My phone rings at 8:30 this morning and it's my mom asking if I can come by today and install a new hard drive in her machine at work (she works for a small family practice) since Dell verified that her previous one was shot.

So naturally I agree to, thinking it's only a quick 10 minute or so job. Then as I'm walking up to the office this morning I suddenly realize that I'm also going to have to install Windows and any other programs she needs.

I still would have said yes regardless, it's not like I resent having to do this or anything (in fact I'm kind of enjoying just sitting here watching progress bars in the midst of all this peace and quiet).

The more I think about it, this is great. I'm not exactly an "up and at 'em" kind of fellow when it comes to Saturday mornings so this is right up my alley I guess.

Windows is done so it's time for me to go and start installing the myriad apps she needs now...

So I ditched Verizon DSL this weekend and jumped over to TW Cable. Wow. It's like 3x as fast.

Nice...

So, based on a recommendation from a friend, I decided to flash my computer's BIOS tonight in hopes that my Ethernet ports would stop randomly turning themselves off and then back on again.

Well, it worked. They're not doing that anymore -- now they're just off. But that's because my computer's not booting, or at least getting past the RAID detection that follows POST.

I decided to use Gigabyte's "@BIOS" utility that downloads the latest BIOS from their site and then installs it for you. How convenient, WHEN IT WORKS. It started to write the new BIOS when all of a sudden a Windows dialog box comes up and says "BIOS Write Error!" and then my machined reboots. And that is where I'm at now.

Talk about terrible timing. We're going to Disney next week and I'm trying to get a bunch of things in order, one of which was organizing all our photos. All of which are inaccessible at the moment. Now I'm going to have to take out my C: drive, plug it into an enclosure or some such thing and get at everything that way. Thank goodness for my work laptop. But even then, this is going to infringe on time that I don't even have at the moment.

Ugh, what a mess. This, coupled with my laptop fiasco from the spring, is making 2007 a really lousy year for me and computers. :(

...but I finally used the Windows XP System Restore to save my machine. My internets have been acting all goofy so I called Verizon Tech Support and this incredibly courteous gentleman assisted me in corrupting my computer's TCP/IP stack. Or at least I think that's what's been causing it to reboot every time I go online.

So yeah, thanks India. Thanks, NetShell. Thanks, Verizon.

Anyway, after struggling the past few days with constant unannounced reboots, it occurred to me that trying the System Restore feature might work. I've been browsing for about 25-30 minutes with no ill effects.

So far, so good. Thanks, Micro$oft!

There was a day when I used to thrive on this kind of stuff. Tinkering around with my computer(s)... Tweaking this, modding that. Not anymore; life is too busy. I just need this thing to browse the web, build a website here and there (even then, I pretty much use my work laptop for that anyway), and play the occasional Madden.

Ugh, I am just sick about this. The Asus M6BNE laptop we just purchased last month died on us this weekend. It powers up, then powers back off immediately. Then powers back up again, but does nothing (at least in terms of video output). Last night, after failing like I just described 5 times or so in a row, it came back up but then totally locked up after about 10 minutes of use... and then went back to the same issue again. See for yourself (sorry for the poor quality):



Based on all the Googling I've done over the past few days, I think it might be a CPU overheating issue. My guess is that the cooling mechanism for the CPU has failed and now the CPU is damaged. But that's just a guess. It's too bad because we've barely used it. I feel like I just flushed $525 down the toilet and now I don't have anything to show for it. ARRRGH, Chrissy even said "Are you sure it's a good idea buying a laptop with no warranty or anything?" I should have listened, I'm such an idiot.

I'm hoping that my friend Darren can figure out what the issue is, hopefully all I will have to do is replace a part or two inside it (which means spending more money).

I spoke to the person I purchased it from and while he's been very responsive to my emails, he says he isn't going to refund even a portion of my money. I guess I can't blame him, I mean it did work for a month before dying. Looks like he unloaded it at the perfect time. :(