PICTURES!!!!

[Kaiser Raynor X]

We need a MAssive Convention...Shall I decree it JD? Raynor M'JiliadKaiser of Shireroth

[Ryan]

Ok, since i'm an idiot (disagree with me foo....) what is JD?And Scott, are you still in NY or are you back in Cali? *is confuzzled*

[Harvey the Blue]

JD... Jadie!Wait a tick... WarVoid! I thought you gave a speech a few weeks ago about how this was the end for you and you were gone, gone, outta here, never coming back, nope, never see you again... and so on.What happened? Not that I am particularly complaining or anything, but that seems like a pretty short breakaway. Harvey SteffkeJadie's Lesser HalfSaves the worldProud bearer of the Shirerothian Silver Sword Award and Imperial Star

[Scott Alexander]

Back in Cali for the summer :(

[Shyriath]

Woohoo, convention! Shout out to the East Coast!Actually, I find the thought kind of scary. I'm... how do I put this?... socially challenged...That, and the area that I know well enough to drive around in without maps is remarkably small. *Grin* If everyone was gathering at a place that happened not to be my hometown, I'd probably get hopelessly lost."Yes, yes, I took the directions you said... uh-huh, and kept going on that road... well, I haven't seen any signs, but the license plates all say 'Quebec', and there are lots of people speaking French..."

[Ryan]

Remember that night I took Erik's advice when trying to fix the sound on my computer? Well I did what he said and reinstalled the original drivers. The computer never ran again...I tried getting it fixed at CompUSA. To make a long story short, they screwed me outta $300 and permanently ruined my brand-new computer.I quit mn's due to the fact i'm back on my old laptop - the same laptop I was using five years ago. 14k dial-up. 456k ram. AOLv5. ICQ2000b. Get the idea?I'm due to buy a new Dell within a month or so. But I have retired from mn's. I just like visiting... Kinda like Trevon does...

[Mari Greenwood]

I like my web unit. It is easy and if it dies it would cost me a mere 99 bucks to replace.Plus, I don't have to deal with nasty virus stuff. Plus honestly, I am lazy! Ha ha.

[Kaiser Raynor X]

Don't blaim me about you comp... Just putting in sound drivers shouldn't do anything to stop it running.... So don't blaim me... Raynor M'JiliadKaiser of Shireroth

[Ari Rahikkala]

Well, you never know about Windows... it will sometimes merrily delete important files without putting anything in their place if the user asks to replace drivers or stuff like that... which is actually the right thing and what any real OS should do. It also informs the user about what it is doing, which is still the right thing. Unfortunately it informs the user about so many things that few people actually bother to read what it's saying. And it's not their fault if it's a part of the OS culture to pop up a message box about absolutely everything... nobody has time to read all those messages. "I believe they just installed Gentoo Linux."

[Ryan]

*shrugs* I dunno what happened to it... All I did was put in the system CD, reinstall the drivers with some sorta auto-install thingy that popped up, and when I went to restart, it never started back up again. I tried to have CompUSA fix it, but like I said, they just ruined it beyond being salvageable.Just do me a favor, don't get a job fixing computers. :p

[Ari Rahikkala]

You know what you should have done? You should have gone to http://www.knoppix.org , burned an operating-system-on-a-CD for yourself and forgotten about Windows :p. "I believe they just installed Gentoo Linux."

[Kaiser Raynor X]

Um.. WV... You're Hardware died.. If the comp doesn't start up... that's hardware.. or Bios... You could have made compUSA pay for a new machine if they wrecked it...I fix computers all the time.... I have several I've built from almost nothing...and I maintain all my comps in my house.... Sometimes to act funny.. but that's cause all mine are.. old....I got several 166mhz machines..hehe Raynor M'JiliadKaiser of Shireroth

[Ryan]

