The Vent and Rant Thread - Page 60

pshrynk · 09-25-2008, 10:25 AM

The thing that is most distressing is that it is a clas on critical thinking that starts out with uncritical discussion of points of dissention. Seems like a sleeper class to me. Buy the crib notes, show up and sit in the back and act like you're taking notes while doing the crossword or reading something interesting. Ace the tests by emulating the professor's rhetoric style and gather ye the credits at the end of the semester.

Or at least that's the way I got through Statistics and Pathology in Med School.

nekokami · 09-25-2008, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pshrynk

The thing that is most distressing is that it is a clas on critical thinking that starts out with uncritical discussion of points of dissention. Seems like a sleeper class to me. Buy the crib notes, show up and sit in the back and act like you're taking notes while doing the crossword or reading something interesting. Ace the tests by emulating the professor's rhetoric style and gather ye the credits at the end of the semester.

Or at least that's the way I got through Statistics and Pathology in Med School.

Good strategy-- but there are only seven of us in class. I'm good at being invisible, but I don't think I'm that good. I'm working on the emulation problem, but she's being rather cagey about not telling us what she wants, and I'm not sure the rhetorical style she's using in class isn't a deliberate bluff. (It certainly doesn't match what she's telling us she wants.)

Another fact I should point out is that this doctoral program is aimed primarily at teachers or school administrators in the field who want to pursue an advanced degree, so most of us are working professionals, not students straight out of their Bachelor's degree with no experience. There is one student who has just finished her Master's and another who is only a few years out from that, but they both seem pretty sensible. There's really only one student in the class who thinks it's worthwhile to argue the "some thoughts are not meant to be analyzed" point of view, but she seems to assume that we all hold that view secretly, so she has to try to beat it out of us.

RickyMaveety · 10-19-2008, 07:35 PM

My motherboard (only 11 months old) died today. Just flat up and DIED!!

If that weren't enough, when I pulled out my drive enclosures so that I could hook the drives up to my laptop (and copy off the data so that I could keep working while I wait for a new mobo), I found I didn't have the ESATA cables that I KNOW came with the enclosures.

First I look to see if I can just order a replacement cable. No joy ... the enclosure company has gone out of business as of last month.

So, I call the ONLY store anywhere near here that is open on a Sunday (Radioshack .... I know ... I know) and ask them specifically if they have any IDE/SATA drive "enclosures" that will fit a 3.5 inch hard drive.

The guy on the other end of the says that, yes, they do have one. I stress that I do NOT want to drive all the way out there if they do not have what I need ... which is an "enclosure." He says that they do have one.

I drive all the way over there, and he hands me A HARD DRIVE!!! I damn near clocked him right then and there. I asked him if he understood the difference between a hard drive and a hard drive ENCLOSURE!!

Then, I asked him if they had any SATA power cables. He said, yes ... and showed me the EXTENSION CORDS!! I mean regular hook up your lamp to your wall socket extension cords.

I then asked him if he knew anything ... anything AT ALL about computers. I was just curious. Anything????? Then I gave him an inkling of how much I didn't appreciate the waste of time and gasoline getting to that store just because some idiot doesn't know the difference between a drive and an enclosure.

I got home .... went through a zillion boxes of sundry parts and cables, and found an extra SATA power cable. I then pulled one of the data cables out of the computer and hooked it all up to the old enclosure ... and voila ... it WORKS!!!

So, the data is being copied off as I write this. When that is done, I'm going to test the hold OS hard drive (I'm hoping it's what's dead and not the mobo, but I'm betting it's the mobo) .... rats and damn.

The problem is the computer froze this morning ... no mouse control. Keyboard was working, but no mouse. I shut it down and rebooted ... still no mouse. So, I shut it down again and hooked up my cabled mouse and keyboard (thinking that there was something wrong with the bluetooth connection), and while there is power ... it won't kick into the BIOS .... I just get a black screen (well, actually four black screens). Took it down to the bare bones ... just the mobo, one stick of RAM, and the HD .... and now, all I get is one continuous ear piercing beeeeeeeep, and four black screens.

