My Windows 95 machine failed today. Symptoms were a screen which showed me nothing but diagonals, no matter how many times I rebooted and scanned the disk. The funny thing was it would show me the entire scandisk process and then fail when it completed.
At first I thought this was a monitor error, since it's been trying to die (I've had to leave the power on to the screen for months because it was unreliable when I powered it down), so I went down to Office Depot and bought a new 17" flat-screen monitor for $118 ($88 post-mfr. rebate), which I thought was a pretty good price. But when I got home and plugged the new monitor in, the same error occurred, so it was time for Plan B.
My good friend Ali and her husband Tom sent me a rehabbed tower a while back (Tom does this kind of work for friends, and they assured me this was one that was "just lying around," so I accepted. It was a bolt from the blue when it arrived, though). Thanks again, guys! It has both Win98 and Win2000 Pro installed, so I hooked up the new monitor to that one, unplugged and replugged all the other peripherals (oops, printer...gotta do the printer), and tried again. Eureka; the bugger works.
However, for reasons as yet undetermined, when I got back onto the web this evening and called up this blog, none of the right-hand side pictures/buttons and blogroll shows up. Once I saved this entry, the right side appeared. Too weird.
Oh, and I also think I'm gonna try to remove the hard drive from the old machine and put it into an empty slot on this one, since with no operating system on the old one I see no way of copying data from that one to this (this machine has no USB port, so don't bother suggesting that, thanks). I have tons of Office documents, my Eudora mail files and addresses, and miscellaneous stuff to the tune of about a gigabyte on there, much of which I need).
Help! Any ideas?
Posted by Linkmeister at June 8, 2003 09:58 PMTom says that you can put the old hard drive in the other computer and just need to change jumper settings? I don't know how. Feel free to call us and maybe he can walk you through it? I've seen Tom do a transfer in only minutes. (Then again, he's been tinkering with these machines since he was a wee bitty guy so maybe it takes longer? Anyways, it is definitely do-able.)
I have my old hard drive in my current computer and it works just fine. Kinda handy to have the extra space. This drive goes back to when we scanned photos of the kids in the pre-digital camera days!
Posted by: ali at June 9, 2003 08:24 AMTom says that you can put the old hard drive in the other computer and just need to change jumper settings? I don't know how. Feel free to call us and maybe he can walk you through it? I've seen Tom do a transfer in only minutes. (Then again, he's been tinkering with these machines since he was a wee bitty guy so maybe it takes longer? Anyways, it is definitely do-able.)
I have my old hard drive in my current computer and it works just fine. Kinda handy to have the extra space. This drive goes back to when we scanned photos of the kids in the pre-digital camera days!
Posted by: ali at June 9, 2003 08:25 AMsounds like the video card is going out ... the same thing happened to me (thought it was the monitor, bought a new one, problem still existed, bought a new video card, installed it, problem solved)
Posted by: shelley at June 9, 2003 12:12 PMAli, that sounds like a possibility, but we'd have to work out a time. I'll send you a note. Failing that, Shelley, that's a good idea too. If swapping in a new video card would fix it then I could get it running long enough to do the backup I need to do.
Posted by: Linkmeister at June 9, 2003 12:39 PMI agree with Shelley, probably the video card, not the monitor. Not that finally having a flat-panel is anything to complain about!
I think the drive-swap is do-able with able guidance, though - I'm almost sure the case you want to put it into already has an open slot and spare connectors on the HD cable... it's just the jumpers that's the trick.
Posted by: Ryan at June 9, 2003 06:21 PMOops. Sorry about the double post above. Tom did up a "how to" at http://www.paradiseali.com/bluecollargeek/hdtransfer.htm. You can do it! The hardest part will be getting the case open. :)
Posted by: ali at June 10, 2003 08:01 AMOops. Sorry about the double post above. Tom did up a "how to" at http://www.paradiseali.com/bluecollargeek/hdtransfer.htm. You can do it! The hardest part will be getting the case open. :)
Posted by: ali at June 10, 2003 08:01 AMHey! I only pressed the post button once! Sorry. Won't preview this time and see if that was the prob.
Posted by: ali at June 10, 2003 08:03 AMThat's super! Thank you both so much! I'll let you know how it works!
Posted by: Linkmeister at June 10, 2003 08:25 AMAck. Too late to help. Guess I'll just have to...
Posted by: Solonor at June 10, 2003 01:34 PMCrap! I was coming here to tag Linky!
So wait - does this count?
Or am I still it?
Or am I playing tag and not tagged?
*confused*
Don't feel badly, Batty; I'm in a muddle too.
Posted by: Linkmeister at June 10, 2003 04:50 PMLinkmeister:
Read about your PC problem and would like to offer a suggestion if it's ok. Win95 was and is notorious for corrupting video drivers. Try starting the unit in "Safe Mode," change video driver to the "Standard" video driver,reboot, then reinstall your video card's correct driver. This should remedy the corrupted display problem that you describe.