Up To Snuff

My computer died on Saturday. Well, not really died...just sort of said "no way, this ain't gonna work." Period.

What happened was that I was trying to show my mom how to work her new digital camera that she got for Christmas. I installed the driver on my computer for transferring the files from her camera to my computer. CRASH. Apparently, the driver gave my USB ports some instructions to follow that were just too much to handle! The computer continually looped...would not start up to save it's life.

Soooo...it was as good of a time as any to wipe it all out. (I know, I know....AAAHHHHHHHH!!!) But really...it was a great learning experience for me. Steve helped me over the phone...first we tried to fix the problem without having to wipe out the machine. But I was just as happy to really do it. And so I did. WOW does it run better!!! Backing up my data was not easy. I was able to get the computer back up and running, just as long as nothing came anywhere near the USB ports! So, this meant no external drives, no wireless network on which to transfer files to other computers in the house...blah blah.

So, I connected myself via a good ole fashioned wire to the router, and transferred away. Then I transferred all the data from the other computer onto the external drive. Then, reinstalled windows. Ta-daaahh!! USB ports now work! COnnected external drive to computer. Tranferred all data BACK to computer. THEN...installed all software that I use...more blah blah!

During all of THIS, I was installing the fabulous Windows updates. All 12 million of them. Think: the Windows CD that I have is Windows XP service pack 1a. Yes. You read it right...1a. So, just think of how many updates there were out there for me?? 12 million.

I decided I would like to have the latest and greatest of everything. Well, that works in theory. But Microsoft, as we all know, likes to throw crap out there for everyone to agonize over, and for everyone to ask the proverbial question "WHY oh WHY did I have to have this???" So, after installing Internet Explorer 8 beta, I had the fun experience of seeing just what it did to my beloved Ravelry when I tried to reply to a post or a thread. Let's just say it was a REALLY BAD BUG.

So...how does one uninstall IE 8? Well, it ain't easy. Microsoft doesn't make getting rid of their software easy, EVER. They WANT you to agonize, apparently. After much searching on the web (with a crippled browser, I might add), I finally found this little teeny place on the microsoft website that explained how to do it. Of course, the first way did NOT work, so I had to use the "alternate" way. Which is to say, I had to use the "forget-the-pretty-interface, put-on-the-scuba-gear-and-dive-into-the-black-screen-of-DOS" way. In any case, this brought me back to a version 6 of IE, which I then updated to version 7. WHEW. Whatta mess that was.

And how long did all this take? Well, at least a full, solid 24 hours. Of course, I did other stuff that I didn't even mention here. ((sigh)). It's done!

So far, so good. Of course, Mom feels all bad, blaming herself. Of course it isn't her fault at all! Those drivers that came with her camera are dangerous. That's all there is to it! So that leaves mom with a nice camera with crappy drivers. Now we'll have to go online and see if we can find updated drivers for it.

On to more fun stuff!!