2004-03-15
As I've become more competent at fixing modern Windows type computers, I've been getting more jobs on the side fixing them. Usually it's just word of mouth - somebody calls me up who was referred by someone else. This most recent job has been extremely frustrating - I've spent the better part of 3 days dealing with a very erratic Celeron 800 running Windows XP Home.
Got rid of viruses, small improvement. Got rid of spyware/adware, small improvement. Did the Windows Update - blue screen of death after the reboot. Tried dozens of permutations, same deal every time I got to the two last updates.
In addition to solving the crashes, I was supposed to upgrade the RAM from 128MB to 256MB. So I put the extra stick in, and the crashes get even worse. I pull the original stick, and just put the new one in - it starts running way better - even the Windows Updates finally work. It never occurred to me that the RAM could be the problem. Argh!
Gotta put a plug in for MemTest86 - a brilliant program that scans memory in the way that the BIOS and Windows should, but don't. It's counting up the errors on that bad stick right now - amazing that Windows managed to run at all. But isn't that always the case?
Got rid of viruses, small improvement. Got rid of spyware/adware, small improvement. Did the Windows Update - blue screen of death after the reboot. Tried dozens of permutations, same deal every time I got to the two last updates.
In addition to solving the crashes, I was supposed to upgrade the RAM from 128MB to 256MB. So I put the extra stick in, and the crashes get even worse. I pull the original stick, and just put the new one in - it starts running way better - even the Windows Updates finally work. It never occurred to me that the RAM could be the problem. Argh!
Gotta put a plug in for MemTest86 - a brilliant program that scans memory in the way that the BIOS and Windows should, but don't. It's counting up the errors on that bad stick right now - amazing that Windows managed to run at all. But isn't that always the case?
2004-03-07
Woo-hoo, comments seem to be 100% now, it all comes down to some ' needing to be in the right place. Please, comment away!
Comments? Well, I think I mostly got them working - it just seems the number of comments (0) doesn't change when people actually comment. Well, I'll try fixing that.
Now that I allow for feedback, I wonder if I'll just get a bunch of comments from all the people that I'm supposed to be doing stuff with/for - Mermaid and our game, Tim and the Dreamcast hockey league, etc. "What are you doing posting in your blog when you should be working on xyz?" In fact, this idea has already prevented me from posting over the last couple weeks.
Thanks to Aaron Chan and his cgicomments version 2.0 to make comments possible!
Now that I allow for feedback, I wonder if I'll just get a bunch of comments from all the people that I'm supposed to be doing stuff with/for - Mermaid and our game, Tim and the Dreamcast hockey league, etc. "What are you doing posting in your blog when you should be working on xyz?" In fact, this idea has already prevented me from posting over the last couple weeks.
Thanks to Aaron Chan and his cgicomments version 2.0 to make comments possible!
2004-03-05
"Now, how does the cruncher work? Basically, it reads the specified filename, which you have chosen and then crunches the program."
Well, thanks for clearing that up. Reminds me about what was once said about the Brontosaurus.
Been listening to a lot of Slay Radio a lot lately - click on a stream under "Tune In" on the left - you'll need Winamp or something else that can handle this type of stream. This "radio station" plays nothing but modern remixes of classic Commodore 64 tunes - very cool.
I did a bit of code last night for the game that Mermaid and I are working on. Felt good to get something happening there finally.
I'm going to try and get some sort of feedback system working here... I found a cgi based one that might be fairly easy to set up - I've never done this sort of thing before, so it'll be a learning experience.
Well, thanks for clearing that up. Reminds me about what was once said about the Brontosaurus.
Been listening to a lot of Slay Radio a lot lately - click on a stream under "Tune In" on the left - you'll need Winamp or something else that can handle this type of stream. This "radio station" plays nothing but modern remixes of classic Commodore 64 tunes - very cool.
I did a bit of code last night for the game that Mermaid and I are working on. Felt good to get something happening there finally.
I'm going to try and get some sort of feedback system working here... I found a cgi based one that might be fairly easy to set up - I've never done this sort of thing before, so it'll be a learning experience.
