More Evidence that Computers Hate Their Users..
Last night, in a moment of productive inspiration, I decided to try and troubleshoot a problem that I have in getting SecondLife to load on my computer. jonesybunny and I learned that something prevents multiple variations of the viewer from loading on my compie, the last time she tried to get me into it. The application would get as far as loading VFS in the first seconds of launch, then end with an unknown crash.
Research suggests that beyond video drivers (which I determined wasn't the case) there is a problem with loading via Windows 7 for some users (which is what I was using). Since I have XP on another partition, I decided to try it on XP, only to learn that sometime within recent months...my XP install's boot file must have become corrupted or disappeared, as the option to boot into XP was unavailable. o.O
To fix this, I tried to boot using my only available XP install disc given to me y the skunk some years back, in order to do a boot repair...Only to find that my DVD+RW drive, whichh has read all manner of disc media I've thrown at it, now decides it doesn't want to read any sort of CD anymore. Okay, no problem.
To fix this, I went into my PC and reconnected the previously unused (and unnecessarily redundant) CD-RW that sits in the bay beneath my DVD drive. Only to find that afterward, my computer would not stay on longer than six seconds when I did this. No status beeps. No message. Just power-on...spin-up...power-off.
To fix this, I unplugged the CD drive and returned cabling to the way it was before, only to find it made no difference and my PC continued to power itself off on startup.
Three and a half hours of trouble-shooting and knowledge-searching, sleep was my only inevitable recourse.
To fix this the next morning (this morning), I wound up pulling every component out of my box and stepping them back in piece by piece, after ruling out PSU and memory problems. The culprit seemed to be....orientation. The PC would kill itself if turned on while upright, but boot thorough to the OS fine when laying horizontal. The issue was reproducible. Moving cables to ensure they weren't touching anything sensitive did not matter.
To fix this I turned on my PC while it was horizontal, and slowly stood it upright. That solved, I popped my XP instal disc into the (also now-connected) CD Drive...only to be reminded of what I had learned when I put this computer together: That my new motherboard does not like that disc and will bluescreen whenever setup loads on it.
So here I am, back at square one. Nice to be reminded of why I hate computer hardware every other month. x.x I do have one theory as to what's wrong: My case. Any time I can bump my fist against the front face of my PC and have it turn on (or off as happened in one situation), that ain't good.
UPDATE: Welp, problem solved. Got my XP partition registered again. Indeed, it is my copy of Windows 7 that has a problem with the SL client. So unless there's patches or hotfixes out there it won't work outside of XP for me. And it took me nearly 24 hours to prove that conclusion.
Research suggests that beyond video drivers (which I determined wasn't the case) there is a problem with loading via Windows 7 for some users (which is what I was using). Since I have XP on another partition, I decided to try it on XP, only to learn that sometime within recent months...my XP install's boot file must have become corrupted or disappeared, as the option to boot into XP was unavailable. o.O
To fix this, I tried to boot using my only available XP install disc given to me y the skunk some years back, in order to do a boot repair...Only to find that my DVD+RW drive, whichh has read all manner of disc media I've thrown at it, now decides it doesn't want to read any sort of CD anymore. Okay, no problem.
To fix this, I went into my PC and reconnected the previously unused (and unnecessarily redundant) CD-RW that sits in the bay beneath my DVD drive. Only to find that afterward, my computer would not stay on longer than six seconds when I did this. No status beeps. No message. Just power-on...spin-up...power-off.
To fix this, I unplugged the CD drive and returned cabling to the way it was before, only to find it made no difference and my PC continued to power itself off on startup.
Three and a half hours of trouble-shooting and knowledge-searching, sleep was my only inevitable recourse.
To fix this the next morning (this morning), I wound up pulling every component out of my box and stepping them back in piece by piece, after ruling out PSU and memory problems. The culprit seemed to be....orientation. The PC would kill itself if turned on while upright, but boot thorough to the OS fine when laying horizontal. The issue was reproducible. Moving cables to ensure they weren't touching anything sensitive did not matter.
To fix this I turned on my PC while it was horizontal, and slowly stood it upright. That solved, I popped my XP instal disc into the (also now-connected) CD Drive...only to be reminded of what I had learned when I put this computer together: That my new motherboard does not like that disc and will bluescreen whenever setup loads on it.
So here I am, back at square one. Nice to be reminded of why I hate computer hardware every other month. x.x I do have one theory as to what's wrong: My case. Any time I can bump my fist against the front face of my PC and have it turn on (or off as happened in one situation), that ain't good.
UPDATE: Welp, problem solved. Got my XP partition registered again. Indeed, it is my copy of Windows 7 that has a problem with the SL client. So unless there's patches or hotfixes out there it won't work outside of XP for me. And it took me nearly 24 hours to prove that conclusion.