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Published On: Jun 03, 2006 11:13 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jun 03, 2006 11:13 AM
Bad day in computerville
Grace's eMac woke up today showing only the
cursor arrow alone on a black screen.
After diagnosing that it was probably software
causing it, I looked at my Firewire options to reload system software. The 160
gigabyte external drive I have should have been useful for this, but it started
moving really slow. After a restart, it didn't load at all. Disk Utility
couldn't fix it. So, then I decided to use a 10.4 Tiger system disc to reload
the software. But the eMac didn't want to read the DVD. The iMac reads it. But
not the sick eMac.
I leave Disc Utility running using an old reliable Maxtor Firewire drive on the eMac as we leave the house for various shopping errands. After dropping everyone else off at the Eaton Centre, I go off to get my hair cut at the Chinese hair salon I usually go to. The iPod is good for this, as I can't understand a word of the conversations in the shop normally. But of course, as I try to select Podcasts to listen to Keith and the Girl, the scroll-wheel doesn't scroll. It's some kind of strange stuck, and doesn't want to play anything.
So far, that's all that's gone wrong today.
Doing the hold-down-menu-and-the-select-buttons trick rebooted the iPod, and it was happy again. I've started getting things in line to work on the eMac's hard drive, and think it will probably go okay [fingers crossed]. The broken Firewire drive scares me a bit more. It's in the cheapest case that Factory Direct Computer had at the time, and has a buggy Prolific chip that controls everything. I have another problem drive that uses a previous version of that chip. The drive holds a large assortment of backed up files, and most of the movie files that I had downloaded -- mostly music videos that probably aren't available anymore. I'm worried at this point that these files are lost. My plan is to update the firmware on the drive controller (at work because it needs Windows for that) and hopefully it will work. If not, I'll get a new case and transfer the drive.
I leave Disc Utility running using an old reliable Maxtor Firewire drive on the eMac as we leave the house for various shopping errands. After dropping everyone else off at the Eaton Centre, I go off to get my hair cut at the Chinese hair salon I usually go to. The iPod is good for this, as I can't understand a word of the conversations in the shop normally. But of course, as I try to select Podcasts to listen to Keith and the Girl, the scroll-wheel doesn't scroll. It's some kind of strange stuck, and doesn't want to play anything.
So far, that's all that's gone wrong today.
Doing the hold-down-menu-and-the-select-buttons trick rebooted the iPod, and it was happy again. I've started getting things in line to work on the eMac's hard drive, and think it will probably go okay [fingers crossed]. The broken Firewire drive scares me a bit more. It's in the cheapest case that Factory Direct Computer had at the time, and has a buggy Prolific chip that controls everything. I have another problem drive that uses a previous version of that chip. The drive holds a large assortment of backed up files, and most of the movie files that I had downloaded -- mostly music videos that probably aren't available anymore. I'm worried at this point that these files are lost. My plan is to update the firmware on the drive controller (at work because it needs Windows for that) and hopefully it will work. If not, I'll get a new case and transfer the drive.
Posted: Sun - February 5, 2006 at 11:59 PM