Adventures in computerland when you build your own

[BikerBabe]

I did a post on Aug 3 2007, 06:39 PM in the Questions and Some Answers part of the forum in the Computer Questions section. The thread is here: http://www.greasespotcafe.com/ipb/index.php?showtopic=14522 and the post of mine I'm referring to is #22. The other ones I did on that thread aren't relevant.

I asked in that post if anyone had a copy of XP Home or Pro they would no longer need once they upgraded to Vista that I could have. My XP Pro disks were missing after my ex roommate moved out and if I would crash, I would have no way to reinstall Win XP. In a couple of days I got a PM from someone and he said he had a XP Home disk he no longer needed that I could have and register to my computer *if* he hadn't thrown it away. He said he would look for it and get back to me. He did in fact find it and then mailed it to me using 2 day express mail. It arrived to me on August 9th and I put it in my CD case where I keep all OS, keyboard, mouse, etc. type of disks. I liked knowing it was there should the XP Pro I had installed on the computer every have a problem, I could just install the XP Home and actually have a XP version I could register and get updates for, along with just having the computer running again. My XP Pro was given to me after a ME crash a few years back, but it wasn't exactly one I could register as the reg number came off a key gen. For a long time I could get most updates ok, but then had to turn all updating off totally when MS got nasty last year. I couldn't afford to buy a copy either, so just made due the best I could.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed what that XP Home disk would actually mean after it was sent to me by our very much beloved WordWolf from here on the GS Cafe forums.

Around the same time he sent the disk to me, my hubby's new monitor was giving him fits due to him having such an old vid card in his box. I told him to hang on before just buying one online and let me have a go first at a search. I hit Amazon.com and found an ATI X1650 Pro 512 mb RAM video card which was what I dearly wanted for my gaming and the ATI 9250 256 mb RAM card I was presently running was just want he needed for his monitor to like him again. So we made a deal. He bought my card off me for 62 bucks instead of the 100 plus it would have cost him online. I then bought the X1650 Pro card from Amazon while it was selling for $160 plus 11 bucks for 2 day shipping, instead of the 200 bucks before shipping all other sites online were asking for that same card. We both got the cards we needed at half the price we would have had to pay doing it at different times.

The Video card got here Monday, Aug. 13th. I pulled my card out of my box and installed it into his and had not problem one, which was shocking since his box is normally very hard to work on. I was pleased by that. Then I grabbed my new card and went to put it in my box. I cram myself in under the counter top I use as my desk and put it in, then climb out and start up the computer and get ... nothing. *sigh* So I look thru the book that came with it and find a section I'd missed the first read that said I needed a power supply of at least 450 watts. Funny, it didn't say that on Amazon when I read the stats. So off to Staples DR goes on his bicycle (just as the 2 benedryl he'd taken to help him sleep were kicking in of course) and he finds a choice .. 430 Watt for $60 or 500 Watt for $108. Needing at the min. of 450, he had to buy me the 500 Watt power supply. That was money I had NOT planned on spending and I was left with just enough cash in my bank account to be able to pay for my meds I'll get from the doctor tomorrow that my insurance doesn't cover. *sigh*.

He gets home and hands me the power supply and I put it in the box and go to plug in the main line that goes to the motherboard ... it had too many holes in it compared to the pins my MB has. Panic time yet again. I look thru the book and find the last 4 are removable for people with the smaller pin MB connectors. I take them off and see then it lines up fine and go to push it in ... it still won't go. The clip on the side that holds it down, that piece is wider than the space between 2 little things on my MB that sit next to where it clips in. Great, now what do we do. I put on my thinking cap.

I compared the new one to my old one. Then I got out my big pair of scissors and cut off one corner of the clip where it was the thickest, took everything I had to cut it off. Next I got out my diamond encrusted nail file and started sawing on the rest of it. As I went I would try it off and on to see when I was getting close to where it would fit. I also pushed those 2 little round things welded onto the MB apart as far as I could without doing any damage to them, which gained me a slight bit more room. I finally got to the point I'd filed it down enough that it did snap into place. We both sat back and sighed a big sigh of relief.

Next I hit the button and we watched my screen ... it booted up fine! Yes!!! Now all I had to do was get in there and do all the updates to the new vid card and I would be set .. or so I thought. As I was doing this, XP Pro decided to do a major crash and I lost all my video and could NOT get it back. I couldn't even get into Safe Mode and there was nothing in the BIOS to help me and it was the only thing I could see, anything Windows related would not show on my screen, I had lost all my VGA settings. By now it had been about 3 hours I was working to get the new vid card to work and was starting to get tired. Now I had no choice but to pray the XP Home disk WordWolf sent me did install and would register me to Microsoft. (By this point DR was the walking dead and he went to sleep and I continued on ...)

In goes WW's disk and I start praying as I watch it go thru the install. At the end it did register to me!!! I was back up online, albeit was now yet a couple more hours gone by, but in doing this, I lost all my .dll files to all my programs I have running on other partitions. Everything will have to be reinstalled before it will run again. First I had to get all my settings done, still get the new vid card set up, blah, blah, blah. I ended up finally getting to bed almost 2 days after the video card arrived via UPS.