Erg. Just what I needed. Exactly what I needed. Anybody got some super strength Valium I could "borrow"???

DMcCunney · 10-19-2008, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I drive all the way over there, and he hands me A HARD DRIVE!!! I damn near clocked him right then and there. I asked him if he understood the difference between a hard drive and a hard drive ENCLOSURE!!

Then, I asked him if they had any SATA power cables. He said, yes ... and showed me the EXTENSION CORDS!! I mean regular hook up your lamp to your wall socket extension cords.

Welcome to Radio Shack. There are about four in walking distance of me. There is one where I think the staff might actually know something. The competance of the rest begins and ends with attempting to cell you a cell phone and service contract.

Quote:

The problem is the computer froze this morning ... no mouse control. Keyboard was working, but no mouse. I shut it down and rebooted ... still no mouse. So, I shut it down again and hooked up my cabled mouse and keyboard (thinking that there was something wrong with the bluetooth connection), and while there is power ... it won't kick into the BIOS .... I just get a black screen (well, actually four black screens). Took it down to the bare bones ... just the mobo, one stick of RAM, and the HD .... and now, all I get is one continuous ear piercing beeeeeeeep, and four black screens.

Do you have a manual for the motherboard? Generally speaking, they beed in different ways for different kinds of failures.

Which make/model of mobo is it, and which BIOS?
______
Dennis

RickyMaveety · 10-19-2008, 07:50 PM

Yeah, I know .... most of the so-called "computer" stores in this area are staffed with total idiots.

It's an XFX nForce 680i LT SLI mobo. I just found the manual and I'm going to give it a look see. The BIOS is Phoenix-AwardBIOS. I've just dragged out the manual and I'm going to see if it lists the beep sequence.

I did find one site on the net that gives the sequence for most of the BIOS types ... and if I recall, the one for Phoenix said the continuous squeal was a sign of either a bad mobo or a bad cpu. It had better not be the damned cpu ... that thing cost me $1000 ... all by it's little self.

RWood · 10-19-2008, 08:10 PM

According to the notes on my nForce Phoenix BIOS one constant tone is a bad motherboard or a bad power supply or a bad keyboard.

Or a scrambled CMOS that just needs a reset. I had this problem last week with an nForce Phoenix BIOS.

I flipped to my BOFH reference sheet and found that the problem was caused by "cosmic rays."

RickyMaveety · 10-19-2008, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWood

According to the notes on my nForce Phoenix BIOS one constant tone is a bad motherboard or a bad power supply or a bad keyboard.

Or a scrambled CMOS that just needs a reset. I had this problem last week with an nForce Phoenix BIOS.

I flipped to my BOFH reference sheet and found that the problem was caused by "cosmic rays."

Yeah ... cosmic rays. That's the ticket. I tried resetting the CMOS earlier today ... even replaced the battery. No joy.

And, I've checked out the keyboard ... that's not the problem. The power supply is working just fine ... everything is buzzing and humming up a storm, and the mobo even lights up. It just doesn't get to the BIOS.

It's got to be the mobo. At least that isn't going to cost me an arm and a leg. $150 or $200 I would guess (nope .... looks like it's going to be more like $400 or more eeek). Still, it's the time involved that is going to make me wish for death.

nekokami · 10-20-2008, 09:57 AM

My sympathies! I spent the weekend reinstalling Windows on my husband's machine... he'd managed to pick up spyware that was causing Windows to sprout these constant error messages, AND was blocking accessing Grisoft, Symantec, etc. from that computer. I looked at this for a while, thought things over, and finally asked him if he had anything critical on that machine (besides some artwork, which I'd already burned to cd). He said no (he uses that machine to play games, browse web comics, and read email, which he doesn't save), so hey presto, now he has a nice clean machine. With antivirus/malware software installed and updated. (It was interfering with some of his games and had gotten turned off. I explained that from now on if he chooses to turn off the antiviral SW, he needs to unplug the system from the internet first, and only plug it back in AFTER he turns the antiviral SW back on.)

