Crash Boom Bang

My laptop crashed again yesterday, just hung with the words ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt please replace file. Just how you are meant to repace a file when you cannot get into the system to replace the file if you happen to have a copy I do not know. I managed to trace the problem, I think to Norton Antivirus beacuse everything was fine until I tried to open the programme.

Luckily I keep copies of all my files on Cd so that I can recover them anyway went through the lengthy process of rebuilding my laptop with the recovery software and then having to get all the updates downloaded including SP2. On the plus side it does mean I have cleared out all the crap.

Now I have to decide do I really need an anti virus programme or should the firewall, anti spamming software utilised by my account provider and my own due diligence be enough to keep me safe ??

Testing Testing

Is there something wrong with Blogger or is it me. I posted some nonsense on Friday but it does not seem to be appearing. I think me and technology are destined for divorce, we seem to be totally incompatible. I like things to be nice and simple, buy it , plug it in and play it. This alas never seems to be the case.

Nice relaxing weekend, the girls were down along with my grandaughter, it's always geat too see them. Had a nice chinese on Saturday night and generally slobbed out. Took the boy swimming on Sunday afternoon and then home to read the papers. (Avoiding the sports pages, I have said before they need a kick up the arse.)

Well I'm going to post this now so lets see what happens.

And You Think It Can't Get Any Worse

I had the day off yesterday so I thought I would have another crack at getting the wireless connection going.

1. Switch On Laptop
2. Wait for laptop to boot up
3. Still waiting for laptop to boot up
4. Receive message saying somesuch file is missing or corrupt and to please reinstall.

How do you do this when you cannot get into the system in the first place. I did seem to remember making a boot disk when a first bought the laptop and managed to find it lurking in the back of a draw. Phew thought I slotted it in the drive and waited and waited and waited. Bah.

Two options remained, either take it to a specialist and see if they can recover the hard disk or use the Restore Cd's that came with the laptop. Luckily I had been saving anything of any value to CD's so I thought I'd go for the cheaper if not painstaking restore option.

All went well and after much reinstaling of software I now have a working laptop with an extra 5 gig of harddrive space. ( I obvioulsy download a lot of crap).

One thing that I am getting frustrated about is music downloads and transferring to players.

I haven't gone down the iPod route, I use my Palm handheld with Real Player and my other half uses a player purchased from Maplins that supports MP3 and WMA.

I have been downloading my music via MSN which arrives in WMA format. My problem arises when I try to sync the player using Windows Media Player 10. If I leave the music in WMA format it fails everytime so I end up burning tracks to CD to convert to MP3 and then resaving them back. This obviously takes time although I do have to do this to add tracks to my Palm.

Can anyone recommend a good, reasonably priced WMA to MP3 converter to make my day a little less frustrating.

Technology Travesty

My wireless saga continues.. It would seem that there is something in my house that is causing me problems. My girlfriend took the whole kit and caboodle into her work where the IT guys plugged it in and it ran straight away. Get it home and plug it in and.............nothing. I have tried unplugging phones, TV's, microwaves etc.

I guess the most radical solution would be to move but as that will cost slightly more than your average WiFi card my girlfriend is pretty reluctant to go down this route.

I seem to be one of those people where if something takes 5 minutes for everyone else to do it will take me 5 days. I will encounter every possible problem scenario imagined and some not, something else will all of a sudden require my complete attention or something else will arise to stop me achieving what I set out to achieve.

Why such the fuss about WiFi I hear you ask, It would just allow me to make things tidier and not restrict me to surfing the net from the dining room.

I shall perservere but if anyone has any suggestion please feel free to pass them on.

Todays News

We have a builder. He is coming in March, which is fine, then we can get on with the decorating and buying of furniture.

I've been travelling around England for the last couple of days, went to Rotherham on Tuesday followed by an overnight stay in Leeds at a Bewleys Hotel. If you ever find yourself having to stay near Leeds City Center then I can recommend this hotel it is excellent and very reasonable rates.

The next day saw me make a short hop over to Manchester (North side of the city ) for the morning and then a quick trip to the south side (By Old Trafford cricket ground). Then it was the long journey home.