- Oct 30, 1999
- 11,815
- 104
- 106
I was given a computer to work on by a friend. There was a problem with access to a CDRW and it's ability to write CDRs and it was caused by a boogered up registry that was causing the drive to show up twice in My Computer. EZ CD didn't know which drive was which when it was writing and didn't know which drive to autorun when a CD was put into the drive.
This was an easy fix with regedit, but I figured while the PC was here, I decided to get online and suck down a new BIOS, 4 in 1, Critical Updates for Windows 98, etc as a favor to my friend.
I popped my NIC in the PC and ran Internet Connection Wizard to tell Windows that I was getting online with broadband instead of the already installed Motorola modem.
When I was done, I popped the NIC out and gave the PC back to my friend. I forgot to run ICW again, to have the computer go back to dialing up automatically when IE was opened. My bad.
When my friend gets the computer home, he decides to get on line, and finds that IE can't get a connection to the internet (still looking for a LAN connection).
Instead of calling me, he removed the modem from the device manager and then reboot PC. The modem plugged and played, showed up TWICE in device manager and STILL didn't work.
He then decided to call me. I told him about using the ICW to tell Windows about using the modem for the internet. He did this and this put the modem into the device manager three times! I asked him to shut down, remove the modem, reboot, remove all instances of modems and what not, and then reinstall the modem.
The next day, I hear back from him and now Windows ME is on the machine instead of 98 and the PC STILL doesn't go online. He brought the PC back to me and I put it back on my bench.
I decided that first things first, I was going to remove the modem software. I went into the control panel and the PC crashed. Weird. I rebooted, tried again, and it crashed again. Odd.
I decided to boot into safe mode. I went to the control panel and even in safe mode the PC crashed the same way! Illegal operation in <unknown>. Grr....
I called my friend up and asked him what the last thing he did to the PC was. He told me that the last thing he did was put ME on the machine.
I asked him, "Were you able to go into the control panel?"
He said he was.
I asked him, "The absolute last thing you did was install Windows ME? Because, I can't even get into the control panel to take Windows ME back off!"
He said, "Nope. The last thing I did was put Windows ME on and I was able to get into the control panel."
I responded, "All I'm doing is hooking up my monitor, mouse and keyboard and that sure as hell isn't going to make control panel crash. PLEASE tell me what the last thing you did to this computer was before bringing it over to me!"
He assured me that the LAST THING he did to this computer in an attempt to get the modem working was install ME, and at that time he was able to get into the control panel.
At this point I decided to open the PC up and start pulling stuff out at random thinking that their may be a hardware issue somewhere that is causing the problem. When inside the PC, I noticed that there was a TNT2 video card where a Trident card used to be. I had never seen this card in this PC before. I decided to call my friend back.
"Hey... When did you put this TNT2 card in?"
He responded, "Right before I brought it over, I put that video card in and installed the drivers."
"Is that the last thing you did to this PC?" I asked.
"Yes." he said, "Why?"
I'm just a little ticked at this point, "How come when I asked you what the last thing you did to this PC was, you told me that you only installed ME and never mentioned putting this video card in here?"
"Oh." He said surprised, "I thought you were asking me what is the last thing I did to try to address the modem problem.!"
"OK." I responded, "Next time you have a problem, don't create other problems until the first problem is resolved, OK?"
Needless to say, I switched the video cards back, ran the uninstall of the drivers off of the CD, and now I'm back where we started with a PC that works fine except for the modem. Sigh. I told him that AFTER I figure out why the modem doesn't work, I will figure out the video card and NOT to be surprised if he gets the PC back with 98 on it and not ME. :|
This sort of thing happens to me all of the time at work, but I never thought someone I've known for 8 years would do this to me too. At work, I will get Mr. Joe Customer calling up and ranting that they bought a stick of RAM, a sound card, a modem and new video card and a new hard drive and put it ALL in their old machine and now it wont post..... "What's wrong?!?!" When will people learn???
This was an easy fix with regedit, but I figured while the PC was here, I decided to get online and suck down a new BIOS, 4 in 1, Critical Updates for Windows 98, etc as a favor to my friend.
I popped my NIC in the PC and ran Internet Connection Wizard to tell Windows that I was getting online with broadband instead of the already installed Motorola modem.
When I was done, I popped the NIC out and gave the PC back to my friend. I forgot to run ICW again, to have the computer go back to dialing up automatically when IE was opened. My bad.
When my friend gets the computer home, he decides to get on line, and finds that IE can't get a connection to the internet (still looking for a LAN connection).
Instead of calling me, he removed the modem from the device manager and then reboot PC. The modem plugged and played, showed up TWICE in device manager and STILL didn't work.
He then decided to call me. I told him about using the ICW to tell Windows about using the modem for the internet. He did this and this put the modem into the device manager three times! I asked him to shut down, remove the modem, reboot, remove all instances of modems and what not, and then reinstall the modem.
The next day, I hear back from him and now Windows ME is on the machine instead of 98 and the PC STILL doesn't go online. He brought the PC back to me and I put it back on my bench.
I decided that first things first, I was going to remove the modem software. I went into the control panel and the PC crashed. Weird. I rebooted, tried again, and it crashed again. Odd.
I decided to boot into safe mode. I went to the control panel and even in safe mode the PC crashed the same way! Illegal operation in <unknown>. Grr....
I called my friend up and asked him what the last thing he did to the PC was. He told me that the last thing he did was put ME on the machine.
I asked him, "Were you able to go into the control panel?"
He said he was.
I asked him, "The absolute last thing you did was install Windows ME? Because, I can't even get into the control panel to take Windows ME back off!"
He said, "Nope. The last thing I did was put Windows ME on and I was able to get into the control panel."
I responded, "All I'm doing is hooking up my monitor, mouse and keyboard and that sure as hell isn't going to make control panel crash. PLEASE tell me what the last thing you did to this computer was before bringing it over to me!"
He assured me that the LAST THING he did to this computer in an attempt to get the modem working was install ME, and at that time he was able to get into the control panel.
At this point I decided to open the PC up and start pulling stuff out at random thinking that their may be a hardware issue somewhere that is causing the problem. When inside the PC, I noticed that there was a TNT2 video card where a Trident card used to be. I had never seen this card in this PC before. I decided to call my friend back.
"Hey... When did you put this TNT2 card in?"
He responded, "Right before I brought it over, I put that video card in and installed the drivers."
"Is that the last thing you did to this PC?" I asked.
"Yes." he said, "Why?"
I'm just a little ticked at this point, "How come when I asked you what the last thing you did to this PC was, you told me that you only installed ME and never mentioned putting this video card in here?"
"Oh." He said surprised, "I thought you were asking me what is the last thing I did to try to address the modem problem.!"
"OK." I responded, "Next time you have a problem, don't create other problems until the first problem is resolved, OK?"
Needless to say, I switched the video cards back, ran the uninstall of the drivers off of the CD, and now I'm back where we started with a PC that works fine except for the modem. Sigh. I told him that AFTER I figure out why the modem doesn't work, I will figure out the video card and NOT to be surprised if he gets the PC back with 98 on it and not ME. :|
This sort of thing happens to me all of the time at work, but I never thought someone I've known for 8 years would do this to me too. At work, I will get Mr. Joe Customer calling up and ranting that they bought a stick of RAM, a sound card, a modem and new video card and a new hard drive and put it ALL in their old machine and now it wont post..... "What's wrong?!?!" When will people learn???
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