Enter the Dark Side!?

In the past two days I had THE trouble!

In a mixed environment of 16 PCs with a variety of hardware and OSes I was consumed by the mind/soul breaking of PC troubles... Just follow me:
Experience from the Dark Side... For 07 and 08/11/2002:

The systems...
--------------
Anything between Intel P2, P3 & P4 up to 1.7 GHz and up to Athlon XP 1600+ with NICs with Windows 98se, Windows 2000 (w/SP2) and Windows XP (w/SP1)...

The problem...
--------------
Everything worked almost perfect for the past 6 months or so that we support the company that owns the above systems. Until the systems took matters into their own "hands"! They started NOT to see each other on the Network...

The solution...
-------------
No matter what I tried: Inspected/Changed switches, cables, NICs, drivers, patches, EVERYTHING... Check for Viruses: Clean! Run some hardware tests: Perfect! So, freaking systems what is your problem I asked and of course NO answer came... Then not wanting to visit a doctor myself tried the following: Uninstalled ALL network related settings, drivers, apps, cleaned up the Registries as much as I could (manually) and after all said and done, I re-installed all the above stuff... Guess what? Everything works just fine! Sounds logical, doesn't it?

Welcome to the Dark Side! Part 4 of ?

I would like to tell you about the BSOD that I have to fix on a Windows XP with P4/2.4 GHz after I'll finish with this post but that's a story for another time...
 
Working perfect for six months in a network environment is quite a testament to any OS.

Perhaps you wouldn't have so much trouble with PC hardware and software if you were better at what you "do?" :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by fryke
From the 'Interface Hall of Shame':

oe5del.gif


Wonder what it does, if you click 'yes'?

It would likely open up a file explorer allowing you to find messages in folders other than "Deleted Items" and delete them manually.

Why exactly is that so hard to understand?
 
Originally posted by itanium
Working perfect for six months in a network environment is quite a testament to any OS.

Perhaps you wouldn't have so much trouble with PC hardware and software if you were better at what you "do?" :rolleyes:

...try to reply EVEN better...

I wrote ALMOST PERFECT and also I didn't tell the PCs to break down in the first place! However, they did that by themselves just fine :D

And believe me... for them to be able to work ALMOST PERFECT for six months it was MY personal work who let them do that until as I said they took the matters into their own "hands" :D

Last, try to enjoy your visits to my posts as much as possible because I can see that you like to reply to someone's posts who isn't doing his job correclty :rolleyes: After all this makes you look good, isn't it?
 
Guess who gave them Microsofties the idea?

THE DAMN WRITER OF "MISSION - IMPOSSIBLE". Part 3 of the movie will feature a mainframe that goes "This mainframe, bought new, will self destruct in 12 months, right after all warranty coverage are over!"

Sony does this best. LOL.
 
Yep... It's me!

Anyways, I didn't post anything in the past few weeks or so because I saw an increased amount of news/rumors here... But it was a good timing because in my job we had THE work with Macs! :D

We sold about 15 Macs, applications, games, peripherals, THE WORKS... And I had more work to do with Macs (THANK GOD) than with PCs ;)

However, what I wanted to share with you is this:
The new PowerBooks rule! We sold 2 867MHz and they are AWESOME! That's why I ordered the 1GHz with DVD-R ASAP!!! Unfortunately I have to wait up until 15 of December or so :mad:

I don't know why people whine so much about Apple's offerings but I'm guessing it is because they like to do so... Believe me when I say that there is nothing like the new Dual G4/1.25 with GeForce 4Ti or the new PB/867 in the Dark Side of things :D

These toys/tools are SO cool! :D
 
Originally posted by itanium
It would likely open up a file explorer allowing you to find messages in folders other than "Deleted Items" and delete them manually.

Why exactly is that so hard to understand?

The message says: "Do you want Outlook Express to delete some items for you?"

It doesn't SOUND like it would give you a list. It says it would do it on its own, without interaction. It's just scary, is all.

Imagine you're in the kitchen and I ask you, sitting at your computer: "Do you want me to delete some mails for you?" Would you think the answer 'YES' (not browse or select or whatever) would lead to a good feeling? :p
 
Originally posted by fryke
The message says: "Do you want Outlook Express to delete some items for you?"

It doesn't SOUND like it would give you a list. It says it would do it on its own, without interaction. It's just scary, is all.

Imagine you're in the kitchen and I ask you, sitting at your computer: "Do you want me to delete some mails for you?" Would you think the answer 'YES' (not browse or select or whatever) would lead to a good feeling? :p

I'll admit, it could be worded better but I would assume a Explorer window would popup if I clicked yes giving me access to other Outlook Explorer folders that might have files I wish to delete. The way you expect things in Windows to work differs greatly from Mac OS.

