Man proposes but God disposes (ColonelY & Conboy)

[bru888]

Sorry, guys, but there will be a delay; ColonelY for the Keren scenario of Free France, and Conboy for beginning the CSI sweep of your 3rd Division campaign.

You get advanced warning sometimes; disk error messages popping up are never a good sign. Now I am stuck in the loop described in this video:

https://youtu.be/_NGtIEe12Y4

It had to be the laptop that runs OOB with no problems! It couldn't be that old drone of a laptop that has hated OOB since version 7!! That thing refuses to die out of spite (although I am glad I still have it for other business).

Well, if you peek at that video, you will see that the alternatives are bleak. If it's hardware, then the laptop is shot. I am not one who is comfortable with replacing hard drives (only to have something else fail). If it's software, that's not as bad but a factory reset will be necessary and that would be at least a day or two while everything gets reloaded.

Lesson learned long ago: Back up what you would hate to lose and do it often. Especially when there are warning signs. The very last thing I did was back up the latest version of Keren. The next time I started the laptop, boom. Not a tragedy; only an annoyance and a delay.

[conboy]

My deepest sympathies, hombre.
A sad, harsh reminder for us all!

conboy

[ColonelY]

Ouch, I'm sorry to read this.

I hope you will find a solution that suits you.

(Damn, computers are like electronics: it's great, but only when it works! )

Don't worry, we will wait for the necessary time. Thank you for warning us!

[bru888]

I feel like Alice (Bruce) in Wonderland.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice (Bruce) remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice (Bruce).
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Hours and hours of videos and how-to's, diagnostics and command prompts, only to always return to the "Preparing for Automatic Repair" screen, an endless and inescapable loop! Nothing worked . . . until I found the OEM module for restoring the laptop to factory defaults. Essentially wiping out the system and starting over (it's HP's module; the one provided by Windows canceled itself out).

Now, for the first time in 24 hours, I am seeing something other than "Preparing for Automatic Repair" and the blue screen of illogical menu items all leading back to the same spot. Blessed be this message: "Let's start with region. Is this right"? My gosh, what a relief. (By the way, I am posting here using my phone or my older laptop).

So now Alice (Bruce) is heading down a different rabbit hole; that of restoring the laptop to previous layout and capability. I did this a few years ago (on the older laptop) and I remember that it took a couple of days! Hopefully my memory is exaggerating but I don't think so.

Anyway, progress made and dollars still in my pocket. One thing for sure: If I see any chkdsk messages (yeah, I ran that sucker in full: "chkdsk /f/r/x" I think it was) or that "Preparing for Automatic Repair" screen again, this baby is heading for e-cycling, pronto.

P.S. - Yes, I can see what will take a couple of days now. Things like a long list of Windows updates in queue, including the major upgrade to Windows 10 version 1903. That alone is going to take hours. I'll see you fellows later this week.

[Erik2]

Good luck, Bru.
I've had several trip down that rabbit hole as well.

[bru888]

Consummatum est. Requiesce in pace.

[conboy]

... dust to dust ...

my sincere condolences

conboy

[bru888]

Thanks. When the disk errors started again after restoring factory default conditions, I knew it wasn't software-related but a hardware issue. Then it spiraled downward from there and met its end. (Blue screens of death and now it won't even start.)

It will be a while now before I am back in action as I need to research, purchase, and set up a new laptop. (The wife is involved, because she wants a new one too and wants to go shopping with me. That will definitely slow things down. )

I tried version 8.5.6 on the old laptop just now. No dice. That's always been a mystery to me, why it decided - I think it was with version 7 and the conversion to 64-bit - that it could no longer abide by OOB. It is a 64-bit laptop, so that is not the problem. The game installs and initially runs but always crashes in short order.

Well, it appears I am on an OOB hiatus, a vacation of sorts. I probably could use one. Maybe I'll use this time to look at some other games which happen to run fine on the old laptop.

See you guys soon, and thanks for your well-wishes.

[conboy]

We'll surely miss you and will try not to start too much commotion that Erik can't handle. Hate to have to wake up Andy to put out any fires...

Say, a couple of years I bought an ASUS laptop running an IntelCore i7-6700HQ cpu @2.60 GHz. It has been highly reliable and a great performer. just a data point for you. I'm sure prices on that chip have come way down since then and it is a hawg!

Good luck and see you back in the saddle soon, we hope. Enjoy your free time.

conboy

[GabeKnight]

Yeah, a bother for sure.
But sometimes a fresh start isn't necessarily a bad thing...
Good luck!

[bru888]

Replacement laptop ordered. It's a monster, so brawny that I am in doubt whether I will be able to squeeze its muscled bulk through the portal to this puny forum.

[Mascarenhas]

Applause! Applause!

[Dwightd]

Typical military approach, if you’re current artillery is not enough, you get a bigger one !

[conboy]

Hooray for our side!

congratulations, hombre!

conboy

[bru888]

You guys may need to boost your RAM in order to talk to me in the future.

Maybe there will be a legacy mode by which I may step down the power to enable communications with inferior processing units? I hope so . . . I don't want to be limited to interactions with just NASA, the CIA, and Russian and Chinese governments. I may get lonely.

On the other hand, this puppy is going to CHURN OUT the bitcoins!

[Erik2]

Gratulerer, Bruce.
Nothing like a new piece of hardware to please us boys.

[bru888]

I'm back in business. It came in a surprisingly normal-sized box; I had been worried that I would not be able to get it in the door! But no worries, except I feel like if I press too hard on the accelerator pedal, it will run away with me! ( )

And yes, it came on Wednesday morning and I was not finished setting it up until the wee hours of this morning (Friday).

[conboy]

Yep those hi pired new computers need to staked down real good 'fore ye light them awf.

Better get the power company to wire it directly to the transformer to keep from glitching the neighborhood, and get a big barn fan to keep it cool. It's a hawwg, after awl.

Great to have you back!

conboy