I've been building my own computers for 9 years now and I can normally rely on DR's giving me fits and having no problems with mine. So much for that, mine made up for lost time. By the time I finally did go lay down to sleep though, I had installed one of my games that I could never see all the graphics on at the best settings due to the card not being powerful enough. It's Black and White 2 for those of you who know games. I reinstalled it and got thru the beginning part and then to the first level when I could really look around at things. I scrolled in tight to the ground and looked around. I saw for the first time the flowers in the grass I'd heard about and then joy of joys ... I found some of the tiny little ants running around and I followed them around awhile getting such a kick out of them. I then scrolled back out to a normal view and built some houses for my worshipers to live in and accidentally hit my mouse button, but it was in an area of grass where I saw nothing, but yet I heard the 'pick up' sound which I found odd. I scrolled in for a closer look and there in my 'hand' was a little chicken. Hahaha. I looked around and there was a whole flock of chickens running around there pecking at things to eat they found in the grass. I was so slap happy by that time, I just sat there and laughed till I had tears in my eyes. Then I put the chicken down so he could go back to doing his thing and scrolled back out, so I could go back to getting the housing finished.

I then just moved around the island of that level of the game and saw other 'firsts' like the waves crashing on the beach or rocks. I saw details on buildings that were never there before making them even more beautiful (I play a good god in the game, so get the nice pretty buildings, not the ugly ones you get playing evil). That was when I knew it would all be fine and knew I could go lay down and get some badly needed sleep and wake up in the morning (today) and have a very nice working computer.

When I did that post on the thread about Win Vista asking for anyone willing to give up their unneeded XP disk, I had NO idea how much it would become needed and how soon. Had I not posted, had WordWolf not sent me his disk, I would be offline right now waiting until my SSI check comes on the 1st of next month when I would have had more money so I could buy a copy of XP.

I want to publicly thank WordWolf for saving me and for his generous heart in giving me that disk. I want to also thank God, for His perfect timing. I can see His hand in all this from my first thought to do that post, to WW reading it and taking the time to look for his old XP disk and then sending it to me quickly. Between the two of them I am still up and running ... and now I also have the added bonus of having a legal copy and I've been able to get all the upgrades and Media Player 11. I'm sure I'll find more things as time goes on, that will add even more joy to it all. They turned what could have been a complete disaster into something good .. lemons to lemonaid. Thank you doesn't feel like it conveys how much this means to me. Being sick as I am with the Crohn's and Fibro, I spend almost all of my waking hours every day on my computer doing something .. I'd be totally lost without it. All my friends are online even, I don't get out enough to meet local people really. My world is 98% on the computer at this point in my life.

GSpotters are the greatest bunch, my only regret is I live too far away to be able to give WW a real life hug and can only send him a cyber *hug*.

[Cowgirl]

BikerBabe....................I just had to comment how impressed I am with your knowledge of computers, too cool!! If it had of been me, my computer would have been sitting out on the curb for pick up to the dump and I would have ended up in the

nut-house. You are pretty neat!!!

Cowgirl

[act2]

Hey BikerBabe!!! It does my heart good to read this!!!

I have asked a few questions in the computer forum, and EVERY TIME, I get help I need from someone (usually more than one) who took the time to check the internet for troubleshooting or whatever I needed, and took the time to post.

I am not a computer whiz but I love fooling with video and now audio as I have just purchased a new usb turntable.

[BikerBabe]

Thanks for your sweet comments ladies. I'm still amazed at how when I originally posted asking if anyone had a disk they were willing to let go of, that I would actually need it so quickly afterwards. Even if I did have my old XP Pro disk, it wouldn't have done me any good for a full install due to my being unable to get updates from MS these days now that they have cracked down on everyone. I would have been forced into having to buy a new full version XP disk to install and I just really couldn't afford that on the little income I get from SSI. I had saved for months in order to get what I had in the bank that allowed me to buy the video card and the unplanned power supply box.

WW really saved the day for me, without knowing it. After it happened, I sent him a PM asking if I could do a post about all I went thru to get my new vid card installed and use his nickname in it. I wanted everyone here to know who it was who helped me so very much. He said I could, but I didn't tell him the full story, he had to wait until I posted it last night. All he knew was that I crashed and ended up needing to install that disk he sent me, but none of the craziness that surrounded it. Once he reads my original post on this thread, he will then understand why it meant so much to me to be able to use his name and to thank him in front of all our friends in here.

Being poor, I learned to build my own computers as a way to save money. I upgrade as I can afford to get new parts. I know it's never easy when you are building them, something simple can end up totally different than you expected, but I never in my wildest dreams would have expected the 2 days of hell just to install a new vid card. LOL.

Now that it's all up and running, I must say, it's totally wonderful and I feel it was worth all the hassle and problems to get it working. My games have never looked so good visually nor run so well due to the increased power supply now and twice the RAM on the vid card itself.

Thanks again WordWolf, I couldn't have done it without you!!!

[WordWolf]

I'm still amazed at the timing.

Good thing you posted your request when you did....

I mean, you had the disc for about a week before you had the catastrophic crash.

Glad it was able to rescue you in time.