Hey, not like I had anything better to do this weekend than reinstall someone else's PC, right?

DMcCunney · 10-20-2008, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

My sympathies! I spent the weekend reinstalling Windows on my husband's machine... he'd managed to pick up spyware that was causing Windows to sprout these constant error messages, AND was blocking accessing Grisoft, Symantec, etc. from that computer. I looked at this for a while, thought things over, and finally asked him if he had anything critical on that machine (besides some artwork, which I'd already burned to cd). He said no (he uses that machine to play games, browse web comics, and read email, which he doesn't save), so hey presto, now he has a nice clean machine. With antivirus/malware software installed and updated. (It was interfering with some of his games and had gotten turned off. I explained that from now on if he chooses to turn off the antiviral SW, he needs to unplug the system from the internet first, and only plug it back in AFTER he turns the antiviral SW back on.)

Unless he plays online games.

Quote:

Hey, not like I had anything better to do this weekend than reinstall someone else's PC, right?

You might want to look into something like Norton Ghost: create a known good clean system and make an image. When this happens again, wipe the machine and restore the image. It's still time consuming, but not as much as doing a piece by piece re-install of the OS and all applications.
______
Dennis

nekokami · 10-20-2008, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Unless he plays online games.

You might want to look into something like Norton Ghost: create a known good clean system and make an image. When this happens again, wipe the machine and restore the image. It's still time consuming, but not as much as doing a piece by piece re-install of the OS and all applications.

The only online games he plays are web games, which don't seem to have a problem with the anti-viral sw. He prefers single-player games unless he's going to play with someone he knows, and the other person he likes to play with doesn't have broadband at home. (Yes, there are people who still don't!)

I know about Norton Ghost, and if it comes up again, I may have to do this. Certainly it would be easier in terms of installing drivers-- I couldn't remember which video card I'd bought for him, and the box was lost or packed away in our move two years ago, so I actually had to pull the card out to get the SN and search online to see what drivers I needed.

slayda · 10-20-2008, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

My motherboard (only 11 months old) died today. Just flat up and DIED!!

If that weren't enough, when I pulled out my drive enclosures so that I could hook the drives up to my laptop (and copy off the data so that I could keep working while I wait for a new mobo), I found I didn't have the ESATA cables that I KNOW came with the enclosures.

...

I have a neat device called a "USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter" made by NewerTech that allows me to connect either an IDE or SATA drive to the computer via USB. Might be worth looking in to.

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php

nrapallo · 10-20-2008, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slayda

I have a neat device called a "USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter" made by NewerTech that allows me to connect either an IDE or SATA drive to the computer via USB. Might be worth looking in to.

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php

Nice!

I have a lot of bare hard/cdrom drives that I've upgraded from over the years. You know, 40 GB HD -> 80 GB -> 120 GB as well as 8x CDROM -> 16x.

This appears more useful than buying a USB HD enclosure as it can also be used with a CDROM and laptop HD.

Thanks for the link!

RickyMaveety · 10-20-2008, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slayda

I have a neat device called a "USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter" made by NewerTech that allows me to connect either an IDE or SATA drive to the computer via USB. Might be worth looking in to.

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php

That's sort of like the thing I have, except that it also provided an enclosure for the drive. However, I think I'm going to pick up one or two of those.

Thanks for the suggestion.

DMcCunney · 10-20-2008, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

The only online games he plays are web games, which don't seem to have a problem with the anti-viral sw.

They better not, or they won't get anywhere.

The question is why the local, single player games do. I can't hazard a guess: all of mine are ancient DOS ports of games from VMS and Unix, like Emopire, Larn, and Nethack.

