MS Windows fun again

[whiteoaks7]

We all know the problem you get if you swtch on a linked GPS before booting Windows, but here's another much subtler issue that took my PC out and had me struggling with hard drives, motherboards, graphics cards and the like. The symptoms were (a) Windows refused to load, (b) the drive kept ticking (usually a sign of a knackered drive), (c) could not re-install Windows, (d) mutli-coloured flashing symbols all over the screen.

Three days of fussing and fuming ended at 3a.m. this morning in a blinding flash of light (no - it was an idea, not an explosion). I had left my camera XD card in the card reader for the first time ever. I unplugged the card reader and switched on and everything booted up perfectly.

The bad news is I now have a new installation of Windows to configure . . .

So - if your machine fails to boot, step one: disconnect all but the keyboard, mouse and screen and try again.

Cheers,

 

[Glyka]

It's good that Microsoft is not a car manufacturer as well, as it would be a nightmare to unload all that boat's gear from the car everytime I switch the engine off /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Allan]

Good job they don't make boats. Having to take down the sails before starting the engine!
Allan

 

[tobble]

someone emailed me this a while ago...

At a recent computer expo, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive -- but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

 

[RCGrootveld]

Thats why (in my opinion) a normal PC on board a pleasure craft should be tagged with 'NOT FOR OPERATIONAL USE'.

 

[simonfraser]

if you use win xp, you can download a prog called casper, this makes identical bootable hdd copies, so you can go back to yesterday after a F****p
provided you set it to autocopy ever day . . . .