Another few days gone....

andy_k

I found an oldish lappy, which just seemed too good to bin, HP pavilion DV6700 entertainment laptop. 
It stopped working a few years after I got it--2007 i think, due to overheating problems with Nvidea graphics.
I found out years later there was a class action in US, and repairs were done--but I missed out on that and had moved over to Mac by then anyway.
Anyhoo,
Last time I looked at it I had tried to install some version of Linux, which all was good-until you tried to do anything with it-everything required Admin password-which I didnt have, its a linux thing.
So I dug out all my old pirate copies of Windows, 95, XP etc, I have a few quirky old things like the Toshiba Libretto, and the Acer Eeepc, which still are fun to play with, usually I get Win 95 running and put stuff like Doom and Quake on them, but I had a revelation the other week when I got the latest V of Reaper running on and old machine.
Sooo with the HP I tried XP, and I just couldn't get it to work - no networking, so I tried Vista, which was a repair disc from some old Median? laptop, and it installed, probably cos the original install was Vista.
I spent a day getting all my Doom and Quake stuff on it, and Reaper6.08, and it was all going great, Windows media player 11 made it so easy to rip CDs as wav files--so I thought thats it--I'l fill it up with music.
Still had no wireless network, so all this was done by copying files and folders with USB memory sticks, the ones that worked anyway.
When I ripped CDs, there was no information ( because there was no internet), so everything came up unknown artiist, which was fine for a couple of albums, but then I tried a LAN cable and I got it online.
Thats when it got ugly, and it started to download 107 windows updates, I just left it to run but the fans began to sound like a jet taking off, so I had to shut it down.
When I rebooted-after it had cooled down, I had various BSOD and other messages, which nearly led to it being put in the bin.
A cup of tea later, I started all over. Basically re-lived the day before, but this time I went through the updates a few at a time, and it was an NVidea graphics card driver that fucked it up.
Skipped that one, and everything went fine.
Got Quake2 running the best I ever saw it--buzzing, and got Reaper 6.09 playing right now-FLAC version of one of my favourite albums, 'A Perfect Circle-13 th step', the speakers on it are actually very good for a laptop, perfect for  guitar frequencies, and it has a remote control, so I can shut the lid and just let it play.
Lesson learned-never give up.