Dani was here at 7:00 AM. His computer is working again, so I had time to launch into the Barbie. Other things, too, like throw out another sixty pounds of books and paint the front of the trailer to break up that institutional white color. It makes it a mite more apparent that the trailer is not level on the foundation but anyone in a park like this can appreciate that.
The day was made for puttering, it did not even start to get warn until nearly 11:00 – something newcomers should never fail to allow for in summertime Florida. It was cool enough that I was able to turn off the power long enough to rewire the bathroom so I have an outlet that isn’t jury-rigged.. Should that be jurry-rigged. And how come there are so many 4 way stop when if you think about it a 3 way would work even better.
Back to the Barbie. This computer was marketed in 2000, judging by the parts inside. It has a proprietory motherboard which limits what can be upgraded. There is a bay for a second hard drive, but only one IDE controller which I need for the existing drive and the CD-RW.
Anyone remember the CIA computer? It was underfoot at JP’s so I brought it home with me y’day. Guess what? It had some swappable parts, including a 128 MB SDRAM card that fits neatly into the Barbie’s single slot which had 32 MB. Also, I took out the 4 GB and replaced it with a 40 GB which I had to detune to 32 GB during the install. That install, incidentally, was Win XP. Making this the best upgrade I’ve ever done on a non-standard computer. That includes the CD burner and software. The remaining thing to go is to connect a wireless to the other guys Internet connection, which he agreed to for a tuneup last week.
Imagine my self-satisfaction when Win XP “took” on this unit. At first, the bios kept asking for a file not present, then balked at anything over 32 MB. I set everything lower during the bootup, then restored it to full capacity afterward. It seems to work fine making suspect it may have been some BIOS restriction on block addressing. The point is, it is done and looking good. I can make money doing a $100 upgrade.
For the benefit of those not familiar with the process, here are some pictures showing some of the major steps in the upgrade procedures. It is a series of careful steps that you should have an understanding of the process because it is a little different for almost every computer. You can see me begin to remove the case, then start matching up RAM chips. For example, you have to know when a PC133 will work in a PC100 slot, as this one did. Then the hard drive installation, it is sitting on top of the computer during the install, so if it does not take I don’t have to take everything apart again. See the look of happiness when Win XP “takes” on the overhead monitor. Success!
It is now past the tolerance level, even though I am stripped to the waist and both fans are pumping air around the interior of both halves of the trailer. I can get away with a little more because the new AC unit blows right onto the computer desk. Soon I’ll walk over to Dunkin Donuts for a coffee break as I’m all done for the day, really. I made a big tray of baked chicken breasts, half with spice half with mesquite marinade so no more cooking in the heat for the rest of today.
Well, there you have it. I spent seven hours on that computer learned a lot. One is that 400 MHz is a little too slow for XP. What else? Okay, I need to read up a lot more on motherboards, or at least which ones are compatible with what. I installed a HP CD-RW that could not read an ordinary audio CD with that motherboard, yet it works fine on others. I pretty well have to give this guy the computer at cost since anyone else would have told him to throw it away by now. I still have not made it out for coffee and it is 5:30 PM.
The G asked if I could make it to the beach today. I kind of hinted that it didn’t pay enough. I see the original DVD model I bought two years ago is now on sale at Brandstupid for $19.88. I’ve put in lots of hours on this new computer and I tell you, it is not all I thought it would be. It is fast and it would be nice if that made up for the other things it won’t do, like display inserted picture files properly.
I can’t get the drivers on that Barbie computer to take. I’ve also lost my driver detection disk. I’ll have to look those things up tomorrow after the network setup. I’ve reached the stage where it seems everybody knows everything about computers and I know nothing, because they seem to be able to fix problems without even understanding them. Yes, I know that experience takes care of all that but how much more experience does one need at my age.
So to relax, I set up the bass and amp and jammed to some of the old standard tunes. If Glenn would learn ten of my songs, we’d be ready for the cruise ships. Glenn has been practicing with Brian, so all I have to do is wait. Glenn will piss him off and I’ll have somebody with the usual 16 to 20 songs ready to go. There is always room for one more band, no matter how lousy they are. Brian has no obligation to play at Cort’s on Saturday once there is an argument and if experience holds, they’ll be having a major falling out soon. Brain does not have a PA system.
