Posted on 01/23/2017 6:17:40 PM PST by Zionist Conspirator
I was so looking forward to the inauguration, after refusing to watch the two preceding ones. Unfortunately, fate intervened.
Our little family has had some rough luck the past month, and last week was especially so. Fortunately I could kick back and do anything on my trusty used computer, and had been watching a great deal of old movies. Thursday night while surfing I saw a couple of junk tabs open with Firefox allegedly wanting me to download something or other for safety. I've seen these before and have always just closed them. However, it's possible that this time I just sort of reflexively clicked on one of them.
Too bad I didn't have the presence of mind to run a virus scan before going to bed. The next morning I turned on my faithful old computer and a file had been removed or corrupted, preventing Windows from loading. I missed the inauguration to run the computer to the shop, but returned in time to hear the latter part of Trump's speech.
I basically abandoned the computer for the weekend, hoping against hope that they would somehow be able to restore it. I knew better, but I told myself it was a possibility. Because I knew what would happen: Windows had to be uninstalled and reinstalled, which means a week of scouring the Net for all the programs I now must download all over again, of logging back in to all my accounts, and downloading my personal files (this last is the easiest because I have them on disk).
Well, now I have my computer back. But you must understand that in the twenty years I've owned my own PC, I have only once in all that time bought a brand-spanking new one out of the office supply store (and it didn't last as long as any of the others). The others have all been custom-built/second hand/used jobs. That is what this one is. And there's another little wrinkle in the plot: it's operating system is still Windows XP (which is what the repair guy installed back on it). Now I know that XP has been unsupported for some three years or so, but I already had everything on my computer and everything worked fine. Now there's a problem. Since I no longer have all the stuff on it and have made several attempts to download them, I find that many of them will no longer install on XP at all. What I have here is a bare-bones job that will allow me to read sites like FR and my beloved pony fics and listen to music on YouTube (thanks to html5), but I'm not going to be able to do anything else. I can't even get Flash to install on this thing now! This cannot stand.
So it appears I must screw up all my courage and actually buy a brand new computer. This is extremely difficult for me at any time as I am disabled and on a fixed income. But it is especially so at this time of year when so many annual and semi-annual bills are coming due. But it's either that or continue to pay a monthly DSL subscription and not be able to get my money's worth out of it.
This is going to be a hairy thing to try to do. And I don't at this moment know how long it will take. I can only say that until I have a new computer and get it up and running, you aren't going to hear a great deal from me. As I said, I'll do a little reading, but that's about all.
It's really too bad when you consider that until that stupid virus on Thursday night, I had an outdated computer that did it all. I had no complaints whatsoever. I enjoyed every form of media online. But one little tab that wasn't closed correctly and one failure to do a virus scan sealed my fate.
I hope I'll be back soon, but for now it's day-to-day. I just wanted those of you who are on my ping lists to know what happened.
In the immortal words of Derpy Hooves, "I just don't know what went wrong!"
He probably reformatted the drive to build it from scratch.
I was hoping your files were still around.
Do you see yourself buying something, now, and if so, what is your limit?
I appreciate the advice, but I don't have an iPhone, iPad, Smart Phone, tablet, laptop, etc. I just have one old desktop computer, which is right now running on fumes.
I wish I did have more than one connection. It's lousy being tossed offline completely when one thing bites the dust.
Lubuntu. Have it running on an ARM chipped netbook.
Unfortunately, I have one and only one credit card--the one that has the most businesses that don't accept it. It's why I had to get a Pay Pal account.
Which reminds me, now I have all that username and password guessing to look forward to. I've already found one site where my username doesn't work, even though it's my username.
Interesting. I almost clicked on the same file (I think) but Firefox itself warned me not to proceed. Glad I paid attention. I got the ransomware virus a few years ago thanks to McAfee, which demanded that I disable my old virus checker before proceeding with installation. That gave the virus, which had been suppressed, free reign to install itself. I had to reformat and reinstall everything. It’s a pain in the butt. Sorry you are having such difficulty.
Take care ZC and We’ll see you soon.
Look at refurbs on Newegg and Tiger Direct. They have desktops starting at about $100 that are generations newer.
That's certainly possible.
I was hoping your files were still around.
I still have my files on a DVD. But I don't have all the programs which I have to download by hand (most of which will no longer install) or the usernames and passwords to some of my accounts.
Do you see yourself buying something, now, and if so, what is your limit?
That is the plan, but I don't know what's actually going to happen. As for my limit . . . I'm afraid I may have already reached it and I haven't bought one yet!
Look here, towards the bottom:
http://promotions.newegg.com/neemail/latest/index-landing.aspx
Some good deals, and if you don’t mind refurbs instead of the new computers they offer then you can save quite a bit.
Cheers! :)
Thank you. I was worn to a frazzle Thursday--totally exhausted. It was an awful day, but I was happy that I had accomplished a couple of things that needed doing. I was just watching some old movies and a couple tabs just appeared. I'm so used to just closing them, but I'm afraid I may have clicked on one reflexively. Too bad my anti-virus wasn't powerful enough to just block or neutralize it. I realize now a scan before logging off would probably have caught it.
Still, the old thing was on the way out. It's just that it was still working so perfectly.
Thrsday night I was in paradise; the next morning I was expelled.
You will be missed
Wish you the best! I have a very hostile relationship with my confuser.
Typing this on a $49 “tablet PC” I got new on Amazon. Great for FReeping, YouTube-ing, etc. Folds up like a book and goes anywhere. Had it over a year and use it daily with no complaints. There are some really good low-cost alternatives to standard computers out there.
Download the freeware Belarc Advisor, and run it. It will tell you everything about your system, form hardware to software.
https://belarc-advisor.en.softonic.com/download
I’ve bought several refurbs. They work pretty well! I had to send one back to get the speakers fixed, but then it served me well for over 4 years. Better to go ahead and upgrade sometimes than to continue to patch together the old technology.
Wired internet connection or wi-fi?
I completely agree.
I was reading this thread, and was just about to decide to suggest he simply put Ubuntu on the machine, and he would be back up 100%.
Now it is a (bit) different from Windows, but not entirely so.
And he could be up 100% in about two hours, complete.
Just make sure you’re ready to change, because it is not Windows.
You will not be able to go back, once you change to Ubuntu, but the change is 100% free.
Some computer knowledge is very helpful
I ran Ubuntu at home for about 10 years. Nothing fancy, but I used it on my home pc.
I now am not, but it was good. I liked it.
Some may not.
I don’t know what your income is, but at Fry’s a dual core AMD laptop goes for as low as $200 these days, and a Core i3 for as low as $299. They are incredibly cheap. I hope to see you back here soon.
I set up Red Hat 5.2 iptables so that I could connect to Verizon DSL with a static IP back in late 1998. And I was a home user. I didn't change until they took my static IP away. I did everything on Linux by searching the web and doing a lot of copy and paste. It's easy now. The distributions do almost everything for you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.