Computer illiterate people who think they know things V8: Mandrith appreciation Station. - Hardware & Software

Man, you all would not believe the problems I've had today. The plan started simple: take some old hard drives, check to see if anything important is on them, and clear them, so I have a blank slate to do a Linux or BSD install for my NetSec presentation. Four hours later, not a single one of my computers is functioning perfectly. Most of them aren't functioning at all. Half of the cases are open, while running, so I can try to fix things faster. To make things worse, one of my cats is trying to "explore", and continually needs to be shooed away, lest he discover electricity. The plan started out with problems. I booted up Nayru, my salvaged OpenBSD server/backup computer. Or, rather, I tried to. It turned on just fine. The power light turned on. The fans spun. The hard drive made that humming noise. The CD drives made that clicky noise. But the monitor didn't do anything. Blank screen. Didn't even wake from sleep mode. I popped the case open. The GeForce 2 must've finally died. I dug some weird, unlabeled card out of my spares case (Nayru doesn't have any integrated graphics). Popped it in. Nothing. I thought that maybe the AGP slot, or the monitor itself, perhaps, had died, but the computer was still functional. I plugged it into the network, and brought over Farore (my laptop). It didn't show up on the network. Pings failed, both by hostname and by IP. I figured something must be keeping the computer from even reaching POST. I unplugged everything I could: both CD drives, the floppy, the NIC, everything but the PSU, the RAM, the original hard drive, and the graphics card. Still nothing. I decided to eliminate variables. I took the hard drive with the OS, and put it in the case I'd been using for spares. I swapped in a PSU (hoping 250W would be enough), and put the graphics card back in. Once again, nothing. It started up, but nothing showed up. I then decided the only explanation was the monitor not working. I brought Farore over, located its VGA port, and plugged it in to the ancient CRT. It worked. Sure, it set my resolution down to 1024x768, but it worked. At this point, I was completely befuddled. I put Nayru back the way it usually was, and started it up. It worked. OpenBSD 3.7 started right up. There was one small problem with /tmp not mounting, which was quickly cleared by an fsck. At that point, I started checking the hard drives. First one in was a 40GB Maxtor. Disklabel showed that it was NTFS-formatted. However, it refused to mount. I would have to put it in Din, my WinXP desktop. I swapped in the second drive to test. A whopping 120GB. This one showed up as unformatted. Odd, since I knew it had files on it. That drive was left behind by an upgrade to SATA. After leaving it in the computer for several months to make sure I could copy over any files I'd forgotten, I'd taken it out to cut down on noise, but still hadn't wiped it. In any case, neither drive would work under OpenBSD. Not entirely unexpected. Unfortunately, that meant I would have to open up Din. And Din is appropriately named in several ways. First off, it's loud. Several big fans, usually spinning at max, and a cheap case that blocks absolutely zero sound. Second, it's a total [i]bitch[/i]. The case is cramped, and the computer itself is VERY temperamental and fickle. After quite a bit of work, I managed to fit another hard drive in it. I started with the half-height, 40GB one. It refused to boot. I realized I had forgotten to plug the GPU power cable back in. It still didn't boot. After about an hour of checking everything, I decided to move it away from that cramped desk, to somewhere where I can actually see all the cables. Eventually, I discover the problem. Din refuses to boot when it is on its side. It must be vertical, or it won't even power on. I flip it back upright, and boot it. Finally. As it turns out, this drive had some data, but nothing remotely important. I backed up the documents anyways (250MB is nothing). I marked it as "ready to wipe" with a Post-It note. Second drive was more difficult to fit in, but eventually I got it working. Windows refused to mount it. Eventually, I found that the drive had either been wiped, or the MBR was messed up. "Fuck this", I thought. "I've copied over everything I could need from it. Let's just be done with it." I pulled it out, marked it as "ready to wipe", and started moving Din back to its normal desk. Eventually, I did get everything in working order again. However, I still don't know exactly what the problem was with the monitor. Or why Din hates being horizontal.

The commercial for a computer place located in my neighborhood. [url]http://www.youtube.com/embed/okTHsbsvc2E[/url]

"We overclock your CPU to 3.8GHz and partition your boot drive" :what:

I think voiding my warranties is the last thing I want them doing.

[QUOTE=gman003-main;27743750] .[/QUOTE] I recognized Nayru, but spent like a minute figuring out where from. Then I saw Farore, Legend of Zelda, instant nostalgia.

[QUOTE=Shadaez;27736346]Maybe because you keep buying headsets.[/QUOTE] You realize I've only bought 1 headset over the span of 1 year, right?

[QUOTE=caesium;27743993]I recognized Nayru, but spent like a minute figuring out where from. Then I saw Farore, Legend of Zelda, instant nostalgia.[/QUOTE] I hate you guys, I never had a console before my Xbox (not the 360) so I have never seen stuff like Zelda and Mario games :saddowns: PC gamer 4 lyfe

[QUOTE=ze beaver;27745142]I hate you guys, I never had a console before my Xbox (not the 360) so I have never seen stuff like Zelda and Mario games :saddowns: PC gamer 4 lyfe[/QUOTE] Stop posting, right now. Get off the computer. Go out, and get an N64, Gamecube or Wii, and a copy of Ocarina of Time. Don't come back until you've beaten it. That is an ORDER.

