Merry Christmas to Us
That ice storm we had in the last days of November caused a lot of trees to go down as well as power lines and the such. Many were without power for something like five days in the cold. We were luckier in that we just had power surges. One of these power surges took out the NIC (Network Interface Card) in my Dell Desktop (4600C).
So I talked to Dell, oh, buy this, they said. I did. It was only $21 after shipping but when I got it, it didn’t fit in the compact-size tower. It was about 2.5 inches too long on one side and half an inch on the other. At first, I thought about cutting some metal and making it fit. Afterall, no NIC meant no internet for Val on the desktop (at least the wireless was still functioning and I was able to use the laptop) which also meant many other things. So instead I called them. I waited for about a half an hour out of a 40 minute call for the guy to tell me that they don’t make the part anymore, any parts for that computer, or something, that I should “try a local computer shop.” Um, okay.
So I thought about it. No NIC. No internet. Only 40 Gig hard drive. Hmmm… let’s get a new computer! So I bought the cheapest thing I could find, without a monitor, and with the biggest hard drive and the result was:
Now let’s hope I can keep the desk that clean! (Yeah, right.)
Now this was all fine and dandy, except… I had to reformat the stupid thing about 3 hours after I got it! I was installing all my stuff and restarting as I should, except for one time. And that one time led me to believe that Norton Internet Security was the cause of all my problems since I had failed to restart after finishing the DSL installation (it restarts halfway through, so I guess that threw me off). So I spent quite a bit of time with a Norton tech, chatting on the laptop. When I couldn’t solve the problem, I got frustrated and just reformatted. I installed Norton first, nothing. Then I installed the DSL and that did it again. Restarting in Safe Mode and removing everything related to SBC/ATT (it was most likely the Self Support Tool that did this) and everything’s been fine since. Why all this trouble when not before? This computer came with Windows XP Media Center 2005 I had XP Home before. That’s the only thing I can figure, the DSL software is over 2 years old, so…?
Well, everything’s fine except… my internet’s been really flaky the whole time. I am not sure if it has to do with me not having the software on the computer and so it goes down more or if it’s still recovering from the phone line being wet. Every time we get a lot of rain, our phone line goes to crap and it crackles. Often this means the laptop can’t get a wireless signal and the desktop is slow. But yesterday was the first time we’ve ever actually lost our dialtone. Of course, this problem is hard to diagnose because by the time the phone company gets here it’s all dried out and works fine. Either way, I have a 2Wire coming to me from Ebay, much cheaper than ATT would have sold it to me, and I’m hoping it will be better than this modem/router combo - at least it’s state of the art, the modem is getting quite old. Also on the way, from Targus, is a cheap wireless mouse. This one I have now is about five years old now, I guess, and it’s dying. It’s getting visibly worse and is doing many strange things.
Also doing strange things is the external hard drive I bought this time last year. I think it just needs a defrag though… hopefully. Networking the two computers together was also a pain in the hiney. I don’t understand why it was so hard this time, either. And I still get errors when I try certain folders that I don’t have permission or some such. Hey, you freak, I own you, deal with it.
Here’s more shots of the computer though, you can click for more information if you’re really interested. But in a nutshell, I was surprised to find out the sides are white, but I love it, and the front vent is very awesome, keeps it very cool.
Also with the computer came a new MP3 player. This was a freebie. (Also got a free printer but that won’t be staying here, it’ll be moving up to the TV control room where we need one.)
This little guy is a Sansa 2 Gig by Sandisk and it’s not bad really. We’ll consider this Steve’s Christmas present, since he told me NOT (under any circumstances) to get him anything. (I think he thinks this pre-protects himself from having to buy me anything. But that’s okay, I shop better for myself, hahahaha.) I’m still getting used to controlling this thing, but then again, I’m used to the iPod and I’m not exactly listening to this player. But I manage it just like a jump drive or something unless I want to add photos - then I use their little media converter. I put him all his favorite music on and a few pictures of The Kid, it’s not bad. Makes me wonder why, though, they give you white earbuds with a white cord with that black player. Hmmmm.
Anyway, I’m done babbling about all that. Finally.
Merry Christmas to us. May this be the last computer I ever buy. Well, at least for five years anyway. :-D
