The
Squamidian Report – Feb. 12 / 11
Issue #455
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Remember that Skype program I mentioned a while back? There are other similar programs as well such as Windows Messenger etc but the advantage that Skype has for us is that it is cross platform. We are using 3 different operating systems in this house on 3 different computers. Anyway, we’ve been able to enjoy totally free, audio and video conversations with Ryan while he is over in India working another Adam’s tour. Because of the video part, he has been able to show us everything from the high-end accommodations they are put up in to the scenery out his hotel window. His IPod, like all IPods, has a built in camera and he simply points it where there is something to see and we then see it on our computer screen in real time as we chat with him. Its pretty cool when you think about it.
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Warning, the following section may be deemed very boring for some people. Read at your own discretion….
OK, so here is where I am at with resurrecting an older, hand-me-down computer, or should I say collection of computer components. As mentioned last week, my old Windows PC bit the dust (literally) and fried itself. ‘The Wife’ is now using the laptop which is big enough to qualify as a desktop replacement but not as convenient. Smaller screen, laptop style keyboard and that kind of thing. Anyway, this partial computer comes from Ryan’s lady friend but is missing a few key components such as keyboard, mouse, monitor and most importantly, a hard drive and motherboard drivers. I obviously have all those things except a spare hard drive and the drivers. Actually, I have several spare hard drives but they are all PATA and this motherboard takes the newer style SATA drives. Keep in mind that the term ‘newer’ is rather relative as the SATA drives have in use now for almost 10 years.
The motherboard has ‘on board’ graphics which would be fine for anything we might want to do if I could get drivers but I prefer to run the monitor from a dedicated graphics card that has its own memory and GPU and supports digital signal. However, at first I did not have any luck with disabling the ‘on board’ section or having the motherboard recognize the card that I salvaged from the old system. Keep in mind, I don’t have and can’t find motherboard drives. Its old enough that the manufacturer does not support it any more. Eventually I was able to force BIOS to enable the PCI inputs for the graphics card but I still can’t get it to use the digital output. I’m stuck with using the analog output. Not a big deal but I’ve run up against some other limitations as well. I can’t get the BIOS to permit booting from a USB port at all but then the idea that someone might want to is probably newer than the motherboard itself is. These are not problems or even limitations, just technical realities of an older system that I must work with. No big deal at all. Incidentally, my first obstacle to overcome was the fact that at first I couldn’t even get into BIOS, it was password protected. That proved easy to remedy, I simply pulled the CMOS battery. That wiped all the information not hard coded into the BIOS chip and left me with a clean slate to work from.
Now my intentions were to install a new hard drive and then load my legal copy of Windows XP and then try to get XP as up-to-date as possible given that Microsoft no longer supports that O/S. But before purchasing a drive I wanted to test the existing hardware. In order to do that I needed to run an operating system on a machine that does not even have a hard drive. The only viable choice was to run Ubuntu (the most popular version of Linux). I have a copy of Ubuntu on a nice tiny USB thumb drive but like I said, I can’t get the old BIOS to boot from USB. However, it will permit booting from the CD drive (computers have been able to do that since the mid ‘90s). So to that end I downloaded the most recent iso image of Ubuntu and burned it to CD. Popped the CD into the drive and away we went. Now as you know, running an O/S from a CD is a bit slow because it must load into memory and then run from memory as well as access the CD whenever information not in memory is needed. The great thing about Ubuntu is that it is a very stable, modern O/S that is easy to learn and use, and, it is free. It is somewhat like a cross between Mac and Windows from a user point of view but does many things better than either. I’m currently running it on my little Netbook with great results.
Perhaps I should point out that the ONLY reason to install XP on this machine is convenience, so ‘The Wife’ does not have to learn a new operating system, not that it would hurt her or even be very hard to do. However, having said that, if I can not get XP up to a ‘current and secure state’ I will abandon it and do a full install of Ubuntu. The only real drawback I can see about doing that is once she has learned to use Ubuntu on a desktop system, she will know how to use my Netbook. Humm!!
So, I purchased a new 1-terabyte SATA hard drive for a fraction of the price I used to pay for drives that were a fraction of that storage capacity. Installing hard drives is so simple its silly, 4 screws and 2 cables, the power cable and the data cable. I also replaced that CMOS battery with a new one. Those things are only dependable for about 5 years although many last a lot longer than that. But this is the logical time to replace it. If you ever have a problem with your computer forgetting things like time and date or other settings, it’s the CMOS battery. Easy to replace but not everyone even knows it exists. Then I booted from my Windows XP disk and had it format the drive as NTFS and that took about 2.5 hr because of the disk capacity. Once formatted, Window could install itself, which it did. Then there was the Microsoft imposed endless cycle of downloads, installs and re-boots as I brought XP up to the latest service pack and security levels. So that machine is now up and running except for one thing. Because I can not find motherboard drivers it does not have any ‘on board’ sound capabilities. The easiest way around that will be to find a cheap sound card that includes its own installation drivers. Not possible locally here, but I may be able to find one in one of the many computer electronic stores in Kitchener when I am there for Vivyan’s birthday later this week.
doug
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Ontarion is on vacation in sunny Florida.
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Have a good one..
the doug
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