Computer Saga Ends

At last I’m back up and running and checking out what I’ve missed while I’ve been offline.

Many thanks to my friend who let so many of you know that I’d be offline for a while.

Building a new computer from scratch has been a labour of love, but I do have a great sense of achievement that I’ve managed to finish it without too many glitches. I was very careful and built everything on an anti-static mat while also wearing an anti-static wristband, just to make sure :) It took me a few days as, at my age, with my disabilities, and having to wear glasses, I can’t spend too long standing up leaning over a hot computer. However, when I switched it on for the first time it didn’t blow up!

But ……. I kept getting a series of 8 short beeps, and the manual said it might be due to a memory problem. So I phoned the memory manufacturers and they told me that, as I don’t game, I probably needed the standard memory version instead of the Ballistix that I’d bought. I then phoned the suppliers and bought what they said was the replacement that I needed. A couple of days later it arrived and I swapped the memory – only to have the same problem.

By this time I was getting very depressed at not being able to get online again. So in desperation I broke the habit of years and actually went out. I put the computer into a taxi and took it down to my local shop to see if they could trace the problem. After an hour and a half of the guy playing around with it he wasn’t able to trace whatever was wrong with it. In fact he said that he’d never come across a problem like it in all his years of repairing computers! He even installed a graphics card, in case that was the cause, even though the motherboard has onboard graphics, but that still didn’t do any good. And, he was extremely kind and didn’t charge me one penny for looking at it, even though he put right a couple of LED light connections that I’d managed to get the wrong way round. He also said that, for a first time builder I’d done a very good job, and nothing else was wrong with it.

So I brought the damn machine home and turned it on again. I suddenly noticed that when it gave that string of beeps the light on the floppy drive was also blinking. Back at the shop the engineer hadn’t once looked at the outside of the case, as it was lying on its side and not visible while he was working. He did ask if the floppy was working, but I said I didn’t know, as I hadn’t yet tried it. So I went back inside the case, yet again, and changed the ribbon connection. This time when it booted the floppy light stayed on all the time. And, regardless of which way round the IDE was connected, any disk I put in asked me if I wanted to format it; which I didn’t as I knew there was data on the disks. Obviously I hadn’t cured the problem, and my thoughts are that there’s something wrong with the actual floppy component itself. I went back inside the case one last time and simply disconnected the floppy IDE from the Mobo. Success, it now boots without all those beeps.

Looks like I’ll have to buy another new floppy drive. Thank goodness I belong to a couple of forums where I can ask for some advice before I actually buy a replacement.

On the whole, even though the experience has been somewhat frustrating, I’m pleased I did it in the end. Although I won’t be building another one any time soon!

Forteans Passing

As with so many other websites, I can’t let the passing of John Keel go unmarked. You only have to look around the web to see how many places are carrying obits, and appreciations about him.

Rest in peace, John. You’ll be very sadly missed by many of us.

And, it’s not so very long ago that John Michell also left us. I hope both of them are now finding out the answers to all the questions they had over their years on Earth, and to all those wonderful mysteries that they brought to our attention.

When I first became hooked on mysteries such as UFOs, Cryptozoology, Earth Mysteries, Alternative History, etc: it was authors such as these that sparked my interest, and I must have read many of their books over the years. They are still well worth the read, and they’ve informed the ideas and perceptions of many of those who have followed.

The Old Guard is passing, and very few of that ilk are still left with us. The “names” who made the most impression on me were: John Michell, John Keel, Aimé Michel, (who died 1992), Ted Holliday, (who died in 1979), Jacques Vallée, and Colin Wilson.

And now, Jacques Vallée and Colin Wilson are the only ones left. So I urge you to read as many of their books as you are able to get hold of, if only for a good grounding in these most mysterious subjects.