Preserved Topic: Still Wanna Follow the Upgrade Story? (Page 1 of 1)

Continued from:
Journey With Me Into My Upgrade
The Upgrade Journey Continues

So they finally fixed my ceiling back on July 26, although as I suspected, they just patched it and didn't replace it like I was told they would. (When I complained, the office staff offered to send them back in to really replace it, but I told them to forget it because I was tired of sleeping on my couch.) Before I moved everything back into my office, I used my two days off in the middle of last week to paint the room a nice dark blue and move Tyrranosaurus Desk back in.



I even bought a couple more shelves to hold the Beethoven bust I picked up a few years ago in Greenwich Village, Steve Martin's Cruel Shoes and various CDs. (There's a duplicate shelf unit on the other side of the wall with my Mr. Potato Head, miscellaneous hardbounds and a human skull, which we won't get into.)

Anyway, the whole time in my makeshift office, I made my best attempt to test the newest motherboard in the 15 days I had to return it and all seems well. So, for all practical purposes, Silver is complete. Woohoo! I had hoped for a much happier and more conclusive ending, but at least I'm back in the editing biz. You'll get a good look at Silver when all is done.



Meanwhile, I've backed everything up from Fat Man and gutted it for a nice, and badly needed, cleaning. I'm not quite sure what to do with the old Quantum 9.1Gb SCSI hard drive, so I just stick it on a shelf. I pause a moment to marvel at the amount of money I wasted on all the SCSI crap that is now so much slower than the less expensive standard peripherals I have in Silver. Ugh.



What filth! Everything is covered in a fuzzy gray. Dust bunnies like you wouldn't believe. I dragged everything into the bathroom along with a can of air. (I always feel funny buying a can of air.)



I tried blowing all the filth into the tub, but only about half of it made it. Disgusting. If dust really is made up mostly of human skin, there had to have been the equivalent of a small child living in this system. And I inhaled at least a forearm.



Next, a little Windex on the processor, a smidge of Comet in the PCI slots and everything snapped back together. (I'm definitely going to have to get some more of those round cables once I figure out what all stays.) I even stuck in a brand new 60Gb hard drive I picked up on sale at Fry's this morning. Let's hope it works with this outdated motherboard.

BTW, if you go and do something stupid like actually spray Windex on your processor and scrub your PCI slots with Comet, I accept absolutely no responsibility. But, I'd still like to hear all about it.


[This message has been edited by Wes (edited 08-07-2002).]

Next, I got to work on installing Windows on Fat Man's new hard drive. Or, at least that was my intention.

I turned to Silver to see if I could find the last BIOS update Asus released for this old motherboard (Hey! What a great idea for a show ? This Old Motherboard) when I noticed something odd. My floppy-drive light was on. Just on. Weird. I rebooted and it stayed on. Rebooted again and checked the BIOS, which took a few tries to get into since the boot screen flashes by so fast you can't read which button to hit. (Turns out it's F2. Not DEL, not ESC, not F1. F2.) Anyway, the BIOS was right. I shut the system down and checked the drive.

Look at that, a bent pin. Must've done that yesterday when I pulled the cable out to get the model number off the HD below it. I bent the pin back and rebooted.

What the...? My screen resolution is all screwed up! How...? OK, reboot.

Still screwed up. Check the Device Manager...



Aaaaaarrrrrgh! What the...? How the...? Okay, maybe the floppy is fried now and it's confusing the rest of the computer. Shut down, unplug it, reboot. Nope. Shut down, completely unplug the cable, reboot. Nope. Remove Little Boy's floppy and plug that into Silver.

What?? Now it won't boot at all! NTLDR not found? Reboot. Again! Unplug floppy. Again!

Where's that blue bunny?

Swear some more, grab a flashlight...oh, look at that. I must've accidentally nudged the cable out of the hard drive somehow.

So, now the computer will boot, but still all my devices are screwed. I can't imagine how that happened, but thank goodness I didn't delete all the files I was using to get Silver on its feet originally. Run a few motherboard-driver installations and all's working again.

And the original floppy drive? Yep, plug that in and it works now, too.

I'm going to bed. And for the first time in a month, I don't mean my couch.


[This message has been edited by Wes (edited 08-07-2002).]

Oh, got to get some popcorn for this! *rumages through office desk drawers* Ahhh, there#s an old bag...*crunch, crunch* Hmmm...a bit old...oh well, this is getting good...