Ok... I'm high on caffeine... So I might as well go for the long story so you understand...I reinstalled the drivers and restarted the computer. And nothing happened, blank screen, nada. Ok, so I turn it off again figuring it needed a dry boot (unplug, then restart). Ok, so now we're getting somewhere. WinXP starts up and I get to testing the DVD player. Hmmm, crap, it still doesn't work. Ok, to hell with it. Wait a minute! Now the sound doesn't work! Shit on a single! Ok, all I gotta do is do a system restore which'll set everything back the way it was about a week ago. Ok, I do the restore with no hitches and reboot. Now it comes to a "Windows cannot load properly" screen and tells me either boot in Safe Mode or Normal Mode. Well, no matter how many times I try, neither work and it won't let me into Windows.Ok, i'm not gonna fuck with it anymore so i'll just bring it to CompUSA and have them fix everything. So I bring it there, chatter off everything that happened, that's wrong with it and what needs to be fixed. No problemo they say. Two weeks later I get a call "Ok, it's all fixed". So I go down there and test it out before I bring it home. Hmmm, DVD and sound still don't work. But you assholes said it was fixed? Ok, so I leave it there for three more weeks. By this time I was really pissed. I get another phone call and they say the DVD works but skips and they can't figure out why. Everything else runs fine. So I go pick it up and don't bother testing it. By this time it had already cost me $300 and I was rippin.So I get it home. WTF? DVD doesn't work. Sound doesn't work. Video doesn't work. WinXP they installed is bootlegged and not activated. I won't let me activate it. I call those assholes up "Oh, that's not our fault. If you bring it back, there'll be another diagnostic fee." Fuck you assholes! And that's the end of that. Come to find out, they have a policy which basically says they can fuck your system up and get away with it. Not a damn thing I can do, even with a lawyer.Windows deactivated itself and it won't allow me to do a factory restore or even boot off a floppy... So now i'm stuck with a $2000 big piece of shit on my desk....Ok, that wore the caffeine right outta me... G'night...

[Kaiser Raynor X]

Win Xp... There's your problem.... And they fucked you over....Surely a lawyer could do sometihng.. hell.. simply threatening with a lawyer could proly get you somewhere...And... None of that made sense.. (not in the way I don't believe you.. but in the way of.. WTF... that's fuckign wierd..)... You could just put Win98SE on it... bootlegged or No... it'll run.. just need to find a few drivers.. I did that with this comp.. it was XP.... once..... You can proly get Win98 drivers from the manufacturer of the comp... I found all mine online... with no help from HP..hehe And it works!... to bad I made a Win98/Win98SE Hybrid that does funny things when I browse..hehehe.... But it has WAAAAY more power than my old... once I get a copy of Win98SE on it's own I'll be OK...As for the XP bootleg.. That's illegal... Now your Lawyer has fodder..hehe Raynor M'JiliadKaiser of Shireroth

[Jadie Mathematician]

Erik...if you want to decree it...go for it :) Just a bubbly elf-cat girl who gives out adviceand saves countries

[Ari Rahikkala]

Doesn't allow you to boot off a floppy? Windows can't do that by itself, you know. It's in your BIOS settings (which might, of course, also be fucked with), and it should be possible to change those without ever touching Windows or letting Windows touch anything.. "I believe they just installed Gentoo Linux."

[Ryan]

I contacted a lawyer about it. Which was at the same time I left mn's (for the same reason). And I went through all the BS of planning what we were gonna do to win the case. But, come to find out, CompUSA has a little clause in their policies that states "In any case of a lawsuit, CompUSA is responsible for only $200."So, basically, if I sue them, no matter what I only get $200 out of it. That won't even cover the lawyer fees....Anyhoo, i've tried everything I know to get it to boot so I could format the HD or do something. It won't let me anywhere near that kinda stuff since XP deactivated... I LOATHE XP....

[Ari Rahikkala]

OK... in that case... you still have that computer? Do you know how to change the order of searching for bootloaders (named "bootup sequence" or something, depends on your BIOS)? If you don't, I'll explain you how to do it... if you do but can't do it in your computer, I'd like to know the reason why... "I believe they just installed Gentoo Linux."

[Ryan]

I have no idea how to do that...