Quote:

He prefers single-player games unless he's going to play with someone he knows, and the other person he likes to play with doesn't have broadband at home. (Yes, there are people who still don't!)

Lots of them. Plenty of folks live in areas too far from a CO to get DSL, too far out for the cable companies to profitably string cable, and not in good places for a satellite dish. And plenty of other folks who could get broadband but balk at the cost.

I had both DSL and a cable modem for a while. DSL came first, as cable modem service wasn't available when I went looking for broadband. Then my cable provider upgraded in my area and cable modems became available, so I got one. But I kept the DSL line as a high speed backup for some time. Having experienced broadband, I wasn't about to revert to dial-up for any reason.

Quote:

I know about Norton Ghost, and if it comes up again, I may have to do this. Certainly it would be easier in terms of installing drivers-- I couldn't remember which video card I'd bought for him, and the box was lost or packed away in our move two years ago, so I actually had to pull the card out to get the SN and search online to see what drivers I needed.

I learned the hard way to keep local copies of driver install packages, for when I had to re-install. I may go looking for updates once I'm up and running, but first, I want to be up and running.

______
Dennis

nekokami · 10-20-2008, 02:34 PM

To be fair, I was up and running, just in a very basic video mode. And I could have reverted to the built-in video controller, though I suspect some of the games wouldn't run if I did that.

I don't know what the games don't like about antiviral software, but I think it has to do with how high-end graphics-intensive games try to kick as much of the OS out of the way as possible to run faster. The AV SW doesn't like that, as it looks like malware behavior. There's probably a way to tune the AV SW so it ignores particular programs, e.g. these games. I've never had to bother looking into this sort of thing, myself -- the last "game" I played was (I think) "3 in Three" on Mac OS 7. Although now that I think about it, I think I played a few IF games since then, on my Palm Pilot and iLiad.

I'm definitely going to need one of those adapters. Thanks for the link, slayda!

10-19-2008, 07:35 PM	#888
RickyMaveety Holy S**T!!! Posts: 5,213 Karma: 108401 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: San Diego, California!! Device: Kindle and iPad	Arrrrrghhhhh!!! My motherboard (only 11 months old) died today. Just flat up and DIED!! If that weren't enough, when I pulled out my drive enclosures so that I could hook the drives up to my laptop (and copy off the data so that I could keep working while I wait for a new mobo), I found I didn't have the ESATA cables that I KNOW came with the enclosures. First I look to see if I can just order a replacement cable. No joy ... the enclosure company has gone out of business as of last month. So, I call the ONLY store anywhere near here that is open on a Sunday (Radioshack .... I know ... I know) and ask them specifically if they have any IDE/SATA drive "enclosures" that will fit a 3.5 inch hard drive. The guy on the other end of the says that, yes, they do have one. I stress that I do NOT want to drive all the way out there if they do not have what I need ... which is an "enclosure." He says that they do have one. I drive all the way over there, and he hands me A HARD DRIVE!!! I damn near clocked him right then and there. I asked him if he understood the difference between a hard drive and a hard drive ENCLOSURE!! Then, I asked him if they had any SATA power cables. He said, yes ... and showed me the EXTENSION CORDS!! I mean regular hook up your lamp to your wall socket extension cords. I then asked him if he knew anything ... anything AT ALL about computers. I was just curious. Anything????? Then I gave him an inkling of how much I didn't appreciate the waste of time and gasoline getting to that store just because some idiot doesn't know the difference between a drive and an enclosure. I got home .... went through a zillion boxes of sundry parts and cables, and found an extra SATA power cable. I then pulled one of the data cables out of the computer and hooked it all up to the old enclosure ... and voila ... it WORKS!!! So, the data is being copied off as I write this. When that is done, I'm going to test the hold OS hard drive (I'm hoping it's what's dead and not the mobo, but I'm betting it's the mobo) .... rats and damn. The problem is the computer froze this morning ... no mouse control. Keyboard was working, but no mouse. I shut it down and rebooted ... still no mouse. So, I shut it down again and hooked up my cabled mouse and keyboard (thinking that there was something wrong with the bluetooth connection), and while there is power ... it won't kick into the BIOS .... I just get a black screen (well, actually four black screens). Took it down to the bare bones ... just the mobo, one stick of RAM, and the HD .... and now, all I get is one continuous ear piercing beeeeeeeep, and four black screens. Erg. Just what I needed. Exactly what I needed. Anybody got some super strength Valium I could "borrow"???