Another thing I find silly about refering to the 'Interface Hall of Shame' is that the Windows UIs they reference are from 95 and NT. Eight year old UIs that have since changed dramatically. I tried to get Outlook Express to do what your picture indicates, it wont. Obviously its been fixed.

Did OS 8 and 9 not have things about them that didn't make sense that Apple has since fixed? I don't see anyone referencing these OSs and pointing fingers. That would just be silly. Why do the same thing with Windows?:p
 
I find this thread intriguing… but anyway,
Originally posted by itanium
Did OS 8 and 9 not have things about them that didn't make sense that Apple has since fixed? I don't see anyone referencing these OSs and pointing fingers. That would just be silly. Why do the same thing with Windows?:p
Actually, I think (and I hope others do too) that OS 8 / 9 had a more intuitive interface than OS X. And I don't really remember ever going "huh?!?!" to an error message or anything, but maybe it's subjective.

<shrug>
 
i think it's funny when people say "the PC crashed because you're not good at using it". it's a good default argument, kinda like claiming someone's a witch.
if people on this messageboard (inferring some sort of computer knowledge) can have a WinTel machine totally crash on them, imagine what people who aren't exactly PC savvy think. it's a good thing for tech support employees that WinTel machines are still the norm ^_^.

anyway, nothing quirky with my Mac yet, but i do have a story with my old iMac. initiate ghost story telling voice!
one night, in a dark room, lit only by the distinctive 75Hz flicker of an iMac CRT, a poor young man was minding his own business, fiddling around on the internet. a cilck here, a click there... a few more clicks and he would go to bed. he wasn't aware of the events that would unfold before him on that dark and dreary night. (dum dum DUHNuHNUHHH)
after he put his computer to sleep, he noticed something rather odd-- the computer didn't spin down the hard disk as it usually does when it goes to sleep. (DUHNUHNAHNUHHH)
curious, the lad clicked his mouse. nothing. he pushed the space bar. nothing. the pulsing power button kept on, relentleslly deriding the poor boy as it would light up the room, then fade into darkness. this cycle would go on until the boy simply could not take it any more. he slowly reached his finger out to the power button and pressed it, holding it down. 5 seconds later the light ceased, the hard disk spinning down.
beads of sweat formed on the worried boy's brow. what would happen once the power was turned back on? fearing the future, the boy stalled a bit, but it had to happen. he reached out and turned the computer on. (DUH NUH DuHHHH)
the boy was shattered when the friendly mac chime did not sound to ease his pain. the computer began to boot normally, however, but he was still worried. he waited for an eternity before the familiar, soothing GUI of OS X came up. Ah! the dock! yes, everything is fine. but that's when IT happened ... ( DUH DUH DUH DUHHHHHH)
like the night itself, blackness smeared across the friendly face of the OS X GUI. text was sprawled over the screen. nothing but random characters, it seemed. letters, numbers, all mocking the poor user as he sat there, defenseless against the onslaught of this harbinger of doom. a few characters stood out to him: "KERNEL", "SYSTEM", "ERROR", "MORON"; and then he saw it: "panic: we are hanging here".
the boy was never heard from again.
 
I got an email the other day from a friend who I consider a definite Windows "power user." She has an HP desktop, less than 1 year old, and runs XP Pro on it. Fast Pentium 4, lots of DDR RAM.
She mentioned that her latest ftp session had failed because of pop-ups.
Say what???
Turns out she was web surfing and opened a couple of web pages that triggered pop-ups. This in turn slowed everything to a crawl, including her ftp. So she did the 3-finger salute to bring up the Task Manager. And when she explicitly told it to just close those browser windows, it promptly shut down everything!
Just one day earlier, she had commented that she was experiencing a lot of instability, and was going to defrag her hard drive for the 2nd time in 3 days.
Yup, that Bill Gates is some computer genius, all right... :p
 
Originally posted by genghiscohen
So she did the 3-finger salute to bring up the Task Manager. And when she explicitly told it to just close those browser windows, it promptly shut down everything!

that would be, because IE6 has NOT Responded. If any window has caused IE to crash, although it may appear the others aren't effected, they are. And so, attempting to close the null window via Task Manager will bring you to a "this program is not responding window" ... For which it tells you may continue to wait for the app to respond (Via Cancel) or end the Task (Via End Now) ...Thats why it would of closed all windows.

On a personal note, i wouldn't really want to use IE for FTP Anyhow, but each and everyone to their OWN!

