Stupid *&^%$@#! HP laptop...
Jun. 1st, 2007 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calic0catWell, after finally thinking that I was going to have a little time to do some writing and online stuff (website updates and the like) this week, my year-old HP laptop decided to throw a hissy fit on Monday.
It would boot, it would start Windows, it would even claim to be starting programs - but then nothing would ever happen. The mouse would still work, so it wasn't completely frozen up, but programs would just never start - nor would Windows ever report that they weren't responding. Windows wouldn't log off, restart, or shut down; I had to kill the power to get the stupid thing to turn off. After much struggling, I finally got the bloody hunk of junk into Windows Safe Mode and managed to back up the drive to a USB hard drive (since it had been a couple of weeks since the last time I'd backed anything up). Backing up the important files on the hard drive took over twenty-four hours. Nothing errored out and there weren't *that* many files to copy; the computer just copied that slowly.
So, once I'd safely completed the backup, I ran all of HP's diagnostics on the laptop.
It passed all of them.
Scan disked, defragged, etc. - repeatedly. Had a bunch of bad clusters mentioned on the first disk scan (along with the message that there wasn't enough free space to move them to) but HP's drive diagnostics gave the drive a pass and XP's disk scan doesn't offer a visual option so I don't know whether the clusters are marked bad so they no longer cause problems or if the original report was bogus. The computer finally seems to be working again (though who knows how long that will last), though it also still seems a bit slow (could just be paranoia that makes me think that at this point).
Methinks it's time to offload the Mac Mini that's supposed to be my backup computer (but which is just different enough to be too darn much work to use when I'm already stressed about my main PC being down) and replace it with a PC again.
At any rate, of course, now that the week is over and I've wasted my "free time" on computer troubleshooting, the stupid laptop is now working again and I'm too busy to get anything done. :P
I'm also seriously late in reminding folks that the Moonridge 2007 Auction is in progress. I don't have much up in the way of donations this year; just a (store-bought) fleece throw, a set of four glass coasters, and a pair of blue glass mugs (glassware all acid-etched by me using graphics adapted from various sources). Descriptions and pics are up on the Moonridge Auction site and bidding is at The Free Auction (and will be ending just after midnight tonight). Other items in the auction will be closing at various times throughout the day tomorrow.
I'd hoped to have a chance to polish off a couple of the mostly-completed short fics that are kicking around on my hard drive in time to donate them, too, but my laptop kind of screwed that plan up royally. :P
It would boot, it would start Windows, it would even claim to be starting programs - but then nothing would ever happen. The mouse would still work, so it wasn't completely frozen up, but programs would just never start - nor would Windows ever report that they weren't responding. Windows wouldn't log off, restart, or shut down; I had to kill the power to get the stupid thing to turn off. After much struggling, I finally got the bloody hunk of junk into Windows Safe Mode and managed to back up the drive to a USB hard drive (since it had been a couple of weeks since the last time I'd backed anything up). Backing up the important files on the hard drive took over twenty-four hours. Nothing errored out and there weren't *that* many files to copy; the computer just copied that slowly.
So, once I'd safely completed the backup, I ran all of HP's diagnostics on the laptop.
It passed all of them.
Scan disked, defragged, etc. - repeatedly. Had a bunch of bad clusters mentioned on the first disk scan (along with the message that there wasn't enough free space to move them to) but HP's drive diagnostics gave the drive a pass and XP's disk scan doesn't offer a visual option so I don't know whether the clusters are marked bad so they no longer cause problems or if the original report was bogus. The computer finally seems to be working again (though who knows how long that will last), though it also still seems a bit slow (could just be paranoia that makes me think that at this point).
Methinks it's time to offload the Mac Mini that's supposed to be my backup computer (but which is just different enough to be too darn much work to use when I'm already stressed about my main PC being down) and replace it with a PC again.
At any rate, of course, now that the week is over and I've wasted my "free time" on computer troubleshooting, the stupid laptop is now working again and I'm too busy to get anything done. :P
I'm also seriously late in reminding folks that the Moonridge 2007 Auction is in progress. I don't have much up in the way of donations this year; just a (store-bought) fleece throw, a set of four glass coasters, and a pair of blue glass mugs (glassware all acid-etched by me using graphics adapted from various sources). Descriptions and pics are up on the Moonridge Auction site and bidding is at The Free Auction (and will be ending just after midnight tonight). Other items in the auction will be closing at various times throughout the day tomorrow.
I'd hoped to have a chance to polish off a couple of the mostly-completed short fics that are kicking around on my hard drive in time to donate them, too, but my laptop kind of screwed that plan up royally. :P
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Date: 2007-06-01 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-10 02:48 pm (UTC)