[Kaiser Raynor X]

Ussually.. you can just turn it on and hold down ESC, ALT, or F1 before anything gets a chance to load... I think those are the keys.. I'm not sure which right now... Raynor M'JiliadKaiser of Shireroth

[Harvey the Blue]

Umm... Pictures?What do you all think of my new picture? A lot less evil and glary then the previous, although the color of the hair is not as good. Harvey SteffkeJadie's Lesser HalfSaves the worldProud bearer of the Shirerothian Silver Sword Award and Imperial Star

[Kaiser Raynor X]

qua? Raynor M'JiliadKaiser of Shireroth

[Harvey the Blue]

The... the picture thing! Profile icon picture thing. That picture to the left of my post! That, there! *points* Harvey SteffkeJadie's Lesser HalfSaves the worldProud bearer of the Shirerothian Silver Sword Award and Imperial Star

[Kaiser Raynor X]

Oh.... Raynor M'JiliadKaiser of Shireroth

[Jadie Steffke]

*blinks*It is different? *is confused*

[Harvey the Blue]

*mumbles about a holdup in the system*bill3000.hypermart.net/BG...eyBlue.gifGo here and hit refresh. The picture will auto-update everywhere. Harvey SteffkeJadie's Lesser HalfSaves the worldProud bearer of the Shirerothian Silver Sword Award and Imperial Star

[Kaiser Raynor X]

I seeeeeeeeeeeeeee............. Raynor M'JiliadKaiser of Shireroth

[Harvey the Blue]

Do you? DO YOU?!?! Harvey SteffkeJadie's Lesser HalfSaves the worldProud bearer of the Shirerothian Silver Sword Award and Imperial Star

[Aurefiction]

I see the difference... I DO =)Just in case anybody wants to see me... Here are pictures. I mean this is supposed to be a picture topic after all.. "Never let sense conquer nonesense"-- Quixy the god of Madness.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Ah, goodo. Now I don't know what you're going to do with your computer once you've managed to get it to boot off a different medium than the HD... but I still do stand by my suggestion: You should go burn a Knoppix CD (you have friends with broadband 'net connections and CD burners, don't you?) and just forget Windows forever. But anyway... I'll explain the "theory" of what happens first and then get to the instructions. You can skip the next paragraph if you aren't interested in it.The first thing (well, one of the first things anyway) your computer does when it boots up is that it loads a piece of software, the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) from a ROM (read-only memory) chip. BIOS used to have quite an important function in the working of computers in the time of the IBM PC and so - it governed, in fact, most of the hardware access of those computers. Nowadays, BIOS only exists to set up your computer properly so that the operating system can take over. It does this by first making some hardware detection of its own, then looking for an OS to load in wherever its settings tell it can find one. Nowadays, the first place it looks in is usually the first (and only) hard drive attached to the computer. In the most common case, it finds the bootloader that Windows installs there, loads it into memory and passes control of the computer to it (the bootloader then proceeds to load up Windows). You can, however, tell the BIOS to look in a different place - for example, a floppy drive or a CD drive. It doesn't really matter to the BIOS what media it boots up from as long as it understands it - it just loads whatever it believes is bootable on that media and executes it.You can usually access BIOS settings by pressing a specific key or key combination in the right phase of start-up; That is, the part where your computer does the memory check and probe (scan, check - the terminology varies) for IDE devices. On most systems that I've used, the key to press is Del - however, I've heard of Ctrl-Alt-F1 being used, too. Unless you're using some stupid proprietary system you should see instructions like "Press foo-bar to enter BIOS settings management" somewhere. You should enter some sort of a keyboarde-driven text-based menu interface now. Once there... BIOS settings are usually partly standardised - i.e. there's a certain amount of stuff you can expect to see on every normal PC. IIRC changing the boot sequence is not a standard option, but I've seen it in every system that I have used this far anyway. Go for the menu that looks like "Extended options" or something - I can't remember its name (and I wouldn't know what it's called on your system anyway) - and look for options that seem to be about the bootup sequence. "C" or "HD" or "IDE" or something similar should currently be either the first choice or the first choice after stuff you haven't tried so far (for example, your BIOS might offer SCSI as an option even if your system doesn't have a SCSI bus). Fiddle with that option or set of options until something like "A" or "Floppy", or "D" or "CD" or "CD-ROM" is the first in the sequence. Then go back to the main menu and exit the settings manager, saving your changes. Now, if you're reading these instructions and feel hopelessly lost, you should probably not bother to try following them yourself - most geeks, however, should be quite knowledgeable of this stuff, so just intimidate them with dragonfire and they should prove quite helpful :). "I believe they just installed Gentoo Linux."