Sense Of Accomplishment...

[Chreees]

First, some backstory...

I got a Dell Inspiron 17" laptop with Windows XP from my dad when I was 15, in 2005. We were in desperate need of a new computer for the whole family anyway, as we only had a 95' Compaq desktop with Windows Millennium on it. I begged and begged for this new laptop, and he got it for mainly me, so long as I shared it with everyone else in the house (my two older brothers had both moved out by this point, my dad is a truck driver so he was never home, and then it was my mom who never touched computers and my younger sister who rarely did, just to check her MySpace). I was the geek in the family, I guess you could say. Two years later I upgraded to a Sony Vaio laptop, and the big Dell went to my grandparents, who wanted to take it with them when they traveled, so they could check email (my grandma is one of those people that will forward you a ton of shit... I at one point had to ask her to remove me from her "junk forwarding list," lol). I used the Sony Vaio up until February, when I needed a Macbook Pro for school (video editing). My dad helped me out on it, and I gave him the Sony Vaio.

Well, I visited my grandparents about a month or so ago, and she told me the old Dell was giving her trouble. Extremely slow and would freeze. I told her I'd take a look at it. First thing it does on me is freeze. Then when I reboot it, it freezes again almost instantly when the desktop loaded. I reboot again. Except this time, it doesn't turn back on. I researched what lights were flashing whenever I tried pressing the power button, and found that the motherboard had most likely gone bad. My grandma decided she just wanted to get a new laptop, and that I could take the old one home and try to fix it if I wanted to, or sell it for parts. Went to Wal-Mart and got her set up with a nice new HP for around $600. I took the old Dell with me and decided I was going to challenge myself and get it up and running again.

I had no idea what I was doing. But I started looking at motherboards for Inspiron 9300's. Found one on eBay for a good price. It was sold as "tested working," and the seller had 100% positive feedback. I took a gamble. Got it in the mail and, having no idea what I was doing, started surgery on the laptop. It was surprisingly straight-forward and easy. Just had to be very observant, find ALL the screws, and be careful of what went where. Successfully swapped out the motherboard. It booted up- yay! But wait, I have an error message... It was something about a disk read error, I can't remember exactly what it said. I tried CTRL+F11 to boot up Dell System Restore. It'd start the process but say it couldn't finish. Looking online for a solution, I saw that people kept mentioning needing a Windows boot disc. So I uh, "obtained," one rather quickly. Bam, that worked as soon as I figured out how to change the boot sequence in the BIOS.

A few hours later and I have XP up and running on the laptop. I update everything. Now the wifi and all that jazz works. Computer is amazingly fast compared to other XP computers I use here at work (cause it's not loaded with programs and junk). I'm a pretty happy camper.

But wait, I'm not done. "Why not go ahead and see if I can install Windows 7 on this P.O.S.?" I ask myself. So I do it. "Obtained" a copy of Windows 7 Professional and it was as easy as a fat kid eating pie.

This paired with replacing my Canon T2i's LCD plastic screen has me feeling quite accomplished lately. Mainly because it's shit I figured out on my own for the most part when I didn't really know what I was doing. I think I'm going to try and find more little odd things to fix.

Have you done anything lately that made you have that sense of accomplishment?

[Rani]

Not computer wise, but this morning? Yeah.........

See two weeks ago I make an appointment to have my little kitty Keiko fixed. She's a tiny little thing even a year old, but it was definitely time. Made the appointment and didn't even think much about it. So last Friday, I get up early, get all ready to go and pick up Keiko and tried to put her into the soft carrier. She immediately escapes before I can zip it up. I tempt her back into the bedroom by rattling a treat bag, she comes back, I shove her back into the carrier, she escapes again. Third time I lure her, she's not trusting me an inch, but hey, they're her favorite treats. One more time into the carrier, one more crazy escape, scratching up me, and the soft carrier and everything else within reach. She immediately runs under the bed to the very middle and nothing gets her out. Not calling her, not even me laying on the floor with a broom trying to shove her out from under the bed. So after 20 minutes, I give up.

