Well here is my story, one worth telling if it were to save at least one person the grief, frustration, anger, money, time, and lack of sleep this whole ordeal has caused me.
It started about 4 months ago when my computer booted up in safe mode. I thought to my self, "It has been 3 years I might as well clean things up". That was the start of my nightmare. I reformatted my hard drive but had a terrible time reloading my Windows 95. I spent countless hours on tech support calls with Quantex who had me format in FAT16, FAT32, back to FAT16 and back to FAT32. We did fdisk, low level formats, high level formats, mid level formats, formats while I stood on my head, formats while I sang "She will be coming round the mountain". None of it worked. After two weeks I took it into a friend who can build computers with his eyes closed. It took him a few tries, but he was able to load Windows. Ignorant of the dark shadow that was still following me I took my computer home and began to reinstall all my stuff. Of course on the top of my list was Aces High. After some troubles I managed to install Aces High but experienced spikes. I have never had problems with spikes before, but it was so sever I could not fly. One of my squad members "gospel" sent me his CH game card to install to see if that would help. I even went so far to purchase a new USB joy stick, but by the time it arrived my system was dieing. Nothing was working. It finally gave me a "C" drive failure and would not even boot up.
Have I mentioned I spent countless hours working on this?
Well after listening to sound advice from several squad members, folks who read this BB, people I don't know, my kids, my dog and my wife I began the process of shopping for a new HD and MB. After a few weeks I finally took the plunge and purchased a new Western Digital HD and a new Abit MB. I also needed a new modem because the new Abit MB (BE6 II) only had one AT slot and I needed two. So two squad members (ghosth and vaderr) sent me a PCI modem (one was lost in the mail and has yet to be seen). When all the goods were here I began the perilous journey of gutting and then rebuilding my own system.
Don't ever do this unless you are into self mutilation because it is not for the faint of heart or for those that have 3 children under the age of 7 running around your feet. After many trials I took it back to work where I received help. We spent 4 hours one Friday night just trying to get the new HD to format correctly. Finally we made the conclusion the HD was bad. I went out the very next day to a local store and purchased a new HD. This one was a Maxtor. It went in without any problems, but after that we could not install the drivers for the PCI slots on the Abit MB. Have I mentioned we spent countless hours working on this? Well he finally handed it off to me and washed his hands of it. I thanked Pilate for his efforts. In a way I was glad, I was tired of buying him pizzas.
Well I took it home and played with it for a few days, but had the same problems. I then took it into a computer shop where I should have taken it in the first place. I dropped it off on a Friday morning to a group of smiling faces and they said it will be done by this afternoon. Laughing I walked out the door. Hours later I returned and the happy faces I had seen in the morning were no where to be found. Ralph who was the main tech said he had never dealt with a Abit MB like this before. Some times components would work, sometimes they would not. He had reinstalled Win 98 twice. Put in new modems, new sound cards, new video card, new dram, but they would not always work. All the components checked out fine in other systems, so he determined the new Abit MB was bad. At that point I told him to then order a new MB and don't call me till it is running because it was cursed and I did not want to look at it any more.
Five days later he called me with a story to tell. Now you will hear the rest of the story. Good thing to, because my fingers are getting tired. After a few days the new MB came in and he promptly installed it expecting the problem to be solved. Yet, the same things were happening. He finally decided the processor was bad. I had told him I bought it from a friend (ibex) and it was used. So Ralph put in a new PIII 700, but it kept having the same problems, only was faster.
He was about at the end of his rope. Ready to call me and hand me the machine and say "no charge". That is when he thought the only thing he had not changed was the CD rom. He quickly put in a new one and everything loaded fine. Armed with that information he took apart my CD rom and noted a small spring at the bottom of it was bent over. He straightened it and then used it to load everything. Needless to say everything loaded without a problem. Apparently the CD rom would allow items to load, be it software or drivers, but the fact that the spring was crooked some of what was loaded was corrupt.
Once he figured that out he put back in my new Abit MB and HD and everything went as smooth as silk.
So now at home I have a computer that works. It will take a few days, but I hope to be flying soon!
Three months down for want of a spring. Who would have thought...
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daddog 332nd Flying Mongrels Snapshots 
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes.
That way, if he gets angry, he'll be a mile away - and barefoot.
