The Road To XP Part II
The first rule of upgrading Windows is don't talk about upgrading Windows. The second rule of upgrading Windows is don't talk about upgrading Windows. Yesterday I violated both of those rules.
When last we left our weary hero, me, I thought that I had gotten the upper hand and was busy doing Critical Updates. After the last batch was done I figured it was time to screw the case door back on. I shut the machine down and put in two screws. That's it. I hit the power and heard a long beep followed by two short beeps and then nothing. And by nothing, I mean nothing. No BIOS, no video, no error message. Just a dark monitor screen. A quick google search on my perfectly functioning Apple Powerbook revealed a KK266 BIOS FAQ that said I had what is commonly known as a "display card or monitor connected error." No kidding? I checked the cables and everything seemed fine. I cracked open the case once more and made sure the card was well set in the AGP slot. All signs pointed to Evil Elves® and/or PC Gnomes™.
I took the video card out and hit the power, the same beep sequence came out of the speaker. Okay, did I just kill a brand new video card? I put the old card in as a test and no beeps, but also no video. I put the new card back in and I got the Beeps of Doom™. I had no idea what was going on. After checking nearly every possible cable and card, all to no avail, I gave up for the night and went to watch a NetFlix of Futurama Season 2.
In the morning, since everything was right in the place it should be, I decided to give it a test. I hit the power and it booted up just fine. Watching Futurama had pleased the evil that was occupying the PC!
In the whole mess I learned some important lessons. The first being that fatal flaws are hard to get rid of. I mean this second post, in light of all that has already happened, is a sure sign that more PC trouble is right around the corner. Second, and probably most importantly, watching Futurama will excise evil from your PC. Don't bother with Norton WhateverTheyCallItNowWorks 2005. Just pop in a DVD with Fry, Bender and the rest of the gang and everything will work out just fine in the end. Thirdly, lowered expectations is the key to Windows. Anyone who gets all high and mighty about Windows will surely suffer a fate that makes my little story look like nothing. On the other hand, if you figure that it will break or not work, you will either be pleasantly surprised when it does work or not shocked at all that it didn't.
And yes, the data on the PC is backed up.
