Where Was I?

I finally got my video issues resolved and was relieved about that. I knew it was a crappy card but it would do for a while. What I really wanted now was a good sound card. Preferably not a Soundblaster because of the cost and the potential compatibility problems with my Athlon system.

I always watch the Sunday Ads and pounce when I see something at a reasonable price. I try to balance the price and the technology that's not quite cutting edge, but not old either.

I wound up with a Hercules Fortissimo II 5.1 with a Cmedia Chip. I think it was one of the first cards with that particular chip? They are all over the place now. Hercules doesn't make sound cards anymore I don't think? They did make a few versions newer than mine. They made some kick ass speakers for a while too.

For anyone that doesn't remember that far back Hercules used to be the makers of the best video cards out there. I'm not even sure they make those anymore.

It's a 16 bit sound card, and I had some problems getting the drivers installed the first few tries. It came with the Yamaha XG Studio and I love that. The Hercules Media Player isn't so hot. I was very happy with this sound card which I paid $50 for. I know there are many cheaper cards but I think this one was worth it. I'm still using it at least five years later.

One thing I don't like about the card is that it uses a dongle, one of those things that connects to the card and has several other connection coming from it. That's just asking for trouble down the road when they start shorting out. It also has TOSLINK connections for optical hardware. But I don't use them. I think it was one of the first cards to have that feature also?

Of course now everything is 24 bit.

I'm using the speakers that came with my PC, a USB desktop set that sucks (BenQ), and a 2.1 CyberAcoustics set that was about $25... also at least five years ago. I can't even remember if I bought them before or after the sound card, but it must have been before?

I could have just used the onboard sound but am old school enough to remember when motherboards didn't have sound. Now you can't buy one without it as far as I know. But there may be some company that makes specialty stuff for users with those needs. There usually is.

My PC is so old now that I'm really out of the loop on current hardware. I do know that even on a new computer I'd have a separate sound card and disable the on board sound. Maybe not right away.

I have my stereo hooked up to my PC and the only thing I didn't get with the card was software to record with or a midi sequencer. I wound up with Nero Wave Editor when I bought a CD-R drive and that takes care of recording. The Hercules Media Player is supposed to do that, but it always froze up on me. Later on I bought Cakewalk Music Creator for the sequencer, but rarely use it.

Maybe I should "create" something while my YouTube is out?

I almost forgot to mention that Arturia Storm Light came with the Hercules card, and I rarely use that either... but it does work without any problems as far as I can tell.

I was very pleased with my new sound card and if I remember correctly the power supply was the next thing I replaced... except for those whirring fans?

A Break In The Flow

I'm breaking the flow of my Blog to write about my most recent troubles. It's ironic that I'm writing here about how difficult it can be to get help with a computer problem without getting steered from one place to the next for "New Drivers", or the same old advice.

A little over a Month ago I was happily surfing the net when a terrible thing happened. It wasn't storming out like it does in my area regularly, so I was surprised when the power went out. It was very hot though, and I thought possibly it was a brown out?

No matter what it was that caused it the power went out, for about two hours. Now I've had this PC for almost eight years and the power goes out all the time. This time was different.

When the power came back on I booted up my PC and everything looked fine. I didn't even get one of those error messages about "A Serious Error" and things seemed normal. Until...

I went to run my Netzero software to go online but the splash screen came up, for a second... then just went away. WTF?

Well, I sat and thought about why this would happen. I sat for a few hours thinking about things to try. I sent off an e-mail to Netzero. In case you're wondering how I did that I'll tell you. Netzero is interesting in that they will allow you to connect manually with their numbers. Making a connection and dialing without using the NZ software. However when you connect they restrict you to your e-mail account and your account pages. No internet access. I'll give them credit for allowing that. It was helpful, more so than their support people.

Of course they advised me to do everything I'd already done a thousand times and I sent many notes back and forth over a few weeks. I had to go use the PC's at my local library to seek help from MS newsgroups or anywhere else I could think of.

After three weeks I managed to get things back in working order, but only by trying over and over again.

I wound up using the "Restore Windows" function off of the XP CD. I heard about that feature from Mark Marfer who is listed on this page if you want to link to his site and see what else he has there. His link is on the left side of the page.

This feature "pokes" around and repairs Windows only, and leaves everything else in place. Well, except service packs and media players and...

It turns out that my NZ wouldn't run because my firewall was blocking the program. I checked that many times and it wasn't being blocked, until finally it was in the blocked list as "exec.exe" instead of "Netzero" like it usually is. It's just not in the blocked list of course.

I'm not sure how the repair windows function helped me, or if it did?

Once I could connect online again I had a few people I wanted to send notes to and was way behind on my virus updates and patches. I was just glad to be online again.

I spent many hours building my programs back and getting back to SP3 for XP.

The advice I got was all the stuff I write about in my first post here. Defrag, reinstall software, reinstall drivers, Blah, blah... It Drove Me Crazy!

I knew I'd have to solve it myself, and can't really blame the support people. They were very nice, but just not able to help from a distance. It's a hands on thing and I know that.

I know you may be thinking that I didn't actually solve the problem. That's correct too. I'm not sure what happened, except that I got my internet back. I also noticed that the power company was digging holes all over the neighborhood and running lines underground the next day when I left the house.

That led me to believe that it must've been more than a regular power outage? Maybe it caused a surge or something and that's what corrupted my PC?

Speaking of surges and corrupted PC's. I suppose it's time to start shopping for a good UPS System. I'd love some good advice on that topic if anyone out there has anything to offer : )

Cassie...