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09-25-2008, 10:25 AM	#886
pshrynk Beepbeep n beebeep, yeah! Posts: 11,726 Karma: 8255450 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin, aka America's IceBox Device: iThingie, KmkII, I miss Zelda!	The thing that is most distressing is that it is a clas on critical thinking that starts out with uncritical discussion of points of dissention. Seems like a sleeper class to me. Buy the crib notes, show up and sit in the back and act like you're taking notes while doing the crossword or reading something interesting. Ace the tests by emulating the professor's rhetoric style and gather ye the credits at the end of the semester. Or at least that's the way I got through Statistics and Pathology in Med School.

10-19-2008, 07:50 PM	#890
RickyMaveety Holy S**T!!! Posts: 5,213 Karma: 108401 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: San Diego, California!! Device: Kindle and iPad	Yeah, I know .... most of the so-called "computer" stores in this area are staffed with total idiots. It's an XFX nForce 680i LT SLI mobo. I just found the manual and I'm going to give it a look see. The BIOS is Phoenix-AwardBIOS. I've just dragged out the manual and I'm going to see if it lists the beep sequence. I did find one site on the net that gives the sequence for most of the BIOS types ... and if I recall, the one for Phoenix said the continuous squeal was a sign of either a bad mobo or a bad cpu. It had better not be the damned cpu ... that thing cost me $1000 ... all by it's little self.

10-19-2008, 08:10 PM	#891
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	According to the notes on my nForce Phoenix BIOS one constant tone is a bad motherboard or a bad power supply or a bad keyboard. Or a scrambled CMOS that just needs a reset. I had this problem last week with an nForce Phoenix BIOS. I flipped to my BOFH reference sheet and found that the problem was caused by "cosmic rays."

10-20-2008, 09:57 AM	#893
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	My sympathies! I spent the weekend reinstalling Windows on my husband's machine... he'd managed to pick up spyware that was causing Windows to sprout these constant error messages, AND was blocking accessing Grisoft, Symantec, etc. from that computer. I looked at this for a while, thought things over, and finally asked him if he had anything critical on that machine (besides some artwork, which I'd already burned to cd). He said no (he uses that machine to play games, browse web comics, and read email, which he doesn't save), so hey presto, now he has a nice clean machine. With antivirus/malware software installed and updated. (It was interfering with some of his games and had gotten turned off. I explained that from now on if he chooses to turn off the antiviral SW, he needs to unplug the system from the internet first, and only plug it back in AFTER he turns the antiviral SW back on.) Hey, not like I had anything better to do this weekend than reinstall someone else's PC, right?

10-20-2008, 02:34 PM	#900
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	To be fair, I was up and running, just in a very basic video mode. And I could have reverted to the built-in video controller, though I suspect some of the games wouldn't run if I did that. I don't know what the games don't like about antiviral software, but I think it has to do with how high-end graphics-intensive games try to kick as much of the OS out of the way as possible to run faster. The AV SW doesn't like that, as it looks like malware behavior. There's probably a way to tune the AV SW so it ignores particular programs, e.g. these games. I've never had to bother looking into this sort of thing, myself -- the last "game" I played was (I think) "3 in Three" on Mac OS 7. Although now that I think about it, I think I played a few IF games since then, on my Palm Pilot and iLiad. I'm definitely going to need one of those adapters. Thanks for the link, slayda!

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