2 weeks go by...

No lack of intrest just lack of time... Why do things always seem to be busier than the previous week?

This week is going to be quieter than last! Really....


The Parents Visit

It would have been great except Mom and Jessica couldn't come to terms with each other. We did get down to the King of Prussia mall, and to Palace of Asia for Indian food. All in all a good visit - despite the war between the girls...

The computer saga

I ordered a 160GB SATA HD from my computer (Samsung model with 8mb of cache -silent and fast!). Only problem was I meant to order the same drive in regular IDE - my motherboard doesn't support SATA.

Options:

1 - return drive, wait a week or so. Lose 15% (~$15)
2 - purchase SATA PCI card for ~$45 at local computer store, CON: want computer to be quieter (need less components for better airflow)
3 - new motherboard that supports SATA ~$90 (ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe)

So I ordered the new motherboard and it got here fast (NewEgg rocks!).

Problems getting it booting off the SATA disk (trying not use old drives) - no NTLDR found. Windows Install painfully slow - WinXP Pro disk cracked causing read errors - but it works.

All of a sudden no more booting. Lights on, fans on but not posting. Dead video card?

Went to bestbuy and bought a Radeo 9800Pro (128MB) for $250. ouch.

Didn't work - atleast I get to return the new video card (I like my Ti4400 for now - maybe this fall I'll get a new card). Must be processor or ram.

Ordered new processor (XP 2600+), and Ram (Crusial PC2700). Thanks again Newegg. Hope its the processor thats dead - atleast then I'll have a gig of RAM instead of 512...

Yep its the processor. Boot up - right into windows - no NTLDR error!
Windows update: Service pack 1. Reboot. All hotfixes. Reboot. Driver Upgrades. Reboot. DX 9 Reboot Media Player & Bios flash. BSOD dance. (if you didn't know by default WinXP reboots when a BSOD is hit, if it occurs on boot up you end up with an endless boot->bsod->reboot cycle - be sure to turn this feature off!)

Reflashed bios back to original (download on laptop, burn to cd, boot off Win98 cd run of Cd rom). Still BSOD dance. Reinstalled Windows XP from Kirts cd - but my key wouldn't allow me to "activate", ended up using my cd dumped onto my usb harddrive to "upgrade". Added SP1 and service packs but not Windows media player or the bios update.

Endless hours I didn't have in vain. $100 upgrade ended up costing about $300 ($250 I still need to get back by returning the video card). Turns out the NTLDR error was occuring because the motherboard was trying to boot off the USB harddrive -urgh.

In the end though it was worth it - the computer is MUCH faster now!

School

Accounting for managers is much more difficult and time consuming than the marketing and finance courses were. I finally think I turned a corner upon completing this last assignment though - finally enough knowledge built up to get things to fall into place. 3 assignements down, 5 to go.