Tuesday, April 30, 2013, 1:30 a.m. — Before I go to bed, I thought I would post an update; it has been more than a month since my last entry here. Where does the time go?
I haven’t been pursuing many CW keys of late … I have two eBay beauties still in their boxes, unpacked. One is a homebrew key, the other is a 1954 Lightning Bug that isn’t particularly rare, just a little grimy and in need of TLC. Other than a missing weight, the key is complete and through the dirt, appears to be in excellent condition. I didn’t need another Lightning Bug, but this one has the black base that was standard until the change to grey a few years later.
The focus of my attention lately has been my shack computer. I have two desktops in my office/shack. One wall of my office is business; the rest is shack. I left my shack PC on for an extended period of time (days!) and when I used it next, the networking was dead. Not just inactive, but gone – kaput – DOA. The computer was doing some screwy things, like not allowing me to start the Task Manager. The networking capabilities were gone — the services were there, but you couldn’t get it to accept a DNS and other settings manually or automatically. I use that PC for digital modes, and the software wouldn’t run for that stuff either.
I researched the problem, and all signs pointed to a virus rather than a hardware failure. I installed a wireless USB networking gadget to see if I could get it online; the new wireless worked and found my wifi just fine; however there was no through-put to the computer, and again, the PC didn’t detect the network and wouldn’t allow you to set them.
At this point, I decided to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS (Windows XP Pro). Unfortunately I didn’t have a copy of the OS. Off to eBay where my butt was saved by an authorized Microsoft vendor who gave me the OS and sold the license.
The wipe-and-reinstall procedure took care of the problem and it picked up the settings automatically once I had the drivers installed. I had that computer in the shack about a year, but never noticed it had no anti-virus protection. I rectified that oversight, hoping I won’t need to wipe the hard drive again and reinstall.
Well that’s enough for tonight … back later with more tales from the shack.
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