Hello, everybody. It's awkward to be doing this after thinking I abandoned this place, but here we are, so let's begin.
So, little in my life has been going in my way right now. School is truly getting the best of me, and only recently did things start looking back up. However, the biggest thing that went wrong this week is that my computer is pretty much dead. That's right, after seven long years of operation, the HP Pavilion a1250n is officially dead. Not quite dead, but the SATA controller has fried. Alternatives exist, but they're not very good alternatives...
* I could find a PCI SATA controller card, but PCI is much slower than SATA, to the point that data corruption is common.
* I could look for an IDE hard drive, but they're rare now and slow. Plus I really don't feel like starting from scratch.
* I could buy a new computer... if convincing my dad to do so weren't such a difficult thing to do. He's rather concerned about the expenses, and the fact that I go to college in two years.
So, in short, I'm in a tight spot. I have my dad's previous work laptop to do stuff on while we try to look for a solution, but he has to hand it back to his company at the end of the week, effectively leaving me computer-less if something isn't done. I can't even do much on this computer as it stands; all I can really do is browse the web. I can't install much or even make a video. The video I just uploaded was actually rendered at school -- it was early in the morning when I chose to go to the school library and quickly render that to pass some time while I waited for school to start. I then stuck it on a flash drive and uploaded it at home.
If you want my personal opinion on what needs to be done... I'm tired of messing with this piece of garbage already. Believe me, my dad REALLY doesn't want to think the SATA controller is dead, and instead wants to think the hard drive has failed. He's swapped out at least six different hard drives hoping in vain one would work. I just want to end the frustration for both of us and just get a new one already. Heck, I'd be all for paying for it if I had the money. Which leads me to another plan I have, whether it works this way or not -- I want to sell my Lego sets. I know, I know, some of you are going to kill me for saying this, but if I haven't hammered it into your head I'm dying to rid myself of this name yet, this should probably seal the deal. Plus, with some of the sets I have, I could make a FORTUNE. It's for the best, I'll leave it at that.
So, anyway, I just think buying a new computer is the best option. It will just end all the frustration for both of us, and by the time we fix this, we'll have put more time and more effort than I ever would have cared to. Enough's enough already. I'm DONE with HP. I cannot stand their products anymore. While you may remember what I said in one blog post about this computer being great... opinions change over time, and now I'm just sick of it. Plus, I've really come to disrespect HP. Maybe a certain Canadian I know has been a contributor to that, but two other HP laptops I've used (including the one I'm using now!) are some of the worst laptops I've ever had the displeasure to use. One is on its third motherboard, and is slow as crap. The other one (the one I'm using right now) is obnoxiously loud (It's the loudest computer I've heard in my life. No joke.) and has annoying quirks with it that make it less than portable, such as turning on after hibernating it and closing it. How counter-intuitive is that?
So yeah, at this point, I am disgusted with HP. They're officially my least-favorite vendor now. On top of all these problems, my SATA failure is apparently something they're notorious for. There is one discussion on this problem alone that is THIRTY-TWO PAGES LONG. How could it be any worse? Well, enough ranting already, I hope you understand my situation on this. So for now, it seems I am on a quick hiatus. See you guys later.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Extended Info on my Childhood Computer
Remember that old post I made on old computers I grew up on? The one I focused on most was my childhood computer. I have since gotten it out (for the one day it actually worked), and I have been able to acquire MUCH more information on it since that post.
First off, it has a 486 DX4 processor, something I was unaware of when I made that post. It's a 100 MHz processor, and came just before the days of the Pentium. At one point, it was a 386. I also have learned why it was so slow - it has a terrible video card, which is now broken. Any of you ever heard of Trident video cards? Yeah, they're terrible. The one I had contained a whopping 512 KB of video memory. On top of that, it had non-existent acceleration. Because of this, anything above ten frames per second would be too much for this thing, although some games did manage to put it above that. Such an inconsistent card... Anyway, it also had 16 MB of RAM, and a Sound Blaster 16 sound card. It also has a 44x Speed CD-ROM drive, though it's not the original one.
