even geeks get crashed

[arizonachris]

Windows decided it wasn't gonna boot two days ago. I tried rebooting, about 15 times, I got video driver not responding, all kinds of crap. Red screens, green screens, blue screens, all with funny little squares all over. Safe mode was all I could do. Finally, got the DVD drive to respond, reinstalled Win 7, but I lost everything. Slowly reinstalling RW and my other Steam games, no idea what third party stuff is lost. But, I know this community, and the guys I got the third party stuff from will step up. Wonderful thing about this community. Just a bunch of great folks. (yeah, including that Hawk guy)

[Hawk]

Just a bunch of great folks. (yeah, including that Hawk guy)

Don't let that get out. You'll ruin my reputation at that other place.

[Chacal]

STop right now before installing anything else, and get an imaging/backup software (I use one from Acronis that cost me around 25$). Take a full image of your drives.
Take a second image after you have installed your apps and 3rd-party stuff. Next time something like this happens, you'll be up and running in 30 minutes.
I do this for all my computers, and the ones of my brothers and friends when they bring them in for support. Can't tell you how often this has saved the day.

[arizonachris]

Thanks, Chacal, I did that this morning. I have a 500Gb external drive, but it's USB and this new board didn't like it. Finally got it to work after the reinstall. My biggest problem right now? All my bookmarks are gone. Gonna take me a week. And a few that I tried to log in to, I can't remember the stupid password. Pffffffttttttttt. Oh, well.

[Chacal]

Hahahaha!
For bookmarks, I use the XMarks add-on for Firefox.
For passwords... I send myself an e-mail. Yeah, I know.

[arizonachris]

Windows did a Ninja update at 3am last night. I had to do a System Restore to yesterday to get things back up and running without Safe Mode today. Now I have 79 Updates just sitting waiting (yeah, I changed Windows Update to notify and not install, shoulda done that yesterday)

I'm really at a loss. New motherboard, RAM, CPU, good drives, video card, drivers all up to date, I just don't know. This has me befuddled.

[Hawk]

There are times when an update from Microsoft will do more harm than good. They're notorious for dispatching updates that can actually cause problems.

I get a weekly newsletter from a site called Windows Secrets and one of the contributors to that newsletter always reports on the updates and if you really need them or not, and if they will cause problems.

[arizonachris]

Oh, it's high security stuff, lots of .net framework crap. I'm still in safe mode. It worked for about an hour yesterday, then rebooted on it's own. Can't afford a PSU or video card right now so it is what it is. *sigh*

[Hawk]

I never let WU update the Net Framwork stuff. If a program I use requires NF, I just let it run with the version it installed.
Those NF updates can cause more problems than they're worth.

[arizonachris]

One of my Folding PC's died the other day, we had a power outage and it's PSU went out. Coincidentally same make and model in this PC. I swapped video cards, it worked for about 5 minutes then died. Gotta be the PSU. Guess I need to bite the bullet and spend half my week's salary on a replacement PSU. Cats are just gonna have to chase the mice around.

[Hawk]

Cats are just gonna have to chase the mice around.

I believe cats prefer live food anyway.

[arizonachris]

I believe cats prefer live food anyway.

Hmm, yeah, I think they like birds, too.

OK, for what it's worth. It was that stupid Windows Activation. When I reloaded Windows I guess I was supposed to reactivate it, even tho Windows didn't say I needed to. Now, if I can just get the Nvidia drivers to install. Oh, all those stupid Windows Updates went in smooth.

[glcbn]

Windows did a Ninja update at 3am last night.

Chris,there hasn't been any Win 7 update since Jan.10th. I'm thinking something weird was going on with your system.

Until today

Greg

[arizonachris]

I finally got Service Pack 1 installed. Defender wants to update almost every day, even tho it's turned off.

I followed Nvidia's instructions, and I still can't get the current drivers to uninstall, and new drivers won't install. It's got to be either the mainboard or video card was damaged in the power surge. Darn, both less than 3 months old, too.

[arizonachris]

Finally got a new motherboard, video card and power supply. Had it all back together, tidying up the wires, I heard a "crack" and noticed the SATA power cable was off of one of the hard drives. Darn power connector broke off of the drive. There went my RAID. (before you say it, the same loss would/ will happen with a single drive)

Reinstalling Win 7's not a bad idea anyways. Video drivers work, too. Think I'm gonna like this GTX560Ti.