Computer Blues

I love my computer, truly I do. It's almost a security blanket for me. It's the place where I go to relax and unwind. It's a comfort zone where I'm in control of everything. However, lately I haven't been in control at all. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to convince my computer to boot up consistently.

See, it all started when I finally did a massive upgrade of my system. I had been running an 800 MHz processor with 512M of RAM. I got a new motherboard, upgraded to 1Gig of DDR RAM, and got an AMD 3400 processor. I have kept my IDE data drive (which I use TweakUI to put most everything on), but I also got a new 80Gig SATA drive to use as my Windows/boot drive. This drive has been the bane of my existence recently.

You see, for some reason, my computer doesn't want to keep it's connection to the SATA drive. I've tried just about everything short of ditching the drive completely and getting an IDE drive. I've swapped ports on the motherboard, I've moved the drive from being Windows/boot to being just the Windows drive with a smaller (IDE) boot drive, blah. I just don't understand why my computer hates it's new drive so much!

I've checked the drive (using the manufacturer's tools) and it's physically okay, but the structure or index or some such got corrupt (I've been out of the loop as far as the technology/terminology is concerned for over five years now... an eternity in the computer world). It can't find "hal.dll" or something like that. I've reinstalled Windows XP (doing a complete scrub of the partition to ensure no lingering issues) three times so far. I've attempted to overinstall and to "repair" the Windows installation. In the end, the only way I get any function at all is to use the smaller "boot" drive (which I'd prefer not to have in the computer at all) as a "Windows/boot" drive... which means I won't have space to install all my programs/games... and my brand new SATA drive is a fairly expensive lump in the case doing absolutely nothing.

Anyone with any ideas that I haven't mentioned, feel free to comment... I may have tried things I've forgotten to post, but if so, I'll mention it in response to any suggestion comments I get. I just want my comfort zone to be all peaceful and functioning again.

Incommunicado

I've been basically without internet connection since my last post. My main computer is dead (two reloads later, I'm definitely getting a bit frustrated) and we just finalized the move back to southern Virginia with my parents.

My parents are out in the country on 22 acres of land, a very nice spot, but dialup or satellite are the only options for internet. We tried satellite when they first got here, but discovered a "fair use policy" that we consider pretty ridiculous. It basically said that if we maintained an average connection speed of 14.4 over the course of several hours (or a higher speed over much less time) we'd get shut down until the time period (several hours) expired. With a family of four or more computer and internet users, that didn't cut it. So, we're back to dialup, which is hideously slow, but at least it's on more often than not. We're still trying to talk the cable company into running a line here or see if we can get ISDN, but for now, dialup is what we've got.

So, I've got my work computer finally up and connecting to the dialup. Maybe I can be a bit more regular about my blogging now.