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Computer with a packet of cornflakes?
Well, not quite!
I had a diem horribilim yesterday.
My daughter is coming to visit us next week and requested the personal use of a computer to type up her very extensive notes for a course she is doing last and this week. I thought of letting her have by laptop, as she could cart it on ton the patio or in her bedroom, but it didn't have WordPerfect installed (her preferred). So I switched it on to install it. W2k stopped on the second bar at the foot of the screen during the first stages of bootup. This was an upgrade version and, as it couldn't recognise a previous version, it asked me for an installation disk. I put in a W98SE disk and it wouldn't recognise it.
In desperation, I tried a W XP Pro disk and the only thing I could do was install it. I finished the installation and tried to install the graphics and touch-pad drivers. It crashed and wouldn't reboot. So I reinstalled (repair didn't work). I finally started to install WP and CRASH!, it indicated three times (and also with other installations), there was a memory fault. Ugh! As I'm no longer travelling professionally, I thought, right, not worth replacing and the manufacturer no longer supports it (4 years old), so trash it!
I have three other computers, so I then thought about the Linux box, which I rarely use except as a kind of mini-server for archiving work. I could install WP on that for her. (It's a 1998 PIII 450 which was my original dedicated video computer with a Marvel). I switched it on and smelt the acrid odour of cooking electronics and saw smoke coming out the PSU ventilator. Uh-uh! As everything else appeared OK and I had a spare PSU (new), I changed it: the damn thing wouldn't even switch on. Took out the m/b and saw the connection from the ATX connector to the power switch was caput, volatilised. Thinks: new mb and PSU, CPU, memory, big bucks.
Of course, there was a third thing: the LNB on my satellite dish started playing up last night.
Today, I contacted my local supplier to find out the cost of the necessary to repair my Linux box. The sales gal told me of a special offer they had on until today. OK, not exactly the dernier cri, but good enough for a Linux box (much more tolerant than Windows), which was far cheaper than the components to rebuild it.
It is an AMD 2000A+ with 256 MB PC266 RAM, 40 Gb 7200 rpm HDD, CD-ROM, modem, 10/100 LAN and 32 Mb GeForce.
Price? CYP 122 + VAT (app $225). How cheap can you get it? Soon be giving them away with cornflakes!
I had a diem horribilim yesterday.
My daughter is coming to visit us next week and requested the personal use of a computer to type up her very extensive notes for a course she is doing last and this week. I thought of letting her have by laptop, as she could cart it on ton the patio or in her bedroom, but it didn't have WordPerfect installed (her preferred). So I switched it on to install it. W2k stopped on the second bar at the foot of the screen during the first stages of bootup. This was an upgrade version and, as it couldn't recognise a previous version, it asked me for an installation disk. I put in a W98SE disk and it wouldn't recognise it.
In desperation, I tried a W XP Pro disk and the only thing I could do was install it. I finished the installation and tried to install the graphics and touch-pad drivers. It crashed and wouldn't reboot. So I reinstalled (repair didn't work). I finally started to install WP and CRASH!, it indicated three times (and also with other installations), there was a memory fault. Ugh! As I'm no longer travelling professionally, I thought, right, not worth replacing and the manufacturer no longer supports it (4 years old), so trash it!
I have three other computers, so I then thought about the Linux box, which I rarely use except as a kind of mini-server for archiving work. I could install WP on that for her. (It's a 1998 PIII 450 which was my original dedicated video computer with a Marvel). I switched it on and smelt the acrid odour of cooking electronics and saw smoke coming out the PSU ventilator. Uh-uh! As everything else appeared OK and I had a spare PSU (new), I changed it: the damn thing wouldn't even switch on. Took out the m/b and saw the connection from the ATX connector to the power switch was caput, volatilised. Thinks: new mb and PSU, CPU, memory, big bucks.
Of course, there was a third thing: the LNB on my satellite dish started playing up last night.
Today, I contacted my local supplier to find out the cost of the necessary to repair my Linux box. The sales gal told me of a special offer they had on until today. OK, not exactly the dernier cri, but good enough for a Linux box (much more tolerant than Windows), which was far cheaper than the components to rebuild it.
It is an AMD 2000A+ with 256 MB PC266 RAM, 40 Gb 7200 rpm HDD, CD-ROM, modem, 10/100 LAN and 32 Mb GeForce.
Price? CYP 122 + VAT (app $225). How cheap can you get it? Soon be giving them away with cornflakes!
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