I come into work, call the clinic and explain what happened, get lectured for not giving them 48 hours notice to cancel the appointment, but they reschedule for today. I jump on the internet, hit up Amazon.com for a hard carrier with a wire door I can slam shut instead of having to deal with the zipper and soft sides she can come out of. It arrives and I put it together, setting it on the bed every evening so she won't be afraid of it. Kabuki has to be kicked out of it on a regular basis because he thinks it's a perfect nap spot. Keiko thinks it looks too much like a cage and she wants nothing to do with it, but she's not afraid of it.

So the alarm goes off and I jump out of bed. I've got exactly 45 minutes to get dressed, then shove Keiko in the "escape proof" carrier and start the drive to the vet. All goes fine until I pick up Keiko and just lean towards the carrier. She immediately goes completely nuts. She jumps out of my arms and out of the bedroom. This time I grab the carrier and go after her closing the bedroom door behind me because I'm not doing the under the bed thing again.

20 minutes later, Keiko has:

Hidden behind some paintings leaning against the wall;
Attacked the bedroom door trying to get in and under the bed;
Raced back and forth ahead of me from room to room ignoring all enticements.

Finally, she runs into the bathroom. I follow and close the door. She's huddled and howling between the shower curtain and line on the edge of the bathtub. I grab a towel, drop it over her, wrap her up, still howling, and drop the entire bundle head first into the carrier. I slam the door shut and she proceeds to try and tear it apart from the inside out. So this hard carrier literally jumps around the floor for another 5 minutes while I take a badly needed rest. She finally calms down, I grab the carrier amid howls of outrage, take her out to the car and spend the 30 minute drive listening to her howling until we finally get to the clinic where we stand in line with all the other howling animals for another 45 minutes before we finally get all the paperwork done and she's disappeared behind the counter into the clinic. I'll be leaving work at 3:00 today to make sure I get there by 4:00 to pick her up.

I'm tired, it's been a traumatic morning, but Keiko IS OFFICIALLY AT THE CLINIC! Is it an accomplishment? Bet your ass.

'Rani

[â€On]

I have all the necessary components in my garage required for me to build two solid wood kayaks that are super light and super durable. I just need some damned time to get to them...

[agunn1231]

well, i built myself a computer in august built my grandma one in september, and I got 2 of my old laptops up and running again, Gonna fix a third one as sson as i can find a replacement mobo and get better hard drives put into all of them, and probably new OS. Might also put a new screen on one of my laptops. coupling this with plants to build an rc robot, and maybe some day a robot that can track the area around it and bring me coals. I just started a new job, and i feel good about that too. Also going to help hallie start a planted fish tank after we move, and all of my CP's are growing well, plus we are growin 3 aloe plants, one evergreen tree, 2 cacti, one air plant, and green onions in my small apartment. lol

[Skoozle]

I have recently repaired the radiator on my wife's car. Still have to touch up a pin hole leak, but I don't have to add water to it every day. I probably should put some antifreeze in it soon.

I have greatly improved the flow on my auto seal Mya setup. and I'm working on an auto seal alternative. Just need to get the parts.


Chris, Your post reminded me of the Top Gear episode where Jeremy fixes something on his car and gets all excited about fixing other stuff. I can just imagine you shouting "I've mended something!" after you fixed your camera screen.

Rani, On the second line of your post I was thinking, did she fix her cat [i]herself[/i]?

[ezxen]

[quote name='Skoozle' timestamp='1353269251' post='561971']
I have recently repaired the radiator on my wife's car. Still have to touch up a pin hole leak, but I don't have to add water to it every day. I probably should put some antifreeze in it soon.

[/quote]

Literally just did this got a bottle of this sealant stuff . It has lead or aluminum pellets that you poor into the radiator and they melt from the heat of the water patching the hole.


Grats Chris. I love that feeling when after you spent more hours than you should of on fixing a computer and it just works right and theres a giddy feeling

[Chreees]

Dan- Yeah, and oddly enough, it works even smoother than the newer HP TouchSmart PC we got from our boss for my wife to do costume designing stuff on. Both have Windows 7, but the Dell runs faster/smoother despite being older (released in 2005) compared to the HP (released in 2009). The HP is being a bitch about Windows not being genuine, too. My boss's IT guy installed 7 on it and when we got it, it had the "You are not using a genuine copy of Windows" message at startup and the watermark on the desktop. It worked fine, but was annoying as hell. I used RemoveWAT and got rid of the watermark, but still getting a different "Activate Windows" message whenever I open a program or file. I'll have to continue working on it. The Dell I don't have any issues with. I would just re-install Windows 7 on the HP if the disc I used for the Dell was 64 bit (Dell is 32 bit, HP is 64 bit). I might just have to track down a copy of Windows 7 64 bit just to fix the issue for good, instead of using janky "fixes" that may or may not work.

