I spent most of the morning bringing my dead machine back to life. As it shifted priorities to downloading drivers and installing updates, I switched priorities back to programming (after taking a break for a mild panic attack). Programming went swimmingly well despite some persnickety layout issues. As the afternoon progressed, Cathy began preparing for her meeting. She’s meeting with, coincidentally, my major client (unrelated to my work), and the local paper. Before she leaves, Granddaddy comes over to help with the transportation. He arrives early to have a heart to heart with Tommy about his college education which turned out to be a fantastic discussion but one that Tommy did not necessarily enjoy. I kept programming but against my best efforts had to throw in some of my own commentary. Cathy rushed out to get Amy from Girl Scouts. Bill (Granddaddy) rushed out to get Sarah and friend from school to take them to flag practice at Hardin Valley High School. After they left, a friend of Tommy’s came by unexpectedly. Then Noah arrived home. Then Tommy emerged from the basement where he was hibernating. Then Cathy returned with Amy who I helped into the house. Then Tommy and friend decided they wanted to play board games in the mess downstairs which prompted a little cleaning that Tommy and I quickly tackled. The dogs go crazy so I run upstairs to find out Granddaddy has returned with the girls because Sarah forgot something. They leave again. Amy and Evan fight. Noah wants to go to a friend’s house. Tommy and I finish preparing the downstairs so they can play Axis and Allies without Evan destroying the game. The dogs want out. Evan wants a video on the television. And finally I return to trying to get a deliverable out by 5pm (in 15 minutes).
Day: December 16, 2008
Back in business! sorta
My new motherboard is working and after a telephone call to Microsoft, Windows is activated and appears to be functioning. I have to confirm that Windows thinks it is the E drive and not the C drive (a peculiarity about my configuration) and may have a few more drivers to install but I am very close to being able to return to my frigid dungeon of programming. That process absorbed much of my morning and sent me into a mild panic attack as I have accomplished little programming today. I’ve calmed, returned to working on the laptop, and plan to knock out a couple of milestones before trying to transition downstairs.
Jasper, You Jiggy?
This is for Dean and Jeni‘s cats Jasper and crew. Originally seen at nonewbs.com.
Today’s Technical Challenge – New MB for Existing XP
My motherboard died on my computer with all the software required for my consulting efforts. Why did it die? Because the capacitors on the motherboard were manufactured with an incomplete and flawed electrolyte formula that was acquired through some bad industrial espionage. I have since been given a new (old, I mean newly manufactured but we are talking Socket 462) motherboard. After installing it last night, Windows gets to mup.drv in the bootup process and restarts the machine. So today’s challenge (and one necessary to access my invoicing software) is to get Windows repaired so that it, and all the installed software on that hard drive, work with this new motherboard. Of course, I do this in conjunction with pumping out code. Days like this make me wish I had an IT department. I miss Nate.
Error messages you don’t want to see
When booting your computer for the first time after installing a new motherboard, one should not expect to see 1) CMOS battery low nor 2) CMOS memory wrong size
Update: The CMOS simply needed to be reset. The battery was fine. The computer boots without problem now but Windows gets to mup.drv and the computer restarts without ever reaching the Windows splash screen.