Go get'em Wes!

oh, oh yes here we go again

Haha that fan is nice and clean , I remember when I first time cleaned mine, it was full of all sorts and so was my whole computer. Now here's a little tip to stop all that crap clogging up your system. Me and my dad, made little metal casing to fit one side of the fan (mostly the front case fan). It's about 10 mm thick and in side it is a few piece of cotton cloth, this cloth gets most of the dust and stops it getting in the system. It?s just like a little filter. But it's if you have furry pets where all the fluff and dust just get sucked into you computer, it nice to have. Don't know if you have a little fan fliter, but looking at that picture just make me think you should have one .

Wes have you get that picture of the filth in a bigger for size? I'm always looking for filthy pictures for textures and things for artwork .

*Gets a drink, some food and get comfy*

OK, I hope that someone is documenting all of this before it gets deleted from here.

Wes, I really feel for you man! I have never seen someone have this many problems during an upgrade. Except for my fiancee's brother.

Well, I guess that I will bring in some beer and pizza, some cigars and an espresso machine. We'll be here when you wake up Wes, so sleep well.

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

I Like that Blue

um... ya say you don't know what do do with that HD...

will you be needing my postal address?


Code - CGI - links - DHTML - Javascript - Perl - programming - Magic - http://www.twistedport.com
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do i smell a quantum 9,1 gb scsi for free? yepeeee

wes, it seems you've got a pretty nice machine here. the updated one, is Silver, right?

can you post a summary of all the hardware again?

+-new CELL 557-+

quote:

---

I tried blowing all the filth into the tub, but only about half of it made it. Disgusting. If dust really is made up mostly of human skin, there had to have been the equivalent of a small child living in this system. And I inhaled at least a forearm.

---

That sooooooo reminded me of about a month ago when I had to fix my neighbors computer... It had been sitting in a corner for 5 years... (1GB HDD, 70mhz proc., 16MB RAM, 14.4 kbps modem) means I didn't have to worry about the command to get into the BIOS going by too fast , but if you want to compare "dust" inside, this one had a solid layer ranging from 1/4 in. to 1 in. thick everywhere inside it... On all the cards, cables, and the fan had so much "mung" on it I was suprised it worked when they first turned it on... Actually that reminds me I probably oughta clean mine one day soon before school starts this fall...

And what's this about an extra 9.1GB HDD? Hmm, might be able to auction it off here, Unless you want to give it away for free

DS - For a limited time only, here is the original 1600x1200 JPG (REMOVED). Note to everyone else: please click this only if you really want to use it; save me the bandwidth. DS, let me know as soon as you get it so I can take it off the server. (Thanks, DS.)

CP - I've heeded your warning, archived the relevant posts and changed the links above.

PS, LF - We'll see about that drive. Maybe I'll have a contest or something. Unless I find a use for it.

M - See above. And, yep, the new one is Silver. I'll post a summary of everything in the end. Actually, it would be a good idea to review now what it is I hope to accomplish...

Little Boy is my everyday computer ? e-mail, surfing, playing with software, etc. Fat Man is my graphics computer ? Photoshop, Premiere, etc. ? I keep it clean to optimize its performance. Since Fat Man is getting old, I'm upgrading. That's where Silver comes in. Silver is my new graphics computer, with some parts salvaged from Fat Man. In the end, Silver will become my new Fat Man and Fat Man will become my new Little Boy. The current Little Boy will be downgraded to a dedicated backup computer.

Although I won't have my ultimate system, it will still be pretty damn good.

Let's see where I can get today...

[This message has been edited by Wes (edited 08-07-2002).]

Thanks wes!!!!

So thats was one the server for a whole 3 mintues then

Awww lovely filth!!!

DS

hey! I asked first!

thanks for the filth, Wes.... *opens Photoshop*


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OK, so it's time to get Fat Man's BIOS updated. Surprisingly, I have no trouble at all finding the last BIOS release for this legacy motherboard on Asus's site.

I stick in one of my valuable copies of the Windows 98 Boot Disk, which I was very careful never to get rid of; it's the last boot disk that made it possible to boot into DOS. But, wait! It won't read it! Not another floppy problem...oh, guess I should plug in the power cable. How did that happen?

Well, look at that ? the BIOS version was completely up to date. No need to flash it now. On to Windows, then.

A quick check to make sure everything's the way I want it in the BIOS/CMOS and then boot to Windows 2000 Boot Disk 1.

Oops ? forgot to turn on auto detection of the IDE drive. Back to the BIOS. Ah, there we go.



