View Full Version : Kaboom! [DP Store]
digitalpress
01-23-2008, 12:00 AM
It's a classic game made by the "old" Activision. It was also the state of affairs at the shop. This is more a personal journal entry than an entertaining story but here ya go.Chris contacts me and as...
More... (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=16146264&blogID=350233763)
Mobius
01-23-2008, 12:07 AM
Bummer, I thought you were going to talk about Kaboom cereal!
Happened to me, my mobo blew, but I don't run a shop.
maybe you should have one of these as a back-up:
GrandAmChandler
01-23-2008, 07:58 AM
IDE! Whoops, terminology was wrong at the time.
@Mobius- I KNEW you were in the Midwest when I saw the cereal box pic!
digitalpress
01-23-2008, 11:41 AM
IDE! Whoops, terminology was wrong at the time.
Yeah, I realized this later after doing some research for a replacement PC. It's still pretty easy to find IDE compatible machines but SCSI seems to be only on very high-end machines or servers. That's probably why the Best Buy guys seemed particularly clueless. I was so out of it that morning!
GrandAmChandler
01-23-2008, 11:58 AM
Yeah, I realized this later after doing some research for a replacement PC. It's still pretty easy to find IDE compatible machines but SCSI seems to be only on very high-end machines or servers. That's probably why the Best Buy guys seemed particularly clueless. I was so out of it that morning!
Yeap, I am so used to saying SCSI since that's what is on my older servers at work.
DefaultGen
01-23-2008, 12:59 PM
.....
digitalpress
01-24-2008, 10:40 PM
Follow-up.
As of 6pm tonight, all operations at the store are back to fully functional.
I received the new computer, which is nearly identical to the old one and purchased thru the same tigerdirect.com site at 12:30pm. Hooked this up to a spare monitor and swapped its new drive with my old drive. Discovered that the old drive had lots of problems (what the HELL happened to kill the motherboard and damage the hard drive?) but XP repaired most of it. I was able to get all of the important software running after the repair so I swapped out the backup PC with this new one. Spent the next 4 hours re-installing, tweaking, and repairing various functions. The only monetary loss was with my LAN software. Those bastards at Antamedia forced me to buy the server software (woop de doo, at a 20 percent discount) again in order to get my gaming center fully functional.
Other weird stuff: my barcode label printer was printing things all out of whack and took about four tries at installing a driver until I found the right one; Microsoft Excel files were crashing half the time - a repair of MS Office helped but ultimately I had to uninstall and re-install; at one point my incoming mail was being received but there was nothing contained in the body text (another MS Office repair corrected this); my POS system was opening in a way where we couldn't actually punch in a sale without minimizing and maximizing the window a few times, this somehow corrected itself after awhile without having to re-install.
Overall, really frustrating day yet ultimately satisfying. I've made a few notes and more than a few backups to assist should something like this ever happen again.
Schenley
01-24-2008, 10:53 PM
Welcome to my world! Wouldn't you rather do that all day every day instead of playing games?
I've got an idea that might help in the future - we'll talk on Saturday.
At least you do backups...
calthaer
01-25-2008, 10:25 AM
I haven't built myself a PC in about six years, and with this year's bonus, I think that this is something that I want to do. And I have to say - having a custom-built PC really helps with some of those weird "What the heck happened?" things. It's just awesome being able to design a PC with certain functions in mind: games, or stability (like having a RAID array that mirrors all the data), or having a small-scale server and data share for other PCs.
For those who are less tech-savvy, there are always small companies of computer "nerds" who do quality work at reasonable prices - but they're hard to find. Re-purchasing that server software sounds like a complete rip-off.
One thing that damaged some of my stuff one time (not sure if it's applicable here, but just a thought): make sure there are surge protectors not only on the power outlets, but on the network input, too. Once upon a time I had a lightning spike come through the cable line and fry my PC and the network hub.