correctly. The best (and probably most-painful) fix is a clean OS install. The bad news is most computers aren’t shipped with the Windows installation CD. The ugly is you’ll need to reinstall everything (and pull whatever data/photo/etc. files off first). If it is a Windows update that’s causing it, you probably can get away with an “upgrade” install (which will save all the other files, but would still require you to run Windows Update all day).

One thing you can try before reinstalling Windows (and I recommend this in any case); run Microsoft’s CHKDSK program. Click Start/Run, and type “chkdsk /f /r” (without the quotes); that will run CHKDSK (on the next restart) and force it to check the hard drive for bad sectors and fix any errors that pop up.
Sister Toldjah says:

March 15, 2007 at 10:10 am

Thanks steve. I’ll give that a try (the CHKDSK). The other I can’t do, because Best Buy didn’t give her any backup CDs/software to use.
Severian says:

March 15, 2007 at 10:19 am

Steeveegg’s advice is good. It definitely sounds like a problem that can be fixed with a clean OS install, though there may be underlying hardware driver issues. A lot of PCs seem to ship with terrible or bad drivers, and/or often the updated drivers that get installed later work less well than the original ones. It’s a crap shoot a lot of the time unfortunately. Given the price of new PCs, and the increases in memory and computing power, replacing one that only needs a clean install, considering the pain such an install can entail, particularly for people who aren’t technically adept, just donating it and buying a new one probably isn’t a bad idea.

I’d recommend running the chkdsk utility, and also defragging the HD, just for grins. I’ve had a similar issue to this, occasionally my Outlook email will lose it’s mind, and give me the same kind of error. Sending the report to MS does nothing to fix the problem, they just want to collect bug reports and details to help them in the future, they don’t respond to any individual problems, they don’t even track where they come from. After a few restarts my Outlook “fixes” itself. It’s not been bad enough to cause me to do anything about it though, it’s happened twice in over a year.

But, if we lived close, I’d fix y’all’s computer for you ST!
Sister Toldjah says:

March 15, 2007 at 10:29 am

Thanks Sev Should I run the defrag first or the chkdsk?

I think I’ve pinpointed the problem to when I gave my mom the monitor I had with “Chip, Sr.” because her monitor was on its last leg.

Just to make sure the monitor I gave to her would run ok, I used the CD that came with the monitor thinking I could install the driver from it but nothing like that was on it. It’s not on the Dell website either because the monitor is old (“old” being two years …). In any event, things ran ok for a while but in the last month or so it’s been problematic and I’m just guessing that the ‘new’ old monitor I gave her might be causing it. I dunno. The price to get the “Geek Squad” to come out is outrageous, so that’s not an option.

I think I need to marry a computer genius

BTW, I’ve done the necessary backups in terms of saving all her files and programs she wants to use so that’s done. I’ll be back at her house this weekend to try some of the things suggested in this thread and I’ll let ya’ll know if I have any success. In the end, she’ll probably still want to get another compu, but it’s worth a shot to try with the old one in any event …
Severian says:

March 15, 2007 at 10:37 am

I think I’d try chkdsk first, in case there are any underlying disk errors, but either order should work. It’s possible some driver or registry file got flaky when you attempted to install the new monitor. What OS is she running? If it’s XP, usually for things like common monitors and other h/w the drivers XP has are not bad, so I usually try them first, and only try and install another driver if the thing has problems.

Yeah, the “Geek Squad” is pricey, but sometimes it can take hours to get a PC working again, so I can understand the cost. I’m lucky I can do it myself. It all goes into this “disposable” society we have, it’s cheaper and easier to scrap something than repair it, which drives me absolutely nuts. I have a strong belief that if I can’t fix it, it ain’t broke. I’ve repaired a monitor for a 4 buck part, and a computer power supply for a 79 cent regulator chip. Nothing will annoy me more than a device that can’t be taken apart without breaking it, it’s an admission that it was never intended to be repaired.
Sister Toldjah says:

March 15, 2007 at 10:39 am

She’s running XP. This may sound like a silly question, but is there a site I can go to for XP drivers??
Yax K'uk Mo' says:

March 15, 2007 at 10:45 am

Check and see if the computer has an option to build a set of OS recovery CDs. Almost all Dells do this instead of shipping Windows CDs–I’m not sure what the business practice of Best Buy is (or was, when your mom got the computer).