Now we wait while Windows installs and all updates are downloaded. See you again after a while.



[This message has been edited by Wes (edited 08-07-2002).]

Glad to see you are making progress.

It cracks me up that you call that computer "Fat Man". Kell and I call one of our ferretts Fat Man (for obvious reasons).

I am going to have to post some pics of my Fat Man!

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

[This message has been edited by CPrompt (edited 08-07-2002).]

I love this. Every time I get the urge to rummage about inside my computer for the purposes of upgrading, I think of these threads and feel much better about my 750MHz Athlon just the way it is.

Keep fighting the good fight, Wes!



Odd behavior; even temperament...

C:\- Little boy and Fat Man were the names of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki...


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Petskull: thanks for that. I totaly forgot about that and didn't realize any connection.

Maybe I should rethink the nickname for my ferrett, no?

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

well, that depends.... is he an atomic ferret?


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Gee, PS, when you put it that way, it sounds inappropriate.

Anyway, Windows is all installed and updated. But, life is interfering and I can't work on it anymore today. Maybe I can do something tonight after work...

YAH! Windows is installed!

PS: Yes he is an atomic ferret as a matter of fact. He goes through chemotherapy for his adrinal cancer.

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

AND THE DAMN ROOF IS LEAKING AGAIN.

It's raining for the first time since the three-week-long repair and I woke up to find a couple of drips on the floor. And the dripping sound above the ceiling is much faster than before, which means they made the roof WORSE when they "fixed" it. And of course, it's a Saturday, so no one can do it damn thing about it.

And because they didn't actually replace the sheetrock in the ceiling last time like they were supposed to, it won't take long for it to start coming apart.

I don't have the time, nor the emotional energy to move everything out of here again. My father is coming over with a couple of tarps to cover up my desk in the event that it gets bad.

When I talked to the office, they mentioned the possibility of a transfer to another apartment, but I doubt that'll do me much good. There will be other things wrong. If I move, it's going to be out of here completely. Unfortunately, I don't have the money for a lawyer to get me out of the lease. Besides, from what I've read, I don't have a legal justification for breaking it, anyway.

You can't understand how unbelievably upset I am.

Do you have access to the roof? Because I think a temporary fix to the drip problem would be to buy a big piece of wood, coat it with some waterproofer, and place it above the roof in question...

...then, after the roof problem is fixed-- you could try your hand at whittling...


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Darn, that sucks Wes.

It must be world poo day today. The only thing on free-to-air TV in brisbane right now are a bunch of christian preaching shows and telemall shopping.

Just seems relevant. If y'all are interested in case mods etc. www.fast-mhz.com
K See ya!

-Adam

As for the leak, I say screw 'em. As luck would have it, they fumbled my lease. The copy they gave me says it's up at the end of this month instead of 6 months from now. So, after my trip to west Texas at the end of this month, I'm looking for a new place. Even if I have to get a one bedroom and sleep on my couch (which I do half the time, anyway), I'm getting a new and nicer place.

So, I've been busy with a client, but I've been installing software and transferring files as I've gotten the time. I'm about ready to transfer my Outlook files, which is a big step to me, so I'm preparing Fat Man to take his new place as Little Boy.



With my nifty new, bushed-aluminum case on Silver, I decided the new Little Boy would have to sport a fresh look, too. And since my room is blue, and a few of my accessories are coincidentally blue, I decided to complete the look. So, I cleaned up Fat Man's case and bezel and removed all the buttons and bezels from my drives, carefully removing springs and light covers as needed.



First, a coat of primer to make sure the paint sticks well to both the metal case and all the plastic bits. 30 minutes and I'll apply a second coat to make sure it all gets covered well.

Keep posting this is interesting

It's good to know someone's watching.

Okay, the second layer of primer is on. (It's tough painting white on white and being sure you've covered evenly. But, I've got a nice nooner buzz going on now, so it's okay.)

The can says to apply the topcoat "within 1 hour or after 48 hours." I have no idea why, but seeing as I want to be done painting today, I'll set the timer for 50 minutes and get back to it.

Man, they must be making those spray-can buttons a lot tougher these days. I got to the point I actually couldn't press it down. I had to switch to my left hand, which of course, doesn't have as much control. I click with my right index finger! It should be nice and strong!



Okay, the first coat of blue is on. It's really touch to get into all those crevices without drowning the surfaces in paint.

Incidentally, the color I've chosen is Rust-oleum's American Accents 7938 Wildflower Blue. Shut up. It is, too, manly.