Neyo
 
Originally posted by ~~NeYo~~
that would be, because IE6 has NOT Responded. If any window has caused IE to crash, although it may appear the others aren't effected, they are. And so, attempting to close the null window via Task Manager will bring you to a "this program is not responding window" ... For which it tells you may continue to wait for the app to respond (Via Cancel) or end the Task (Via End Now) ...Thats why it would of closed all windows.

On a personal note, i wouldn't really want to use IE for FTP Anyhow, but each and everyone to their OWN!

Neyo

Oooh, i've got that Leaked Longhorn Build to play with 2morra! :D

Neyo
 
Here's on:

Brand new Dell P4 1.6 with 512mb of DDR. My father got it around the christmass season and I helped him set it up. Take everything out of the box and hook then plugged in the mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

Power the system, everything goes ok. He goes through the setup assistants and is finally done (45 minutes later). Not 2 minutes after that I hear "What the he||!". Walk in the den and what do I see? Take a wild guess...our favorite thing in the world - the Windows screen of death.

What makes it better is we reboot and get the weirdest error message, and IMHO the funniest ever. I wish I would been able to save a screen shot.

The computer (XP) told us the system lacked the minimal required specs to run it. He calls Dell, and the tech can barely speak English. When we tell him what's going on there's a long silence, followed by a request to hold as he's transfering us to a higher tier tech person. Dell has no idea as the cause. Takes 2 days for them to offer to replace it. We decide to call back if that's required, and format and reinstall XP.

Now the thing works, er...now it slugs. My father thinks it's fast as he||, but remember he bought this to replace a 100mhz pentium with 64 mb ram and Win98. After a week or so we had it exchanged. The new system didn't do any of this junk, but I still think it should be much faster.
 
P4/1.7 GHz with Asus P4B and 256MB of ram with 40GB hard disk + Nec DVD and other stuff... Loaded with Windows 2000 Pro, Office 2000 Pro and PowerDVD 3.0 fails to play DVDs at normal speed!!!

No matter what, the DVD insists on NOT playing at normal speed (1x)! Instead it plays movies on 2x speed!!!

Installed PowerDVD 4 (aka XP)... Nothing! Updated BIOS... Nothing! Updated mainboard drivers... Nothing! Updated graphics card drivers... Nothing! Installed WinDVD 3.0... Nothing! Cleaned registry... Nothing! Tried everything but reinstalling the OS, etc.... STILL nothing!!! Playback of movies still at 2x speed!!!

Solution? Where is it? Still trying to figure things out... Now, if ANYONE here got a similar problem and found a solution PLEASE let me know ASAP... Cause I'm starting to lose it :confused:
 
Athlon XP 2000+, ECS mainboard, 256 MB DDR/266, 40 GB hard disk, GeForce 4MX 440 64 MB + tv out, Nec DVD-ROM, Windows XP Pro, LiteOn CD-RW, other system utilities after copying stuff around (cd to hd, hd to hd, hd to cd-rw, cd to cd-rw) the system ABSOLUTELY freezes! Note than moving around files on hard disk is not freezing the system... Or doing ANYTHING else including play games! However, after a freeze: Reset, try the same copy stuff... Freeze!

Updated EVERYTYHING... Tried the usual stuff, nothing! Changed hardware... The same freezing!!! Solution? Reformatted, reinstalled everything with the original hardware & software and everything is back on track!

Thank God it was a fresh new PC ready for selling and not one loaded with important stuff...
 
An HP P4/1.7 GHz server running Windows 2000 Server, with 512 MB RAM was working just fine for the last couple of months... Then all of the sudden after shutting it down for a couple of hours for maintenance and then tried it to start it up it crashed giving us I/O errors!!!

Checked the hardware again and again... Nothing! Checked the hard disks... Nope! Tried to boot in other ways... Nay! Used the Repair method with the so called Emergency Disk... Zip! Manual Repair method with and without the use of console... Still nothing! :mad:

I/O errors, NT kernel errors, the works! Then decided to install in a different location (directory) and after some time the system booted in the new install... However, uppon restarting the Server I gave another shot by booting in the old problematic setup and guess what? It simply worked as if nothing had happened :confused:

But because the Server has 2 installations and this by experience can mess things after some time BADLY we have to backup everything and reinstall from the beginning... :eek:

Sounds like fun, huh? But you know what? This really sucks! :(
 
i made the switch to mac on 11-25-02... I will tell you this... OS X is a fine running GUI... Although I do miss system restore in Windows XP lol... and the easy... Add/program remove tab... I still find that OS X is superior than what Windows has to offer...
 
Back
Top