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hummingwolf ([personal profile] hummingwolf) wrote2004-01-21 12:30 pm
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  • Current Mood: upset
  • Current Music: library patrons

I think I'm going to cry now.

Typing this from the public library because my computer at home appears to be dead. I may be taking a longer break from LJ and mailing lists than I'd expected. Oh, and no, I hadn't backed up many of my files to floppy disk because I couldn't afford floppy disks. Joy.

I'm hoping this is all a bad dream and when I go home my computer will come on again instead of sitting there like a lump in a bog.

All is not lost. I do still have a 486 at home with a 14.4 internal modem. Is it possible to do anything online these days using Netscape 2.01?
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[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2004-01-21 08:27 am (UTC)(link)
It spins up but doesn't boot or do anything, really--the monitor turns itself off for lack of anything to display.

I don't know how much detail you need, so since my computer time is limited here: Everything was running smoothly yesterday morning while I was listening to music online, until suddenly the same second of music kept repeating over and over and the computer wouldn't respond to anything I did. Ctrl+alt+del got no response: I still kept hearing the same two notes over while the computer did nothing else. So I turned off the machine, turned it back on again, and got the utter lack of response described above--it spins up, but nothing else. I turned it back off & on again a few times as well as pressing the reset button and got a response precisely once--the machine complained that it hadn't been shut off properly, got 46% of the way through scandisk, and then stalled. After that, no response.

[identity profile] stevenglassman.livejournal.com 2004-01-21 09:29 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm. I suspect i'd really have to see it. Since the drive is spinning up, that means it might be salvageable. Do you have a Windows CD? Sometimes reinstalling on top of itself will buy you some time...
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[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2004-01-21 11:27 am (UTC)(link)
No Windows CD that I know of--I think a former housemate took it when he moved out. I could check with other housemates to see if anyone else has a suitable CD. But would reinstalling Windows like that wipe out all my old files? Not that having the old files would help if I can't get to them, but I was wondering.

[identity profile] stevenglassman.livejournal.com 2004-01-21 11:29 am (UTC)(link)
Depends on the OS. Win98 can install on top of itself without killing your files. WinXP doesn't play as nice. I'm wondering if the HD itself is dying, or if you just got a data corruption.

Perhaps we should take up a collection for you for old unwanted computer bits. ::ponder::
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[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2004-01-21 11:36 am (UTC)(link)
The old OS was Win98SE, so maybe I can hope that somebody else in the house has it. WinXP wouldn't work on my machine anyway--it's too old, slow and not enough memory/space/etc. I wouldn't know if the HD is dying or not; everything was behaving perfectly smoothly till yesterday morning. Not sure if it's relevant, but I'd upgraded from Internet Exploder 5 to IE6 last week. Like I said though, everything was working smoothly until it suddenly wasn't working at all.

Thanks for trying to figure it out with me.
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