I'll have to apply a couple more coats to make sure it's all nice and even. I just hope I have enough paint. I may have to make a dash to Home Depot today.

And I'm even thinking now that I should paint the buttons and drives a darker blue for contrast...

--------------------

No need to add a new post to say the second coat is on.

I've decided not to paint the buttons and drives darker because 1) I don't want to go to Home Depot just to buy another can of paint, and 2) I'd like to see how it looks as one, solid-blue monolith. If I hate it after two weeks, I'll change it.

I think I'll let it all dry till tomorrow (screw the 48-hour rule), then lightly sand it all with a fine-grit paper before adding the final coat. Stay tuned!

[This message has been edited by Wes (edited 08-18-2002).]

Looking good

I think I woulda went with a bit darker blue though

That was just the first coat. And it looks a lot lighter in the sunlight, too.

I picked up a couple of things at Home Depot today: one of those pistol-grip deals for attaching to the spray cans (my hands were so tired last night) and a cheapy mask. After I showered this morning, I cleaned out my nasal passages, as usual, and there was blue on the tissue. I guess I breathed in more than I thought. I hate to think what my lungs look like. The mask won't protect from the fumes, but it should filter out the paint particulates. At least that's what the guy in the orange apron told me.

So, I sanded everything down with a fine-grit paper and gave it all one more coat. The case I may give one more. Once dry, I'll check it all over to see if any of those mysterious little stringy things got into the paint, then sand them off and touch it up.

Incidentally ? the pistol grip ? what control! What finesse! It's like painting with...a paint-spraying pistol! Sorry, there's no good analogy.



Also, I decided to go ahead and make it two-tone. I got some dark blue paint and sprayed the bezel. I also did the drive doors for a little contrasting detail. Unfortunately, all I could find was a glossy dark blue, which will probably not go too well with the satin light blue, but I'll try sanding it lightly with an ultrafine-grit model paper to dull it down.

I also picked up some shiny red paint for later.

Satin light blue? Glossy dark blue? Shiny red? Man, where'd all these "bright, cheery colors" come from? haha. I'm more of a black/dull silver/white kinda guy. Keeping it simple... But then I'm about as color coordinated as a blind guy... Actually, I think I've seen blind guys more color coordinated than me

Advocate of "form follows function."

Oh, and Wes. You do have a reason for getting out of your lease (at least in Aussie land you do, not sure about over there). A landlord is required to take care of any repairs so that they are done in a safe, satisfactory and stable condition. If as you say they have made it worse in fixing it, then you do have a reason to break your lease. He/she has not upheld their end of the bargain, there fore you can break the lease with no rammifications to you, plus you get the rest of your bond back. You do have a legal reason and could in fact get out now if you so chose.

Koan 63, written on the wall of cell number 250:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

------------------------
It's like painting with...a paint-spraying pistol!
------------------------

heh... sorry, that was funny...


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I agree with Skaarjj Wes (even though it sounds like you have an out already, great karma man). In Wyoming(this shows how long I ago it was that I had to deal with this kind of thing, I havent lived their for a while), you can also withhold rent until satisfactory repairs are made or pay for it and deduct it from your rent. Im sure texas will have similar laws -its worth checking into.

Like the color the computer.

-tiki, cell 478

Unfortunately, you cannot withhold rent for any reason in Texas. If they aren't making proper repairs within a "reasonable time," you can take legal action, but that costs money and time. Besides, the copy of the lease they gave me says it's up at the end of this month. A mistake, but it's their mistake. I plan to start looking for a new place after Labor Day.

Incidentally, the paint job is done -- I'll post a photo soon. I've been working mornings this week -- 4:00 AM to 1:00 PM -- so I've been too fuddled to do much. (Is "fuddled" a word? Oh well, works for me...)

So last night I got to work again on the upgrade. Here's how it went...



First, I went about making myself some spaghetti sauce. (Screw that bottled stew.) Sauteed some mushrooms, onions and red pepper...added some chopped tomatoes and sauce...then some spices...let simmer.



Next, having finished the painting of my computer case, I decided to switch out Fat Man and Little Boy to get Fat Man in its proper place next to Silver. Looks good, don't it? Keep in mind the flash distorts the color a bit - the blue is more subtle than that.

Also note the "True Story of Old Rip" brochure laying on the scanner. Read all about him in my new article.

Of course, this time I remembered to change the monitor resolution before I moved Little Boy over to the crappy monitor. I had a real time getting Fat Man's desktop to show up because everything was set too high.