The Dell has a newer screen that looks amazing compared to the original one it had when I was using it in my teens. My grandma had a local shop install it couple years ago. This computer is still great for porn! I keed... okay, maybe not.

Either way, I decided to keep it and gonna use it as a desktop computer (I hate lugging this 17" beast around). Probably going to get a MagicJack so that we have a house phone in case of emergencies (one of our cell phones die, or cell phone is on silent and one of us is asleep and we need to get in touch with each other, etc.).

Ashley- You're totally right. I used to be the type of person who just wanted to pay to have someone else fix something. Now I want to do it myself. I want to understand what I am fixing, know how it works. It feels great.

Rani- Thank god my cat is not like yours. She's super chill and if I tried putting her in a cage, she'd be like, "We're going somewhere? Oh, okay, cool."

Ty- Definitely post pics when you get around to building those kayaks. I'd be interested in seeing your progress.

[Skoozle]

[quote name='ezxen' timestamp='1353272561' post='561979']
[quote name='Skoozle' timestamp='1353269251' post='561971']
I have recently repaired the radiator on my wife's car. Still have to touch up a pin hole leak, but I don't have to add water to it every day. I probably should put some antifreeze in it soon.

[/quote]

Literally just did this got a bottle of this sealant stuff . It has lead or aluminum pellets that you poor into the radiator and they melt from the heat of the water patching the hole.


Grats Chris. I love that feeling when after you spent more hours than you should of on fixing a computer and it just works right and theres a giddy feeling
[/quote]

Yeah, the whole seal across the top of the radiator had come undone, so I cleaned it put and filled it in with epoxy. Then I put the bottle of sealant in it. With the leak being at the top, the sealant doesn't really get a chance to find the holes. My radiator is designed to have a little bit of an air gap at the top of the radiator and if I over fill it to get the sealant to circulate by the leak, it just over flows out of the reservoir.

[Pavo21]

hmmm have i done anything special recently worth talking about...

I got erica pregnant

ummm replaced 3 parts on my truck to get my truck to pass smog

oh i packed a #7 and it was cane mint but it smoked for 8.5 hours

ohh got a raise at my job before my 90 day probation

oh and Got erica pregnant

[Skoozle]

[quote name='Pavo21' timestamp='1353409249' post='562232']
hmmm have i done anything special recently worth talking about...

I got erica pregnant

ummm replaced 3 parts on my truck to get my truck to pass smog

oh i packed a #7 and it was cane mint but it smoked for 8.5 hours

ohh got a raise at my job before my 90 day probation

oh and Got erica pregnant
[/quote]

So, you have contributed to the advancement of the human species, helped saved the earth, conserved precious resources and made more money in the process.

I think you win, Sir.

[Chreees]

Well now I feel even more accomplished... Sold that laptop today for $200. Not bad for a 7 year old machine.

[ChicagoRSX]

[quote name='ezxen' timestamp='1353272561' post='561979']
[quote name='Skoozle' timestamp='1353269251' post='561971']
I have recently repaired the radiator on my wife's car. Still have to touch up a pin hole leak, but I don't have to add water to it every day. I probably should put some antifreeze in it soon.

[/quote]

Literally just did this got a bottle of this sealant stuff . It has lead or aluminum pellets that you poor into the radiator and they melt from the heat of the water patching the hole.
[/quote]
Well guys, hope you guys have better luck then they guys who cars I worked on who used that stuff.

[SundayFundaysTV]

A accomplishment I just recently had was making a diy camera slider, made it from scratch out of 2 electrical sockets, a metal pipe I cut into 2 pieces, made the platform out of wood and gorilla glued a tripod mount on it. Works great I've been in need of one but a really fun project to make, I wanna make a more industrial one in the future but for now around the house it works great!