And a stupid neighbor story to put you in a good mood. Unfortunately, I was the stupid neighbor.

I have a 14-year-old cocker spaniel. He’s good most days, but occasionally he gets cranky and wakes up in the middle of the night and cries to go out.

Two nights ago, at 3:30am, he woke me up. I was wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts, and I figured, heck, it’s 3am, no one’s going to be out walking around the apartment complex. And Res’ll be done quick, and I’m back in.

So I take him outside and he starts to sniff around, and ten seconds later, I hear the door to the apartment above me open and close, and the light clop-clop-clopping down the stairs by my (attractive, single, female) neighbor.

Yes, I am living the waking nightmare, and all I need to do have happen now is be late for a class, or get chased by zombies.

I had my back to her, and I was sure she was going to ask me to try to keep my dog quieter, but I just heard her walking around off to my right.

I finally decided Res was done for the night, picked him up, and turned towards my apartment, when I saw my neighbor, squatting down, attending to her own dog that she had just gotten that day. (Of course, she had the full regalia of sweatpants, slippers, and light jacket with a hoodie on.)

I apologized and said I hope my dog didn’t wake her, but she said, no, it was her dog that got her up. I made about five more seconds of smalltalk before I went (ran) back into my apartment and locked the door.

Thankfully, it was too dark out for anyone to see how red I was.

Moral of the story: No matter how late/early it is, or how deserted you think it might be, or how quickly your dog can do his business, always wear pants.
Severian says:

March 15, 2007 at 11:31 am

Microsoft usually has drivers on their site, and the computer maker usually does as well. I tend to buy a lot of Gateways, and their site has a place under support where you put your s/n in and it takes you to the appropriate page for the drivers that are relevant to that machines hardware. Pretty slick, works pretty well. What kind of PC is it, even though she bought it at Best Buy/Worst Service, it should be a “major” brand.
Sister Toldjah says:

March 15, 2007 at 11:33 am

LOL Yak! She was probably just as embarassed, wishing she could go back upstairs and fix up a bit

I had a similar situation happen to me a few weeks ago when I was sick and home from work. I woke up around 8 that day, and my throat was very dry and I made a bee line downstairs to get me a cold bottled water out of the fridge. While there, I decided to go ahead and take out the trash. Keep in mind that I had literally been out of bed for just a couple of minutes, had not brushed my hair nor teeth, had not gotten dressed other than to throw on some old sweatpants because it was chilly, and the night before I was so wiped out I didn’t do my usual nightly facial routine so I had dark circles under my eyes from the mascara. I had on this old multi-colored pastel sleepshirt, too. UGH. I grabbed a hooded sweat jacket from my downstairs closet to cover up the fact that I was wearing a sleepshirt just in case a neighbor was outside but not really thinking one would be, got the trash together and went out to my trashcan out back, thinking for sure that most everyone would either be on their way at work or still asleep and that there was almost no chance of me encountering a neighbor in my five second stint to the trash can.

Of course I was wrong, and what made it worse was that instead of it being one of my female neighbors it was the same cute single neighbor who saw me several months ago after I had gotten into a battle with militant ants in my house and a thorny rose bush out back. It was like clockwork. As soon as I went to raise the trashcan lid, I saw a movement and it was my neighbor two doors down doing something in his back yard. He cheerfully waved hello and I sickly waved back and muttered “hi” before dashing back into the house. I just thank God that I was wearing that sweat jacket! Now if I only I had had the good sense to put the hood over my head, too. LOL.
Sister Toldjah says:

March 15, 2007 at 11:34 am

It’s a Compaq compu. with a Dell monitor.
sanity says:

March 15, 2007 at 11:52 am

CNN BARS CANDIDATE FROM DEBATE, CENSORSHIP CHARGED

He spoke at the DNC winter meeting standing next to Howard Dean and was at the Nevada candidate’s forum with Hillary Clinton, Edwards and the others and he’s been invited to ABC’s debates, but CNN has barred former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel from their New Hampshire debate, without giving a reason.

