Thursday, December 14, 2006

Open the Pod Bay Doors, WOG...

My trusty old workhorse computer, the Warongunsotron [WOG] 9000, is making the Devil's own noise.

It may be the hard drive, it may be the fan. I don't know, but I'm taking it in for the rubber glove turn-your-CPU-and-cough battery of tests.

We may or may not be blogging tomorrow or the next few days thereafter. But I'll hope for the best.

Just what do you think you're doing, Dave? I'm afraid...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Strong suggestion: back up now!

Just had a hard drive drop out unexpectedly and it's very annoying what wasn't saved.

David Codrea said...

It's the fan.

Got an external hard drive to back up the entire system, but I can't even install the damned thing--first, their software prompts me to enter the serial number, but then doesn't recognize it. Then they assume I know what the hell they're talking about when they ask me if it's ASA or SCI or serial or some damn thing, and there's nothing on any of the packaging or instructions to tell me what in the unholy hell they're talking about--I'm sure the 20-somethings who were born into this technology are snickering, but I'm from the school that used departments called "keypunch" as a precursor to data entry, and filling out 80-column forms with #2 pencil to tell the keypunch operators which keys to punch--I bought the kids a gaming system, and the guy at the store asked me if I wanted to try the demo system--I told him all I know how to do is pay for the damn thing, but if you have a DOS machine with "Snakes" I'm your man.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off work and I'll get to try and remove, purchase and then install a new fan. I believe I'll wait until the kids are solidly in school, as I believe my language will end up beingt wholly unsuitable for young ears.

And I'll also try to navigate through the Seagate tech support labyrinth to see if I can figure out what in Bloody Hades their easy-to-use prompts are prompting me to answer...

me said...

AH. I see you've found the REAL use for computers, targets.

good luck with it all, and good call on the kids.

Anonymous said...

David,

The external hard drive is asking about what kind of drive controller you have. Most computers ship now-a-days with an ATA or ultra ATA drive. Try that setting.

Anonymous said...

Don't ask me, I was one of the apes with a bone in that movie. I kept asking the director for speaking lines and he kept ignoring me. I guess that's why he had another ape bash my skull in during the next shoot.

David Codrea said...

Success!

Or as Homer Simpson sang:

I am smart.
I am smart.
S-M-R-T...I mean, S-M-A-R-T.


1894C, the Warongunsotron 9000 isn't a newer machine--it's one of the old steam-powered, pull-start, breech-loading models--turns out it was SCSI.

My external drive is 40 gig--the sales guy showed me a 160, but I told him I'd need to get three more computers.

Sean, I'm with you. Previous technical achievments include setting a digital clock, programming channels with a remote control, and loading batteries facing the right direction in a flashlight.

But I do have fun with my cuss words.