Also, my dad incorrectly remembered it being originally MS-DOS, then being Windows 95. It was a Windows 3.1 at one point as well. I know this because it has a lot of the sounds, files and applications that were included with 3.1 (including Cardfile, Calendar, Clock, the "ta-da" and "chime" noises, a corrupted CANYON.MID, and, can you believe it, Reversi!).
Through scouring within the files, I've found even more cool and interesting stuff. The first HE game I ever played was Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, on that rare 4-game disc! I then had Spy Fox 1, and THEN I had the Humongous Classics Collection. I also happened to own a few of the games very close to their release dates, including Spy Fox 1, Pajama Sam 2, Pajama Sam 3, and Freddi Fish 3. I also now understand why the games ran in Slow Machine Mode (it has a special mode that turns off certain things to allow easier play on slower computers) -- the video card was a pile of crap! To further emphasize that, when you played HE games on it, you could very clearly see a "wipe" between every screen. I'm looking to get another one soon, though, so don't worry about it.
I should also mention it has quite a few games I totally forgot about, including Toy Story Activity Center, Aladdin Activity Center, and George Shrinks, a faux-Living Book game (I'd definitely like to cover Living Books in a later post, if I ever make one). I also thought I got Tonka Search and Rescue after Construction before, but I actually got them for my fourth birthday.
Those are basically extra informative tidbits on my 486 computer. I'm glad to have finally gotten the thing out, and it's awesome that I was finally able to relive it, even if it was only for one day. I promise I will get that video card issue resolved ASAP. See you next time.
First off, it has a 486 DX4 processor, something I was unaware of when I made that post. It's a 100 MHz processor, and came just before the days of the Pentium. At one point, it was a 386. I also have learned why it was so slow - it has a terrible video card, which is now broken. Any of you ever heard of Trident video cards? Yeah, they're terrible. The one I had contained a whopping 512 KB of video memory. On top of that, it had non-existent acceleration. Because of this, anything above ten frames per second would be too much for this thing, although some games did manage to put it above that. Such an inconsistent card... Anyway, it also had 16 MB of RAM, and a Sound Blaster 16 sound card. It also has a 44x Speed CD-ROM drive, though it's not the original one.
Also, my dad incorrectly remembered it being originally MS-DOS, then being Windows 95. It was a Windows 3.1 at one point as well. I know this because it has a lot of the sounds, files and applications that were included with 3.1 (including Cardfile, Calendar, Clock, the "ta-da" and "chime" noises, a corrupted CANYON.MID, and, can you believe it, Reversi!).
Through scouring within the files, I've found even more cool and interesting stuff. The first HE game I ever played was Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, on that rare 4-game disc! I then had Spy Fox 1, and THEN I had the Humongous Classics Collection. I also happened to own a few of the games very close to their release dates, including Spy Fox 1, Pajama Sam 2, Pajama Sam 3, and Freddi Fish 3. I also now understand why the games ran in Slow Machine Mode (it has a special mode that turns off certain things to allow easier play on slower computers) -- the video card was a pile of crap! To further emphasize that, when you played HE games on it, you could very clearly see a "wipe" between every screen. I'm looking to get another one soon, though, so don't worry about it.
I should also mention it has quite a few games I totally forgot about, including Toy Story Activity Center, Aladdin Activity Center, and George Shrinks, a faux-Living Book game (I'd definitely like to cover Living Books in a later post, if I ever make one). I also thought I got Tonka Search and Rescue after Construction before, but I actually got them for my fourth birthday.
Those are basically extra informative tidbits on my 486 computer. I'm glad to have finally gotten the thing out, and it's awesome that I was finally able to relive it, even if it was only for one day. I promise I will get that video card issue resolved ASAP. See you next time.
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