This Past Sunday... (part II)

Upon my return from church, and consumption of lunch, I proceed with the repairs. Now, the initial state here is that the computer is only recognizing the two hard drives and not the CD-ROM.

No problem: I open the case and pull the IDE cable off of the second hard disk. Knowing that I will have to go back in a few times, I do not put the case the whole way on when I reconnect the computer.

Boot up, act according to what I remember I did last time. Which means I simply install the CD-ROM drivers, power off again, disconnect, rehook IDE cable, put on case, reconnect power back on.

A quick check of Explorer reveals that the computer is only recognizing the two hard drives. I begin to grow frustrated; obviously my recollection of the prior recovery is faulty.

The next few hours proceed along the same vein. Around 4 P.M. or so functionality was finally restored to the system. Here I shall immortalize for your amusement and my own future reference the required steps for repair:

1. Open case and gain access to mother board.
2. Remove (billy yank) IDE cable from second hard drive (johnny reb).
3. Apologize to readers for the above bad civil war reference and move on.
4. Secure motherboard in case, keep cover off.
5. Connect monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
6. Power on computer. Wait for boot-up to finish.
7. Install Windows 98 Second Edition updates (this is the key to the whole operation).
8. Install required drivers (mouse, video card, LAN card, CD-ROM).
8.a. If video card install seems to stop, simply press ALT+TAB and follow the instructions on the pop-up alert box that didn't pop on top for some unfathomable reason.
9. Turn computer off.
10. Disconnect all cables.
11. Gain access to motherboard again. Reattach IDE cable to second hard drive.
12. Put everything back together, and do try to avoid throwning things across the room.
13. Reconnect monitor, keyboard, ethernet cable, and mouse.
14. Connect newly reset router to DSL modem. Connect computer to router.
15. Turn computer on. Enjoy full functionality and the firewall that comes with router.
16. Run Spybot, just to be sure.
17. Kill things Spybot finds.

So there you have my Great Virus Adventure. By this time the silvan elves of Mirkwood have slaughtered the vile orcs and I find myself as their guest. Somehow I have convinced them that I am one of the Dunedain.

Anyway, that night was also the night of Kennesaw First Baptist's Christmas Program. Fun night, that was, and just what I needed after the frustration and near computer-cide of the earlier afternoon.

It began frivolous enough; standard Christmas decorations of lights, fake poinsettas, the works. They even had a plastic/fabric facsimile of a snowman in one corner of the stage.

The choir began by singing the fun, easy going Christmas songs. "Jingle Bells", "Deck the Halls", etc. At "Frosty the Snowman", during a strategic verse of the song, the snowman is revealed to be a REAL LIFE PERSON IN A SNOWMAN SUIT who then proceeded to suit actions to song lyric and danced around on stage.

I pity the poor guy for having had to have spent the first fifteen minutes of the program crounched on the stage motionless pretending to be a fake snowman. Had to have been murder on his knees.

One good thing about living in Georgia is that there is little if any of the irrational "saying Christmas is teh (yes, I meant to type 'teh'=ed) right-wing religious nut conspiracy to disenfranchise athiests!" being thrown about here in Kennesaw. The songs that the adult choir and the kids choir sang together, just in the mixing of the words and the sounds of the voices, were things of grandeuer.

All for now; it's "late" for me. Good night one and all.