- The family computer is suspiciously fine. After I posted Wednesday's update, I had to go and do Suzie Homemaker stuff for like an hour. That accomplished (and fully awake now that the caffeine had kicked in) I decided to try to power the computer up just to see where it would fail, i.e. would it make it past the power-on self-test or not. Eerily, it booted up completely fine, with no hint of the earlier problem (a complete freeze, followed by a "BOOT SECTOR NOT FOUND, INSERT BOOT DISK TO CONTINUE" message). I've run all sorts of tests, and there appears to be nothing wrong; all the fans are working, everything is at a good temperature, no viruses or malware. I am at a complete loss as to what happened. Current theory is that the pixies who spin the hard drive were having a coffee break.
- "You got me hung, Jack" is one of my favorite ways of saying "Fuck if I know." I'm not surprised that most folks don't get the reference, but you'd think that they'd figure out what it means just from pure context.
- Last night I had a dream that I had stumbled upon a cache of various weapons, including such objects of desire as the Kel-Tec KSG and RFB, as well as enough ammo to bathe in. I was running around like Remy the rat in Ratatouille going AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I was very, very sad when I awoke sans firearms.
- The best hat I ever bought was an "Eh, this'll do" boonie from Wal-Mart. I found it in the men's department near all the typical beer-and-sports teams baseball caps. What's nice about it is that it has an absolutely HUGE brim -- 3.5 inches from the band, which I think is a full inch shorter than most boonies I've seen -- and so not only does it completely cover my face from the sun, it gets most of my shoulders as well. It also makes a fantastic rain hat as well once it's waterproofed; I dosed mine back in '09 and I've only just now had to reapply the waterproofing. Between it, a poncho, and waterproof boots, I can stay dry in pretty much any downpour so long as the wind doesn't drive the rain sideways.
- Or flood. Fortunately for me, I'm on the coast opposite McThag, so by the time it got to us it was just a lot of rain rather than "Where did the car go?"
- Weerd Beard has been assimilated into the Herd. That's another notch for my barn door.
- There is something incredibly endearing about Gilbert Gottfried telling a filthy joke. One cannot prove this, but it is in the same sense that Mount Everest is, or that Alma Cogan isn't.
Goodnight.
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Looks like I got out of there just in time...it was just starting to rain in Jacksonville when I headed out.
ReplyDeleteRe: "BOOT SECTOR NOT FOUND, INSERT BOOT DISK TO CONTINUE"
ReplyDeleteI've seen that one quite a bit when I was a computer tech; most of the time it meant that a cable to the HDD had loosened slightly, or that the contacts were slightly tarnished. You'd be surprised how many times just unplugging and replugging the cable (which polished the contacts) several times cured the problem.
Yeah, it looks like Debby has decided to cut across the peninsula along the Tallahassee - Jacksonville axis, and at her current rate it's going to take her a week to get across.
ReplyDeleteGonna be a wet summer.
Huh. That's odd, because while I may have checked the fans and contacts before I powered it on, I don't THINK I did. And if I didn't, that means it just magically fixed itself.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought the Hard Drive just got too hot, but I ran it hard all weekend and it gave me no trouble. So I dunno.
BTW, are you at all related to Jon "Von Quixote" Garrad?
The most common cause of "BOOT SECTOR NOT FOUND" is, I think, leaving a removable disc in a drive. In the old days, it was a floppy. Then it was a CD-ROM. These days, it might even be a USB device. Maybe check the boot order?
ReplyDeleteI can't speak to the KSG out of personal experience, but I can on the RFB. At the gathering I was at where one was present, the universal interpretation was that RFB stood for Real Fuckin' Bitch. I don't want to call it an unmitigated ball of suck and fail, because that would be unfair to balls of suck and fail to have it lumped in with them. Magazines wouldn't seat without a hammer, the trigger was like dragging a boat anchor down a gravel road, the spring system was like having a torpedo tube launch right next to your head with someone slamming a screen door for a chaser, the gas system could not be adjusted to stop it from leaving *severe* primer wipe on every round (one person with more firearm experience than has any right to occupy one body fired it, examined the brass, and would not go near it again the entire event), and the brass discharge chute requires you point it at your feet to get spent cases to stop rattling around before you've fired enough more to clear whatever is in there by displacement.
ReplyDeleteThen it launched its gas regulator downrange, never to be seen again. Trigger went "gronchclunckclick", muzzle went "bang," springs went "KERWHANGSPROINGWOOSHCLANG," and then there was an extra "PFEWWWWW". Hang on a tick, what was that last one again?
Group evaluation of the rifle ranged from http://mylittlefacewhen.com/f/5337/ to http://mylittlefacewhen.com/f/5129/
Also +1 to re-seat hard drive cables and check boot order.
Boot order is fine, and has remained unchanged since I first set this computer up about 5 years ago. (Yes, its age is one reason I am eying it warily.)
ReplyDeleteAbout the only other thing I can think of is that within the past few weeks the PCI-E graphics card died (fan failed, card overheated, cooked some of the processors) and when I was checking CMOS I realized that the graphics were set to default to the now-removed GeForce card. I changed that while I was there.
But that shouldn't have made any difference in booting up. Right?
Huh. And Yikes. I will pass this review on to Oleg, who seems to have an "in" with people at Kel-Tec.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that MLFW even existed. I can tell it's going to eat several hours of my life....
Boot order checked (see reply above) and all cables re-seated during initial diagnostic. Either I did that before I booted, and just forgot I had done it (possible; was not operating at full caffeination), or the damn thing mysteriously fixed itself during its downtime.
At this point I'm honestly not sure which is more likely.
Uh, actually it was Oleg's rifle that disassembled itself. Kel-tec gives him a lot of work, and so he sees way more of their kit before and after any bugs get ironed out than I do, but what I *have* seen of KT has trended each time more to the bad side. That said, that rfb remains the high point of fail, and I won't shoot one again after that disintegration without someone else going first and getting a good look at the brass.
ReplyDeleteHuh. Then I dunno. The only Kel-Tec I've ever shot is my Sub-2000, and I'm ~500 rounds into it without a single problem.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it helps that the S2K is a simple straight-blowback system, so maybe that's why. KISS, right?
Sometimes cables can loosen or tighten due to heating and cooling. If it happens again, try reseating the cables at both ends.
ReplyDeleteTo the best of my knowledge I'm not related to Jon "Von Quixote" Garrard.
I doubt a CMOS change would, unless it somehow reset the boot order. But removing the card might have jiggled a cable, which is either in an iffy state (sometimes acting connected, sometimes not,) or which got knocked back into place when you gave your computer a good swift kick for not booting. Just hope it's something like that and not "hard drive actually in process of dying."
ReplyDeleteWell my assimilation to the heard is a group effort, that I'd say a big part goes to my buddy Mick who's the first hardcore Brony I ever met (he was dressed as Rainbow Dash for the whole convention!)
ReplyDeleteBut you have been quite the influence.
Friendship IS Magic! ;)
Hoofbump! ^_^ /)(\ ^_^
ReplyDeleteSo which pony is your favorite?
There's beer for joining? Well, Shit. I might have to give this pony thing a closer look.
ReplyDeleteRainbow Dash and Fluttershy make me laugh the hardest.
ReplyDeleteTho frankly I'm mostly amazed by how much Spike is abused, and yet he still comes back for more.
I guess I relate to that, I enjoy some good-natured ribbings and pranks!