I think I'm going to cry now.

[hummingwolf]

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?

Comments

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Sorry sorry sorry.

I hope it comes back to life.

[cantinera.livejournal.com]

:(

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

Yikes.

Hey, if my mom-in-law gives me her computer and we somehow manage to arrange for a trip down there, maybe you can have mine. Okay, those are two really big ifs, and also this old monster has served me well for seven years and I still hesitate to let such a dependable machine slip through my fingers until I find out if mom-in-law's is as good... but... if I end up getting all weirdly sentimental at the last minute (and the other ifs come though) then you can have hers!

Because there's nothing sadder than disposing of a computer that works when somebody you know needs it.

[stevenglassman.livejournal.com]

What does it do when you try to turn it on? Does it try to spin up at all? If there's no power at all, then replacing the power supply could fix. If it spins up but doesn't boot, then perhaps Windows can be repaired. I wanna help.

[dcjensen.livejournal.com]

Me too, I wanna help.

[eipooz.livejournal.com]

That SUCKS!

2004 was supposed to be *better* for all of us. What the hell happened with that?

[skygypsy.livejournal.com]

ohh nooo!!

bad computer!!

/does some funky voodoo on it

better?

*hopeful*

Oh, shit, sweetie

[megthelegend.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry. :(

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

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.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Please see my response to Pengy (I'd copy & paste it here, but you know library systems--copy and paste are disabled here).

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, I got your package yesterday! Nothing like a good dose of chocolate to keep me from falling into the pit of depression again. But for future reference, if you mail a package like that to somebody again, you might want to seal the chocolate in a bag to keep it separate from the other stuff--chocolate melts, yo. But only a little bit got into the CD case, so I might be able to listen to it later if I can keep myself from licking it...

Thanks again, Amandinera!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Hey, I appreciate the thought! Though if I still don't have a working computer before you get the one from your mom-in-law, I'm not sure how you'll get hold of me in order to figure out visiting arrangements...

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Make it stop?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Heh. Doesn't seem to have worked, but thanks for trying.

Re: Oh, shit, sweetie

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Me too.

You might want to let your friend know that there's a good chance she won't be getting a fractal from me after all.

[stevenglassman.livejournal.com]

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...

[windsparrow.livejournal.com]

::snuggling HW close::

[cantinera.livejournal.com]

How much of it melted? Did the book get yurky? I hope the CD isn't affected? And err, did the letter get gross and the tea?

Also, let me know which songs you dig, ya dig?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the book and letter got yurky. It's not a huge amount of chocolate, but it did spread a bit when it melted on the way to my place. But the letter's still readable and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to listen to the CD okay.

I'll let you know which songs I dig once I've heard 'em! Or probably a few days after I've heard them if the computer sitch isn't straightened out before then.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

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.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

::snuggles back::

[stevenglassman.livejournal.com]

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::

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

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.

Re: Oh, shit, sweetie

[megthelegend.livejournal.com]

Will do. Aargh.