My computer is now mostly dead.
Bill Gates has killed my computer. Well, mostly dead, anyway.
There is a file called C:windows/system32/config/system that if windows is updating and decides to goof off on the job will entirely screw your registry.
So any program installed on your entire system, including windows itself, is no longer installed.
You know when spybot is fixing your computer how it makes a backup or restore point so that if it screws up you can revert back to it? Well this is the file it is talking about. Except that windows apparently does NOT back it up while it is altering it.
So the long and short of it is that my computer reverted to paperweight status.
Ok, so being from Texas, the real question is not why Bill Gates is such an idiot or why windows got to be so popular to begin with even though it has a self destructing registry update. The real question is What do I have to do to fix my computer?
So I took out the C and D drives and switched the master/slave roles on them. Then I could safely install windows on the old D drive, which is now the C, reinstall ALL OF THE DRIVERS and then transfer my pics, files, music, movies, favorites, links, games, business ideas, and everything else to it without danger of frying.
But then when I was installing windows on the new drive I got the message "you have exceeded your limit of the number of times you can install this program without having to bend over again"
So I called up the toll free number that you call when you want to talk to bill gates, and I kid you not, I got a recording asking me to input the 48 digit error code that it gave me. So I go to type them in, and NOPE, SORRY, it wants me to SAY THEM. Now that works fine in a computer lab under controlled testing, but in my house, there are children. Try saying anything in my house without getting interrupted.
So after an ungodly amount of time saying numbers into my phone (You are using all my cell phone minutes, Mr. Gates!) It finally gets my number right, and then tells me to please hold. And transfers me to India.
"Please to tell me the 48 digit error code listed on your computer"
"No, I want to talk to bill gates."
"Currently he is not here. Please to tell me the 48 digit error code listed on your computer."
"Well do you have a number I can reach him at?"
"He do not come here. I am currently located in India. Please to tell me the 48 digit error code listed on your computer."
"Ok, it's 486123764891586718252677263701900018623757268421"
"Yes, ok, the first digit, it is a 4, right?"
"yes, a 4"
"Yes, ok, 4. And what is the second digit?"
"Oh you gotta be kidding me! Look, just let me talk to Bill, ok?"
"Bill currently is not here. Please to tell me the second digit of the 48 digit error code listed on your computer."
"Is there anyone around you who is white? Or at the very least who speaks English?"
"I am currently a very good English speaker. Please to tell me the second digit......"
So after a very, very long time, this nameless, faceless, evil Indian person inputs a 48 digit error code. And then it came down to the part that separates the men from the boys. This evil person says to me:
"Please to click on the button that says 'change ID'"
"Ok"
"Now I will give you a new ID number to input to let you access the program. It is 48 digits long. Now the first digit, it is a 9"
I really hate Bill Gates.
I hope he falls into a pit full of Indian number readers and they suck up all his cell phone minutes.
posted by jagular @ 2:42 PM
4 Comments:
This deserves a movie chump.
My dad was talking about a hard drive dump today. Nothing scares me more.
I would have to differ with you there, Kevin. On several points.
First of all, I didn't kill my computer. The windows OS is unstable. Infamously so. I keep my "windows update" status at "don't update anything, don't download anything, don't do anything. I will do it all manually"
The problem is that windows broke it's own rules. I was doing a hard shutdown and it interrupted the shutdown and started downloading a windows update and then installing it. Without asking me first, and after I had expressly denied it permission to do so. Much like AOL does when it updates itself upon disconnect.
And then it mis-wrote the system file and crashed itself. I had nothing to do with it at all.
To the contrary, I did quite a bit to save the information on the HD and to keep it recoverable.
Second of all, while maintaining that I do, in fact, have the right to call Bill Gates an idiot, I would point out that I didn't say he is one. What I said was that the question is NOT why he is an idiot.
Thirdly, he has made lots of money, yes, it is true. But so did Forrest Gump. I would say that stupid is as stupid does. And designing a computer OS that miswrites its own system files on shutdown and then builds in a hard stop for not only that error, but also for the recovery of that error qualifies as an idiotic act.
And lastly, they don't actually try to make Windows idiot proof. They try to make it idiot-friendly. In other words, you don't have to be computer literate in order to use it. Which is why it is more popular than Linux, which is by far a superior OS.
But thank you for your input.
What about the Mac? I heard its vastly superior to any PC?
That actually is very interesting. I wondered how they were able to circumvent.
Oh well. I'm up and running again. I was able to lose very little from my system. I got a chance to vent my frustration. And I have found out that there is no way to prevent it from happening again.
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