starts in the middle of my right nostril and radiates up into my forehead.
I would venture to guess that this is a tension headache.
Remember last year when the computer that I was running the catcams on died? And I was able to get one of my older ones running them without too much problem, but I couldn’t play my old DOS games (for you younguns, DOS was before Windows). See, the last version of Windows to support DOS was Win98. So, I bought this new (old refurbed) Win98SE computer on eBay for a whopping twenty six bucks. I was so very, very happy. Because I could play my games again, right?
Not so fast, little buckaroo.
See, what I didn’t know is that newer sound cards do not work under the DOS system. And there ain’t no adapter, converter or translator. I found this out last year and I went online and bought a sound card on eBay. A Creative SoundBlaster 16. From what I could tell, this card would work. I just never got around to installing it.
Here’s one of the major problems with picking up working on something a half a year or more later. You forget these things. I’ve spent the past ten days or so, trying to get those games to play. Earlier this week, I decided that there was something wrong with that computer. I spent three days trying to figure out how to reinstall the Windows system, after formatting the hard drive. Installing Windows was a no brainer, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get the thing to format the hard drive. I know this might be technical for lots of you, but it’s really simple. To format, you need a format command. And I couldn’t find it anywhere on my little A: drive disk. And it wasn’t found on the C: drive. I spent hours downloading, unzipping and installing software, all with no luck. It was very frustrating. Then I did a search of the Windows 98SE installation disk, the CD and I found the format.com on that and was able to get the hard drive formatted! Success!
I was up late the past week, because I’d think “this time will do it, just five minutes more and I’ll be out of here”. Then I look at the clock and a half hour, forty-five minutes has passed. But I know that it will only take five minutes more, this reboot will do it…..
Then came reinstalling all the drivers that make all the things on it run. And I had no idea what was inside the box. I didn’t know what drivers I’d be needing because I had no idea what I had that needed to be driven. Shoot me now! I couldn’t connect to the internet because I didn’t have the software that my ethernet card needed to run. No ethernet, no internet. Pretty simple. I pulled out my old software from the system that died last year and found a restoration disk and luckily, that had the needed ethernet software on it.
After that, it was a piece of cake. There are loads of great software programs out there, all for a price, mind you, but they’ll actually list out what you’ve got on your computer! The names of the hardware and links to the software that you need to run them (like the motherboard? *laughing*). So, I get everything reinstalled and try running the games again.
Guess what? The same sound card that didn’t work last year under DOS still doesn’t work this year under DOS. Big frikking DUH.
Okay, then I’ll just change out the card I bought last year for the card that’s in there now. I found the manual for my computer (that software was amazing, told me everything I needed to know and more) and printed out the pages on how to open the case. Took me all of ten minutes from start to finish. I hooked it back up, turned it on and we have sound!
I plugged in one of the games that wouldn’t run with the old sound card. I was so excited! I’ll finally be able get this out of the way and not think “I really should do this” every time I walked into the extra room and saw the computer sitting there. I was ready, believe me.
I started the game up. What? What? Can’t set the sound? What? I don’t understand, there’s a brand new card in there, a different card! I search the model number. NOOOOOO! It’s a different card, alright, but a different card with the same version of software as the card I replaced! NOOOOOOO!!! Tell me it ain’t so!
I actually got the old computers out that no longer properly work and took them apart to see what kind of sound cards they had. Both have the sound card attached to the motherboard. That’s not gonna work.
Totally disgusted, I did a search to see what cards will work. I know that there’s nothing new for this, nothing is supported anymore. DOS went out with the dinosaurs. I found a website that listed out cards that will work under the DOS system and started plugging in the model numbers over on eBay. I ended up getting two different cards, for less than a total of thirty bucks. I know at least one of them should work.
I shut down the computers in the extra room (the laptop is in there, too), covered the printer, turned off the light and left the room, shutting the door behind me.
And then, imagine how thrilled I was to find out the washer wasn’t finishing loads. The lights were off. Turns out, it’s the outlet. It sparked. Yay, kitties! Over time, urine does a number on the outlets! Now, I’ve got a load in the washer and can’t do anything about it, I have to wait until Brian gets home. And Brian called, he’s stuck at some sort of tractor swap meet. His brother is selling stuff, Brian’s looking for a part for his dozer and I guess his bro’s wife called and is having some sort of problem and his bro had to leave. Brian stayed to watch their little doggy. So, here I am, thinking Brian would be home early today, he’s not, I’m not having the most wonderful day in the world and this day certainly didn’t turn out the way I expected it to.
Oh, and while I was writing this? I heard some growling in the house. Went to check it out. Jackson was growling at Skippy, who found his way into the garage! Before Skippy becomes a house cat, he’s gonna get neutered. I walked around the outside of the house, opened the garage door, went in and Bobby followed me. Skippy saw him, saw the door and went outside. I know he’s probably hungry right now. I put some dry food in his dish and will give him wet when I get the rest of the cats in.
Think I’ll go eat dinner.
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