I got Ocarina of Time for my wii but I haven't finished it yet...

[QUOTE=wingless;27744819]You realize I've only bought 1 headset over the span of 1 year, right?[/QUOTE] Fix the other pairs of headphones, then? What are they, anyways? They must not be very good if they're breaking.

[QUOTE=gman003-main;27745179]Stop posting, right now. Get off the computer. Go out, and get an N64, Gamecube or Wii, and a copy of Ocarina of Time. Don't come back until you've beaten it. That is an ORDER.[/QUOTE] If you go the Wii/GC route you could probably find those Wind Waker gold cases which have both The Wind Waker (my fave) and the GC port of OOT.

[QUOTE=caesium;27746547]If you go the Wii/GC route you could probably find those Wind Waker gold cases which have both The Wind Waker (my fave) and the GC port of OOT.[/QUOTE] They sell those for about $75 at a Flea Market in my city. The same goes for the GC bundle port of TLOZ, Zelda 2, OOT and MM. I was lucky enough to get the bundle for Christmas a few years back.

[QUOTE=Niteshifter;27746877]They sell those for about $75 at a Flea Market in my city. The same goes for the GC bundle port of TLOZ, Zelda 2, OOT and MM. I was lucky enough to get the bundle for Christmas a few years back.[/QUOTE] I got that bundle free with my GC. It wasn't even supposed to be included, but the clerk told me they'd ordered too many of them, so he threw it in there anyway. Also, when I sold my GC (I DID buy a Wii the week before), I put separate price tags on the power cable, RCA connector and console. Got them all sold. :smug:

Cute story about that, when it first came out I went to the local games store to buy one new, it was the normal edition. The woman at the counter said, hold on I've got something even better and gives me the gold one for the same price as the normal edition. (Gold ones AFAIK were pre-order only) My expression was so :buddy:

I want a Gamecube for one reason... Metal Gear Solid re-make. I've got everyone that was on consoles besides Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2.

[QUOTE=Blaberry;27743341]My policy is that if you fuck your computer up this badly, you deserve it. Even if you pay someone to fix it, that's still the mess you caused. :colbert:[/QUOTE] I neglected to mention that he was running at 1024x768 on a widescreen laptop aswell...

I've been unable to find a GC/Wii for sale for a good price anywhere, I did however find a great emulator. It seems to have some minor issues with a few less-known Wii games but apart from that it's wonderful.

I got a gamecube, always though it was completely useless due to the rather pathetic controller design. (Only 3 buttons at the back? Seriously?!)

[QUOTE=Niteshifter;27746877]They sell those for about $75 at a Flea Market in my city. The same goes for the GC bundle port of TLOZ, Zelda 2, OOT and MM. I was lucky enough to get the bundle for Christmas a few years back.[/QUOTE] I bought a Gamecube for £10 in the posh part of town, and it had the disc with TLOZ, Zelda 2, OOT, and MM free, and a box full of other games. ALWAYS GO TO POSH CAR BOOT SALES.

[QUOTE=Tools;27749528]I got a gamecube, always though it was completely useless due to the rather pathetic controller design. (Only 3 buttons at the back? Seriously?!)[/QUOTE] oh dear, 3 buttons instead of 4, the horror!

I was playing Assasins Creed II. Thought, why does it lag so much? CS1.6 was running on the backround.

I was playing Vegas 2 with a couple of friends in a LAN, we were comparing framerates and such and it was all good. I won the FPS contest by having one more FPS than my friends even though I had a slightly larger screen than them (1920x1200 vs 1650x1050) Then when we stopped playing I noticed the first Vegas was running in the background, and had been so all the time.

[QUOTE=Tools;27749528]I got a gamecube, always though it was completely useless due to the rather pathetic controller design. (Only 3 buttons at the back? Seriously?!)[/QUOTE] I just bought a home-made gamecube-to-USB adapter so I wouldn't have to use the shitty X360 controllers with my PC.

Wow, I always hated the controller. Anyways, what games should I get for it? Already got mario kart double dash, mario sunshine and spyro 3

[QUOTE=Tools;27751152]spyro 3[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Tools;27751152]gamecube[/QUOTE] wat

[QUOTE=thf;27751173]wat[/QUOTE] If you spam fire fast enough, the gamecube starts lagging awful. :frown: [img]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6650/55603560.png[/img]

[QUOTE=Tools;27751266]If you spam fire fast enough, the gamecube starts lagging awful. :frown: [img_thumb]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6650/55603560.png[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] I LOVE that game. I miss it. :saddowns:

I feel left out when people are all nostalgic over console games :( The first console I've ever used was the original Xbox when it got released. Apart from that I've player a tiny bit of Super Mario Brothers with a friend on his Wii. On the other hand, I can be nostalgic over computer games instead.

Pikmin 1 and 2. Both are good, two is better, but one is easier to find. Pikin 2 is around 3 to 5 times more expensive.

[QUOTE=howling techie;27752312]Pikmin 1 and 2. Both are good, two is better, but one is easier to find. Pikin 2 is around 3 to 5 times more expensive.[/QUOTE] There's supposed to be a new Pikmin sometime soon.