Gravel is to put out this press release tomorrow:

CNN AND LOCAL NEW HAMPSHIRE MEDIA IMPOSE CENSORSHIP AND TRASH FAIRNESS IN THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

March 15, 2007 – Washington, D.C. â€“ CNN, the Manchester Union Leader and the Hearst-owned WMUR-TV have formally decided to exclude Democratic Presidential Candidate Senator Mike Gravel from the debates they will be sponsoring in New Hampshire.

This decision calls into question media censorship and goes against a fundamental American belief in “Fairness” which is especially critical in the political process.

The Senator said, “By denying me the same opportunity afforded to other presidential candidates to discuss in public debate the major issues that confront our nation, the sponsoring media outletsâ€“â€“CNN, The Manchester Union Leader and the Hearst-owned WMUR-TVâ€“â€“are exercising censorship, unbecoming in a free society. They are dictating whose political voice they will permit New Hampshire and American citizens to hear.”

“These media outlets are depriving the people the right to hear a voice they may very well want to hear, and in my case, a voice with some new and different ideas not expressed by other candidatesâ€“â€“not â€˜politics as usual.’ This amounts to denying the people the right to an informed choice from among all the declared and legitimate candidates, not just those deemed worthy by a few media organizations.”

The Senator continued, “It is not CNN’s, the Manchester Union Leader’s or Hearst’s WMUR-TV’s place to decide whose voice should and should not be heard in a debate between legitimate and qualified presidential candidates for the nomination of their political parties. When my staff inquired as to why I was being barred from participating in the debate, they received the Orwellian response that my candidacy did not meet certain criteriaâ€“â€“a criteria that the media organizations refused to divulge when asked.”

Read the rest HERE.
Baklava says:

March 15, 2007 at 6:52 pm

Good Job Republicans !!!
Baklava says:

March 15, 2007 at 6:59 pm

AP worded it this way:

For their part, Republicans sought to create a political dilemma for Democrats, countering with an alternative measure that said “no funds should be cut off or reduced for American troops in the field” that would undermine their safety.

GOP leaders hoped the proposal, advanced by Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record) of New Hampshire, would prove difficult for Democrats to oppose and complicate any future effort to reduce funds for the war.

Gregg’s amendment passed 82-16.

Should’ve been worded this way:

For their part, Republicans sought to back the troops and put forth a bill that would advance victory, countering with an alternative measure that said “no funds should be cut off or reduced for American troops in the field” that would undermine their safety.

GOP leaders hoped the proposal, advanced by Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record) of New Hampshire, would prove attract pro-victory Democrats and prevent non-victory Democrats from reducing funding while troops are on the ground.

Gregg’s amendment passed 82-16.
Baklava says:

March 15, 2007 at 7:08 pm

TAMMY Bruce writes about another Republican Victory for Texas Girls.

Unfortunately I live in CA where this stuff is going to be pushed on girls here soon and I have two daughters (I don’t know the Assembly Bill #) and we have Arnold as governor who I’m not sure if he will veto or not.

Does anybody know?
steveegg says:

March 15, 2007 at 8:55 pm

Compaq
steveegg says:

March 15, 2007 at 8:55 pm

Compaq
steveegg says:

March 15, 2007 at 9:00 pm

Dammit! How did I get a pair of incomplete posts up?

Compaq? Ouch. They’re VERY buggy machines. HP does have a support page that supports Compaq.

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