Haven’t been posting lately as I’ve been up to my ass in work, and my computer has been on the fritz. Warning: a rant follows….
So Windows XP is supposed to be "the most reliable Windows ever" right? (Which is a bit being like the best hockey player in Ecuador, but I digress.) Well, for a while I’ve been entirely unable to run more than one Office program at a time. Which means I can use Outlook (Yes, I know using Outlook is like playing Russian Roulette, but it’s the only thing that handles my e-mail, scheduling, and syncs with my Handspring correctly. And no, neither Eudora nor Pegasus Mail appeal to me at all.) Naturally, this is a problem. Compound that with the fact that every piece of Microsoft software is also displaying above funkiness.
So I get pissed and decide to reinstall Windows.
Now I have a Visiontek GeForce 2 MX 400 video card. It’s a nice card, but the Windows XP installer dies faster than an octogenerian married to Anna Nicole Smith when I have it installed. Which means I need to borrow my roommate’s video card and swap it with mine to reinstall XP. Compound that headache with the fact that my DVD-ROM drive craps out if it isn’t perfectly level. Compound that with the fact that the on switch on my case doesn’t work, so I have to manually close the contacts on the motherboard to turn the power back on. Add it all up, and you have a pain in the ass par excellence.
And of course, after the painfully long process of working around those problems and getting everything back online, the problem is still there. So I take the step I should have done earlier, and fling my computer out the window.
Well, okay, not really.
The real problem was that my user profile was as hopelessly corrupt as a New York sanitation service. All I had to do is trash part of my user folder and start anew. Once that was done, problem solved.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to serve myself a stiff drink.
