I’ve had this HP Pavilion 513W sitting here for a while now, but when the guy first asked me about it, it would lock up when it attempted to load the AGP driver — even in safe mode.
Now, I don’t make it a habit of working on Home machines for obvious reasons, but I know him, and was pretty sure of what was going on with it.  Told him I could take a look at it, but in the meantime, he wanted to see what HP said.  He had already made up his mind to buy a new system and was looking for the best time to buy new electronics on Nerds On Call, but upon my words to wait a few days till I have a complete look at it, they decided to wait. Apparently, he and his father also decided to do a system restore one last time, erasing all of his data.  Still, each time it got to Disc 6, the system would stop writing to its 80GB Hard Drive and halt.  Given all that, I was reasonably sure the restore CD’s were scratch just bad enough to quit working.

After finally locating an HP Operating System disc and trying that, I realized the machine would never boot into XP.  I changed the hard drive to no avail.  I changed the memory, power supply, and even the CPU, and even used the best thermal paste available on places whre it was applicable, and it still kept happening.

Today, just for a test, I unplugged the Combo CD-RW/DVD that came with that particular Pavilion.  To my amazement, the system booted right up, no problem.
Confused, I plugged up a Sony DRU-14A DVD-RW and the original 80GB drive, and XP Home is installed just perfectly (on a drive which previously complained intermittently).

Eventually, everthing was right.

Or so I thought…

The next hurdle was Windows Activation.  After a half hour on the phone with Microsoft Customer Service, they gave me a key required to activate Windows XP, and everything was good.

This is why I don’t work on Home machines … Strange things happen with Home computers that never happen on Business machines.

I wonder what’s gonna happen when he upgrades to Windows Vista next month?  😉

     Just before leaving to go out and do some onsite work, I got a Contact Email from a Richard Carrion:

This is a penis shaped fry bought from Jack in the Box restaurant 12/5/2006.  It’s being sold on ebay and already has 6000 visitors, 191 watching and $460 in bids.  That’s news, alright.  It still has 3 days to go!

     Thanks, Richard, for that interesting tidbit.

     I couldn’t help but be reminded of a thread on Tiki Central a couple years ago, making fun of a potato chip formed in the image of the great, stone idol Maoi… And the cartoon I made about its demise as the item was re-listed…

     I could make an animated GIF of a Jimmy-in-the-Box for this new one, but I digress.  😉

     I can remember back on November 18th, 1978, sitting in the living room floor watching the Star Wars Holiday Special on WBIR Channel 10, then Knoxville’s CBS affiliate (they’re NBC now).  I was already a serious Star Wars fan, having seen it at the drive-in the year before, in the theaters a few times that summer, and having spent a year’s worth of allowance on bubble-gum cards and comic books.
     I also remember how boring the show was to me, how horrible all of the familiar cameos were (“Maude is a bartender?”).
     With good reason, the show was never aired again, surviving only as a multi-generation VHS dub… but, hardcore fans will pay good money to get a copy, regardless.

     Still, there’s some nostalgia there.  Remembering that old TV with the rabbit-ear antenna, sitting on the rug in the middle of the living room floor.

     Kudos to Johnny Dollar for throwing up some screen caps…

     You can read more about it on StarWarsHolidaySpecial.com.

Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ejtUlstFzs

Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SZ6tWCJYXY

     People amaze me these days.
     You say “liberal,” people can’t get it out of their heads that you’re slamming Democrats.  You link to Michelle Malkin because you met her and her husband a couple of times, and supported her in her fight against YouTube for removing her video for no good reason, then, oh, you must be a RepubliCon!

     Here’s another video, dedicated to our troops in Iraq, but has been lambasted with votes on YouTube that the content is Objectionable and Obscene.

     The word “liberal” shouldn’t piss anyone off, but I think people search for it these days so they can show their disdain, and become ever pedantic about things that were commonly broadcast this week.  It amuses me how the word itself refers to an ideal of “free of intolerance and prejudice” when it seems that those who themselves Liberals politically are so not that.

     If I say “liberal groups,” most people have an idea what I mean.  They are groups who adamantly seek reformation in laws regarding their cause, play watchdog to private sector businesses and individuals, and may even have a radical section who choose to reform people by harrassment or violence.
     If I say “conservative groups,” most people have an idea what I mean, as well.  They are groups who protest change, organize protests, and may even have a radical section who choose to reform people by harrassment or violence.
     It is for the latter problem in set of groups why I choose not to align myself with any “group.”

     The terms “Liberal” and “Conservative” with regards to political parties came in their interpretations of our Constitution.  Liberals believe that the Constitution is dynamic, and that it should be updated.  Conservatives believe that the document should be preserved, and that it says what it says.

     These terms have little or nothing to do with “Democrat” or “Republican.”  Either can be Liberal or Conservative, and even liberal or conversative.  There can be conservative Democrats who are Conservatives.  There can be liberal Republicans who are Liberals.  And any mixture in between.

     It’s all twisted.  Considering the twists on both sides, polarizing everything just makes it worse.

     Fidel Castro is Dead! (according to comments at least)

     Of course, South Florida might not be the place to go for the influx of Castro Sympathizers who may want to find a new place to live, considering the number of anti-Castro refugees who’ve escaped…

     Now we can give it a few months for Democracy, forgive John F. Kennedy’s cluster-copulation, remove sanctions and get some Cuban cigars instead of the Dominican Hand-rolled cigars I’ve been smoking.

     Although, the blasphemous bastard in me says the Dominicans are better… heh