Unfortunately, it still didn't work. Forgot to change the refresh rate. Moved it back over to the 21", then back again with the proper settings.

Then, it was a challenge to install the monitor drivers for the 21" on Fat Man. Couldn't do it. No monitor showed up in the Device Manager, so I couldn't update the drivers there. Looked in Display > Settings > Advanced, where it was showing Default Monitor, but Properties was grayed out -- couldn't update it there. Tried uninstalling Default Monitor; it uninstalled, but still showed up in Display and I still couldn't install drivers. Tried installing new hardware, but there were no options to install a monitor. I tried Other Devices, pointed it to the proper INF files and it told me the selected files didn't contain information about my hardware. It didn't even know what hardware I was trying to install!



After fighting with all this for a good hour, rebooting many times, I shut the whole thing off and ate my spaghetti. Mmmm...good. Would have had one of the many bottles of red wine I brought back with me from California two years ago, but I don't have a corkscrew.

Then it was back to it again. And it hit me! Right-click an appropriate INF file and select Install. Hmm...nothing happened. Reboot. A-ha! It shows up as Viewsonic! Not the right one, but now I can update the drivers through any of the normal methods I tried before. I guess a little pasta opened up the brain pores. But, wow, what a waste of time.

Incidentally, for those of you who look in Device Manager often, like myself, I've got a tip for you. Normally, you have to go to Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. You can set a shortcut to System, but you still have to go through the rest of the process to get to Device Manager. Instead, create a new shortcut and point it directly to: %windir%\System32\devmgmt.msc



I like to use this icon and put it on my desktop.


[This message has been edited by Wes (edited 08-24-2002).]

While were on the topic of computer cases, take a look at this: http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/

Nice story Wes...Computers can BE SUCH a hassle.

I have the same motherboard and BIOS as you! It defidently isn't as good as an ASUS motherboard. Mine is only 1.4 Ghz though.

[This message has been edited by counterfeitbacon (edited 08-24-2002).]

While I was moving stuff around, I decided to go ahead and strip off Little Boy's case. Getting that bezel off was a pain -- it didn't just pull off and there were no tabs to be seen. Finally, I figured out that there were several low-profile tabs hidden behind the a lip on the front of the chassis. Had to use a screwdriver to pop them out.

Man, it's filthy in there. I'll have to break out the canned air again. (Canned air...weird.)



I then discovered the reset switch and the power and drive lights were hard-wired and hot-glued to the bezel. Had to disconnect them from the motherboard, but they're labeled well so it shouldn't be a problem getting them back on. I say this because I don't have a manual for this computer -- it's the one given to me by my California employer when I left. I don't even know yet what motherboard is in there.

And what's this? There's no case fan in this thing! How did I never know that?? Looks like I'll have to pick one of those up.

Oh, why did I strip off the case? You'll find out...

Got everything reconnected to the network and made a huge step (for me). I transferred all my Outlook files over to Fat Man. Office was already installed, but I still had three profiles to set up and several e-mail files to import. Thankfully, all went well.

At that point, I decided it was time to make the big move and assign all the computers new names -- woohoo! Silver, which as you'll remember, was a temporary code name. Now, it's officially Fat Man. The old Fat Man became Little Boy, and the old Little Boy is now simply Backup, which will be a dedicated backup system, since it's not good for much else.



I also figured, with the new case designs, I'd set the desktops to reflect the outward appearances of the computers. Little Boy I gave a blue color scheme, and Fat Man I tried to give a silver sort of scheme, but it didn't work. So, I took one of the brushed-aluminum panels off and scanned it. Now the desktop is brushed metal, too.

Oh, and Backup? I gave him a red color scheme. Anyone who's been paying attention will know what I plan to do with that case now.



BTW, I forgot to mention I sliced open my finger cutting mushrooms for the spaghetti sauce last night. I guess I should have taken a picture of the bleeding digit, but I was too busy bleeding. Here's what it looks like today. Enjoy.

Very cool Wes. Good thing I've never had to screw with any hardware for as long as you did the monitor... Yea, right.

But what made this documentary complete was the picture of your finger at the end. Without that, this whole thread and the previous one(s) wouldn't have been worth it. Then again, I could be wrong...

I've read all these dang things... I've actually enjoyed it...

nice finger, post more bleeding limbs...


PS
what color blue is your room? I like it, have beent hinking of doing that for a long time...
thanks!

[This message has been edited by AT (edited 08-25-2002).]