Itinerant Air-Cooled

Just got off the phone with Colin ~

He is in Yuma, AZ and his computer/hard drive died. Due to this failure he will NOT be available online until he is able to restore a computer connection.

Best,

Lanval

when youve got clear desert skies and the distant sound of trains, what more do you need ?

My computer got wasted by a boot sector virus that took out Window's critically required WINDOWS root\system32\hal.dll file. I cannot get it reinstalled with recovery console, because I can't get to the ini files even with a borrowed Windows XP boot disk that the guy sitting at the table next to me here at Burger King just happened to have.

I found my old 12-87 build date Toshiba hard drive, and it is working! I am back in 2004! So are my virus definitions!
BUT! The power cord connection has broken on the printed circuit motherboard. I am running the battery down and then this computer is dead forever, this loyal little soldier through hellacious heat and cold and Starbucks music.

Must buy new computer and save all that < 2010 data. Rats. That is half my winter survival budget right there.
Colin @85% Remaining

Colin,

I have a late 90's Toshiba laptop right here.

The keyboard is shot, and the screen won't stay put (just flops open/shut) but the rest of the stuff seems fine.

I could send it over to you. Comes with MS Office and a couple of other things.

Call me if you want it.

Michael L

If ten of us chip in $50, Colin's got hisself a nice new netbook.

I'm first in line.

glasseye wrote:If ten of us chip in $50, Colin's got hisself a nice new netbook. I'm first in line.

Second in line!

8 more hands up please!

7 more.

I could chip in $30 easy. Or a G3 Powerbook (Wallstreet) with OS9 and a battery that doesn't hold charge...

I'd help but I forgot to fund raise for the domain so I'll be covering that. Otherwise the site will be down in 3 days.

Actually, I can chip in $30. I just paid the domain fee and it was the small one. The big one is in April so we're good......for now.

I sent $50 on PayPal. Now if he can get a computer to get on PayPal he can get a computer. Then he can get on PayPal to get money to get a computer.

Err...Somebody got his phone number?

replacing a whole computer because the hard drive is kaput is like throwing away your bus because the engine needs to be rebuilt.

you CAN (barring other unknown details) save the computer if you WANT to.

were it mine, id swap in a different hard drive and then stick the original in an external case.

booting off of the 'different' hard drive may take a little bit of work, but if you have a Windows XP disc handy - just boot off of the disc, reformat the 'different' hard drive during the Windows Install process.

Once Windows is installed you may have to find some drivers to make everything work properly, assuming that you don't have backup discs from the original manufacturer with you. you can usually find the drivers easily enough though, and you'd likely have to manually find the ones for the Wireless Modem and Sound Card to get those working again.

Then you should have a working computer, which leaves you with getting your old data backed up and migrated. An external hard drive enclosure, made for laptop sized drives, would work perfectly. Plug into the USB drive on your laptop now running the replacement drive and drag/drop the needed files over onto it.

If you have the time, you can also find all of your favorites/email/etc and swap/import those over to the new platform.

If your still in a bind after Xmas, I have a good working laptop that I can donate to the cause, but not until after Xmas as my wife doesn't yet realize I bought her a new one already. It has 1g of ram and a 250G hard drive, running Windows XP. The only catch with it is that you have to plug it in, as the battery doesn't really hold a charge anymore. (though it can be replaced cheaply enough)

I also have a Windows XP original CD and the hard drive enclosure for a laptop sized drive (it uses two USB ports for power and to transfer data) - let me know of an address and I can send those two parts out to aid in the process.

if someone speaks to Colin directly, please relay this information in case it's helpful.

Hippie wrote:I sent $50 on PayPal.
Err...Somebody got his phone number?

How'd you do this? The only time I've exchanged money with CK is in person by greenbacks.

glasseye wrote:

Hippie wrote:I sent $50 on PayPal.
Err...Somebody got his phone number?

How'd you do this? The only time I've exchanged money with CK is in person by greenbacks.

im guessing via: amskeptic@mindspring.com

which is where we are supposed to send our deposits for scheduled Itinerant visits

glasseye wrote:

Hippie wrote:I sent $50 on PayPal.
Err...Somebody got his phone number?

How'd you do this? The only time I've exchanged money with CK is in person by greenbacks.

Peter, I don't know about Canada/international rates of exchange, but normally you go to paypal.com and
click on the link to send money and then put in that email addy for colin when you are asked where to send
it to. You'll either need to connect the sending to a credit/debit card or a checking account. If you use a credit
card, PayPal will take like 3% for a fee. Easy peasy normally.